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VTS in the News

National News

October 2008
Edutopia.org
“The Eyes Have It: Potent Visuals Promote Academic Richness”
Fran Smith writes about VTS for The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Click here to read the entire article

June 1, 2009
The Spokesman.com
“Visual interaction with art gives youngsters a boost with academic achievement.”
Click here to read the entire article.

April 1, 2009
The Addison Independent
“Lindemann’s young students are actually veterans of art appreciation, thanks to an educational partnership with Middlebury College. The students are in the fourth year of the MiddArts Visual Thinking Strategies program…”
Click here to download the entire article.

March 22, 2009
MarkBlevis.com
“Applying Visual Thinking Strategies to Media Production and Consumption.”
Click here to read the entire post.

February 2009
NECN.com
“State of Education: The Arts Advantage.”
“You might be surprised how much else — besides arts — kids at the Winship School in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood learn in their arts classes….”
Click here to watch the video, and read the article.

Winter 2008
Education Libraries, Volume 31; No.2
Interview with Tamara Moats, Speaker on Visual Thinking and Use of Art Data
“…VTS develops both critical and creative thinking skills, which are essential to the learning process and applicable in all situations that involve ambiguous material…”
Click here to read the entire interview.

December 23, 2008
ArtDaily.org
“…Research suggests that museum programs based on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a specific internationally-recognized teaching method used at the MIA, can help develop children’s critical thinking skills.”
Click here to read the entire article.

December 16, 2008
ArtDaily.org
“What do Harvard Medical School and three Memphis elementary schools have in common?”
Click here to read the entire article

July 20, 2008
Boston Globe
“Monet? Gauguin? Using Art to Make Better Doctors”
Liz Kowalczyk writes about Harvard Medical School’s program using VTS. “Katz’s class is one of a growing number of art courses offered to medical students nationwide and aimed at improving their observation and diagnostic skills at a time when doctors are increasingly relying on CT scans, MRIs, biopsies, and other technology to do their work…”
Click here to read the entire article.
Click here to read Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine’s respose.
Click here to read the press release from VTS.

April, 2008; Vol. 50, No. 2
NAEA News
Why Do We Teach Art in the Schools?
Peggy Burchenal, Abigail Housen, Kate Rawlinson and Philip Yenawine respond to an article by Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland in this issue of NAEA News, the publication by the National Art Education Association.
Click here to read the whole article.

March 13, 2007
Philip Yenawine at the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund.
“The work of tomorrow will require a labor force that can communicate easily, think both in and out of the box, collaborate with others, adapt to change, and solve complex problems. Phillip Yenawine addresses the question, of how to guarantee that we have workers with these and related skills.”
Click here to watch the video.

March 13, 2007
Boston Globe
The Art of Learning, Globe Editorial
“In 2003, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum set out to understand more about what schoolchildren can learn from museums….During the study, staff members began emphasizing a tool called Visual Thinking Strategies….”
Click here to read the entire editorial.
Click here to read reactions to the editorial.

March 10, 2007
New York Times
Arts, Briefly: Adding Up Art, by Randy Kennedy
“A three-year study by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston has found that grade-school students who spend time looking at and talking about art perform better in several areas of critical thinking than students without such art experience….”
Click here to read the entire article.

Regional News

June 26, 2009
e-Veritas
A group of Miller School physical therapy doctoral students spends a day at UM’s Lowe Art Museum, contemplating and interpreting artwork to sharpen their observational skills and become better diagnosticians
Click here to read the entire article.

February 28, 2009
KUOW.org, 91.4 FM, Seattle
Dr. Andrea Kalus talks with KUOW’s Jeremy Richards about how Visual Thinking Strategies, changed the way she looked at her patients.
Click here to listen to the story.

December 1, 2008
The Seattle Times
“UW Uses Artwork to Help Sharpen Visual Skills of Future Doctors.”
Medicine is often called a blend of art and science. But can studying Picasso and Gauguin turn budding doctors into better diagnosticians? By Kyung Song.
Click here to read the entire article.

