Museum Design Apprenticeship Program Honored by Peers
Blueprints Fall 2008
Volume XXVI, No. 4
A DAP student focuses, as he assembles a wooden chair.
Photo by Museum staff
The
Design Apprenticeship Program (DAP), a cornerstone of the National Building Museum’s outreach efforts, has won the 2008 Excellence in Programming Award from the American Association of Museums (AAM). The award was presented during the association’s annual conference in Denver this past April.
For 25 years, the AAM’s Committee on Education has recognized “outstanding contributions to museum education by individual practitioners, by museums offering distinguished programs, and by individuals whose leadership at the national level has impacted the public dimension of the museum.” The Excellence in Programming Award honors exemplary creativity and innovation in museum educational programming. Past winners include the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998) and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York (2004).
A team of DAP participants discuss their project in a Museum classroom.
Photo by Museum staff
DAP offers teen participants or students with a demonstrated interest in art or design the opportunity to work under the guidance of Museum educators and design professionals to complete design challenges. In this short-term program, offered each school semester on seven consecutive Saturdays, participants design and construct full-scale projects that they control from concept to completion. At the end of the program, their work is exhibited in the Museum and, where possible, other venues. Offered since 2000, DAP has served more than 450 teenagers, introducing them to the world of design and construction and potential career opportunities available to them.
The Design Apprenticeship Program is sponsored by The McGraw-Hill Companies and The Prince Charitable Trusts. Additional support for outreach programs is provided by The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; The Capital Group Companies; The Clark Charitable Foundation; The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation; The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation; and Joseph F. Horning, Jr., among others.
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