ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hundreds of Allentown charter school students will visit the city’s art museum this week to learn about music, dance, theater and visual art as part of a new, annual program.
Arts Academy Week, which kicked off Monday, is a collaboration between Arts Academy Elementary Charter School and the nearby Allentown Art Museum.
Over the next few days, students in first through fifth grades will visit the museum, at 31 N. Fifth St., to discuss artwork in the gallery before developing their own creations on site.
“Art is not just self-expression — it’s connection, it bridges differences, opens hearts and strengthens the fabric of our communities."Mary-Kate Walter, instructional coach at Arts Academy Elementary Charter School
The collaboration is designed to enhance Arts Academy Elementary Charter School’s existing arts education by encouraging students to learn about the arts outside of a traditional classroom.
The school, at 601 Union St., already integrates the arts into its core academic subjects, “blending music with math, storytelling with reading and movement with science,” said Mary-Kate Walter, an instructional coach at the charter school.
At a Monday opening ceremony for Arts Academy Week, Walter said the approach strengthens academic achievement, builds students’ confidence and makes learning more personal.
“Art is not just self-expression — it’s connection," she said. "It bridges differences, opens hearts and strengthens the fabric of our communities."
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk also spoke Monday, stressing the importance of collaboration between the city’s educational and cultural institutions.
Just this academic year, the city’s Da Vinci Science Center also formed an educational partnership with an Allentown elementary school.
Additionally, Tuerk praised the arts as a critical part of a students’ education.
“There’s something magical that happens in learning about the arts,” he said. “It opens your mind.”
Continuing collaboration
Though Arts Academy Week is new this year, the charter school and art museum have collaborated since 2023 to help teachers integrate creativity and small-group learning into their classrooms.
The collaborations and the new Arts Academy Week were spearheaded by Daniel Djuro-Goiricelaya, community engagement and arts integration manager at the charter school and an appointed Allentown arts commissioner.
He also was among the museum’s former community fellows.
“The simplest question, ‘What do you see?’ can create this ripple that becomes a wave.”Nicole Mangold, education manager at Allentown Art Museum
Djuro-Goiricelaya and the partnership's other leaders said they hope to expand the program’s curriculum — The Great Explorers Game — to more schools in Allentown and the Lehigh Valley.
The curriculum is based on visual thinking strategies that help people digest artwork in an easy way.
“Through this incredibly simple, versatile and friendly teaching tool, we can create an infinite well of creativity and exploration,” said Manager of Museum Education Nicole Mangold.
“The simplest question, ‘What do you see?’ can create this ripple that becomes a wave.”
During a 45-minute block, charter school and museum staff members co-lead discussions with students on select artworks in the gallery by using visual thinking strategies, or VTS.
“It’s really this scaffolded way of engaging the students with arts interpretation, as well as arts engagement and art making,” Abby Simmons, the museum's director of education and public engagement, said.
Simmons said students are asked to note what they see in an exhibit, explain it and notice additional details about the art.
Each grade has a different focus for its trip to the museum — such as abstract or figurative art. Teachers later reinforce this learning in core subject classes at the charter school.
Students become the artists
After students discuss art in the gallery, they spend the last half of their 90-minute field trip in the museum’s makerspace to create their own accordion book or zine.
Both are small pamphlets that let students tell their own stories by writing, coloring or collaging on each page.
“Different kids take the project in different directions, and that’s really important for us in our education,” Simmons said.
The art-making process is more important than the end product, she said.
Simmons also said there are studies that show starting arts education early can benefit young students in the long run, making them more creative learners and critical thinkers.
They may score higher on standardized tests and do well in future job searches, too, she said.
“This is in no way the pinnacle of the collaboration. We expect it to continue to grow and to bring in other partners into this collaboration."Abby Simmons, Allentown Art Museum's director of education and public engagement
“Being able to plant this seed this early is so huge for what it could do for students as they grow and continue in their academic career,” she said.
Asked whether the partnership with Arts Academy Elementary Charter School could lead to more frequent museum visits for students, Simmons said it's too early to tell.
The museum and charter school are brainstorming how to expand the partnership next year, she said.
“This is in no way the pinnacle of the collaboration,” she said. "We expect it to continue to grow and to bring in other partners into this collaboration."
Simmons said partnerships and initiatives such as the Arts Academy Week help make museums more accessible to all types of people, which she said is one of her goals.
Allentown Art Museum is free to the public 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Free art projects are available for the public to create on the weekends.