November 22, 2008
Detroit News
“Reinvented DIA Finds Success”
This article from the Detroit News covers the DIA’s fresh new look, which is informed partially by Housen and Yeanwine’s work with Aesthetic Thought and VTS.
Click here to download the entire article.

November 18, 2008
International Examiner; Volume 35, No. 21
“Curator Series: Yoon Kang-O’Higgins”
Claire Emiko Fant profiles the work of Yoon Kang-O’Higgins, VTS Regional Director for the Pacific Northwest.
Click here to read the entire article.

November 11, 2008
The Stranger

“In Art News: Seeing Eye Doctors.”
The University of Washington Medical School uses VTS to improve their skills of observation.
Click here to read the entire article.

August 14, 2008
Sonoma News
“Program Instills Visual Thinking”
“A newly launched program at has [students] not only studying famous pieces of artwork, but also training [them] to draw inferences and think critically, which helps students excel in other subjects.
Click here to read the entire article.

July 2008
DayBreak – Miami Television
In this segment, Philip Yenawine discusses VTS, and the benefits of the arts in children’s education.
Click here to watch the video.

March 2, 2008
Miami Herald
There’s an Art to Learning
Kate Rawlinson, director of the Artful Citizenship Project at the Wolfsonian-FIU discusses the use of VTS in the program.

February 1, 2008
ParentMap.com
Art from the Start: An Innovative Program Comes to Area Schools
Linda Morgan explores the growing interest in VTS in the Seattle area, and talks to regional director Yoon Kang-O’Higgins.
Click here to download the whole article.

May 9, 2007
Minnesota Public Radio
The Art of Medicine
Dr. Jon Hallberg, Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and family practice physician, argues that the humanities are essential for teaching new doctors how to best perform their craft—including using VTS with first-year medical students.
Listen to the entire story here.

February 13, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
“Program at Elementary Schools Empowers Kids in ‘Visual Thinking’”
by Kathleen Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
As soon as the image appeared on the screen, three children swinging around a pole in front of a pile of rubble and a damaged building with gaping holes exposing wallpapered walls, several fifth-graders shot their hands into the air.
Click here to read the entire article.

Local News

October 30, 2008
SMU Daily Campus
“Meadows Museum Offers New Student Docent Program”
“We want [students] to be facilitators, we want them to be getting people to talk about art…having people look at a painting and getting something out of it visually, rather than relying on that label on the wall.”
Click here to read the entire article.

December 13, 2007
West Orange Chronicle
Visual Teaching Brought to Life for Teachers
Tony Edelstein profiles the very first VTS program in New Jersey, at the Redwood School in West Orange.
Click here to download the whole article.

December 2007
West Orange Outlook
VTS Program Introduced at Redwood Elementary
The Redwood Elementary program is featured in the December edition of the West Orange Outlook.
Click here to download the whole article.

March 16, 2007
Michigan Radio Arts & Culture
Developing Cognitive Skills Through Art, by Gretchen Millich
“In some schools around Michigan, teachers are using a program called ‘Visual Thinking Strategies’ to help students develop their cognitive skills. Students are shown works of art and encouraged to talk about what they think the artist is trying to convey. In one Michigan community, administrators are so pleased with the success of the program at one school; they’re expanding it to other schools in the district.”
Listen to the entire story here.

June 28, 2005
KERA, Public TV and Radio for North Texas
Commentary: Everyday Life Enhanced Through Art
by Joan Davidow
Looking at contemporary art makes most people feel uncomfortable; they don’t have the tools to understand what they’re looking at and feel intimidated and unsure; and no one likes to feel that way.
Click here to see entire commentary.

May 10, 2003
WNYC, New York Public Radio
Studio 360, Cutting Arts Education
Produced by Tara Geer
“Visual Thinking Strategies is an innovative method for teaching art that students and teachers love. It’s designed to flourish in poorly funded schools, but it isn’t immune to the cutbacks”
Click here, then click on the segment ‘Cutting Arts Education.’