CINCINNATI.- Responding to a growing need to strengthen arts learning for young school children, the Cincinnati Art Museum will offer specialized training and support for educators starting Jan. 31. Through a Child’s Eyes is a one-of-a-kind curriculum program designed to engage young learners in art.

As the first such curriculum program in Ohio, Through a Child’s Eyes will align with national standards for early childhood learning and integrate children’s literature with works of art from the Art Museum’s collection. Educators will receive the limited-edition curriculum kit during interactive training sessions designed by local schoolteachers and museum educators.

Each curriculum kit includes seven sequential learning units for preschool through third grade classrooms. Each unit in the curriculum provides a central “focus artwork,” a “focus book,” and a series of classroom activities that include a culminating art making experience. The “focus artworks” are reproductions from the Art Museum’s permanent collection. Featured books include the award-winning Rooster’s Off To See The World (1972) by Eric Carle and You, Me, and the Big Blue Sea (2002) by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick.

“The beauty of this curriculum is that educators can adapt the units to their classroom needs to further enhance their social studies, language arts, math, science, art and music skills,” said Ted Lind, curator of education. “It brings art learning to students who cannot come to the Art Museum and strengthens it for those that can.”

The Cincinnati Art Museum was awarded a two-year Learning through the Arts grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004 to create this new program. Partnerships with the Smithsonian’s Early Enrichment Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of Cincinnati ensured the curriculum kit followed current research standards on child development and museum education. The two-year project celebrates its completion and begins sharing its findings with the release of the Through a Child’s Eyes curriculum kit.

“The Art Museum is a place for children to discover emotions and new ideas,” said Ted Lind. “Now, educators will have the proper tools to encourage young children’s art skills through museum-based activities and to use these skills to better understand their community and develop their own abilities to communicate.”

Educators must attend one of the four training sessions offered on Jan. 31, Feb. 3 and 28, and March 3 to receive a curriculum kit. Cost is $50 per educator, which includes the curriculum kit (valued at $150) and a boxed lunch. For reservations call (513) 721-ARTS or visit www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

Through a Child’s Eyes was generously supported by a Learning through the Arts grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corbett Foundation and the Louis and Melba Scott Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee.

Cincinnati Art Museum educators worked in collaboration with Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center at the University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Public School, Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment.