What is Project: Quality Time?:

Project: Quality Time was organized by a group of elementary art teachers in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art. The purpose of the event is to have parents and children spending time together in an art-inspired environment. Parents and children are pulled in so many directions now; some don’t even have time to eat dinner together anymore! This program fosters and promotes family togetherness. Through art, parents and children can get to know each other’s thoughts and opinions.

The Birth of Project: Quality Time

The idea for Project: Quality Time came from Lisa Stuart, an art teacher at Cloverly Elementary in late August. Lisa shared her excitement for the project with Kim Haden, art teacher at Potomac Elementary School. Just a few short months later, they accomplished recruiting a team of interested art teachers. Sarah Neubold, art teacher at Maryvale Elementary headed up the Prize committee. Marjorie Lewis, art teacher at Stone Mill Elementary worked together with Alaina Lohr, art teacher at Watkins Mill Elementary to create scavenger for families to explore during their visit to the gallery.

Project: Quality Time 2005

The first events were held at the National Gallery of Art on November 12, 2005 and December 3rd, 2005 from 10am-5pm.

Participants came to the entrance of the East building, behind the guard stand. At the Project: Quality Time tables, students in MCPS elementary schools signed in (which gave them credit for their school). They received a Project: Quality Time sticker, feedback form, and a list of guidelines for visiting in the gallery. Participants also picked up a self-guide sheet appropriate for their grade level (K-2 or 3-5). Some sheets were scavenger hunts, and some were matching games that required looking at artworks in both the East and West buildings.

Participants then made their way through the gallery at their own pace, using the activities as a guide. Once they completed their visit, we asked them to take a moment to fill out the feedback form and drop it by the Project: Quality Time table.

After the event, we added up the total students at each school and figured out what each school’s percentage of participation based on their total population. The school with the highest percentage received a prize donated by Crayola. Rock Creek forest won the prize with 35% of the school participating in Project: Quality Time.

The feedback we received from both events was unbelievable! A lot of people had never brought their children to the gallery and they commented on how this showed them that they could take their child to an art museum. We also saw many comments about how surprised they were about how their children reacted to art. One parent was amazed that her son “didn’t touch his Gameboy for an hour!” and others noted that, “this was the best day ever!”

The project was a huge success! We had a total of 1228 MCPS Elementary school students signed in with many more family members that joined them.

Project: Quality Time Fall 2006

Due to a large number of participants, we decided to assign different dates for different geographic locations throughout the county. Each “cluster” in the county had a date in the Fall and on in the Spring to choose from.

Since we are not an official NGA program, we were unable to have a sign in table at the 2006 event. We gathered data from the feedback forms we collected through school’s art teachers.

For the fall, we decided to use activities that can be on any piece of artwork in any museum. For this we used Artful Thinking routines developed by Project Zero at Harvard.

We also modified the prize aspect of this project. We found that the participants were excited just to spend time together as a family in an environment that was new and different to them. Students turned in their feedback forms to the school's art teacher. The art teacher then sent the forms to Kim Haden at Potomac Elementary. All schools who returned feedback forms received a gift of a class set of postcard-style prints for use in the art room. These images were donated by the National Gallery of Art and include information and discussion questions on the back. Individual schools may or may not have chosen to provide an incentive for individual children that attend.

Project: Quality Time Spring 2007

Based on feedback from the Fall 2006 events, we made a few modifications for the spring. The self-guide brochure was a happy medium between the very focused scavenger hunt style guide and the very broad Artful thinking discussion questions. We included twoArtful thinking routines, along with a scavenger hunt for art to look for. Families used the guide to locate artwork related to specific subject matter such as: landscapes, seascapes, still life, portraits, and asbstract art. As they located examples of these paintings (suggestions were provided, but not limited to) families were encouraged to practice the Artful thinking routines and space was provided to draw their own. Each page had a specific at-home extension that could be made.

For each subject area, we suggested one artwork in the East Building and one in the West Building. Families could feel free to limit their visit to the building of their choice.

Project: Quality Time Fall 2007/Spring 2008

The activites provided during the Spring 2007 seemed to be just what families were looking for. They were given specific examples that they could seek out, or they could use the broad activities with artworks of their choice. Teachers were pleased with the connections to the MCPS visual art curriculum, as well. Due to this positive feedback, we will be using a similar self-guide format for this year's event.

One change that will be made for this year's event is the return of a sign-in table. The table will be located behind the information desk in the East Building.

Plans for the Future:

• Based on feedback, we have decided that we would like to open this program up to other museums. After working with the National Gallery of Art, we found that the museum goals aligned with our goals, which made this a wonderful partnership. We hope more museums will be joining us.
• Eventually we would also like to expand to Middle and High schools.
• We will continue to apply for grants to fund the expenses that are needed to run the event successfully. We would like to provide more incentives for schools and families to participate.
• We will create monthly self-guide activities for families to use independently in museums of their choice.
  

Other Project: Quality Time Events:

The Baltimore Museum of Art is also running Project: Quality Time events that will be open to families in Baltimore City Public Schools , Baltimore County Public Schools, and The Bryn Mawr School.

If you are interested in planning a Project: Quality Time event for your school district, please contact Lisa Stuart or Kim Haden.

Special Thanks to all those who have helped make Project: Quality Time and success!

Lisa Stuart, Kim Haden, Ron Kohler, Sarah Neubold, Terri Lawrence, Alaina Lohr, Marjorie Lewis, Elaine Jones, Mary Fran McCaskill, Jenilee Chirichella , Arlette Goldstein, Elisa Patterson, Linda Andre, Katie Gill-Harvey, Sandra Loughlin, all teachers who volunteered at the events, all art teachers who helped promote the event at their schools, and to the families who have participated.