Windgate School Partnership Program

The Windgate School Partnership Program is a longitudinal collaborative research project involving Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the University of Arkansas, and Trike Theatre. The project seeks to understand how field trips affect students’ critical thinking skills, tolerance, and empathy through in-school art interventions and field trips to Crystal Bridges. The longitudinal study began in the 2017/2018 school year and will last for 10 years.

17 “Title I” schools are participating in this program with a combined total of 53 classrooms. The project has an extensive geographical reach throughout the region, with 12 schools in Arkansas, four in Missouri, and one in Oklahoma. The intervention begins in third grade and ends in fifth grade for each school.

During the project’s intervention, which spans three years (third to fifth grade), teaching artists from Trike Theatre will offer three in-school residencies a year, working on arts integration projects with the students. Each year, after two of the three interventions, the students will visit Crystal Bridges for a guided tour of the museum. The students will also regularly respond to surveys administered by the University of Arkansas.

For further information, please contact School.Programs@CrystalBridges.org.

This program is funded by the Windgate Foundation.