The end of fall

After three months of writing lesson plans and coming home with clothes stained with paint, the first semester of the Art After School Program has come to an end. It is bittersweet as I had to say goodbye to a group of wonderful students who were responsible for making the class as enjoyable as it was, but I am excited to start a new class in January. I believe the winter class will benefit greatly from the experience I gained this fall and I have a some ideas on ways to improve the class.

This internship has been a wonderful opportunity. It helped me to feel more confident teaching. I have always believed I would not be able to do it effectively as I am a rather shy and reserved person, but I really enjoyed teaching each week. It helps that I talked to some of the parents during the students' exhibition of all there art and I found out that some of the students really enjoyed the class. The internship was a learning experience as well. It taught me that I needed to take a step back and be more willing to facilitate. Coming from a background in art history, I have a tendency to fall into lecturing which is not a enjoyable experience for elementary students. They want to move and talk about their lives and I needed to make more room for that in the class. I hoping next year I can design some kinetic activities.

The most impact lesson I took away was that I need to structure the classes around a topic that the students find relatable. The topic of the most successful class I had was hand washing and the types of objects people used in the Middle Ages to wash their hands. It gave the students the opportunity the think about the objects they have in the lives and use and compare them to things they had in the past. They seemed more willing to talk and think about why people do certain things. The lesson did unfortunately devolve into me trying to explain water pressure and how faucets work which I was not prepared to do.

Next semester, I am going to try to take what I learned and make the classes more focused on the students. Instead of having them make unrelated objects each week, I am going to have them pretend to be a leader of their own kingdom and make art that they would like to have in their kingdom. For example, I am going to have them design their own royal outfit and make a model of a castle in which they would like to live. I am hoping that this gets them more invested in the art they make. I want them to get excited and feel that the things they are making are important.

Here some pictures from the student exhibition. I think they did a fantastic job:

Conclusion

The core of the activity for this internship is now over, so I wanted to give a recap of it. It was a very different experience compared not only to my previous work in museums but also to others' experiences in Dallas museums; it truly is a different type of museum. Here is what I did and learned in the past few weeks:

1. I communicated with the two artists, translated texts, triaged between the director, galleries who hold artists' works, previous curators and, most importantly, the shipping companies. A portion of this has happened over the past year, not just the last weeks or month(s). The artwork arrived after many adventures, a few pieces were broken and needed restoration, then they were sequenced and installed. Not to speak about accompanying the visiting artist for a significant amount of time in his two-week visit to Dallas. I also tried (in the year before the exhibition even opened) to investigate some fundraising options that would help with the printing of the catalog - for example, the Italian consulate in Houston or the Italian community organization in Dallas - but this didn't pan out.

This experience was very useful for me, not only in trying out in the wild how a museum exhibition would come to be from finish to start, but also to help me connect the curatorial and the education side of museum work. This semester I have been TAing for a class in communication design, in which the concept of user experience as a design concept (UX) has been the focus. You may have come across the abbreviation: it is rather fashionable lately. In brief, it is design derived from the experience of the users and involves significant research in user perceptions and influence. This attention to UX was a link for me and showed the way on how the curation of an exhibition has a direct pedagogical impact on viewers - not only the way artworks are displayed, but also what was selected and why.

2. Catalog and publicity. I wrote bios and introductions for both artists, selected and edited images, and made layout of this 16-page catalog. There were a few glitches in the production and the communication with the graphic designer, but there was also the confirmation how this museum is so different from the others locally. While I was scrambling to figure out who is the facebook page admin and get him to create an event or even post the information on the website, I thought  that all the work of the past year would fall through because the information was posted in the various channels online only the day before the opening. However, I was surprised to see there were at least 50 or perhaps even 100 attendees of the reception, who had received the information via the printed newsletter. So, conclusion: printed materials are important and have impact.

