Museum Opening Allows Groundbreaking Research on Field Trips’ Impact

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Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter is one of the artworks children see when they take a school field trip to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

The opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville last fall provided a singular opportunity for research that went largely unnoticed amid the local hoopla, international media attention and intense scrutiny by the art world.

University of Arkansas researchers who usually spend their time poring over student test scores and evaluating education policy saw a chance to contribute to the understanding of art education in a way researchers had never done before.

They won’t release the results of their study until they have collected another year’s worth of data about the impact of an educational field trip to an art museum, but they promise their research will be groundbreaking.

You can read more about the research on the Colleague site.