Howes Studio Inc. (HSI) partners with organizations and individuals seeking to create or improve their digital content, processes, tools, and public offerings for educational purposes. Our agile team of educators, artists, and media professionals work collaboratively with you to produce effective and sustainable outcomes. Our core competencies include:
Instructional Design
Online Learning
Educational Media
NEWS
Read Deborah Howes’ latest article on “Expanding Public Value” featured in AAM’s November/December 2022 Museum Magazine.
Museum is a membership publication of the American Alliance of Museums that kindly gave permission for this article to be posted here.
PAST PROJECTS
Muslims in Brooklyn
Website
The Brooklyn Historical Society needed a multi-faceted digital resource for K12 teachers and their students to use and discover oral histories documenting the lives of Muslims in Brooklyn. How can their lesson plans be enhanced and extended with online activities and experiences for teachers and students? What formats and contexts do teachers need to easily integrate these resources into their teaching? HSI team members worked collaboratively with curriculum writers, educators, and historians to co-manage the development process as well as produce the site’s WordPress platform. The 2021 MuseWeb jurors awarded Muslims in Brooklyn a special prize for Social Justice.
Teaching Critical Thinking through Art
with the National Gallery of Art
Online Course
The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC contracted with Howes Studio to prototype, test, and build a free online course in the edX platform: Teaching Critical Thinking through Art. HSI closely collaborated with museum educators, imaging and tech staff, and other leaders to produce videos, audio files and interactive educational media tools, including integrating a iiiF viewer for close inspection of NGA’s collection images. HSI also helped organize and develop the learning platform and accompanying graphics. Since this 5-week MOOC launched in January 2019 it attracted 10,000 enrollments from more than 140 countries. User data demonstrates extremely high engagement rates and reviews have been extraordinarily positive.
About Us
President Deborah Howes (she/her/ella) is an internationally recognized thought leader, educator, designer, manager, coach, mentor, and fundraiser for the cultural heritage sector. She innovated landmark digital programs for three world class institutions including: the first interactive digital art browser for children: “With Open Eyes” at The Art Institute of Chicago (1990); the award-winning online resource illustrating 5,000 years of world art history: The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (launched in 2000); and the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for the Museum for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on the Coursera platform (launched in 2013).
In her leadership role at HSI, she performs a range of educational consulting services– including digital production and online course design– for museums and other non-profit organizations. Deborah is a frequent presenter at conferences, and teaches regularly in the Museum Studies programs at both Johns Hopkins University and University Tre Roma. Deborah earned a B.A. in Art History from Wellesley College and an M.A. in Education from University of Chicago.
Soph Howes (she/her/ella) is both co-founder and production arm to Howes Studio since 2018. Soph’s background is largely in performance, live production and media production. She spent 8 years fronting + managing soulpop band LLATV, recognized by NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert in 2018. This lived experience gives Soph a unique take on content strategies, live event production, engaging program development and virtual platform development.
Work highlights include co-producing the National Gallery of Art in DC’s first virtual Teacher Institute in 2020, developing + producing Humanities DC‘s virtual Humanitini event “DC Food Roots & Culture: Joining the Mother Roots” to include business to local restaurants, and winning the 2020 GLAMi Special Jury Award for Social Justice at the MuseWeb conference! Soph is dedicated to creating spaces, projects and programs that center critical thinking (and critical unlearning) for ALL people.
Are you teaching from home? We can coach you on strategies and even facilitate live Webinars + Online Programming!
Howes Studios is an S corporation registered in New York State and founded in 2017 to support the cultural and education sector. HSI is a woman-owned business that is featured in the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums’ Directory of Cultural Facility Consultants, Contractors, and Vendors and welcomes inquiries from all.