Make the JSMA part of your classroom!

We invite educators to use the museum and its resources to foster a culture of learning and collaboration in your classroom.

The JSMA is dedicated to serving K-12 communities throughout the state by providing training and educational programs that integrate the arts into the classroom. In support of this commitment, we also offer extensive educational outreach programs.

Experience the Museum

The museum’s collection includes over 18,000 works of art. Through the study of original objects, students can develop visual literacy and aesthetic skills and explore how art evokes emotion, communicates, connects, and inspires. We have rooms for class meetings, and you can even request that selected works be placed on view for curricular needs.

Book a Tour

Schedule a guided tour of the museum for students in grades 2 through 12

Our experienced Exhibition Interpreters will guide your students in small group discussion incorporating accessible interpretation and Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). Open the door to increased critical thinking practice and art literacy in the lives of your students with a tour at the JSMA! 

Art Studio activities are also available to compliment your tour and support social emotional learning (SEL) standards.

Exhibition Interpreters can visit your class or Zoom Into Your Room

If you teach in the (Lane County) 4J, Springfield, Bethel or South Lane districts, we can arrange for a 20-30 minute in person visit by a JSMA Exhibition Interpreter (EI) to visit your classroom. Your EI will visit and lead a discussion about our latest exhibitions and facilitate a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) session with your class.

Exhibition Interpreters are also available to Zoom Into Your Room for a 20-30 minute visit to talk about a featured art piece, exhibition or for a Visual Thinking Strategies session.

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Collections: Access a World of art and ideas

The museum’s collection includes over 18,000 works of art. Would you like to access artwork not on view? You can arrange for work to be presented in our Gilkey Research Center that will deepen your students’ understanding of course materials or support independent research. Our collections are also accessible online.

Discover the Collection

Shared Visions: Accessing private collections with JSMA

Access the art of internationally recognized artists from around the world from private holdings. Through our Shared Visions program, we are able to bring masterworks to the public for a limited viewing period. Past and present works are accompanied by a Research Guide.

Explore Shared Visions

Our Education Programs

The JSMA’s school programs are made possible with generous support from the Cheryl and Allyn Ford Educational Outreach Endowment, The Coeta and Donald Barker Foundation, and generous support from our members who contribute to our Fill Up the Bus campaign.

Support the Education Fund

Arts Bridge

ArtsBridge at the University of Oregon, part of the ArtsBridge America network, works in partnership with local public schools to provide high-quality arts education to K-12 school children. Stipends are given to those undergraduate and graduate students who teach the arts and lead projects in art, drama, dance, and music.

K-12 teaching opportunities are available for top UO students in the visual and performing arts. UO students (scholars) interested in participating in UO ArtsBridge are asked to complete a scholar application form and mail it to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

Are you a teacher interested in having a scholar visit your classroom? Fill out a teacher application.

Questions?  Contact Lisa Abia-Smith, director of education, abia@uoregon.edu

NewArt Northwest Kids

NewArt Northwest Kids is an annual juried exhibition of K-12 student art displayed in the museum's Education Corridor. This exhibition is made possible through support from The Cheryl and Allyn Ford Educational Outreach Endowment.

Details for the upcoming NewArt Northwest Kids exhibition will be announced in October 2025.

Visit our current exhibitions

Discover our current exhibitions and explore the resources created for them (including virtual tours, videos with the artist, gallery guides, and more) which you can use in your class.

View Past Exhibition Resources

K-12 Curriculum Resources

The Grand Tour

A curriculum unit on travel, community, and cartography with connections to visual art, social studies, language arts, and the performing arts.

A Way With Words: Calligraphy and Visual Art

A curriculum unit on the art of calligraphy with connections to visual art, language arts, and world cultures. Inspired by the exhibition, A Way with Words: The Art of Jung Do-Jun

Lesson 3: Fourth Dimensional Drawings

A series of object based art lessons to do at home. These projects are developed by museum educators for artists and adventuresome kids of all ages and skill levels. Tag your final art with #JSMAcreates for a chance to be featured in a virtual exhibition.

NewArt Northwest

A curriculum unit on contemporary art with connection to environmental science, language arts, social studies, visual arts.

Cuba Avant-Garde

A curriculum unit on contemporary Cuban art with connections to social studies, language arts, visual art and the performing arts.

Myriad Treasures

The Art Teaches learning opportunities were created with teachers, for teachers. These art-based learning opportunities are for use in the classroom, in at-home settings or in a hybrid teaching approach. Each focused curriculum can be used in its entirety or with a building-block approach, using the video tours, lesson plans and art or writing activities as needed or desired.

Ten Symbols of Longevity

The Art Teaches learning opportunities were created with teachers, for teachers. These art-based learning opportunities are for use in the classroom, in at-home settings or in a hybrid teaching approach. Each focused curriculum can be used in its entirety or with a building-block approach, using the video tours, lesson plans and art or writing activities as needed or desired.

Contact Us

Sherri Jones

jsmatour@uoregon.edu