Past Institutes

Connecting Past to Present: Using Artworks as Windows and Mirrors in U.S. History (2024 Fall Webinar)

On September 23, 2024 Humanities Texas held a webinar facilitated by educators from the National Gallery of Art introducing teachers to a variety of resources and strategies for teaching U.S. history and developing visual literacy, historical thinking, and analysis skills.

Curriculum

Educators from the National Gallery of Art facilitated a thinking routine with art to foster observation, reasoning, and connection-making with the past. The webinar covered research-based strategies for how art can unlock student thinking and motivation to grapple with social studies content, specifically early U.S. history. Participants learned how art can be used as both a window and mirror—a window into experiences and times different from our own and a mirror that reflects our shared humanity with those who lived in former times. Participants received digital learning resources to immediately apply these impactful teaching and learning methods in the classroom. 

This interactive session was designed to help students develop visual literacy, historical thinking, and analysis skills in the humanities classroom. Like all Humanities Texas teacher programs, the webinar emphasized the development of effective pedagogical strategies and engaging assignments and activities..

Faculty

Julie Carmean and Heidi Hinish of the National Gallery led the webinar.

Schedule

The webinar took place over Zoom from 5:00-6:30 p.m. on September 23, 2024. The webinar schedule can be viewed here.

Sponsors

The webinars were made possible with major funding from the State of Texas with ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.