3. Working with an artist. It is ironic that, on the coattails of my internship last summer, when my work was from the standpoint of the visiting artist who participated in education programs, I was now in a position to work with an artist as a curator and educator. In sum, it is not simple and requires the balancing of maintaining the autonomy of the artist while creating one's own program(s) that the artist collaborates with, but does not necessarily know how to navigate. In fact, I wanted to recommend that if you are interested in learning how to work with artists in a museum environment, you should visit the next meeting of the MER in DFW (Museum Education Roundtable) where this topic will be discussed.

https://dfwmer.wordpress.com/

My work with the artist consisted in developing the artist talk and then the workshop with Italian language students. We worked in this together since it was important to maintain the simplicity of the language, an internal logic that built on the practices of foreign language teaching while also keeping the captivating story that he had to tell. We had a disagreement over the art activity portion because the artist's definition of what MADI art is was very stringent, but in the end he was really happy with how it turned out. Students said they understood everything  :)

The most successful event, in my opinion, was the Arcadia Salon, which is an artist talk recurrent event the museum organizes on some Thursdays. Since I was going to translate, I told the artist he could say whatever he wanted and, unlike the students' visit, language barrier was not an issue. But he ended up following the structure of the previous talk. Another success was that he incorporated a couple of questions that followed an artful thinking strategy, which enlivened the dialog. By the way, the October meeting of the MER was community development, which I attended and tried to apply some trick from it to my work with this very tight knit community of museum goers.

4.  I am now planning the creation of a children's book - more specifically, a workbook of activities -  based on MADI art. This is especially appropriate because this art movement emphasizes geometric abstraction and three-dimensionality. The plan is to choose one artwork each by ten artists, write a simple intro to their style and then set aside a page for an activity that can be cut, collaged or colored to emulate the artist's work. I have talked with Sur Won about contributing cartoon characters that would be the connection between the explanation and the actual activity. However, the challenge is securing high resolution images of the work to be included, for ten different artists - which are protected by copyright - as well as figuring out the best way to print it - through the regular printing shop that the museum uses (cheaper but requiring an upfront order of 200 copies) or an online on-demand service like blurb (more expensive per copy but does not require a volume order, so more feasible as a test). I will also continue with some workshops in relation with the exhibition.

In all, this collaboration has been a precious opportunity for me and I am really grateful that I had the chance to pursue it. It brought me some really invaluable contacts, getting to know better an amazingly kind and empathetic person, the museum director, and learning more about the nitty gritty aspect of museums in which fewer people work on more aspects of it. The exhibition ends on January 20 and if you happen to visit the museum, please let me know!

Making Progress

     The class this week was once of the best I have had so far at GDAC. The students were really engaged and made for an excellent class discussion. I also feel I did a little better. I was able to adapt during the middle of the class which I tend to struggle with the most. We were looking at the types of objects that can be found in Ancient Egyptian tombs and I had an idea of what I wanted the students to discuss, but as conversation went down a different path I was able to let go of my plans and go with the flow. I think, because of that the students were more engaged and willing to ask questions and make observations.
     The greatest moment of the class for me, was when one girl, who typically does not speak felt comfortable raising her hand and telling the class what she thought about the object we were looking at. She usually sits far from me and the projector, but I have rearranged the seating so that day she had to sit in the front and I believe that helped a little bit to get her feel comfortable participating.
After she spoke, I really wanted to just give her a gold star. Not only she participate which was fantastic in itself, she did something that was really amazing. She was able to by looking at the object determine that it was made from precious material and then use what she learned about a different object five weeks ago to infer that this object was made for a wealthy or elite person. Not only was she absolutely right, but it just showed that she was building off of what she previously learned. I already really enjoy teaching the class, but this just made all the work I do each week preparing for it worth it.
     The students also got really into one of the activities that day and did not want to leave when the parents came to pick them up. Apparently elementary school students really like making secret messages in hieroglyphics. I did not think that they would take to it as much as they did.

What comes first: art or language?

A few years ago, when I was still in the "business" of languages and literatures, I was part of a long-term academic project that built programs integrating the teaching of languages and art. More specifically, I created activities aimed at students of Italian and Spanish that used art resources available in museums or online - images of art as well as text - geared toward a specific proficiency level. The project came from the idea that language is inevitably rooted into culture and it only makes sense - pedagogically and philosophically - to use art in the teaching of Italian or Spanish.

When I was developing those materials I took the initiative to consult with a few art professionals - an art history researcher and a curator (or maybe an educator? I wasn't paying much attention to that distinction at that time) from the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Even though I was not required to, I wanted to make sure that the information I presented in the activities was factually correct. The criticism I received from the MFA was that the information may very well be correct, but that the notions of art in the activities were subordinated to language learning. I didn't pay much attention to that and, at the time, didn't understand why this should even be a problem - it was supposed to be that way, after all!

