AMSTERDAM.- The Van Gogh Museum today launched Van Gogh at School: a unique section on the museum website offering free teaching material on the subject of the life and work of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Primary school teachers can either use complete, ready-made lessons directly on a digiboard, or use elements of the available resources to create their own lessons. Van Gogh at School runs on LessonUp: a new digital tool especially developed to make teaching material available online.

Van Gogh at School offers primary school teachers free online lesson material addressing the subject of Van Gogh’s life and work. Featuring images, interactive elements and various assignments, the lessons have been developed for direct use on a digiboard in the classroom. The teaching material is suitable for use within the curricula of various subjects, including art, history, geography and lessons dealing with language and culture. Elements of the lessons can be used as building blocks allowing teachers to create their own, new Van Gogh lessons in LessonUp.

The amount of teaching material on Van Gogh at School will be continually increased throughout the academic year. The lessons are available in Dutch and English, for all primary education year groups. Lessons suitable for secondary school classes will be added in 2017.

LessonUp
Launched in September 2015, LessonUp is a tool that enables teachers to create a free personal account before creating their own lesson using elements of existing lessons. LessonUp is a start-up from internet agency Q42, the company that collaborated with design agency Fabrique to build the Van Gogh Museum website. Approximately 6,500 teachers currently use LessonUp, and 8,000 lessons are available via the tool.

The Van Gogh Museum mission
Marthe de Vet (Head of Education at the Van Gogh Museum): ‘The life and work of Van Gogh are an enduring source of inspiration. The museum sees this reflected not only in the ever-increasing numbers of visitors, but also in the rapidly growing demand from the educational sector, both in the Netherlands and abroad. The Van Gogh Museum is extremely proud of Van Gogh at School and looks forward to further improving the service we offer to schools all over the world’.

The primary responsibility of the Van Gogh Museum is to make the life and work of Vincent van Gogh accessible to as many people as possible. The museum believes that art enriches and inspires, and attaches great importance to introducing people to such art at an early age. Children also play a vital role in the preservation of cultural heritage. The lessons on Van Gogh at School introduce children to the life and work of Van Gogh, including children that are not in the position to visit the museum in person.

The development of Van Gogh at School was facilitated by the financial support offered by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The foundation supports organisations and projects around the world in the areas of arts & culture, education, health & sports and social welfare. These projects have a far-reaching, enduring and positive impact on society at large, and in particular, on vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children with special educational needs.