Visual Thinking Strategies

VTS teaches “visual literacy” using works of art, old photographs and authentic collection items. Participants engage in a lively teacher facilitated dialogue about art and ferret out “what is going on in the picture” and “what can be seen to substantiate their observations.” VTS participants use close observation, critical thinking, and evidentiary reasoning to support their hypotheses.

VTS practice is incorporated into museum programs, including “Drawing Upon the Collection” and also taught separately. It can travel, with a collection of large format photographs from the museum archive, to regional classrooms. To learn more about the theory and practice of VTS and its foundation in the research of cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and educator Philip Yenawine, check here. www.vtshome.org. To host or participate in a Valdez Museum VTS session, click here.