Education Resources for Past Exhibitions

Education Mission

Our educational mission includes preparing materials for teachers to make their class visits more fun and informative. You can download PDF files here to print as handouts for your students when they visit the museum and for use in the classroom.

Detail: What Me Worry? bed by Patty Kuzbida

What Makes Us Smile?

October 9, 2010 – September 4, 2011

"What Makes Us Smile?" is the American Visionary Art Museum's 16th year-long exhibition — a playful celebration of human joy that is co-curated by renowned creator of "The Simpsons," Matt Groening, artist Gary Panter – known for, among many other things, his whimsy behind Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse – and Museum founder Rebecca Hoffberger. "Smile" features the costumes, cartoons, out-loud & 3-D glee-filled surprises created by 90 artists, imps, and comedians with accompanying essays, factoids, quotes and blurbs that revel in the history and science behind the gift of laughter.

Among the highlights: The comedian Michael Baldwin's spectacular toy assemblages – created from five decades of dedicated dumpster-diving; the wickedly funny cartoons of the late quadriplegic artist John Callahan; and the comical, "unflattering" portraits by Rev. Aitor. Other exciting contributions include the comic visionary embroideries of Chris Roberts-Antieau and an homage to MAD Magazine including the glittering, beaded, beetle-winged bed by Patty Kuzbida.

Visitors will romp through a warren of mini galleries designed to explore some key aspect of humor – from its biological science to its many timeless, transcultural, delights. The galleries include: "HO-HO-HO HA-HA-HANUKKAH"; "More Tickle!" inspired by the favored signed words of Washoe, the first chimp to learn ASL; "Toot Suite!; "Holy Laughter"; "Tears to Laughter"; "Boo! Why Playing Monster is Fun" and the "Visionary Kid's Room."

What Makes Us Smile? Education Materials
(click to download):

PDF files may require Adobe Reader

Detail: Painted Gourd by Benjamin F. Perkins

Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness

October 3, 2009 – September 5, 2010

The quest for human rights and the search for personal fulfillment, as proposed in the 1776 American Declaration of Independence, provide the starting point for this international exhibition curated by Roger Manley (curator of AVAM's mega-popular inaugural exhibition "Tree of Life.") Works by 86 visionary artists are featured. Illustrator Renaldo Kuhler's vast imaginary country of "Rocaterrania," Tilden Stone's masterful "Furnitures of Secrets," and Duncan Laurie's "Purr Generator" (a "happiness machine") are among the many works that never have been shown publicly before. "We think of big ideas like 'life' and 'liberty' as if they have to do with sweeping numbers of people," says curator Roger Manley, "but in fact they begin with the individual. And who could be better suited to reveal that, than self-taught visionaries? By definition, these are some of the most independent and individual thinkers and doers of all, and they've found some amazing, revealing, and entertaining ways to express their take on what makes our country what it is - or what it should be."

Education Materials (click to download):