Campus West Ekphrastic Writing Program

For two years, Campus West Elementary School partnered with the Burchfield Penney Art Center for a multiple-visit Writing Program. These third graders' Community Gallery exhibition investigated the relationship between the written word and visual art. For five weeks, docents (museum teachers) guided small groups of students in gallery activities. Together they increased their ability to see the world in new ways, at times working as a team to understand a composition or invent stories. The docents acted as mentors, encouraging creative and descriptive language, as well as self-expression.

Using artwork to build vocabulary and literacy skills, Campus West students became “collectors of words.” They looked with their eyes and their “minds’ eyes” to create poems and prose. Their notebooks were places to study objects more closely, such as pinecones or profiles, or to expand fictional stories they started in the museum. At school, the students completed anticipatory assignments that would be used the following week at the Burchfield Penney. In the end, the students selected two favorite pieces of writing to edit for the exhibition.

The exhibition contained five sections that illustrated the progression and variety in each museum visit. Every student in the program had a poem, story, artwork or sketch on display. We thank Gifted and Talented teacher Carrie Munella and the educators of Campus West Elementary School, docents of the Burchfield Penney Art Center and Victor Shanchuk for documenting the project.