Rembrandt and Collections of His Art in America: An NEH Curriculum Project

by Joseph M. Piro

I have asked myself whether the short time given us would be better
used in an attempt to understand the whole of the universe or to
assimilate what is within our reach.

— Paul Cézanne

Introduction

This issue of the Journal of Aesthetic Education features an arts education curriculum project that was designed to use the oeuvre of Rembrandt van Rijn—seventeenth-century Dutch painter, etcher, and draftsman extra ordinaire—as a teaching resource. A partnership of scholars, university professors, museum educators, and classroom teachers designed the project, which uses Rembrandt as the prism through which to diversify teaching of the core content areas of social studies and visual art. Members of this team attempted to expand the boundaries of themes traditionally found in art and other humanities disciplines by linking these with the social sciences, thereby forming what might be called "humanistic social studies." The final product is a Web site to which teachers and those interested in using this type of instructional approach in their classroom teaching will have access. Funding for this project derived from a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Curriculum Materials Development grant designed to promote the teaching of the humanities and support projects that can serve as national models.