For Teachers
Lynden offers a range of professional development opportunities for K-12 educators, from the intensive, cross-disciplinary Innovative Educators Institute to discounts on our artist-led workshops.
Lynden operates as a laboratory that creates, supports, and shares experiences at the intersection of art, nature, and culture. Partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Education program, Milwaukee Public Schools, and others, we have used Lynden’s unique resources to develop a place-based approach to K-12 education informed by critical aesthetic pedagogy and principles of attentive living derived from an in-depth exploration of place. This place-based approach is supported by a relational learning space that extends from Lynden to the classroom, encompassing the exchanges between the two, and that integrates outdoor education, hands-on art-making, and an experiential learning process that encourages children to reflect on their “doing.”
Lynden is a partner in ArtsECO, and our professional development programs are designed for art educators and classroom and content area teachers who are committed to teaching through the arts. We support cross-disciplinary curriculum development; provide tools (field trips, artist residencies) that enhance arts-integrated teaching; nurture teacher-as-artist practices through engagement with artists at Lynden and in the classroom; and establish networks that support teachers as they develop their competence and confidence to teach through the arts.
We believe that teacher-as-artist practices--making time for art (whatever the discipline) and reinvigorating one's personal art practice--have a positive impact on teachers and teaching. It is in this spirit that we offer these teacher professional development opportunities.
Innovative Educators Institute
Educator Discounts on Workshops
For more than a decade, the Lynden Sculpture Garden has been home to the Innovative Educators Institute (IEI), a high quality, in-person, place-based professional development/learning laboratory for K-12 educators. This dynamic, year-long program focuses on arts integration, outdoor learning, and collaborative, place-based curriculum design, with the goal of designing and implementing arts-integrated curriculum in the classroom and at Lynden.
The IEI is a durational, relational community of practice that centers active rather than passive professional learning. Teachers, artists, higher education faculty, and Lynden staff learn together, modeling collaborative inquiry not only during laboratory sessions. Educators carry this shared practice into their classrooms, strengthening instructional coherence and creative confidence, and reinforcing it through field trips at Lynden, classroom lessons, and coaching sessions. As a community of practice, the Institute also cultivates teacher leadership—from informal peer mentoring to teacher-led sessions —supporting long-term professional growth and retention.
2026-2027 Innovative Educators Institute
Dates: Summer Lab (June 22-26) and Summer Reconvening (July 15), plus additional components throughout the school year
Fee: $750. For nearly a decade, the IEI was grant-supported. As we transition to a new funding model, we are offering a deeply discounted rate and actively raising scholarship funds to ensure equitable access for all. We understand that districts may face funding constraints and we are eager to partner on solutions.
To apply, and to request scholarship assistance, click here
Questions? Please contact Anna Grosch, Implementor, at agrosch@lyndensculpturegarden.org
2026–2027 Program Components
•36 hours of laboratory time across a June intensive and three follow-up reconvenings
•Up to 12 hours of one-on-one classroom coaching with Lynden’s implementor
•Priority registration for field trips to Lynden to implement curriculum developed by teachers with a classroom and/or a participating classroom teacher
•Priority access to transportation funds for field trips
•Complimentary one-year family membership to the Lynden Sculpture Garden
2026-2027 Program Schedule
•Week-long summer intensive (June 22–26, 2026; 1:00–5:00 pm daily; 20 hours)
•July reconvening (July 15, 1-5 pm; 4 hours)
•Two reconvening days during the school year (6 hours each, late fall and early spring; breakfast and lunch provided)
•Access to hands-on art and nature workshops (Lynden members receive discounts)
•Access to an online archive of professional development resources
Benefits for Educators:
•Structured cohort learning and networking; academic credit available through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
•Year-long professional growth and résumé building
•Increased teacher confidence and instructional innovation with arts integration
•Enhanced student engagement, creative problem-solving, and critical thinking
Benefits for Districts:
•Strengthened interdisciplinary learning
•Support for visual literacy and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) practices
•Increased student and educator engagement in and through the arts
•Advancement of culturally responsive curriculum
•Development of teacher leadership pathways
The IEI sustains a core cohort of approximately 25–30 active teachers, alongside a broader network of nearly 100 semi-active alumni and collaborators who participate in curriculum design, visits, workshops, and additional gatherings or opportunities. This structure allows for continuity while welcoming new voices and partnerships. Many educators remain active participants for multiple years, some attending all core elements of the program, others dropping in for a “recharge.”
The IEI is intentionally relational. Community-building, intergenerational learning, and educator well-being are central to the experience. Pre-service, early-career, and veteran teachers collaborate in a non-hierarchical environment. The structured reconvenings—including shared meals—provide meaningful space for connection, reflection, and renewal.
While originally designed, in collaboration with the UWM and MPS, as part of ArtsECO, to support art educators, the IEI has always been cross-disciplinary. We actively encourage school-based or district-based teacher teams that include classroom and specialist educators. This collaborative model strengthens interdisciplinary curriculum development and expands instructional pathways across content areas.
Through Lynden’s partnerships with contemporary artists of various backgrounds—including those featured in our Call & Response and HOME programs—educators expand their knowledge of the range of contemporary practice, and engage directly with living, working artists. This work strengthens culturally responsive pedagogy and meaningful representation.
Each year, the Institute is built around a different theme.
2026-2027: Regeneration
The Innovative Educators Institute at Lynden Sculpture Garden begins a new year-long chapter for a cohort of educators engaged in arts integration and place-based learning, grounded in a relational and collaborative community of practice. The institute centers migration, cultural memory, and ecological awareness as generative forces for creative work and curriculum design. Through a series of hands-on sessions with guest artists, participants will explore how making can become a process of reclamation, regeneration, and collective meaning-making. With Warren King, educators will investigate material and spatial practices that reflect cultural continuity and change. In a reimagining of Reclamation with choreographer Reggie Wilson, participants will engage movement as a form of embodied knowledge—where histories of migration, resilience, and joyful expression are carried and transformed through the body. With Daniel Minter, participants will create vernacular brooms—objects that hold histories of labor, care, and ritual—offering a tactile and symbolic act of sweeping, repair, and renewal. Throughout the week, educators will work across indoor and outdoor spaces, attuning to the migratory patterns and regenerative systems of the natural world. Rooted in collective storytelling and future thinking, this institute invites educators to create together as a practice of resilience, to center joy as an active and sustaining force, and to nurture ways of teaching that are responsive and connected.
Past Themes of the Innovative Educators Institute.
EDUCATOR DISCOUNTS ON WORKSHOPS
Lynden is sometimes able to offer discounts on its workshops on a space-available basis. To view the list of qualifying workshops, and to register for a workshop as an educator, visit our Educators' Portal.
