Situated in the heart of one of the world’s most culturally and historically vibrant cities, Nightingale students enjoy unparalleled access to New York City’s extraordinary array of galleries, museums, cultural institutions, historical landmarks, and immersive tours, bringing their current curricula to life through firsthand experiences. Recognizing the educational potential of its surroundings, Nightingale created a visual education program in 2002, which has since evolved and expanded throughout the last 23 years to become an integral part of the student experience today.

“This year, collectively, our students participated in over 100 unique field trips and cultural partnerships, which means they were exposed to over 100 unique stories,” Director of Museum Education and Cultural Partnerships Gabriella Kula said. “At Nightingale, we're committed to helping each student find her unique voice, while learning to appreciate the other unique voices in our community and I hope each of our visual education experiences contribute to doing just that.”

With a background in museum education, Ms. Kula, who began at Nightingale in 2023, has reinvigorated and carefully scaffolded the visual education program to truly enhance students’ visual literacy. 

“Nightingale's visual education program is centered on connecting students' classroom learning with the world around us. To do this, we align field trips and cultural partnerships with as many subjects as possible across the K-XII experience,” Ms. Kula said.

These experiences are far from the average “field trip.” Months of careful planning occurs in the background before trip day arrives. Prior to planning the excursion, Ms. Kula will collaborate with department and division heads to learn about the full scope of curriculum across grades and subjects. After creating a few ideas in connection to students’ studies, she will offer field trip and partnership ideas to teachers, in addition to creating pre- and post-experience materials and lessons for students. Finally, Ms. Kula organizes the logistics for safe student travel around the city. 

From analyzing detailed artwork to exploring a wing of ancient artifacts, students are challenged to flex their mind and think in new ways through these experiences, practicing key parts of visual literacy: observation, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation. 

“Museums and cultural institutions have a language of their own. Just like we would not step off of an airplane in another country and believe we could speak their language because our feet touched the ground, we cannot expect to speak the language of museums and cultural institutions just by entering their spaces. Like with all language acquisition, the earlier we start learning the language of museums and cultural institutions, the more confident we feel using it.  We can also think of visual literacy as a sport.  The more we play a sport, the stronger and better we become at it. So, too, it is true that the more we visit museums and cultural institutions, the more savvy we are at harnessing their power.”

This year, in addition to organizing field trips, the visual education department brought in guests for performances and workshops. For example, the puppet theatre Grand Pistachio performed their interactive show Blown Away by Poetry for Kindergarten and Class I during their poetry units, and dancer and choreographer Quenia Ribeiro visited Class III for a capoeira workshop when they were studying Brazil.  

“This hands-on engagement invites even our youngest learners to actively explore, reflect, and challenge what they know,” said Head of Lower School Rebecca Urciuoli, PhD. “As our students get older, they develop and hone their critical thinking skills through thoughtful questioning, and build a foundation for discovery and lifelong learning.”

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One class has been particularly immersed in the city. Only a few steps away from Nightingale lies the Museum Mile, a stretch of Fifth Avenue home to some of the world's most renowned museums and cultural institutions. In recent years, Class V’s explorations have been streamlined into a program, “Journeys Along the Museum Mile”—a program Ms. Kula highlights as a point of pride.

“Through this program, we take regular field trips to local museums in connection to each heritage month.  For example, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we visited El Museo del Barrio for their Around the Block walking tour to illuminate the experience of the Latinx and Latin American community right in Nightingale's own neighborhood. For American Indian Heritage Month we visited the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to see their triennial Making Home, where we looked at projects by American Indian designers and activists whose work revolves around the concept of belonging. In honor of Black History Month, we went to the Museum of the City of New York to see Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100 and learn about the impact of the first Black woman elected to congress. For Women's History Month, we explored the work of Sonia Delaunay, Natalia Goncharova, and Mainie Jellett, the only three female artists in the Guggenheim's exhibition Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910–1930. Through these adventures, our students complete their Class V year having visited every single museum along Museum Mile, and understanding ways cultural institutions connect to contemporary issues and to our own lives.”

Class V student, Cornelia X. ’32 shared: “Field trips [build and expand] on topics we already know, in a fun way of course. We also frequently learn about new topics and ideas along the way.”

Ms. Kula remarked, “What could be more exciting for a student in Class II than riding Jane's Carousel and seeing every angle of the skyline in celebration of an entire year's study of New York City?  What could be more eye opening for a student in Class V than being in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur when studying ancient Egypt? What could be more immersive for an upper school student studying French than traveling to 1800’s France to meet Monet, Renoir, Morisot, and Degas through the VR experience Tonight with the Impressionists? In his 1916 book Democracy and Education, philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey wrote, ‘Learning through doing is the most effective way to master a subject,’ and in venturing beyond the classroom we are doing just that.”

This article was recently published in the summer issue of The Blue Doors.