MoAD in the Classroom
MIC is open to 3rd and 4th grade classrooms located in the San Francisco Bay Area
About
MoAD in the Classroom (MIC) is an arts-based, visual literacy and cultural studies program for 3rd and 4th grade classrooms in Title I schools and schools with little or no arts programming in the San Francisco Bay Area. This no-cost program covers all supplies, transportation, and museum access for students and accompanying adults.
- A MoAD Teaching Artist makes eight (8) 1-hour visits to the classroom and the students participate in one 2-hour field trip visit to the museum, totaling 10 program hours for each classroom. During the museum visits, students view current art exhibitions, learn how to view and talk about art, and participate in hands-on art activities.
- While in the classroom, MoAD Teaching Artists guide students through a scaffolded curriculum centered on art vocabulary, Visual Thinking Strategies, and a collaborative final art project that is connected to the current exhibition's themes, serving as a summative evaluation of what students learned throughout the program.
- Students then present and celebrate their work to their classroom community and Teaching Artist through a culminating event. In this final classroom visit, student reflect on the artistic process, collaborative skill-building, and cultural competencies that develop throughout their time participating in MIC.
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Courtesy of the Museum of the African Diaspora
Program Impact
FALL Session: September 2025 – December 2025
SPRING Session: January 2026 – May 2026
What the community has to say
MIC cultivates creative expression, critical thinking, and confidence in students by providing direct access to art and museum experiences. Beyond enriching student learning, MIC empowers classroom teachers, equipping them with the tools to integrate art into their classrooms and provide a more holistic, culturally relevant education. The program also plays a vital role in strengthening the Bay Area arts community by employing and supporting local teaching artists, ensuring that students learn from practicing artists while actively contributing to the sustainability of the region’s creative ecosystem.
Educators, teaching artists, and youth alike emphasize the transformative impact of the program:
"This supports them to take the next step—creating their own art within the theme of ‘radical joy,’ tying the art patron to the artist within. They can experience real accessibility by developing their own artist within."
- Third Grade Teacher
"[The MIC activities] helped me express things I couldn’t express otherwise."
- Student Participant
"[The two-hour museum visit] gives me time to really work on verbiage and vocabulary, art vocabulary with students and it allows them to prepare on how to speak about their art and have more confidence about what they’re saying. They know what they’re saying and talking about. I think that’s pretty powerful."
- MoAD Teaching Artist
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