Art Institute’s new wing creates educational stir.

The Ryan Education Center's opening for students and teachers was Monday. 600 Chicago Public School students from 20 schools were taken on a docent-led tour of the galleries.

via Medill Reports.

The Art Institute’s new Ryan Education Center, just a few steps inside the Modern Wing’s first-floor entrance, will be an educational headquarters for students, teachers and parents.

“We ask, philosophically, ‘What did the artist need to know in order to achieve a work of art?’” Robert Eskridge, executive director of museum education, said of the Center’s education creed.

A garden designed by Renzo Piano will be created in the Ryan Education Center courtyard in fall. This will create a connection between Millennium Park and the garden.

“Field trip offerings are designed to emphasize how the collection can support reading, social studies, world studies and a history curriculum,” he said.

The Center emphasizes how art can be effective in teaching across a school’s curriculum. An instructional asset is Renzo Piano’s airy, streamlined design, created so that in every living room and classroom in the Center visitors feel as if they are inside a work of art.

“Studios have glass walls that look out onto the spectacular Chicago skyline, revealing and justifying having an architecture and design curatorial department,” Eskridge said. “A rare department to have in art museums.”

The institution goes beyond exposing students to the “one time” field trip to the museum, said Grace Murray, coordinator of teacher programs. It connects what is learned at the museum, and provides teachers with follow-up materials to employ in the classroom throughout the year. However this instruction is not only for art teachers, but teachers of every academic subject.

A “serious institution to run,” the Center requires community support. A combination of corporate, foundation, and private funding has helped support and endow the Ryan Education spaces—initiated through donations from its namesakes, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan, according to Eskridge.

The Kraft Education Center, located in the main building, will continue to be used as a family center but the Institute’s academic emphasis will be based in the Ryan Education Center.

The Ryan Center will be open the same hours as the entire museum, to better accommodate visiting teachers and their schedules. The Center space is free, located outside the barriers for admission, and is open to all.

The now one million square-feet Institute will officially open its Modern Wing to the public on Saturday.