This chapter presents the art museum as a socio-cultural learning site, where emergent bilingual students engage in multiple modes of expression to expand oral, written, and visual literacies for academic purposes An historical view of the art museum as an educational space is considered with past limitations and new directions. Theoretical considerations contributing to new conceptualizations of the museum as a contextual- space for development of academic discourses provide a backdrop for new museum approaches. After describing the situated perspective of the authors who work with students at a Hispanic Serving Institution, we offer three approaches for incorporating the museum in undergraduate courses: instructor-docent collaboration, paired conversation activities, and the use of voice in creative writing for those studying to be teachers of writing. We propose the museum is an outside-of-school context that requires further theoretical discussion and educational research for advancing second language development and college learning opportunities
