The George Segal Gallery hosts and produces educational programs, including lectures and discussions with featured artists, and hands-on workshops for children and adults. Individuals, families and school groups are invited to participate. While some events require nominal admission, many are free.

Download our complete 2009 School Program Brochure

For information regarding booking fees or other questions, please refer to the Tours and Workshops – Guidelines atthe end of the brochure.

Benefits of Gallery Visits
Engaging in educational experiences outside of the classroom helps students to connect directly with ideas and concepts in vivid and engaging ways. Students can return to the classroom environment with a broadened view of educational material, enthusiasm and awareness. Attending gallery education sessions gives students the opportunity to encounter rare and unusual objects and engage in hands on learning experiences, thereby enriching the education process. Through gallery visits, tours and workshops, students begin to gain new perspectives, communicate new ideas and explore different cultures and art forms. Students will develop the tools for viewing and understanding art, thereby enhancing their confidence and vocabulary in responding to works of art.

Current Tours+Workshops
Private group tours are available and can be arranged for Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  Please contact the Art Education Coordinator 973.655.6941 or  973.655.3382 to schedule a tour for your group.

Tour+Workshop programs are available for school groups and consist of three components: age appropriate tour of the current show or our permanent collection; lively discussion and review; quality hands-on arts project related to discussion.  Tours are based on permanent collection and on the changing exhibitions.  Tour+Workshops for school groups are scheduled throughout the school year.  For further information, please contact the Art Education Coordinator at 973.655.6941, or though the gallery’s main phone 973.655.3382.

Find the Shapes
Student tour the exhibition hunting for different shapes in the art work. After identifying them and finding them, students will use those shapes and create a colorful windsock to take home.

The Art of Collage
Students will tour the exhibition discussing the varied landscapes and the art of collage. As an activity, students will cut out images from a variety of sources and will create a real or imaginary sense of place in the form of collage. Images could be either be realistic or abstract, familiar or foreign, symbolic or expressive. Have fun unleashing your imagination! The more creative, the better.

Visual Scavenger Hunt
Students are divided into teams, and each team is given a list of art history terms and definitions along with an assignment sheet. Students will look through the exhibition, searching for art historical elements and specific objects located within the works on view. Following their hunt, students will tour the exhibition with a guide and will learn how much they can discover in a work of art. After the hunt is completed, students will enjoy a treat.

George Segal
Segal and Public Art
After a tour of the George Segal exhibit students will view George Segal: American Still Life (60 minute film). Discussion will focus on public art, the use of stories, fables, and legends as metaphors. We will also talk about icons and archetypes. How are these elements relevant to George Segal as a major American figurative sculptor of the 20th century and public art.
Middle school and high school students

Figure Details
Students will view the Segal works within the gallery, as well as Street Crossing, which is installed on campus. We will talk about the artist and his impact on 20th century art, and discuss his specific style. Students will then complete a casting project based on the human figure.
Grades 4 through 12

Self-Guided Tour
Art work information/map provided by the George Segal Gallery front reception desk. At your own pace participants may tour the gallery. Participants will be viewing a sampling of Segal sculptures.
All ages

Donald Lokuta: A Model Perspective
Donald Lokuta, a noted collected photographer, worked closely with George Segal during the 80s and 90s shooting over 15,000 photographs of the artist at work in the studio. He also served as one of Segal's close confidants and models. In 1991 Lokuta assisted Segal in the created of the F.D.R. Memorial in Washington, D.D. He was given the honor of being selected to model for the central bronze figure in The Depression Breadline. Lokuta will discuss the artist behind the scenes/at work in the studio. Sharing an intimate portrait of Segal the man. This informal talk should provide insights into George Segal, the artist and his thoughts on the human condition.
High school students to adult

Documenting A Master
Photographer Donald Lokuta will give a visual presentation as well as discuss his artistic career and how it evolved. We will listen to aspects of a documentary photographer's life, from his early introduction to George Segal to his current career in the New York metropolitan area as a contemporary artist/photographer.
High school students to adult

Cosla Collection
Landscapes
Students will tour the Cosla Collection, with a focus on the varied landscapes within the collection. We will then return to the studio and explore a variety of natural and synthetic textures, and we will create our own landscapes from texture rubbings.
Grades K through 6
Experiments in Portraiture
Students will tour the Cosla Collection housed in the Kasser Theatre, paying particular attention to the portraits. We will then return to the studio to engage in a blind contour portraiture project, as well as design and create a self-portrait using drawing materials. Students will go home with their finished drawings and a postcard reproduction of an image from the Cosla Collection.
All ages

Guidelines for Group Visits
Pre-visit materials are available for each session. Curriculum guides for each project can be sent to teachers in advance to enhance the student's experience. This resource guide provides further reading, discussion ideas, and classroom activities to encourage further learning.
Tours are preplanned, however, gallery educators are willing to work with groups, customizing tours to meet your curriculum and/or organization's needs.
School groups may tour the galleries without a tour guide but an appointment is required. Gallery educators are willing to work with groups to develop ides or provide information. Group size for self conducted tours is limited to thirty students per school per time slot. Self-guided tours are free. There is no tour guide or lesson with this option.

One adult chaperon per ten students is required at all times. Chaperones are responsible for enforcing proper behavior in the galleries.

Groups must arrive at the galleries at least 10-15 minutes before their scheduled appointment to check in. Classes may bring a bagged lunch and eat in the Kasser Plaza, just outside of the gallery.

School programs are 90-120 minutes dependent upon age, grade level, and tour. The fee is $3.00 per student with a maximum of 35 students.

Reservations are required for all school and non-profit group visits. Please call the Art Education Coordinator at 973-655-6941 to make a reservation.

Please be prepared with your school calendar and possible available dates and times for a program or tour. Also, please be prepared with the following information: your school name, address, phone number, as well as the visiting teachers name, telephone number, and most convenient time to be reached.

Schools will receive a confirmation call prior to Tours and Workshops. At this time any changes or special needs requirements may be requested.

Please direct questions to the Art Education Coordinator 973-655-6941.

Family Programming
Join us at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University, for a Saturday full of fun and artistic activities!  Family events at the gallery provide an opportunity for you and your children to explore the work on exhibit and to be inspired to create something of your own.

Check back soon for future Family Programming, beginning again September 2008. Dates will be posted on the site before September.

Past Family Programming Events have included:

• Look and Sketch!  This tour highlights different aspects of the permanent and changing exhibitions though creative sketching activities in the gallery.  Children will have the opportunity to explore the gallery and its surroundings and learn more about the work on exhibit and about drawing technique.           
• Segal Sketch Focus on the Segal exhibition and learn some fundamentals of drawing the human figure. 
  Cosla Sketch Focus on the Cosla Collection, drawing landscapes and portraits.
• Plaster Hands
  We will make a plaster hand relief in the style of George Segal.  You and your child will get to experience the process of plaster casting on a small scale, and leave the gallery with a memento of your visit.
• Story time
  Listen to a wonderful story and then talk about how writers and illustrators get their ideas, how books are made, and what type of materials illustrators use.