Workshops for Educators

Workshops are offered throughout the year to introduce educators to museum collections and special exhibitions. Workshops focus on incorporating art and art-making into existing classroom curriculum and are led by museum staff.

SFUSD increment credit available. Prepaid advance reservations are required for all workshops. 

Permanent Collection Teacher Workshops

Getting Ready for Your Museum Visit

Friday, October 21, 5:00–7:30 p.m.
Investigate how the Museums’ collections can animate social studies, language arts, and visual arts instruction. Workshop includes curriculum materials, museum tour, and in-gallery activities.

Get Fluent with Art: Identity, Culture, and Second-Language Acquisition

Saturday, October 29, 8:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Presented in collaboration with the Capital Foreign Language Project, spend a full day at the de Young exploring activities that integrate art into second-language acquisition.

Exploring the Highlands: Art, Science, and Conservation

Friday, November 4, 5:00–7:30 p.m.
Explore the Highlands of New Guinea through this collaborative curriculum developed by the de Young, the Conservatory of Flowers, and the California Academy of Sciences. Designed for grades 3–6, this multimedia program features art, orchids, and birds from the Highlands.

Temporary Exhibition Workshops

Pissarro’s People

Saturday, October 22, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Featuring the artist’s lifelong fascination with the human figure, this exhibition includes more than 100 works of art in diverse media. Learn about the curriculum designed to accompany the exhibition and attend the daylong symposium featuring the most current scholarship about the artist. Space is limited.

Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Friday, November 18, 5:00–7:30 p.m.
Learn about this rare collection of 50 paintings by Northern Italian Renaissance painters Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, Mantegna, and more, all on loan from the Gemäldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The program will include curriculum connections and a guided tour of the exhibition.

Friday Night Drawing Series

Experience drawing in the quiet of de Young studios and the liveliness of the galleries as you are led through guided exercises. Groups are open to all levels, and all materials are provided.

Composing the Picture: The Power of Placement

October 7, 14, 21, and 28, 6:00–8:15 p.m.
Cost: $90 general/$80 FAMSF members

Fashionable Figures

April 13, 20, 27 and May 4, 6:00–8:15 p.m.
Cost: $90 general/$80 FAMSF members

Museums and Meaning

Exploring museum literacy and ancient art at the Legion of Honor for 6th grade

Saturday, December 3, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Learn how to effectively prepare your students for this multipart program. The workshop will explore the thinking strategies central to both the required preparatory lessons and the museum activities. Teachers will have the opportunity to explore and interpret objects in the Legion’s collection of ancient art, exploring how exhibitions are constructed and looking closely through sketching.