Learning Resources
Explore learning resources created by and for the teachers, youth, families, and other members of our MCA Learning Community.
Tour Videos
Look closely at artworks and explore themes of MCA exhibitions with these videos.
TV for Untold Stories
Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this Tour Video Series dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.
TV for Aliens
Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this Tour Video Series dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.
TV for Water
Learning about contemporary art isn’t just a matter of historical facts and artist biographies. Contemporary art is special and important because it can help us see our present moment in new ways. Join the MCA’s Manager of School Programs, Jeremy Kreusch, to explore an exhibition called “Water After All.” Look at four different artworks that mirror for different aspects of water. Discover ways art can inspire us to engage with ourselves, one another, and the world we share.
TV for Your Body
In this episode, we’ll look at art that depicts bodies to help us think about how we see and feel about our own bodies.
TV for the Last Thanks
Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this episode of the "Tour Video" series, dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.
TV for Ave María Purísima (Enlightenment 8)
Visit the MCA from wherever you are in this episode of the "Tour Video" series, dedicated to discovering more about the world, our communities, and ourselves through contemporary art.
Families
Activities for family members of all ages
River Portraits
How would it feel to be a body of water?
Virtual Family Gallery
Explore artworks on view at the MCA through movement, mindfulness, art-making, picture-book reading, and conversation prompts. With simple click-through instructions, embedded video and audio, and high-quality artwork images, this virtual gallery is designed to be used by children and their caregivers and teachers.
Caring Connections
by Jacqui Reedy
Imagination Journals
By Kathryn Trumbull Fimreite at the Chicago Creative Reuse Exchange
Monuments for Small Things
Create a 3D monument to something small and not usually celebrated.
Sanctuary Spaces
Create a sanctuary space in your home to find comfort and joy in your body.
Championship Banners
Enjoy this family activity when you come to MCA during The Long Dream exhibition, open now through January 17, 2021. Find the multicolored championship banners by Cheryl Pope hanging in the center of the MCA's main stairwell. While you walk up the stairs, use this guide to have a conversation with your family.
Transforming Tools
by Jacqui Reedy
Queer Plushies
Art For Windows
Watch a recorded conversation between members of the MCA Learning community sharing their responses to this prompt.
Animal Mashups
Draw INTO the Page
Squiggly Window Art
A brief studio visit with James
Paper Dolls
MCA staff members demonstrate how to create paper dolls
Friendly Faces
Crankie Scrolls
by Myra Su
Recycled Balones
Video courtesy of Diana Gabriel
Family Resources Guide
Educators
Teacher Resource: Alien vs. Citizen
CURRICULUM: Writing Interpretive Labels
The Long Dream highlights themes related to equity and social change and experiments with more equitable forms of exhibition-making. Rather than a single curator driving the creative decision-making for the exhibition, an interdepartmental team of staff worked together to bring the show into being. Throughout that already unusual process, staff looked for opportunities to challenge the traditional hierarchies of exhibition-making even further.
CURRICULUM GENERATOR
Peculiar Personal Portraits
by Corinne Mucha
Handmade Memory
by Anna Showers-Cruser
Teacher Institute
Youth
This resource reimagines gallery activities and exercises used in our Multiple Visit Program to help students practice speaking, listening, observing, and questioning skills at home.
Downloads
The Frame, Your Body, Residue
by Joelle Mercedes
Conversations That Go Too Far
Workshopping Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech”
Proper Etiquette and Acceptable Behaviors
In Touch
Folding Paper Cranes
by Dutes Miller