Episode 37: Teaching with the Chazen

See the transcript for this episode.

The Chazen Museum of Art may just be the largest classroom on campus. We talk with Chazen Chief Engagement Officer Berit Ness and Academic Coordinator Mieke Miller about what it looks like for students to spend a class session at the Chazen, home to tens of thousands of artifacts from across place and time. They share how slowing down to look closely at an object can help students build observation and argumentation skills, while inspiring creativity and community. And they invite instructors of every discipline to consider bringing their classes to the Museum for a memorable learning experience customized for their course. 

Jump to specific parts of the conversation:

  • 02:23 — What’s a class session at the Chazen like?
  • 06:19 — AI and teaching with art
  • 08:24 — Example observation activity
  • 10:39 — Student reactions to learning with art
  • 12:39 — Future of education at the Chazen

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Unpack This Episode

Grab a drink, gather your colleagues, and discuss.

  1. Novel experiences can imprint learning differently for students. What course concepts might you explore through art and make more memorable for your students?
  2. Berit and Mieke describe a circle activity in which students each notice one thing about an object in the museum (and then repeat the process). How might this activity be helpful in other contexts outside the museum, such as looking at a primary source document, a plant, a photograph, or another object?
  3. Have you been to the Chazen? What questions might you bring on your first or next visit to the museum?

Further Resources

  • The Chazen Museum of Art is open daily and is free. Visit the Chazen’s Teaching Resources page to schedule a visit to the museum for your class or to get in touch with a museum educator and discuss how your students might learn with art. 
  • The Chazen collections and the reinstallation have received national and local press coverage.  
  • Interested in experiencing a session at the Chazen yourself? The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring is hosting an in-person Teaching with the Chazen event on October 16, 2026.

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Acknowledgements

The L&S Exchange Podcast is brought to you by L&S Teaching, Learning, & Academic Planning and produced by the Instructional Design Collaborative. This podcast is recorded on ancestral Ho-Chunk land, a place their nation has called Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial.

Production Credits

  • Producer: David Macasaet
  • Associate Producer: Molly Harris
  • Audio Engineer: David Macasaet
  • Audio Editor: David Macasaet
  • Website Support: Laura Schmidli & Molly Harris
  • Development Producer: Jonathan Klein
  • Planning Group: Jonathan Klein, David Macasaet, Molly Harris, Laura Schmidli, Antonella Caloro, Maria Widmer
  • Communications: Maria Widmer
  • Executive Sponsorship: Shirin Malekpour