Our Zany Visionary

Suzanne Wright with her award and in a group with other NAEA award winners.

Suzanne Wright with her award and in a group with other award winners. Photos: Rachel Goldberg

I’m currently in Fort Worth, Texas at the National Art Education Association (NAEA) annual conference and today I had the honor of presenting my boss–Suzanne Wright, Director of Education–with the NAEA 2013 Eastern Region Museum Educator of the Year award. This was a well deserved and hard-earned award for Suzanne, who has dedicated her entire (over 20 year) museum career to the Phillips! Under Suzanne’s leadership, our education department has produced award winning and nationally recognized programs and resources such as the Jacob Lawrence and The Migration Series teaching kit, and the emerging Prism of Arts Integration teaching framework. Suzanne has also played a key role in reinvigorating and re-establishing the local DC chapter of NAEA–AEDC. A few words that her colleagues and I used to describe her at the award ceremony today are thoughtful/reflective, passionate, visionary, zany, savvy, human, advocate, persistent, insightful, driven, determined, a bold leader with plentiful laughter, and a true leader. We all also really appreciate the seemingly never ending supply of Girl Scout cookies.

Rachel Goldberg, Manager of School, Outreach, and Family Programs

The Blog Goes to the Big Apple

Photo from cab of traffic in Times Square by Amanda Jiron-Murphy

Times Square in rush hour traffic on a rainy evening. Photo: Amanda Jiron-Murphy.

Participant in Phillips Collection blogging presentation at NAEA sketches responses at the end of the session. Photo by Amanda Jiron-Murphy.

Session participant sketches takeaways during Q&A. Photo: Amanda Jiron Murphy

The week of February 29-March 4, Phillips staff presented at the National Art Education Association’s conference in New York City.

We presented on several topics, including this beloved blog, which has become important to the museum’s virtual persona. The presentation highlighted the blog’s collaborative nature as well as the readers’ involvement.

The session concluded with audience members drawing or writing what they gleaned about The Experiment Station in Elizabeth Graeber’s illustrated picture frames:

Participants wear brightly colored scarves at Phillips Collection blogging presentation at NAEA and share their responses at the end of the session. Photo by Amanda Jiron-Murphy.

Colorfully accessorized colleagues share what they wrote. Photo: Amanda Jiron-Murphy.

A participant in Phillips Collection blogging presentation at NAEA shares her response at the end of the session. Photo by Amanda Jiron-Murphy.

Photos: Amanda Jiron-Murphy

Amanda Jiron-Murphy, In-Gallery Interpretation and Public Programs Coordinator