Long Island Museum Welcomes Multi-Cultural Student Group        

English language learning (ELL) students in grades seven through 12 at Oyster Bay High School visited the Long Island Museum recently to learn about Long Island’s rich heritage.  Central to their visit, and favorite among the students according to their teacher, Sara Duque, was the Latino exhibition, Our Journeys/Our Stories:  Portraits of Latino Achievement, a bilingual Smithsonian traveling exhibition featuring large color photographs and biographical profiles of some of the country’s most successful Latino Americans.

Each student was asked to choose his or her favorite male and female person profiled in the exhibition.  The students took notes on each profile, researched the success stories of their chosen Latino Americans and gave short presentations to their classes.  “The students were very inspired by the stories of people just like them overcoming many obstacles and coming out on top,” noted Ms. Duque.

According to Ms. Duque, the English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program at Oyster Bay High School serves students for one to three periods each day and focuses on English language instruction.  “This year we have begun the ‘push-in’ program, whereby an ESOL teacher will go into a mainstream class to help ELL students one-on-one.  The ESOL teacher can, in this way, bridge the language gap between the teacher and the individual students.”

The Long Island Museum is a Smithsonian Affiliate, dedicated to American history and art with a Long Island connection.  Its New York State chartered education programs serve students from all over Long Island and encourage appreciation of the arts in children from underserved communities.  Three separate museums on nine acres exhibit American art, horse-drawn carriages, and historic artifacts.  Several historic buildings have been moved to the museum grounds to assure their preservation.  Since the 1940s, facets of the museum’s collection have evolved into holdings of national and international importance. 

The art collection numbers over 4,000 paintings, sculptures and prints dating from the early 1800s to the present, including the largest collection of paintings by America’s premier genre artist, William Sidney Mount.  Works from the permanent collection and changing exhibitions are displayed in the Art Museum’s two galleries. 

The History Museum features exhibitions with historical and cultural themes.  Permanent exhibits include a miniature rooms gallery and The Bayman’s Art, a collection of waterfowl decoys in an environmental setting.  The Carriage Museum displays an internationally acclaimed collection of historic American and European horse-drawn vehicles.   

Located at 1200 Route 25A in Stony Brook, the museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5.  For more information about upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 631-751-0066 or visit www.longislandmuseum.org.