Specialized education through art at MOCA

News

Staff Writer

“I need purple,” said a student Friday afternoon in a classroom on the fifth floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

“Nice requesting,” responded Elizabeth Kerns, the museum’s associate director of education.

The exchange happened during a class that is part of the museum’s Rainbow Artists program designed to help children with autism improve their communication and interaction skills through art.

The program serves more than 180 children in four public elementary schools who participate in a four-week arts series at the museum. The program is supplemented by school visits by MOCA’s educational staff.

The curriculum was designed with the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities to help children improve their social skills, increase self-awareness and self-expression, accept new sensory experiences and achieve growth in creative skills.

The program was developed following a pilot program last summer that provided an art camp for children with autism. The camp was successful and expanded into a semester-long program. MOCA has been designated by Duval County Public Schools as the exclusive provider.

From the time the students leave the school bus that brings them to the museum until they board the bus to return to their classrooms, Kerns and other art educators provide a learning environment tailored to the needs of children with autism.

“Autistic children thrive on structure. It’s important to let them know what’s about to happen when things are going to change during class, like when we go from one activity or one room to another,” said Kerns. “It sounds like a paradox, but while we keep things very structured, we also have to be flexible. There is a lesson plan for each class, but if the children don’t respond to it, we also have a backup plan.”

Students from two schools are enrolled each semester in the spring and fall. The children have four field trips to the museum where they participate in art activities from finger-painting to working with construction paper to playing as a group in MOCA’s ArtExplorium interactive area near the classrooms.

“The students and the staff can do things here that can’t be done in the schools,” said Aisling Millar, a museum educator and former art teacher at Lake Forest Elementary School of the Arts, a public magnet school. “Having class here at the museum gives the students the freedom to explore and we also have more art supplies than are available in public schools.”

Kern, an artist turned educator, said the curriculum for each semester and each group of students is developed to meet the needs of the students’ individual personalities. The classes are fast-paced and supervised by MOCA staff, the students’ teachers and parent volunteers.

In recognition of National Autism Awareness Month in April, an exhibition of art created by students with autism from Greenland Pines, Mayport, Highlands and Oak Hill elementary schools will be exhibited in the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Educational Gallery. The young artists and their parents will be guests at an opening reception Sunday.

Kerns said it’s gratifying to watch the students progress as they attend the classes and experience art.

“We have seen children who would not speak when they began the program begin to use sentences,” she said. “It’s also great to see the teachers realize the community is supporting them.”

The public is invited to attend the opening of the Rainbow Artist exhibition at 2 p.m. Sunday. Admission to MOCA is free for families from noon-4 p.m. on Sundays, underwritten by Bank of America.