Renaissance Art and Long-Distance Learning

After attending the 1995 Institute on the European Renaissance,1250-1520, Maureen Clouse, high school curriculum coordinator, returned to her Georgia school district of 11,000 students with ideas for sharing her newfound knowledge. Assisted by a grant from the Georgia Statewide Academic and Medical System (GSAMS), and working with the statewide distance learning interactive audio-visual system, Clouse and several colleagues brought Renaissance art and culture to schools via telecast. The target audience for these activities was primarily tenth-grade students studying world history at four different Georgia high schools: two situated in Paulding County, Georgia's fastest growing school system, on the outskirts of metropolitan Atlanta; and two at either end of the state, one in the southern plains near Florida, and the other in the mountains of north Georgia.

All tenth-grade history students participated in two teaching sessions lead by Dr. Marian Kuntz of Georgia State University, a Latin specialist and an authority on Renaissance art. Students proved very responsive in these interactive sessions and were particularly intrigued by the information Dr. Kuntz provided on Renaissance illuminated manuscripts.

Another fine arts telecast took place in tandem with the spring Georgia Renaissance Festival. Mr. John Struchen, artistic director of the popular festival, and Ms. Cynthia McCabe, a festival performer, met with students at eight different high schools throughout Georgia via telecast. During the one-hour session, Ms. McCabe assumed the role of the Tudor queen Catherine Howard, instructing students on English Renaissance manners, language, history, and art.

In addition, fourth- and fifth-grade gifted students visited the Renaissance Festival after studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Teachers of the gifted at the elementary, middle, and high school levels are team-planning interdisciplinary units that emphasize Renaissance history and the fine arts.

As for the future, Paulding County teachers of history, studio art, language arts, Latin, and classes for gifted students will continue to collaborate on this program and work to integrate art across the curriculum. Clouse and her colleagues hope to arrange more distance-learning programs that will include Renaissance music, costume, literature, and drama in Shakespeare's England, the classical heritage in architecture, and period painting techniques. Other plans include student field-trips to regional museums, and perhaps a trip to Washington to tour the National Gallery's collections of Netherlandish and Italian Renaissance art.

Browse and borrow free NGA loan materials on Renaissance art