But I now understand the skepticism of the museum professional. In 2016, when I taught Italian again, I created an activity that invited students to visit the Kimbell Museum and enjoy and discuss one of my all-time favorite masterpieces - Caravaggio's Cardsharps. Since this was optional, only one student took advantage of it, but now with my art background, I realized how vulnerable this approach was to making art an illustration for linguistic or even cultural concepts. I believe my curriculum was successful, but - on the other hand - still convinced that art and language learning go together - would love to have more opportunities to combine and teach both.

I met with the current coordinator for the Italian program at UNT and we are delving in these issues. Even though students will not visit the museum, I am planning an off-premises activity with the visit of the artist. It will be based on the following art AND languages concepts: color, limits, emotion, representation and objecthood, transparency and opacity.

I am forging ahead with the children's activity book for MADI art - it seems to be an easily fitting outcome for my work with the museum. As about the touch self-guided one, it most probably will be a take-along puzzle of transparent acrylic sheets or origami.

Other than that, it may seem mundane but after much, much negotiations and phone calls, my most exciting result so far is to get DHL to complete their shipping. Whew! Please keep your fingers crossed!

Just pushing through

I have finally had the opportunity to teach a few of the Art After School classes. I must say that I love my group of students. They are very intelligent and make for great class discussion. I was a little afraid starting out that I would not be able to create programming that works for various age groups as the students are all between the ages of six and ten, but no issues have emerged so far. Thankfully, the younger and older students seem to be able to communicate with each other well and understand the topics discussed. I am still conscious of the fact that there is such a significant age gap between the students and I try to always have an advanced activity for the older students just in case they become bored by the activity I give to the younger students.

On another note, I found that this internship has really forced me to pay attention to how I speak. I have noticed that students are more likely to answer questions in class and do the things I ask if I phrase it in a particular way. When I try to connect the class discussion to their personal experiences, they are more likely to participate. My phrasing has also been especially important when it comes to getting one of the students to do the things she is suppose to do each class like pay attention or clean up her work space. She is six and extremely opinionated for her age. Which I admit is great. It is always wonderful when she contributes because she is very well spoken and feels very strongly about things. To give an example she spent a good portion of one day convincing the entire class that unicorn foxes are not a myth, but very much real. We all had to admit that they are real. She is that determined. All that determination, however, has its down sides. She will not clean up if I just ask her. I have to phrase it in a particular way. If I want her to clean, I have to impart how much of a help to me it will be if she cleaned because she is so organized or fast at cleaning up. I feel each class is a lesson in just psychology and speaking to children for me.

Besides this constant awareness and rephrasing of what I say, the first part of class which consists of the students looking at and discussing art goes very well. My main goal each day is for the students to express their ideas and learn the importance of objects to various cultures. Since this part of class is just about discussing art, I am comfortable. In contrast, the second part of class is really difficult, because it consists of the students making art and I am very much not an artist. I have a very poor grasp about how to teach students about making things. I am an art history person through and through. Luckily, elementary art teachers post plenty of how to videos on YouTube. These have been great and I end up watching every week so I can try to explain to do things. I have probably watched too many making pinch pots with first graders for a twently-one year old graduate student, but I now know how to make a simple pinch pot. Hopefully, I improve over the course of the semester and the students can leave the next class with some nice ceramics.

An internship at the ready: the prequel

An year and a half ago, I had the chance to visit the Museum of geometric and MADI art in Dallas as part of our Museum Studies seminar. What an interesting, unusual space and a peculiar story of its founding - around a concept of art rather than a geographic area, time period or medium. While geometric art is a well known concept, MADI is an abbreviation referring to art "off the wall and out of the frame" - a non-representational artistic movement that started in the 1940s in Uruguay and spread around the world afterwards. Many artists have been based in France and Italy, where the movement founder eventually lived.

Because of that connection and through the museum director, I learned that the museum in my "hometown" in Italy has an extensive collection of MADI art and even a significant part of the archive of the movement is located in its library. She also connected me with an artist who lived in the area and who would have a solo exhibition at the MADI museum in Dallas. I volunteered to curate that exhibition and - long story short - it is happening in a month, in October! So, my internship will consist of a project at the Museum this semester around that exhibition.

My expectations for the internship are really colored by my previous experience with both the museum and the artists. It is very difficult to create a program around a medium that has purely aesthetic principles and rejects any national and cultural grounding, is not representational and rejects emotional goals. However, through my relationship with the two Italian artists who will be part of the exhibition and many meetings and catalogues from previous exhibitions, I am taking the challenge to devise an educational program based on it.

