Project ARTstART - Claremont Lewis Museum of Art

Project ARTstART, the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art’s signature arts education program, directed by Rich Deely, trains high school students, working with college mentors, to provide exhibit-based art lessons for elementary school students. By bringing high-quality, art appreciation classes and activities to the Claremont schools, we hope to inspire students, promote understanding of the arts, and highlight Claremont’s rich artistic legacy.

Launched in the fall of 2011, Project ARTstART recruits high school and college students as teachers and mentors. These “ARTstARTers” are trained as docents by college mentors to offer multi-visit arts appreciation lessons to elementary students in their classrooms and in local museum settings. ARTstARTers learn how to plan presentations that employ Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) and interact with art educators, artists, curators, and students from The Claremont Colleges.

ARTstART’s roster now totals over seventy Claremont High School students and five Project Assistant interns who enable ARTstART to serve all 4-6th grade classes at Mountain View, Oakmont, Sumner/Danbury, Sycamore and Vista del Valle elementary schools with student-planned and presented arts appreciation activities and field trips. In addition, ARTstARTers serve approximately 125 students a month with our AfterARTs series of art-making workshops for students enrolled in CUSD BLAST or ASES after-care. Hundreds more children are served by ARTStation at community festivals and free Family Day workshops, which are offered at the Museum on the first Sunday of every month.

An independent museum consultant with over twenty years’ work in the museum field, Rich Deely has worked as an educator in art, history, and science museums in New York, North Carolina, and California. Originally from New York City, Rich has BA degrees in both history and communications from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters degree in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education in Manhattan.

Project ARTstART is produced solely by the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art in partnership with the Claremont Unified School District (CUSD) and provides programming for students from eight participating schools: Chaparral, Condit, Mountain View, Oakmont, Sumner/Danbury, Sycamore, and Vista del Valle elementary schools, along with Claremont High School.

The program is funded by generous donations from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; Ruth & Joseph C. Reed Foundation for the Arts; Children’s Foundation of America; Claremont Kiwanis Foundation; Scripps Fine Arts Foundation; an allotment from the CUSD Arts Grant, Claremont Rotary; as well as CLMA Board members and many dedicated community donors.

Partner programming for this year was provided by American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA); Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College; Claremont Heritage; The Claremont Colleges Services; dA Center for the Arts, Pomona; The Peggy Phelps Gallery at Claremont Graduate University Studio Arts; Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College; The Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts, and The Susan Sontag Center for Creative Collaboration ‘The HIVE’ at Pomona College.

ARTStation Offers Family Activities Every First Sunday

Visit the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art on the first Sunday of every month from noon to 4pm for Free Family Day with free admission and ARTStation, a place for children to experience art and engage with local culture. Learn more

ARTstART Offers Art Activities on YouTube

Teams of high school students in CLMA’s Project ARTstART have prepared a series of simple do-at-home art projects to present to elementary students in Claremont schools. These fun 5-minute videos are now available to everyone on the Claremont Museum of Art YouTube channel.

Futures in Flight https://youtu.be/Ihjtksls6k4

Layered Collage Project https://youtu.be/ysKtSQnoY6c

Saar Collage https://youtu.be/WoKCQHNO6sg

Pattern Portraits https://youtu.be/jjul1yCtPFo

Art with Music https://youtu.be/OIg9StKZQcs

Garden Collage https://youtu.be/CBscXS4esTk

Positive Character Trait Silhouettes https://youtu.be/WPBF2Q0sf6E