Mrs. Bivona's Atlanta Adventure at the HIGH Museum of Art

Louvre Atlanta is an unprecedented partnership between the High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and the Musée du Louvre in Paris that will bring hundreds of artworks from the Louvre's collections to Atlanta from fall 2006 through 2009. The collaboration will include an exchange of cultural expertise and educational programs.

Some time in mid-May ('06) I recieved an e-mail from the Director of School Programs at the High asking me if I would be interested in teaching at the High's Summer Teacher Institute. My art teacher friend Debi West, from Atlanta, gave him my name! I said "yes", and before I knew it I was writing a lesson plan around an artwork, of my choice, from the "Kings Collection". My lesson focused on the tapestries. I would present this lesson, at the High, to the teacher in the Visual Arts Strand of the Institute.

Nine teachers were invited to be faculty for the institute, part of our responsibility as instructors was to attend the morning lectures presented by the curators & teachers from the Louvre. Each presenter discussed a different aspect of the Louvre and "The Kings Collection". To begin we learned how the Louvre began as a fortress and grew into a museum, then we learned what it would have been like to live during Louis XIV's rule, finally we learned about the all the different collections that will be on display, from the Louvre, at the High. As instructors, we were encouraged to relate that information from the morning lectures to the lesson we presented in the afternoon.

This was an incredible opportunity! I will share all that I learned with our students here at Mount Prospect -- The Louvre at Mount Prospect School. I will continue to post more on my Atlanta Adventure!