Faculty Resources

I’ve found that field trips can have a profound impact on our students, many of whom do not see museum and gallery spaces as being accessible to them. In a survey at the end of our course, one student wrote: “Prior to this experience, I wasn’t very appreciative of art or the themes that the artists try to represent. These trips helped me appreciate art more as well as the things I encounter in my everyday life.”

There is a significant amount of planning required for field trips, and the materials below aim to help make the process smoother. My focus is specifically on trips to Yale galleries and museums, but much of the advice applies to field trips at other locations.

Scheduling the Course

If you plan to schedule the field trip during class time, make sure the museum is open on the day/time you teach (many museums are not open on Monday).

I’ve found that scheduling a class once a week for the 2 hour 45 minute block works best when planning multiple field trips. This allows us to go on the trips during class time so nobody has to worry about work schedules or other obligations that might otherwise prevent them from participating. Because I teach my literature courses as writing-intensive courses, the longer class period works well for dividing other class sessions into content-based activities and writing workshops. Offering the course as a “W” course is also important for encouraging more students to take it since it fulfills what is for some a difficult requirement to meet.

The longer block once a week has two drawbacks, though:

1. Advisors must know about your class in advance so students can build the rest of their schedule around it. I designed my course for Criminal Justice and Forensic Science majors, so I first made sure these students would be able to fit a class like mine into their schedules. I then reached out to the program advisors so they could guide students to the course.
2. It is difficult to find an open room that cuts across two class periods since the university primarily schedules for Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday. I had the added challenge of needing to teach my course on a Wednesday. I found another professor who wanted to teach a class at the same time but on a different day, so together our classes were a matching Monday/Wednesday block.

Transportation

I’ve tried both carpooling (faculty and students can take a short course to be approved for this) and the university shuttle service, and shuttles are by far the easiest option. Ask for your driver’s number, if you can. If they plan to switch drivers after drop off, make sure you have the number of the shuttle service as parking can be tricky downtown and the driver may need to pick you up at a different location from where they dropped you off.

Shuttles are expensive (it cost me $254.60 for a 24 passenger shuttle with a 4-hour minimum reservation), so seek out funding well in advance. I funded our trips through money I received as an Open Pedagogy Fellow. The honors program also provides a stipend for classes, and I’ve used that to pay for shuttles in the past.

Scheduling the Field Trips

Once the course is scheduled on the university’s end, I begin contacting museums to schedule our class sessions. I recommend doing this as early as possible as Yale classes often have priority. Be sure that you fill out the required scheduling forms online even if you are in contact with someone at the museum. I thought I had reserved my class’s session at the YCBA via email, but I needed to do so in the official system (and was lucky to find a spot at the last minute!).

To schedule at the Yale Center for British Art, click here.

To schedule at the Yale University Art Gallery, click here.

To schedule at the Beinecke Library, click here.

When scheduling for the spring semester, plan for a snow date if possible.

Planning Class Sessions & Requesting Archival Materials

There are two options for planning the course content: choose all materials yourself and lead the class or have the museum, gallery, or library educators select materials for your class and lead it. I’ve found that both approaches can be beneficial and engaging, and I often like to include a mixture of the two. Whenever possible, I ask museum educators to find a way to draw connections to current temporary exhibitions. I also use our trips as an opportunity to teach students how to search for and request archival sources, and the experience of seeing in person something they’ve found online has a significant impact.

Locating materials can sometimes be tricky as the process is different for each Yale institution. When in doubt, ask your contact for the field trip and they will be happy to help. Here are a few tips: