The Future of Field Trips – Art + Science

K-12 STEAM education

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

In Los Angeles County children attending Title 1 schools are disproportionately disadvantaged in access to arts, a problem that spurred Proposition 28 Funding but has not yet been meaningfully addressed. Furthermore, research by the MacArthur Foundation found that the key determinant of children's success is school and beyond is not mere compliance with classroom expectations but active agency: the intrinsic motivation to produce ideas and narratives and the curiosity and confidence to explore the world. We propose a new educational model for museums and cultural institutions that does not mirror the lecture-based structure of classroom instruction, but which offers environments and experiences so rich and compelling that they spark curiosity, invite inquiry, and celebrate individual experimentation. By collapsing the curriculum silos of art and science and stimulating multi-sensory interactions, we engage both children and adults with learning that is both personal and gratifying.

For seven months, from January-August 2025, Kidspace will host a multi-sensory maze called Wired for Wonder, an educational exhibit that leverages the science of perception to create heightened visitor interactions with art, ideas, and each other. The maze is populated with perceptual experiences discovered through navigation of a complex physical structure which serves as a metaphor for self-exploration. The journey begins with experiments with a singular sensory focus (encounters with illusions, textures, taste, and smell, for example). As visitors venture further into the maze, the experiences become increasingly multi-sensory and immersive, punctuated by artworks that integrate sensory information into limbic response. The art installations will be produced by established artists curated by Transformative Arts, possibly including Alison Saar, Miguel Osuna, Sabela Grimes, Kori Newkirk, and Suchitra Mattai. Using celebrated contemporary artists underscores a fairly radical idea: that children deserve access to, and can be trusted with, fine art. Using primarily BIPOC artists helps Title 1 Students see themselves in the highest echelons of contemporary artists. The maze itself and its interior installations will borrow from the visual vocabulary of Bauhaus and Concrete Art, inviting visitors to fully engage at the intersection of art, science, and math. The grant will help offset costs for the artist collaborations, installations, and workshops.

In the short term and on a local scale, the project will have immediate impact on PUSD and LAUSD students. Field trips to Kidspace are always free for Title 1 schools. In our immediate community of Pasadena, roughly 90% of public schools are classified as Title 1 with many student families living in poverty; these are the vulnerable communities that are least likely to visit a museum, have the lowest school readiness scores, and are disproportionately deprived of access to art. Kidspace is often the “first touch” museum experience for these communities, and is uniquely positioned to engage visitors with art and science, and with museums more generally, in an informal, welcoming, community-based setting. Longer term, the museum will collect data and share outcomes with museum colleagues in appropriate journals and/or conferences as a study in new forms of field trip and informal education experiences in Los Angeles and beyond.

Data collection will be built into the experience, including possibilities for:
- General public intercept or re-engagement surveys
- Teacher surveys and potential focus groups
- Engagement measurements (dwell time, repeatability, active dialog)
- Visitor analysis (total number, repeat visits, zip codes)

Our partner jill moniz, the founder of Transformative Arts, is already working to identify artists and collaborate conceptually on artwork that stimulates multi-sensory engagement and limbic response, and which is also suited for hands-on, high-traffic engagement. She will contribute to developing the overall visual language of the maze, oversee delivery and installation of the pieces, plan for improvements and/or repairs during the run of show, propose art-making workshops and public programs, and actively promote the program in art circles. jill is a champion for community arts practice and regularly partners with Kidspace museum to launch programs that explore cultural and personal identity through art.