The Pulitzer is currently engaged in a number of student programs, with groups ranging from elementary school to university level. One program that I’ve been working on recently involves groups from both high school and college, and has an added twist–instead of art or art history these students are all studying French.

The idea of the program is for a group of college-level French students to give a tour of the Pulitzer to high school French students. For this semester, we are working with students from Lindenwood University in St. Charles (about 20 minutes from the Pulitzer). Most are either French majors or are very serious about the language, and will prepare for the high school tour with a number of sessions at the Pulitzer throughout the semester. Just the other day we had our first meeting, which introduced the Pulitzer and our installation to the Lindenwood group. They took a tour of Minimalism and Beyond with a few students from Washington University, who are involved in a separate program with the Pulitzer (I’ll be writing more about that too). The tour gave the Lindenwood students a casual overview of our exhibition in English and with their peers, and gave them background for our next meeting. During that session, they’ll meet with Matthias (who’s fluent) and discuss the exhibition completely in French. After that, they’ll practice giving tours in French and will prepare material about the art works for the high school students to look over before their visit. All this preparation will culminate with the high school/university tour at the end of the semester. The college students will have an opportunity to speak French in front of a group, and try to convey a subject they might not be familiar with. For the high school students, this will also be a chance to discuss in French, ask questions about what it’s like to major in French, study abroad, etc. I’ll post more as this program progresses, and hopefully a few students will write about their experiences too.