Two children admire a large fixture from Science Fiction, 2019 exhibition.

K-12 Educators

Students of any discipline can benefit from seeing how art connects with the world. All K-12 faculty are encouraged to use the Berman Museum as a classroom tool.

Child looking at miniature sculptures behind glass.

“The art educators at Perkiomen Valley School District believe that museums are wonderful resources not only for our growth as artists but also for our students. Our partnership with The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum makes art come alive with hands-on experiences and the ability to see masterworks in person. It can also make the visual arts a realistic career opportunity for students as they communicate with museum staff and see their creations in a professional context.”

Tom Komp, High School Art Department Chair, Perkiomen Valley School District

Online Resources

Virtual galleries

Several of the Berman’s past exhibitions, including 2022’s Christo & Jeanne-Claude: Tom Golden Collection, have a Kuntzmatrix companion on their exhibition page. Kuntzmatrix, a virtual exhibition platform, allows viewers to experience exhibitions in context through digital reconstructions of the Berman’s gallery spaces.

K-12 Faculty can use Kuntzmatrix in the classroom to take students on virtual “field trips” to view past exhibitions or when transportation is unavailable. As an educational tool, the platform invites you to explore how exhibitions address thematic concepts relevant to your course material, encourage critical thinking, and foster observation skills.

More virtual galleries

 

Interactive sculpture collection map

The Berman Museum is distinctive for its outdoor sculpture collection on the Ursinus College campus. The collection is available to explore online through an interactive map, which teachers can use to support a variety of classroom assignments (for example, in lessons about post-war art history, public art, or map-building).

YouTube channel

The Berman Museum YouTube channel offers greater insight into the Berman collection, exhibitions, and museum studies program.

The Katie Merz at Ursinus College and Immigrant Flora Rising Under playlists provide in-depth looks at the construction of site-specific art installations. These can be useful to show students that every artist has a different creative process and that there can be messages woven into art beyond what’s visible on the surface.

The Museum Work Demystified and The Museum Studies Experience playlists may be of particular interest to history teachers and school counselors to show students the kind of jobs they could pursue in the public history field.

Digital libraries

The Berman Museum is currently digitizing its permanent collection and past publications for easy online accessibility.

Digitization will allow educators to bring pieces from the collection into their lesson plans. The collection is a particularly useful aid for learning about modern and contemporary art, local Pennsylvania German history, and sculpture. Students will be able to peruse the collections anywhere they have internet access. While the digitization project is in process, contact Catherine Sirizzotti, Collections Manager, with questions about integrating objects from the collection in your classroom.