Each year, hundreds of students from northern Michigan schools visit Michigan Legacy Art Park on field trips. Field trips offer students a rare opportunity to experience fine art firsthand in northern Michigan, and our natural setting wonderfully suits their sensory needs.
In addition, the environmental and historical connections addressed in each piece provide enlightening discoveries that teachers can use to connect their students back to classroom learning.
Here are 5 benefits of an Art Park field trip:
Physical Exercise
Kids get plenty of time to move on an Art Park field trip. Besides the obvious physical benefits, this can have a cognitive impact as well, which may be the “light bulb” teachers see when kids make connections between the art and their studies.
Classroom Connections
Through our Looking to Learn materials, teachers can use the Art Park experience to guide students to a greater understanding of their lessons in nearly every subject.
Cooperation
Field trips include an environmental art project that gives kids a chance to work together in small groups. This fun creative process is a fantastic platform for developing communication skills, patience, attention, and respect for one another’s ideas.
Connection to Place
By simply hiking our beautiful northern Michigan hardwood forest, young people can begin to develop their own appreciation for this place. Sculptures in the park give many students their first chance to consider the the complicated, symbiotic relationship they have with their natural environment, and their own responsibility to steward it.
Empathy
We believe interacting with art offers these students opportunities to imagine new perspectives and develop a stronger sense of compassion and empathy for other people.
Field Trip Info
To schedule a field trip, contact Education Director, Patricia Innis or call 231-378-4963.
