Announcing Our School Program for Grades 6-12, Art Conservation in the Classroom: Science, History, and Creativity

We are excited to officially launch Art Conservation in the Classroom: Science, History, and Creativity, our new school program for grades 6-12. Consisting of hands-on, in-class visits from CCAHA staff combined with pre- and post-visit activities that teachers can do on their own, this program is the culmination of nearly three years of work CCAHA has been doing with the School District of Philadelphia and other partnerships. We embark on this initiative to increase awareness of conservation and preservation careers among underrepresented populations at an earlier age to diversify the field. Our message is that the skills we use in our work are transferable to myriad other life skills and academic subjects, and that preservation of cultural heritage belongs to anyone at any age.  

So, how did this project come about?   

In 2024, we convened a committee of CCAHA staff who were interested in engaging with young people in the classroom on topics related to conservation and preservation. We wanted to do hands-on activities from the beginning to make these lessons engaging and fun and knew these lessons could work in a variety of different classroom settings, from art to science, to social studies, and more. Furthermore, we knew as a small staff that we would have to narrow our focus in terms of grade levels, so we started with grades 6-12 where we felt we could have the most impact. However, we also recognized the importance of allowing teachers to have input into these lessons so that they’d actually be of use and accurately reflect the needs of their students. Thus, we settled on a model of co-creation with teachers.  

To accomplish this, we successfully applied for a Holly Maxson Conservation Grant from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) to pilot the program. This grant allowed us to hire a consultant, Lori Litchman, a former classroom teacher with experience in curriculum writing, and to establish a teacher advisory council, made up of local educators from a range of subjects and grade levels to craft these lessons together. It also allowed us to buy supplies and gave us the support to host two Educator Open Houses.  

Next, we connected with the Office of Strategic Partnerships as part of the Philadelphia School District. They helped us get the word out about our Educator Open Houses, and from there, we were able to engage teachers to join our advisory panel. We worked together to refine the lessons with expert guidance from Lori, our consultant. Most importantly, we used this pilot phase to test out the lessons we developed in classrooms, fine-tuning content as we went based on these experiences and feedback from teachers.  

For classroom teachers, or those working with young people in any capacity in terms of in or out of school time, we hope you find these lessons useful. If you’d like to schedule a classroom visit or just brainstorm about what might be possible, please reach out to me, Greg Stuart, Education Program Manager, at gstuart@ccaha.org.  

What you see here represents the undertaking of a huge amount of work over the last three years. While this list is by no means extensive, we want to thank our staff K-12 committee: Eliza Gilligan, Heather Hendry, Joanna Hurd, Katie Lowe, and Daphne Mayer; as well as our teacher advisory council: Andrea Keefe, April Martinelli, Felicia Rosen, Monica Rowley, and Holly Victor. Thanks also to our consultant, Lori Litchman, as well as Madeline Dahlin and Ursula Martin of the Office of Strategic Partnerships. Finally, we’re grateful to FAIC for funding this important work.