Community Engagement

Community Partnerships

Through a long-term commitment to partner organizations, the Division of Education provides collaborative art programs and museum visits for neighborhood groups and families. All projects are created with community leaders so that curriculum and programs are customized to the interests and needs of the community partner. The Division of Education also supports special short-term projects to provide art programs and museum visits themed in conjunction with special exhibitions at the museum. Current community partnerships include Broad Street Ministry, Project HOME, and People’s Emergency Center, where skilled teaching artists offer on-site art classes.

Museum Tours

The museum education staff works year round with community partners to customize free tours and workshops. Each program is planned in collaboration to provide a distinctive experience that reflects the interests and activities of the community organization.

Teen Sketch Club

The Teen Sketch Club is for fifteen Philadelphia public school students who are considering a career in the visual or graphic arts. The program runs for nine weeks each semester.

• Become familiar with outstanding art objects in the museum’s collection.
• Discover and learn about career options in the fine arts.
• Develop portfolio materials for future applications to study visual and graphic arts.
• Increase general visual awareness with aid from professional artists.

Each week students focus on a specific artistic theme such as architecture, landscape, contour drawing, or the human figure. Students spend time discussing works of art in the museum’s galleries followed by guided drawing experiences. Every session ends with discussion and critique of sketches and experiences in an Education art studio.

TAG (Teen Ambassador Group)

TAG is a unique opportunity for teens ages 14–19 to get involved behind the scenes at the museum. TAG members work with curators, educators, and other museum staff to create programs especially for teens. The program promotes creativity and leadership skills. TAG is a year-long commitment that meets twice a month during the school year.

Delphi After School Art Club

The Delphi After School Art Club is a weekly comprehensive arts education program held at the museum. Each year, up to 240 middle school–level students in the School District of Philadelphia participate in the program. Students tour the museum’s galleries and create their own works of art inspired by our collection. In addition to weekly studio art classes and gallery tours, the program includes a student art exhibition, a cultural performance, conservation demonstrations, and a collaborative community art project. The Delphi Art Club focuses on both the creative and academic aspects of visual arts and, most importantly, provides students with a safe and inspiring place to gather after school.

Delphi Art Partners Program

The Delphi Art Partners Program is an artist-in-residence program that pairs six professional teaching artists with six middle schools in the School District of Philadelphia. The professional artists spend thirty hours in residence working with classroom art teachers and students to design and implement engaging art projects. The program is enhanced with customized museum gallery visits. Through hands-on classroom art projects and museum tours, students experience an added dimension of innovative visual art in their school curriculum. The program also features a student art exhibition at the museum.

Delphi Art Futures Program

The Art Futures Program pairs professional teaching artists with high school art programs. The artists spend thirty hours in residence working with classroom art teachers and students to design and implement art projects that reflect both the classroom curriculum goals and the particular expertise of the resident artist. Both the artist and the schools are selected through a competitive process. In addition to classroom art-making, the program features customized museum tours and a juried student art exhibition at the museum. Each year, Delphi Project Foundation provides funding for five Philadelphia public schools to participate in the program.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art secures additional funding for five Philadelphia area Catholic schools to also participate in the Art Futures Program.

Delphi Summer Teen Media Program

The Delphi Summer Teen Media Program provides unique training both in the visual arts and filmmaking. For six weeks during the summer, students work with professional filmmakers to learn camera techniques, acting exercises, script writing, and film editing. The students create a portfolio of short films inspired by the museum’s collections, public works of art, and current social issues. Once the films are complete, the students participate in film screenings at the museum and in their community. Throughout the summer, the program also exposes students to career opportunities in the visual and media arts.

The museum currently partners with the Big Picture Alliance, Taller Puertorriqueño, and Esperanza Academy Charter High School in the implementation of the Delphi Summer Teen Media Program.

Curriculum-based Teaching Resources for the Classroom

Delphi Project Foundation has supported the creation of a variety of teaching materials for use at all grade levels in Philadelphia public schools. Based on the museum’s permanent collections, these resource kits include full-color reproductions of works of art, background information, teacher guides with learning activities, posters, and PowerPoint presentations. These teaching resources encourage all classroom teachers, not just art teachers, to use visual art as part of their core curriculum instruction. Free to all Philadelphia public schools, these resources serve as pre-trip materials for classrooms visiting the museum and as permanent classroom resources for classes that are unable to visit.

Learn more about resources for teachers >>