International Museum Day: lesson ideas

Every year since 1977 International Museum Day (IMD) is held all over the world on the 18th of May. The event is organized by the ICOM (International Council of Museums). Each year IMD has a specific theme based on free events and activities participating museums organize for their societies. Its main idea is to highlight the importance of museums in society. 

Because of COVID-19 IMD 2020 will go digital. The theme of this year is “Museum for equality: diversity and inclusion”. It is devoted to gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and other disparities. ICOM wants museums to become a unifying platform that through their expositions will reflect the diversity of museum communities and will create tools to identify and overcome bias.  

We’ve prepared some activities and ideas related to this event, which will make the lesson informative and interesting. 

Task 1 — IMD Discussion 

Discuss with the student International Museum Day asking the following questions:

• When is IMD? (18th of May)
• Who is the coordinator of this event? (ICOM)
• Have you ever participated in this event?
• What type of museums do you know/like? (for example, archaeology, art, history, etc.) 

Do you think that museums have an important role in the life of society?   

Tell the student that each year the event has a different theme. Show him/her the poster of this year and ask what he/she thinks the theme is (It is about equality). 

As ICOM gives an opportunity to adapt the poster according to the needs of a museum, you can also ask how the student would represent this theme on the poster, what it would look like. 

Task 2 — Digital Museum 

Nowadays technologies give a lot of opportunities to explore our world without leaving home. One of them is a digital museum. Ask the student what he/she thinks about digital museums, if he/she has ever made a tour to a virtual museum, if it can replace a real visit, what advantages and disadvantages of digital museums are. 

If the student doesn’t know what it looks like, you can give him/her a link to one of the sites of the museums, which he/she has never been to and would like to visit. Explore the site with the student distinguishing good and bad aspects and make a tour. 

Here you can find more ideas about how to use virtual museums in the lessons.     

Task 3 — In a museum 

Show the student a picture of a museum and ask him/her what is allowed and what is not allowed to do in a museum. Let him/her share his/her opinion about it, ask if it is necessary to have such rules for visitors.    

You can also download and show this picture to a student and ask him/her to look at it and write what people must not/can not do in a museum. In such a way the student practices modal verbs.   

Task 4 — Describing a visit to a museum

Ask the student to think about his/her experience with visiting museums in the home country and in a foreign county. Ask such questions as:

What was the first/favourite museum you have ever visited? Where was it?

Who did you go with?

What did you see? 

How did you feel after going there? 

Do you remember how much it cost? Have the prices changed since your last visit? 

Is there a difference between museums in your home country and in a foreign country? 

Task 5 — Famous Masterpieces 

Prepare 3-4 pictures of famous paintings, sculptures, etc. and show them to your student. Ask him/her to guess which museum they belong to. To make the task more difficult, you can also ask who the artists of these masterpieces are. If you think it will be too difficult for him/her, ask the student to match them with the names. 

Teacher’s key: 

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh — Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Black Square by Kazimir Malevich — Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Teacher’s key: 

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci — The Louvre Museum, Paris

Sistine Madonna by Raphael — Old Masters Gallery, Dresden, Germany

Task 6 — Women in Museums

Recently ICOM has created #WomeninMuseums hashtag and encouraged museums to share the information about the role of women in the museums and culture. Show the student a few famous paintings of women from different museums and discuss them.

Ask the student such questions as: 

Do you have any favorite paintings of women? If so, what do you like about it? 

• Is the amount of women’s paintings less than men’s paintings? 
• What do you think about women’s role in art? 

Task 7 — Different Museums

Prepare 3-4 pictures of buildings of different museums. Show them to the student and ask: Based on the architecture, design, and exterior environments, what type of art do you think is inside? 

Teacher’s key: 1. The Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar 

The Bundeswehr Museum of Military History in Germany 

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao of modern and contemporary art in Spain 

Task 8 — Recreating Art Using Random House Objects

As nearly a third of the world’s population lives under coronavirus-related restrictions, people are starting to get bored. But during this challenging time, the J. Paul Getty Museum, based in Los Angeles, has found a way to keep people engaged with their art—even though they can’t see it in person. They’ve challenged their social media followers to “recreate a work of art with objects (and people)” from the comfort of their own homes.  

Challenge your students to do the same. Alternatively, show them famous masterpieces and ask to make a list of things at home that might be used to recreate the paintings.