Work by Reale Franco Frangi, 2017, which will be part of the two-person exhibition at the MADI museum in October 2018

There are several possibilities for this project, besides the curatorial work (which, if you are curious, is very nitty-gritty! Nothing fancy, but a lot of email writing, art courier shipping calling, catalogues reading, press release writing, gallerist meeting and other that I would rather spare you hearing.) The most exciting part of it is the selection of the works to be exhibited and the work with the artists in this respect, but this is another topic.

So:
It would be interesting to take the opportunity of the visit of these Italian artists and create a series of activities for the Italian language programs in area universities.

Also, since I have been interested in self-guided activities that include the sense of touch, I would like to design one around it. However, it may be a challenge, since independent visitors to the museum are very few and they don't get much to explore it on their own.

Lastly, it would be great to design a children's book based on either the exhibition or the permanent collection, which could be actually published through one of the on-demand printing platforms.

Really, really lastly: I am not the first UNT intern at the MADI museum. If you look back through this blog, you will see two previous MA students who worked there last summer (2017). I remember that they couldn't finish the project that they started - which was research on the labels - and were sad because of that. I may try to reprise their work and finish it.

Since I have previously talked about the curatorial/educational gap that exists today in museums, you may ask how I reconcile the two. In fact, one of the interesting challenges in this is to walk the walk based on the talk that I have been previously talked. I have the unique opportunity to be both a curator and educator for this project. Let's see how it will work out!

Getting Prepared

      Every Wednesday for the next nine months, I will be teaching a rumbustious class of elementary school aged students about visual art for the Greater Denton Arts Council's Art After School Program. I am excited to have the opportunity to lead a class for students interested in visual arts and look forward to working with my students. Through this internship, I hope to gain practical experience designing and implementing engaging programming that will appeal to a younger audience. While I have previously worked with elementary classes, I have never been able to lead a class and utilize my own lesson plans which makes this internship particularly appealing me.
        The internship has also given me considerable freedom in determining the course of the program. I have even been allowed to choose the theme of the fall course (mythical creatures) and the topic of each class. I find myself a little worried that I will not choose topics that interest the students. I want them enjoy coming to the class and leave each day excited by the objects they saw.
       This week the students will be looking at Japanese prints depicting the Legend of Princess of Tamatori. I hoping these prints spark a great class discussion and appeal to children love of tales of adventures.

Final reflection - UPDATE

I just wanted to share a quick update since last week's final reflection.

We received the materials for the Nevelson Art Cart which is my final project for the Interpretation part of my internship. However, because of the rainy weather, I have been slowly getting all the pieces spray painted. I totally get you Ellie!!!

So for the art cart part 1: here is a photo of the materials so you can get a sense of what the project is:

This last Saturday, I attended the "Sensory Saturday," a program for children on the autism spectrum and their parents/caregivers. I absolutely loved it. My responsibility was to observe and assist as needed. I talked to one of the parents and her daughter while they worked on an art project. The parent was also from Mexico and we began to talk about the many similarities of our experiences as immigrants. An interesting thing that came up was that both our children prefer to speak English. Many museums now are looking for bilingual educators which is a challenge to find qualified candidates. But it is definitely something that is on the collective minds of the museums in general. Hopefully we can all work together to close the language gap and find educators that speak different languages. Outside of this insightful conversation, i found that the parents that bring their children to these type of programs love coming to the museum to give their children amazing experiences outside of their home, but also they connect with other people and learn about art. Also, it is quite difficult to prevent children for touching art! Thankfully the museums have amazing conservators that save the day and protect the work. And finally, I can't stress enough how much heart museum educators put into their programs. I have a giant crush on the Amon Carter Museum!!

Karla

Grand Finale

Actually, the Finale for my internship will not happen until the end of August, so my reflections on it are based on the experience so far and the projected finish.

My expectations so far have been met in the part of the projected workshops. I collaborated with an array of several museum educators to meet in the middle between my artistic process and the needs and best practices of their program. I am pleased to know, from their unsolicited comments, that they were planning to incorporate some of these activities in the future, with regards to the cyanotypes, for example.

