Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, in partnership with the Penn Museum, is expanding its online learning technology this fall.
The Visual Experience Platform (VXP), which was developed by the Barnes to teach visual material to K-12 students as well as adults, will host the Penn Museum’s “Deep Dig” classes and virtual lecture series “Archaeology in Action.”
On the VXP, those enrolled can interact with digital images, zooming into details that are not always visible in person. This feature allows deeper interaction with works of art and archaeology. The VXP extends beyond individual works, also offering a 360-degree view of museum galleries and a searchable library of completed classes.
Until now, the Barnes has been using the VXP for its live and on-demand online classes, as well as its educational programs. As part of these on-demand classes, there are about five videos, each running about 10 minutes long, per class that allow students to pan and interact with the surface of a digital image.
A suite of interactive, multilingual videos that connect a topic and curriculum to content in the collection are also free on the platform for students in second to tenth grades. Topics include pigments and process (grades five through eight), illustrations (grades two through four), and Spanish and French language learning (grades seven through ten), with corresponding worksheets.
Additionally, the Barnes released an art integration lesson for teachers who want to learn how to use artworks to support learning in the classroom for other curriculum areas.
“The Barnes has been teaching about art for more than 100 years, and when we shifted our classes online in 2020 in response to the pandemic, we realized that if we were truly going to deliver a meaningful educational experience about art—or indeed any visual media—we needed a platform designed specifically for its study,” Thom Collins, the Barnes’s executive director and president, said in a statement.
Since the program was rolled out in January 2023, the Barnes has enrolled nearly 4,600 students in more than 110 online classes, with 14 percent of students receiving scholarships.
“The VXP is the first platform to offer a truly interactive experience in the online study of art and visual media,” Collins continued. “It doesn’t attempt to replace the in-person experience; rather, it enhances that experience, using technology to explore art and visual media in a way that simply cannot be done in person. We are delighted to expand the VXP’s use through this new partnership with our colleagues at the Penn Museum, which will allow more students to learn online using our immersive platform.”
The Penn Museum is the first institution to license the technology for its own cultural and educational courses and lectures, slated to launch in October and November.
Through this partnership, members of the Barnes will receive $50 off of the classes and members of the Penn Museum will also be eligible for the same discount for online classes offered by the Barnes.
“The Penn Museum is thrilled to partner with another renowned cultural and educational institution like the Barnes to offer our Deep Dig classes and Archaeology in Action lectures on their innovative VXP platform,” Penn Museum director Christopher Woods said in a statement. “Optimizing the online learning experience for our audiences strengthens our mission to amplify stories of our shared humanity and make archaeology and anthropology accessible to all.”
Will Cary, chief operating officer of the Barnes, added, “We are thrilled to begin licensing this pioneering software so other organizations can achieve these goals as well during this critical moment for the field.”
This partnership between the two institutions comes at a critical time when funding for art and education programs is being slashed by the United States government, with communities of color among the hardest hit.
