Empowering Educators and Students

With its arts education programs reaching more than 50,000 students annually across Ohio, the Cleveland Museum of Art stands as an ideal partner in advancing the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation’s mission. The museum’s efforts to educate both students and teachers through programs like gallery exploration and initiatives like the Teacher Innovation Fellowship directly align with the foundation’s goal to foster deep learning and excellent teaching in public schools.

Since 1959, the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation has been dedicated to recognizing and supporting Ohio’s public school teachers and students. In pursuit of this goal, the foundation recently provided crucial funding for the Cleveland Museum of Art’s pre-K–grade-12 education initiatives. 

In the aftermath of COVID-19, educators at the CMA’s partner schools increasingly sought support in integrating visual art into a range of subjects, including math, science, history, and literature. In response, the CMA’s instructors and staff have worked with teachers to find ways to incorporate art and hands-on instruction into their curriculum, recently receiving an award for excellence in STEM from the Ohio STEM Learning Network.

An educational force in the region since its founding, the CMA brings learning to life, helping students and educators achieve their learning goals. Turning galleries into learning laboratories, CMA instructors encourage critical thinking by leading students in analyzing artworks, asking questions, and forming their own interpretations of pieces on view. By exploring art in a gallery, students are able to discern the themes and techniques that multiple pieces may share, sharpening their skills at interpreting visual information. In group discussions, students talk about their observations, which helps them develop better communication skills and learn to revise their thinking based on new evidence.

The Teaching Innovation Fellowship takes this one step further, bringing together teachers of all disciplines and grade levels in a yearlong deep dive into object-based learning. Now in its eighth year, this program helps teachers push the boundaries of traditional instruction, embracing new ways of teaching through art while expanding the number of students served by the museum’s work in art education. As a cohort, program fellows collaborate, offer feedback, inspire each other, and build a community to lean on long after the program concludes. Fellows also serve as ambassadors of the museum, bringing their learning back to their schools, colleagues, and communities.

Thanks to this generous support from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Cleveland Museum of Art can continue fostering excellence in public school education, empowering both educators and students to reach their full potential.