The Museo Italo Americano offers free art programs to San Francisco schools through C.I.A.O.: Children’s Italian Art Outreach program.
The program is coordinated by Michael Wong, an artist and teacher who has developed and evolved several projects to complement the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades curricula. Each project explores the culture and art of a period of Italian history. Each meeting is both a discussion and a studio session, alternating between art historical discussion, art theory concepts and technical art instruction. Topics from mathematics and philosophy to cinema and video games are invoked to create connections and familiarity with Italian culture and art history, not only to understand the past but also to illuminate the present.
Current projects include
- Trajan’s Column and the Roman Empire explores immigration mobility during the Roman Empire
- Gates of Paradise and Early Renaissance applies use of iconography to contemporary architecture by creating modern versions of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Florentine work
- School of Athens investigates tension between the spiritual and the material during the High Renaissance, with an emphasis on popular idols then and now
- Renaissance meets Postmodernism: the portraiture of the Renaissance and Arte Povera
For information email us or call (415) 673-2200