On March 13, as much of Berks was prepping for the storm by scouring grocery stores for the last remaining gallon of milk or loaf of bread, the families from Spring Ridge Elementary had other plans…
A national program called “One school, one book” encourages schools to have every student in the school read the same book at the same time and then engage in activities to discuss it. Some local schools participate and for the past couple of years some of those schools have chosen the topic of their book based on what programming is happening here at The Museum so that the culminating event of the program is then hosted here for a “Night at The Museum”. This year, Spring Ridge Elementary (which participates in the program but doesn’t coordinate with us) selected a book about a beetle that helps a child engage in art and ultimately solve a crime involving stolen masterpieces by the artist Albrecht Dürer. Ironically, RPM happened to be hosting exhibitions about beetles and Dürer this semester and reached out to the school to make them aware
As a result, Spring Ridge rented out The Museum for a night of activities to see these shows and others for any families interested in coming. Despite an impending snow storm, RPM saw 525 students, parents and siblings here for the event, many of whom had never visited before. We have heard amazing feedback from the Spring Ridge teachers and administrators, as well as from guests who attended, and we’ll be working to follow up to see if we can get them (and other Wilson schools) to begin coordinating their selection with us to keep these folks coming back. Just another example of how our exhibitions and programming continue to impact folks in the community, even in ways we don’t anticipate!
