Classroom-in-Residence | Hammer Museum

Classroom-in-Residence at the Hammer (CRH) is a free, innovative program designed to strengthen student and teacher learning about art through a weeklong, immersive experience at the Hammer Museum at UCLA. Two teachers of 4th, 5th, or 6th grade are given the unique opportunity to take their students out of the traditional classroom setting and teach with original works of art. Surrounded by the processes and products of artistic innovation, students are inspired to reflect deeply on art’s multiple meanings and make inferences using visual evidence.

Over the course of five days at the Hammer Museum and Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden on the UCLA campus, students build museum literacy while supporting selected Common Core standards and strengthening essential 21st century skills—creativity, critical thinking, and communication.

CRH is a unique collaboration between the Hammer Museum, the Visual and Performing Arts Education Program (VAPAE) in the UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture, and selected Title I public school teachers. This partnership gives students unprecedented access to art education experts while rooting the experience in the individual who knows the students best—their classroom teacher.

Application Process

Applications for the 2023–24 school year are now closed.

Stay in touch! Join the teachers mailing list to learn about future K-12 Hammer opportunities.

Program Details

Download detailed information (PDF) about Classroom-in-Residence at the Hammer.

CRH is a recipient of the 2019 EdCom Award for Excellence in Programming from the American Alliance of Museums and the 2016 Superintendent's Award for Excellence in Museum Education. The award competition is a joint project of the California Association of Museums and the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

CRH was recognized in the international conference, The Best in Heritage 2020, for being awarded the AAM EdCom Award for Excellence in Programming. Learn more about the program on YouTube.

Learn about the 2014 program on the Hammer blog post, What Happens When You Go to School at an Art Museum.

View photographs from the 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020 residencies on Flickr.

Academic Programs at the Hammer Museum are supported by City National Bank, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and Mary Kitchen and Jonathan Orszag. Additional support is provided by the the Brotman Foundation of California, the Sydney D. Holland Foundation, and Ellen and Teddy Schwarzman.

Hammer Kids is supported by City National Bank, Mary Kitchen and Jonathan Orszag, and friends of the Hammer Museum's Kids Art Museum Project (K.A.M.P.), an annual family fundraiser. Additional support is provided by the the Brotman Foundation of California, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, the Sydney D. Holland Foundation, and Ellen and Teddy Schwarzman.

Classroom-in-Residence at the Hammer (CRH) is made possible through funding from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.