About Art and SOL

In 1991, the Museum initiated its Art & SOL program, which provides free tours of the art collection to elementary school children. Conceived and developed as an extension of the classroom, the Art & SOL tour program addresses significant aspects of the Virginia Department of Education’s standards of learning objectives for visual arts, language, and social studies. Indeed, the program’s name is itself a play on the phrase “standards of learning,” indicating its strong connection to these state requirements for public school curricula.

In June 1994 the Museum joined the Lynchburg City Schools’ collaborative Partners in Education initiative, which creates links between the school system and area businesses and other organizations in order to expand and enhance educational opportunities for students. Joining Partners in Education ensured that our Art & SOL tour program became a formal part of the second and fifth grade curricula for all city schools.

Art and SOL tours, which are free of charge to any public or private school, are supervised by the Museum’s curator of education and led by volunteer docents. With 15 years of experience in providing standards of learning-based tours, we have achieved a high level of quality. Our docents undergo rigorous training in the history of American art, the contents of the Museum’s collection, and interactive touring techniques for children, and represent a significant educational resource for the city.