Developing engagement programming begins with researching the story content and artists process of making through watching video, studying content/context of the work, and speaking at length with the touring artists ahead of time. White Box then looks for local organizations that work with similar content as possible partners for program delivery. Content themes and methods of storytelling are distilled and groups of local teaching artists are formed to make up the LAB Animators (artist-educators that bring both immersive environment and workshop ideas to life). Together we watch video, discuss research, weave in the goals of partner organizations. Then creating an interactive experience in the spaces in and around the theatre to deepen the exploration of content, expand the world of theatrical, inventive experience, and inviting participants to be together in a longer shared experience. Sometimes these pre-program development sessions are also held for teachers and/or core stakeholders to deepen the theater experience and create community.

The immersive environments vary. In a performance where shadow play was central to the storytelling, White Box might created an interactive space with ready-made shadow puppets, light sources, and materials for creating new puppets. LAB Animators and touring artist worked with small groups of youth and adults to respond to questions about the performance through movement and play in a shadow world. In the cabaret show about the history of women and the bicycle, White Box Theatre built a playground of musical bicycles amplified with contact microphones. Participants were encourage to write short lyrics and find rhythm and sound by bowing a spoke or percussing a seat. For a spoken word performance, students were given prompts for writing and a DJ improvised with them as they spilled onto the stage to share voices and visions.

Lesson plans for teachers and families offer context for the performance, review the theatre experience, offer arts-based interactive activities and specific and open-ended questions.

Next students circle-up and discuss observations. Sebastienne and her teaching assistant have to be very knowledgeable about content in order to engage with the breadth of questions. The discussion begins with student observations and then moves into the thematics and history that comes together in a short presentation/performance using a lyrical script, props, and movement.

Presentations/performance might include: biographical portraiture of the artist or collector, elements of technique, specific vocabulary used in repetition to highlight themes and concepts. The presentation models imaginative interpretation to an arts experience and expands the context of the exhibition.

With new content, the students are asked to work in pairs or trios on a visual scavenger hunt. Some questions are very specific, many are complex or open-ended. Ambiguity and open-ended questions encourage students to talk to each other, interpret visual experiences, and come to conclusions after close-looking and conversations.

After the scavenger hunt, Mundheim and students gather to discuss student discoveries and questions. After a short discussion, 5-7 of the scavenger hunt discoveries are used to review the work again in a more focused way. Student observations and questions help shape the works choosen to look at again. Again, breadth of knowledge and reflection on the work are necessary for this in order to both make space for students’ thoughts and impulses, and also to weave in the themes in the presentation.

There is always at least one physical activity– a way in which to take a core concept and language from the exhibition and embody the concept and text. Focused physicalization is important for a focused mind and group organization. It also begins to introduce arts-based responses to exhibition and invites students to respond to work in another way.

Sometimes Mundheim has students lie on the floor, close their eyes and remember details of a work of art in their mind’s eye. This is also an important part of reflective practice – checking to see what is remembered, taking the time to reconstitute an experience in stillness.

Finally, there is always a hands-on project — often drawing from looking, another form of observing, reflecting, and embodying the work. Sometimes, if there is longer time in the gallery, another more technique specific project might happen – for example, collaging in the spirit of quilting, or stitching in the spirit of other textile work.

Finally, teachers are given a follow-up packet that includes history and description of the show, lesson plans to expand on the in-gallery experience, and discussion/essay questions for students to use back in the classroom.

William H. Johnson: An American Modern, an exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) featured rare paintings by William H. Johnson, from the collection of the James E. Lewis Museum at Morgan State University. An essential figure in modern American art, William H. Johnson (1901-1970) was a virtuoso skilled in various media and techniques, and produced thousands of works over a career that spanned decades, continents and genres.

Creating: Quilts of the Lakota presented over twenty 20th and 21st century quilts from the Pine Ridge Heritage Center and Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Mary Bordeaux, a member of the Lakota tribe, curated this exhibition with the Arthur Ross Gallery. “Making items for family and the community is a large part of the Lakota’s way of life,” notes Bordeaux. In addition, 19th-century Lakota artifacts, such as moccasins, a cradleboard, and parfleche boxes, were lent by the Penn Museum to provide a context for Native sewing traditions prior to the introduction of quilting at Pine Ridge.

California Impressionism: Masters of Light presented thirty paintings that reveal the California coastline and reflect a time when railroad expansion and the gold rush changed the American landscape.

In Material: Contemporary Fiber Artists featured four innovated fiber artists. Japanese-born artist Lucy Arai apprenticed in the practice of sashiko, a decorative stitching process which she re-invigorates and applies to handmade paper and mixed media. Sonya Clark who uses thread, plastic combs, human hair, and other found objects to create wall hangings inspired by her African and American ancestry. Philadelphia-based Mi-Kyoung Lee has had her woven backdrops incorporated in theater productions around the globe. Cynthia Schira digitally connects art and language in her elaborately patterned Jacquard cloths, drawing inspiration from ciphers, musical notes, and geometric patterns.

Dramatic Impressions: Japanese Theatre Prints from the Gilbert Luber Collection explored the dynamic relationship of the Japanese woodblock print to traditional kabuki theater during the 19th and 20th centuries. By focusing on representations of theater and actors early modern printmakers developed many visual forms re-creating the effects of staging, pose, makeup and costume in a print medium. The prints illustrate images of actors performing as men and women, villains and heroes, losers and lovers.

An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Art an exhibition from Tuscaloosa, Alabama featured paintings from three centuries of American art drawn from the personal collection of Jonathan “Jack” Warner and his wife Susan Austin Warner and the collection of The Warner Foundation. The paintings chronicle the American experience from 1799 to 1971 in portraiture, historical, genre, still life and landscape.

West Philadelphia: Building a Community included watercolors by self-taught Scottish immigrant, David J. Kennedy. Kennedy’s watercolors, drawn from the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, depict West Philadelphia houses, institutions, and streets between 1836-1898. City land maps, early photographs, and postcards also reveal the neighborhood’s rapid expansion and growth.

Two Venetian Masters: Canaletto and Domenico Tiepolo Etchings from the Arthur Ross Foundation presented etchings by Canaletto (Antonio Canal, 1697-1768) and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804), two of the great Italian artists who made Venice an artistic capital during the eighteenth century. Canaletto was famous throughout Europe for his remarkable view paintings (known as vedute) that captured Venice’s most famous landmarks and the city’s unique atmosphere, created by the interplay of light and water. Domenico Tiepolo, son of the great history painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) was a renowned printmaker, painter, and draftsman who managed to work in support of his father’s work while forging his own artistic identity. This series, published in 1774, showcases Tiepolo’s attention to pose, costume and physiognomy as well as his wide-ranging use of etching techniques. The exhibition also features examples of Tiepolo’s etchings of religious subjects invented by himself and his father.

Steve McCurry: South Southeast presented a photographic journal by Magnum photographer Steve McCurry covering the region from Afghanistan through Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to Burma, Thailand and Cambodia.

Sargent to Freud: Modern British Paintings and Drawings in the Beaverbrook Collection organized by Curator Ian Lumsden from the collection assembled by Canadian press magnate, the first Baron Beaverbrook, who was a long-time resident of England and patron of British art. The exhibit is an assemblage of modern British paintings and drawings acquired by Lord Beaverbrook toward the end of his life, for his last philanthropic endeavor, the building of The Beaverbrook Art Gallery.