Pioneer Journeys
Drama in Museum Education

by Jennifer Fell Hayes

and Dorothy Napp Schindel

Text for teachers and museum educators, illustrated. 192 pp. Winner, 1995 Distinguished Book Award.. $ 14.95

Museums: the newest frontier of drama education! Art museums. Historical houses. Sculpture galleries. Special traveling collections. How do you get young people hooked on the experience of seeing something wonderful and making it their own?

Two pioneer museum educators working together and separately, Jennifer Fell Hayes and Dorothy Napp Schindel, share their experiences and ideas in using the tools of drama in a wide variety of large and small museums . . . from the vast galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to a small historical tavern. Pioneer Journeys is a bountiful collection of tested strategies for making the museum visit richly rewarding.

Every museum is different, of course, and so will be your goals in taking young people on a museum visit, so this book provides not specific lesson plans but rather a whole new approach, illustrated by example, to the art of making the museum experience come alive through drama.

Schindel and Hayes bring their expertise as drama specialists, working with elementary, middle and high school students, to the growing challenge of making a museum visit an integral part of the curriculum, rather than a quick excursion highlighted by the gift shop. Their work will be especially valuable to museum educators and docents (with whom they have worked extensively in training workshops) as well as art and drama specialists and teachers looking for a lively, hands-on approach to the curriculum.