PITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum announces that it has launched a new interactive component of its website www.warhol.org that allows Internet users to explore educational curriculum. The Warhol: Resources & Lessons project, developed by The Andy Warhol Museum’s Education Department and sponsored by the Alcoa Foundation, was created with the goal to disseminate curricula developed around the life and art practices of Andy Warhol to teach across the humanities.

For the first time, Internet visitors to warhol.org will have the opportunity to explore multiple educational resources and lesson plans. The Warhol: Resources & Lessons project is designed to continue to evolve and develop fresh content while offering an accessible, easily navigable primary source material together with resources for educators such as downloadable Power Point documents. The site offers in-depth lesson plans designed in curriculum standards with topics including collecting, history and memory, and critical response, with downloadable and printable (PDF format) components for K-12 classrooms. Also featured on the site are numerous educational support materials with content contributed by schools as well as sections titled One-day Art and Activities, Artist Past and Present, Warhol & the 20th Century with interactive timeline. Each unit is designed to meet the needs of K-12 educators in cross-disciplinary learning. “With this new on-line curriculum, The Warhol is now able to bring the galvanizing power of its educational programs to the world,” said Thomas Sokolowski, Warhol Museum director. “And there is more to come with the timeline component, once completed the museum will make an even more significant contribution to the new explorations of on-line education."

The site is currently offered in both English and Russian languages, with plans to expand the language offering in the future. The Russian language site was created to support The Andy Warhol Museum’s traveling exhibition, Andy Warhol: Artist of Modern Life that toured four Russian cities. The Museum plans to continue to add other languages in the future for a rich, cross-cultural resource.

The University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE) conducted a series of participant studies to evaluate the web-based project as it was being developed. Overall response to the pre-launch site was tremendously positive with evaluations provided by educators from over 27 states and four countries (France, Switzerland, England and the Ukraine). Eighty-six percent of the pre-launch participants tested were schoolteachers and 14 percent were educators from other museums. Of those surveyed, 88 percent of the educators agree or strongly agree that the site promotes artistic practice as a focus on which to build curriculum and activities. Regional school partners formed for the development of this international project totaled over 21 area schools, including Pittsburgh High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), Highlands High School, Schenley High School, Ross Elementary and Wesley Highland.

The Warhol’s education design team includes Project Director Jessica Gogan, assistant director for education and interpretation; Project Manager Abigail Franzen-Sheehan, assistant curator: resources & interpretation; lead curriculum development by Tresa Varner, assistant curator: artist & school partnerships; additional curriculum and resource development by Nicole Dezelon, assistant curator: school & teacher programs; and site design by David Balluff.

The online curriculum is sponsored by the Alcoa Foundation with additional funding provided by W.L.S. Spencer Foundation and Verizon. Educational programs at The Warhol are made possible through gifts from the Mellon Financial Corp, The Grable Foundation, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, The National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, Surdna Foundation and YouthWorks.