The Hewitt Education Fund supports education and outreach programming at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Proceeds from the fund specifically support the following initiatives:

K-12 Arts Integrated Curriculum and Professional Development for Teachers

The Hewitt Collection along with the Hewitt's personal journey through collecting offers not only important twentieth century art but also a survey of African-American culture and society. The Harvey B. Gantt Center intends to develop a comprehensive curriculum linked to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in English Language Arts and Social Studies that will enhance student learning in these areas. Pre and post visit lessons with a focus on critical thinking skills, writing and art making will make both the exhibited and online versions of the collection come alive for students and provide effective tools to enliven core subjects for teachers.

Youth and Adult Docent Training Program

Docents are a vital part of museum education. Docent training is critical because the docent is often the only museum representative with whom visitors interact, aside from the person who collects their admission fee. It is the image of the docent and the tour experience that visitors take away with them. The Gantt Center is working to expand our base of trained docents and ensure that they are trained to use Visual Thinking Strategies. Visual thinking strategies (VTS) is influenced by Rudolf Arnhiem's theory of visual thinking, which deals with the connection between visual perception and thought. VTS uses three precise questions, paraphrasing and non-judgmental affirmations to facilitate discussions in which participants practice problem solving skills. There are no right or wrong answers, and anything that the participants believe can be justified by details in the picture. This opens up viewers minds to the fact that different people come away with different impressions and thoughts when they look at a picture or have an experience.

Training in VTS enables beginning docents to:

• Develop a personal connection to art from diverse cultures, times, and places.
• Develop confidence in their ability to construct meaning from it.
• Examine, describe, discuss and interpret what they see in a work of art.
• Draw grounded conclusions about the intentions of the artists who make the works and the cultures from which they come.

The Youth Docent Program at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture is a volunteer program for students who are entering eighth grade through twelfth grade. Students learn public presentation skills, customer service skills, and information about the art, culture and history of African-Americans while working as educators in the Museum's galleries. A key feature of the program is the opportunity to work with exhibiting artists, adult volunteers, Gantt Center staff and local teaching artists. Youth docents will be introduced to a wide variety of arts and museum-related career possibilities and will leave the program with a wider appreciation for African-American arts & culture as well as community volunteering.

Summer Arts Intensive

The Harvey B. Gantt Center's Summer Arts Intensive is an arts education program designed to give twelve to fifteen students hands-on experience working in a variety of fields in the visual and performing arts. Students will benefit from active engagement in sculpture, installation, drawing, painting and exhibition design in addition to dance and theatre. Each week the students will work with a different teaching artist or pair of artists who are experts in their field. They will learn the practical skills necessary to develop creative projects that go beyond the techniques traditionally taught in high school art classes. Visits to the Gantt Center's galleries are included to enrich the child's knowledge of fine arts. In addition to making art every day, children are encouraged to interact, talk, and learn about the history of art, its role in society, and how it affects our daily lives. Classes will meet for two weeks, Monday through Friday. The intensive will culminate in a student-curated exhibition of works created during the program. This exhibition will be open to the public during business hours for three days and the Gantt Center will host an opening reception for friends and family.

Make A Contribution To The Hewitt Education Fund

The Hewitt Education Fund welcomes contributions to help continue quality education and outreach programming at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

To make an online contribution, please click here.