About the Museum

The Old Jail Art Center (OJAC) is nestled in the tiny town of Albany, Texas, population 2,000. Located in a historic building that once served as a jail, this museum displays a number of its exhibitions inside the old jail cells. The OJAC’s permanent collection has over 2000 works of art, and focuses on modern American drawings, paintings, and prints, contemporary British art, and some smaller regional collections. The Old Jail Art Center draws more than 30,000 visitors each year.

2007-2008 Minigrant Projects

European Art from the Collection of the Old Jail Art Center

These presentations include materials adapted from the Art-for-All program, previously funded by the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation and distributed in print. Two works are featured in this unit:The Tragic Death of Pepe Illo in Madrid Arena (The Bull Barbuda Piercing Him With The Left Horn) by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya and Au bal masqué – les fêtes parisiennes – nouveaux confettis (Masked Ball) by the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Two Digital Teacher’s Guides provide resources and lesson plans containing information about each piece and its artist, suggested classroom discussion starters and activities, timelines, and detailed pronunciation guides and glossaries.

Pre-Columbian Sculpture and Asian Tomb Figures

Highlighting four Pre-Columbian sculptures and four Asian tomb figures, this Digital Teacher’s Guide provides resources in the subject areas of history, geography, and of course, art. Students have the opportunity to learn about the ancient objects and may use customized interactive activities to create their own tomb figure, take quizzes, and more. The presentation also contains information about each piece, as well as lesson plans, suggested classroom discussion starters and activities, timelines and detailed pronunciation guides and glossaries. A second presentation, about Asian Art, is also available.

2008-2009 Minigrant Projects

The Elements and Principles of Art

The Old Jail Art Center created a presentation that uses the museum’s stellar permanent collection to teach basic elements and principles of art in an engaging and memorable way. This online interactive program teaches the basics in an innovative format that excites students and builds a much-needed foundation of art knowledge. Once the students have a strong foundation, they are better able to appreciate the museum’s other online offerings.

Goals and Outcomes

The OJAC has taken their Art-for All Teacher’s Guide to the next level for the 2007-2008 minigrant. By digitizing portions of the existing Teacher’s Guide, the museum is making it accessible to visitors worldwide. The presentations serve as a means of outreach to attract visitors and share the museum’s collections with people who may not be able to visit in person.

Additionally, the Art-for-All materials were enhanced with the addition of interactive flash games, quizzes and activities. The Old Jail Art Center will disseminate these materials to all of the schools that visit their museum as pre- and post-visit materials to supplement visits to the Old Jail. These interactive materials, including a quiz, puzzle, demonstration of how prints are made, and matching exercise, will be used in the computer labs at area schools for students to use whether or not they are planning a trip to the museum. The museum will continue to adapt more of the Art-for All Teacher’s Guide for the web, creating additional resources in the coming months.

In order to measure the success of the projects, the staff at the OJAC plans to gather web usage statistics, add questions about the web materials to their annual teacher survey, and collect visitor comments on the museum website.

Where in Texas is the Old Jail Art Center?

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