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Plugged-In Virtual Connections continues to serve students in the Long Beach and ABC Unified School Districts with digital art activities at no cost to schools or students. The expanded program presents arts-integrated lessons for elementary school, high school students, and life-long learners. Virtual programming, including our new artist video series, and Art Encounter content will be accessible on our new Watch page, YouTube, and on Instagram TV.  A generous grant from the RuMBa Foundation funds the entirety of video production and allows growth of the program to serve teens and young adults. 

Art making activities inspired by works and artist practices presented in artist videos are included in lesson plans and are also available to the public in linked buttons on this page. Activities and lessons use the Social and Emotional learning model (SEL) to connect students with their emotionality while getting in touch with their creative process. 

Accessible digital programs help ensure that no student loses out on arts education due to school budget shortfalls or other unexpected hardship during these uncertain times. Lessons and videos offer multidisciplnary enrichment for educators and learners of all ages, especially families and students in need of creative activities. 

The ConSortiUm coalition is a newly formed collaborative project of CSU art museums and galleries presenting PLATFORM, a virtual event series for 2020–2021. Programs actively engage students, faculty, staff, and communities through visual arts-based discussion. ConSortiUm features live virtual conversations with contemporary artists, collectives, and curators whose work is critical to current re-imaginings of the art world, and the world at large.  All events are presented live via Zoom and during Pacific Standard Time hours with access for all CSU campuses. These events are also free and open to the public. Recordings of the events will be available for post live-stream viewing and archived by the sponsoring institutions for future viewing.

The 2020–2021 inaugural program, PLATFORM, featured curators Erin Christovale and Valerie Cassel; artists Beatriz Cortez, Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist, Eyal Weizman, Shuan Leonardo, Howardena Pindell; and People's Kitchen Collective. More programming in the 2021–2022 academic year to be announced.

ConSortiUm’s participating CSU art museums and galleries include:
Bakersfield, Todd Madigan Gallery; Chico, Janet Turner Print Museum; East Bay, University Art Gallery; Fresno, Center for Creativity and the Arts; Fullerton, Nicholas & Lee Begovich Gallery and Grand Central Art Center; Humboldt, Reese Bullen Gallery and Goudi'ni Native American Arts Gallery; Long Beach, School of Art and Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum; Los Angeles, Luckman Gallery, Luckman Fine Arts Complex; Northridge, Art Galleries; Pomona, W. Keith & Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery and Don B. Huntley Gallery; Sacramento, University Galleries; San Bernardino, Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art; San Diego, University Art Galleries; San Francisco, Fine Arts Gallery; San Jose, Natalie and James Thompson Gallery; San Luis Obispo, University Art Gallery; Sonoma, University Art Gallery; and Stanislaus, University Art Gallery and Stan State Art Space.

We welcome students from all academic programs to connect with contemporary art with us.  The museum encourages professors and campus communities to use our collections and exhibitions as an educational resource.  The museum actively develops multidisciplinary programming with Cal State Long Beach faculty to link museum content to curriculum, positively impact our campus communities, and help students reach learning objectives. We regularly collaborate with the School of Art as a partner in the presentation of the annual student exhibition, Insights, and serve as a mentoring organization for the Museum and Curatorial Studies Graduate Program.

The Plugged-In Virtual Connections Program was developed to align with Common Core, State and National Standards in the areas of visual arts, social studies, language arts and mathematics. Every semester, this multi-phase program introduces students to contemporary artist practices, permanent collection works or current exhibitions, and visual elements and principles, while connecting to grade subject matter.  Through guided lessons, students create related art projects that encourage critical thinking, collaborative process skills, and emotional awareness.