Allison Murdoch

After her first degree from Georgetown University with a double major in the History of Art and French Literature, Allison completed an MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, University of London. She held curatorial positions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Phillips Collection in Washington DC and worked in the education department at the Norton Simon Museum of Art for seven years where she became interested in the contrasting and complementary methods of teaching in the art gallery and the classroom. In her current position as the art coordinator in a state school in Thanet, Allison works to motivate teachers to view the visual arts as a pedagogically essential link into other core curriculum subjects. In her classroom practice, Allison engages students’ understanding of the world’s visual and material cultures. As an extension to her classroom-based teaching role, Allison also acts as educational consultant to museums creating resources and lesson plans linking museum collections to school curricula in teacher-friendly formats.