Alice Austen, Photographer
At your school, grades 3 - 5
A 75-minute photography workshop with Polaroid cameras supplied by our experienced teaching artists.  $150 per class with a two-class minimum.  Grant support might be available.

Alice Austen had a strong and determined eye: She knew what she wanted to capture and more often than not she achieved her goal.  By analyzing Alice's images students learn about her techniques.  Working in groups, each student takes a photograph with a Polaroid camera paying attention to angles, props, and composition.  Excellent hands-on activity and art experience.

NYS standards
S.S - #1 2,3
Language Arts- #E2, E3, E4
The Arts- #1,2,3,4


Meet Alice Austen
At your school, grades 3 - 5
A 75-minute photography workshop with Polaroid cameras supplied by our experienced teaching artists.  $150 per class with a two-class minimum.  Grant support might be available.

Students analyze Alice's photographs and self-portraits to uncover the life and word of the woman who took them.  Alice lived by her own rules and dared to defy conventions during an age when society limited women's choices to marriage and motherhood.

Each student takes a photograph of a partner and by using props and angles captures something of the subject's personality. Excellent hands-on activity and art experience.

NYS standards
S.S - #1 2,3
Language Arts- #E2, E3, E4
The Arts- #1,2,3,4


Through Alice's Eyes
At the Museum
All levels

Tour Alice Austen's Victorian Gothic Cottage, Clear Comfort, and learn about this remarkable woman, her family, and old Staten Island through her photographs.  Each student receives a guidebook containing reproductions of images that Alice took a century ago.  Using a Polaroid camera each child will be able to stand where Alice once stood and capture what she once captured.  The class will then compare and contrast and discuss what has changed and what has remained.

Enjoy the wondrous views.

$5.00 per student/$75 minimum/ only one class per visit.  Grant support might be available.


Etiquette Classes
At the Museum or at your school.

At a time when children spend more time with computers than with people, we are offering classes in social etiquette, communications skills, and table manners.  Students learn such basic skills as introductions, common courtesies, telephone etiquette, and how to set a table.

Contact the Museum for more information


Summer Camps
In July we will offer two Austen Summer Camps.  Students learn all about Austen and photography, but they will also explore the Victorian world, the architecture of Clear Comfort, and the ships of New York harbor.

Contact the Museum for more information

For registration and information, call the Alice Austen House at (718) 816-4506 x 10 or e-mail at EAAusten@aol.com

Our education programs are made possible by generous grants and support from:

The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
The Independence Community Foundation
The Richmond County Savings Foundation
The Staten Island Foundation
The Board of the Alice Austen House Museum
Council Member Michael E. McMahon
Council Member Domenic M. Recchia, Jr