Opening windows on the world for perspectives ever better.

Each year, the Memorial Art Gallery takes city school students on a journey through art history, enriching the way they see their world and inspiring lifelong creativity.  

Each year, from early fall to late spring, elementary school students in the Rochester City School District make their way through the Neighborhood of the Arts in downtown Rochester, NY, to a special destination. Some travel by bus; others by foot, laughing, chatting amongst themselves, or generally enjoying their surroundings, perhaps not realizing that every step towards their destination—the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery—is a foot forward in learning, growing, and making connections. The students are part of a program known as the Memorial Art Gallery-Rochester City School District (MAG-RCSD) Expanded Learning Collaboration. Instead of a six-and-a-half-hour school day, these RCSD students have an extra hour to experience enrichment opportunities beyond the classroom. The program was founded in 2012 as a collaboration between MAG’s Academic Programs department and School #23. The program serves every student in grade 2 at School #19, grades 2-4 at School #23, grades 2-4 at School #29, grade 2 at School #33, and grades 2-3 at School #45 in Rochester. As part of this museum-school repeat visit partnership, each student visits MAG once a week for four consecutive weeks during the school year, engaging in a series of curriculum-based hands-on and in-gallery experiences. Of course, things were put on pause during the pandemic, but plans are underway to restart this fall. Forward-thinking educators, like those at MAG, hope that others in the community will see how the students thrive in this type of environment. Dr. Nile Blunt, MAG’s Director of Academic Programs also hopes to continue to expand the program to more schools and for it to become a model for programs in other cities across the country.