Twenty-five years ago, in 1995, The Newark Museum of Art created a program that has exceeded all expectations and made a lasting impact on hundreds of students and Museum staff. Back when Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston were topping the charts and the average cost of a gallon of gas was $1.15, the Museum decided it was time to actually pay interns. They accomplished this feat with a unique internship, underwritten by generous donors, that offered a three-year intense college preparatory program supercharged by the power of the arts. The museum dubbed these young people and their program the Explorers.
From the start, the program has been competitive. It entails a several-day-a-week commitment throughout the year for a full three years, as well as the ability to react quickly to new challenges with rotating assignments in various departments. This year’s senior project is a perfect example of the creativity and rigor required to participate in this internship.
This year’s question to solve: How might we use innovative technology to improve the visitor experience for teens? The Explorers quickly took the assignment on, impressing us as they typically do. Beginning in the fall, they created original research and gained new technical skills to conceive and build an exhibition. During the winter semester, the students fielded their research to inform prototypes created for the assignment’s target demographic—teenage museum visitors. The research included ethnographic studies observing the interactions of museum visitors and firsthand interviews. The resulting exhibition was called Music Through the Ages, inspired by our Harlem Renaissance Gallery. I was delighted to see the exhibit, which included audio tours, interactive surveys, avatar storytelling, and a QR custom tour.
It’s this kind of curriculum and program design, managed by the outstanding Senior Director of Education, Shirley Thomas, and our fantastic Manager of Youth Programs, Jessica Nuñez, (herself a former Explorer!) that has made our Explorers a nationally recognized, much emulated youth program. In 2017 the Explorers were one of just twenty after-school programs across the country awarded the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities award. That year Samantha Joseph, a senior this fall at the Tisch School of Drama at NYU, was chosen to speak on behalf of all twenty awardees in Washington D.C.
And if you will allow me to brag a bit more on behalf of our students and staff, I am so pleased to say that for each of the last thirteen years, one hundred percent of our Explorers have gone on to college. Upon graduation our Explorers have pursued careers in engineering, education, performing and visual arts, medicine, architecture, and museum studies.
