The Museum met the challenges of 2021 with nimbleness and creativity providing memorable, meaningful experiences. The classroom remains one of our greatest assets and allowed us to welcome students back into the Museum as soon as public health guidance permitted. While the majority of our education programming early in the year was virtual, the classroom provided an outstanding space for our educators to deliver live “classroom visits” via Zoom, sharing artifacts and anecdotes with young learners. In-person field trips resumed in late spring, bringing students back to our campus for the first time in nearly a year.

Over the summer, the classroom became the stage for a variety of new educational programs. We taught youth ARTifact Classes (object-inspired art learning experiences), a series that will continue monthly. Additionally, the classroom hosted two Island youth art exhibits: Favela Mural and the “Colors of Us” self-portraits, demonstrating the diversity of Martha’s Vineyard.

The fall allowed us, with all due caution, to continue in-person field trips, which were revised both for safety and for content: each one is now aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework and follows a specific format to ensure that every student experiences our exhibit galleries and a hands-on activity, ranging from handling our Education Collection artifacts to synthesizing classroom learning with imaginative role-playing exercises. The high schoolers designed their own “exhibit” to display their learning. Without our classroom, none of these opportunities would exist for Island youth.