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Home > Interviews >Interview with Theresa Kump Leghorn
Voices of Innovation
An Interview with Theresa Kump Leghorn, Director of the Museum of Arts and Culture, New Rochelle High School, New York
Tell me how the Museum of Arts and Culture complements the PAVE (Performing and Visual Arts Education) program at NRHS.
New Rochelle High School has got a very strong arts program. I think the museum really complements that because the Museum, first of all, provides an on-site museum experience for the students. So, for students who are in families that don’t go to museums, or maybe don't have the opportunity to visit very many museums, there is that museum right in the high school which has visiting exhibits from other institutions as well as original exhibits. I think just the existence of the museum in the high school creates a message for the kids that we support the arts, the arts are important, and we think they are important in your life.
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As Director, how do you choose exhibits for the museum?
I'm trying to keep an open mind and look for exhibits that might support the math curriculum or the science curriculum or the history curriculum as well as the arts curriculum. We have a very small budget; I try to look for things that are cost effective that we can afford, that will fit our site, because we have two galleries but it is limited space. I also look for things that will have interest to the students as well as the community because we want to be able to invite the community and have them get used to coming to the museum to see student art and visiting exhibits.
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Is the work that students create following an exhibit part of the curriculum (assigned by faculty) or is it more spontaneous?
There is a formal curriculum-related requirement with the art, but I think there's also a lot of thought that goes on and spontaneous reaction. When kids are free between classes, they can wander around in that area there and I've observed the kids sort of wander into the museum, and they might not even think they’re going in the museum, they might just think they’re bored and walking around, but they start looking at what’s there and talking about it. We're creating a way for them to think and talk and react to art that would not otherwise exist in the school day.
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If you were talking to another school district interested in an in-school museum, what words of advice would you have?
I think for any school that is trying to get support for the arts, it’s really important to involve the community and make them have ownership, make them have buy-in to the idea of the strength of arts in your school and the necessity of it. I think that you need to have a space that's really dedicated to having a museum. It can't be a space that’s a janitor's closet part of the year and museum the other part of the year. If you're going to host traveling exhibits, you need to have some standards, because there are considerations of light, heat and humidity. I think you need to also budget more money than you think you're going to need, obviously. There has to be some money spent on marketing and you have to take that into account as you're planning your budget. Because even if you have a free exhibit or they waive the fees, how are you going to get people into see it unless you're able to market it? That's an important thing to keep in mind too.
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Click here for an interview with Domenic Guastaferro, Director of the PAVE program at New Rochelle High School.
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