Creative Classrooms

Thank you for taking an interest in The Walt Disney Family Museum’s Creative Classroom Partnership Program. Our goal is to provide Bay Area students an opportunity to engage with art and animation in creative and inspiring ways within their school’s after-school programs. Through hands-on activities related to the life of Walt Disney, students will explore important elements of art and the animation process. This can include aspects such as story-driven narratives, character design, visual development, and animation principles.

Creative Classrooms is comprised of up to eight school visits and one field trip to the museum. This partnership is for grades K–12 and begins on September 21, 2026. The Walt Disney Family Museum provides the curriculum, materials, and art supplies, and fully covers the cost for the duration of the 2026–27 semester program. 

To be considered for the Creative Classrooms Partnership, schools must submit the following:

  • School contact information
  • Teacher contact
  • Answer questions pertaining to your program
  • Selection of a maximum of  three workshops from the choices below that you are most interested in for your class

*Applications are due by August 31, 2026, to education@wdfmuseum.org.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email us at education@wdfmuseum.org and we will be happy to work with you. We look forward to receiving your application for the 2026–27 Creative Classrooms Program!

Creative Classrooms Application Form

Please read through the following workshops and check up to three options for your school:

Before the use of cels, paper cut-out figures were a common form of animation. Join us as we create paper creations with simple shapes and designs using construction paper and glue, then animate our creations to make our own silent stop-motion short films.

Discover how Walt Disney encouraged his staff to experiment with special effects technology to make animation more compelling and realistic, and how the resulting advancements inspired the industry as a whole. Students will experiment with a miniature multiplane set up—focusing on design elements that will explore how depth is created in animation—then animate their own characters and props to create a silent stop-motion short film.

The Walt Disney Studios pioneered storyboarding—an innovative way to convey an artist’s vision and the film’s story for those around them. Join us in this School Experience as we delve into timing, camera angles, camera shots, and how to plan out a visual project in a sequential and visual form. Students will then take on the role of a storyboard artist as they envision their own version of a scene from a script.

Walt Disney knew that at the heart of every animated film is a well-told story. Join us on this School Experience as we investigate the basics of narrative structure, establishing interesting and dynamic plots, and creating internal and external challenges that can impact a character’s journey. Students will then develop their own short story.

Walt Disney was a storyteller whose characters captivated audiences through their unique personalities and distinct designs. Students will learn the fundamentals of character design through the use of shape language, silhouette, and personality traits, and uncover the creative process towards developing unique and memorable characters.

Background design is an important part of the storytelling process as it helps give context to the narrative by showing the world in which the characters live. Although not the main focus, backgrounds can amplify and fully immerse an audience. We will discuss industry-standard practices as students delve into perspective fundamentals. Students gain an understanding of overlap, depth, and atmospheric perspective, then apply these concepts to design a layered background.

The Ink and Paint Department was an invaluable part of the animation process, especially with the addition of color to animated films. In this School Experience, students will learn about the relationship between colors, and how color theory utilizes both art and science in color mixing to achieve a particular visual effect.