The Rural School Initiative, an educational outreach program in its third year, works to encourage and empower rural school students and their teachers to actively participate in learning through the arts. Rural School Initiative came about in direct response to feedback from educators and families working in rural areas. Major challenges such as inadequate funding for art education, few museums and great distances have not allowed the visual arts to flourish in rural areas as much as other forms of art such as music and theatre, which accompanied early settlers as they moved west.

Components of Rural School Initiative include:

1) Workshop credit for teachers. Participating teachers will receive college credit  for fifteen contact hours through the Initiative. They will learn about the North Dakota Museum of Art and how to use the Museum in a classroom setting.

2) Classroom visit by Museum staff and educators. Before students from rural schools visit the Museum, a Museum educator will visit their classroom to introduce the Museum, its building, museum practices, and exhibitions.

3) Museum Visits. Three major exhibitions will be selected for the program. Throughout the school year, teachers and their students will visit the Museum to see and discuss exhibitions. Financial support for travel expenses is available for qualifying schools.

4) Long distance contact. Between visits by Museum staff and student visits to the Museum, teachers and students will have the opportunity to connect with the Museum via video conferencing.

5) Tour exhibitions. The Museum will organize touring exhibitions of art, relevant to the local communities, that are integrated into school curricula and that can withstand less-than-optimal conditions and handling. Each exhibition targets specific age groups within the K-12 spectrum but all class levels are encouraged to visit and participate in the exhibition. Each host organization must provided a secure facility and staff for the duration of the exhibition. Exhibition times vary depending on location.

6) The Museum will deliver and install the exhibition. As part of the program Museum staff will train docents on the exhibition and program. In addition, Museum staff will return to pack up the exhibition when it closes. There is never a cost to host organizations. Past exhibitions, Snow Country Prison and Shelterbelts, have been installed in buildings such as bank basements, Masonic temples, empty store fronts, school gymnasiums, etc. Each exhibition will be installed for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of one month.