During a visit to MoMA in 1997, Patty Cisneros observed a New York City public school teacher leading her class in guided conversations about works of art in the museum’s galleries. Impressed by the students’ keen observations and in-depth dialogue, she approached MoMA’s Department of Education about the possibility of adapting this inventive program for a Latin American audience. This brief encounter sparked a series of meetings that would result in the formation of PPV Venezuela.In 1998, MoMA educators conducted workshops in Caracas to introduce the VTC Program methodology to curators and educators from the GAN and the Colección Cisneros. After the workshops, the international team chose 90 artworks from the three collections to be included in the Venezuelan curriculum. By early 1999, the team had developed educational materials, based on this selection of works. In the spring of 1999, MoMA educators with the assistance of the Colección Cisneros provided the first PPV Venezuela professional development workshops at the GAN for 18 Venezuelan fourth-grade teachers from public, private, and subsidized schools in the metropolitan area of Caracas. The classroom teachers then led 442 fourth-grade students through the program.
Over the next six months, the international education team revised the Venezuelan curriculum, based on the recommendations and written evaluations of participating teachers. They developed three new curricula, with slides, lesson plans, artwork texts, and evaluation questions for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classroom teachers. Program leaders then provided workshops for new fifth and sixth grade teachers as well as gave the first group of fourth grade teachers new curricular materials and additional classes. By February 2000, some 50 teachers and over 1500 students in Venezuela were participating in the program.
In 2001, PPV Venezuela expanded its reach to include five additional Venezuelan museums: Museo de Bellas Artes, Museo Jacabo Borges, Museo Alejandro Otero, Museo Armando Reverón (now part of the Galería de Arte Nacional) and the Centro de Bellas Artes de Maracaibo.
As part of an ongoing effort to evaluate the program’s effectiveness, the Instituto de la Facultad de Ingeniería of the Universidad Central de Venezuela will assess the educational impact of PPV, in collaboration with the international team and a group of newly enrolled fourth grade teachers. Findings will enable the coordinating educators to improve PPV Venezuela and to develop new ways to promote art education in Latin America.
