LEWISTON — Through curriculum-development grants and free workshops, the Bates College Museum of Art is expanding its outreach to middle-school teachers interested in an innovative program that uses the museum as a teaching resource in diverse disciplines, including writing.

Funded by generous support from the Maine Community Foundation, the museum’s Thousand Words Project will award 10 mini-grants of $500 each to teachers in Androscoggin County to develop lesson ideas for the project.

Meanwhile, from late August into mid-October, workshops will be held at the museum to show teachers how to integrate Thousand Words Project lessons into their curriculums.

Over the past decade, the TWP has used the exhibitions and collections of the Bates museum to improve writing skills and visual literacy among middle-school students throughout the region. Now, Education Curator Anthony Shostak says, “we’re using our mini-grants to encourage teachers in other subjects, like mathematics, the sciences, history and foreign languages, to tap into the impressive potential for interdisciplinary exploration that art offers.

“For example, our collection would easily support lessons about pre-Columbian civilizations, American and world history, or many languages. I can even imagine its use in teaching geometry and biology.”

The grants are available to teachers in Androscoggin County who propose curriculum units that have not previously been offered through the TWP. Teachers who apply for the grants must schedule their participation in the TWP, whether as individuals or part of a team, in the 2011-12 academic year.

The first step for applicants will be a conversation about their idea with Shostak, available at 786-8302. After this discussion, a formal grant proposal may be submitted. There are two deadlines for grants: Sept. 25 and Oct. 28.

Each approved grant recipient will have up to 10 weeks to research, develop and submit his or her lessons. Final lessons must follow the basic framework seen on the page of each lesson at www.thousandwordsproject.org, and should include ideas for technology integration and suggestions for other teachers wishing to adapt the concepts.

Grants will be disbursed after the lessons are submitted and approved. Lessons funded by this grant become the property of the Bates College Museum of Art, with authorship acknowledged. Grant recipients will be required to present their lessons to other teachers at a conference in the spring of 2012.

Workshops for teachers interested in using the TWP in their classrooms are free of charge and will be held on Aug. 25, 4-6 p.m.; Sept. 7, 6-8 p.m.; Sept. 8, 4-6 p.m.; Sept. 14, 6-8 p.m.; Sept. 15, 4-6 p.m.; Oct. 12, 6-8 p.m.; and Oct. 13, 4-6 p.m.

To register for a workshop, or to schedule an after-school workshop for a particular school, call 786-8212. FMI: www.thousandwordsproject.org or www.bates.edu/museum.xml.