Cultural Tours for Teachers

Since 2006, WTLC has offered annual professional development opportunities to K-12 educators. These most often take the form of a “cultural tour.” Over one, three, five, eight, or nine days, teachers and WTLC staff travel on a bus to explore places that reveal the cultural life of Wisconsin. These places are curated, identified through field research by folklife specialists and included in the tour for the rich insights available there. These places are hosted by knowledgeable and engaging community members with whom we interact through lecture, dance, demonstration, guided tour, or other appropriate ways. Reflections and conversations with WTLC staff provide ideas and support for curricular applications. The result is a moving and powerful experience that has resonated with participants, such as this teacher from the 2008 Milwaukee cultural tour:

“The experiences of getting inside the heads and hearts of our experts through the sharing of their passions and products captured my imagination and helped me to envision new possibilities for our students.”

To read a short description and view photos from our past tours, click on the links below:

WTLC gratefully appreciates its many producing partners for the Here at Home cultural tours: Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, Chippewa Valley Museum, Clark Street Community School, Kickapoo Valley Reserve, Wisconsin Humanities Council, and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

WTLC also gratefully acknowledges its multiple funders for the Here at Home cultural tours: American Folklore Society, Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, National Endowment for the Arts, and Wisconsin Humanities Council.