“They were very much fired up,” Tim Reichman, Visitor Services Manager, said of a group that came to the Pulitzer the day after the election, and he wasn’t referring to an Obama rally.

On November 5, a group of fifth-graders from Sorrento Springs came to the Pulitzer with their music teacher, Katie Biem-Esche, as part of a field trip. Scattered in different parts of the Ando building were stations for activities to discuss ideas pertaining to musicals.  Musicals?, you might ask.  At the Pulitzer?

Biem-Esche organized the visit to the Pulitzer to be paired with a trip to our neighbor, the Sheldon Concert Hall, where the students saw an educational performance about musicals, called “The American Musical.” The music teacher had wanted an outing to the Pulitzer for months after being attracted to, not only the artwork and architecture but also the environment’s support of experiential learning. The Pulitzer seemed like a perfect backdrop to think about a variety of concepts, and she and Reichman brainstormed on what she could do to connect a visit to the subject of music.

“It was totally different than anything else we’ve done,” Reichman said, “Our show basically provided props for the students.”

For one of the stations, students looked at landscape paintings and discussed what kind of musical might use the scenes as a set. In the water court, the students looked at the water and their shadows and talked about movement. Throughout their stay, the students drew and wrote in a paper, black activity book, describing what they saw and felt–what their senses made them think of. In describing the painter in Nicolas Regnier’s “Self-Portrait with an Easel,” one student wrote, “He would have a French accent. He could sing when he gets tired of painting.”

The goal was to encourage the students to think creatively, and by all accounts, it was accomplished.