Some questions on which I ruminated during the internship and will remain unsolved were keeping a watch on the line between the museum as an art center and the museum as a place that collects, shows and interprets art. There were several workshops that I worked on in collaboration with the Teen program, for example, that either went out of the museum or, even when they were at the museum, they still were very loosely related to the collection. After reflection, now I think that this it not a problem and the museum needs to be allowed to branch out, both physically and as a connection to the objects displayed in it. It is fantastic that teens from the Teen Council, for example, see the DMA as their point of deep relationship with the city and art in general, more like a forum, as opposed to a traditional concept of a museum as a temple. However, at some point we may have to grapple with the issue of our presence at that specific building  not being even needed. This is something that I am still not ready to give up on.

Finally, I am especially glad for the opportunity to connect with a large array of professionals in a variety of positions at the Dallas Museum of Art and learn about the perspectives of their individual programs. I had the same proposal, the same concept yet for each department it had a different application. This allowed me to learn, in the most concentrated form, the philosophy behind each program. I am grateful for the relationships I developed during my work with them, as much as the visibility I was given for my own work as an artist during my time. I would like to recommend applying to this program to artists in the DFW area - the application is now live at https://www.dma.org/visit-center-creative-connections/c3-visiting-artists and the deadline is September 14, 2018.

Finally, I wanted to invite you at the final reception at the Dallas Museum of Art - it will take place on August 30, at the Center for Creative Connection, 6PM-9PM. If you are an artist who indeed is planning to apply to this program, please come - I would love to introduce you to the coordinator and the other educators!

Internship Finale Post

I learned a few things during my internship:

• how to prepare a museum poster
• how to prepare a conference workshop
• how funding in a nonprofit and donation museum works
• how to work with people that can be difficult
• how to advocate for a museum 
• the differences between volunteer and internship
• research into civil and social museums 
• how to write a conference proposal
• how to advertise for the museum 
• when to breath deeply before answering

I think the things I am most proud of is the poster and conference workshop. I had never presented a poster or workshop at conference so this would be a totally new experience for me and I was ready to gain the skills and knowledge. The first conference I attended was for a poster presentation and I had no idea on what to do because I was given very little information on how to prepare the poster. Basically I was given poster dimensions! I contacted anyone and everyone that may have know how to help me accomplish this poster presentation. My final product was a labor of love and I was very pleased with it. The second conference was me presenting a workshop. I have never setup a workshop so I discussed tactics with Danielle and did some research on how to setup a workshop. We decided on multiple styled workshop that would start with a presentation and lecture for 30 minutes then the second half of the workshop would be interactive discussion from prompts. We wanted the second half of the workshop to be setup and act as a think tank. Since both of us haven’t ever tried this approach we did research and practice runs to make sure the workshop flowed well together. These two experiences alone were well worth the effort and time put into this internship

I am not stopping my internship here I actually will be finishing it up hopefully in July 2019! I have two more conferences to prepare for and help expand the conversation of what a museum is. I have enjoyed reading all of your post of this past summer and I wish everyone the best in their future

Candice

I have enjoyed reading and learning from everyone's experiences this summer, thank you for everything you've shared, it has been very enriching.  It is like Asami said about "two brains working better than one."  During my internship at Good Samaritan I set out to learn the opportunities and constraints that might be present when trying to bring art to residents of a care facility.  I wanted to learn how the institution worked on a day to day basis and how residents might respond to looking at art and creating art based on artworks from local museums.  There was much that I did learn, too much for a blog entry, but a few  things my experiences this summer have shown me include: 

• Create a safe and supportive environment.  Adults are much more afraid of failure than children and youth and it takes more work to get them comfortable with taking risks and engaging in new things.  The extra effort and patience is worth it when you see this audience relax, open up and contribute.  
• Like with other audiences, be flexible.  Adjust your education agenda to suit the needs and desires of your adult audience.  Be flexible in your approach, adapting to, and allowing, different personality and learning types because these traits will be more pronounced and inflexible in adults.  Years of life and experience, the necessity of learning and repeating what works, have shaped how older people respond and their flexible thinking skills are not as readily available as children's.  Give time for that aspect of thinking to warm up.
• Especially with older audiences, be careful not to come off as patronizing.  Create an "us" approach rather than an approach that sets you apart from your group.  They will still turn to you for expert advice and reassurance.
• With elder audiences, allow more time not just to move from one area to another but for creating artworks.  Many folks at this age haven't used their creative skills in a long time, they were busy being parents, employees and grandparents and creativity was more likely put to use juggling all of that rather than creating non-essential objects.  Let them do the best they can, even if they complain and struggle, because you never know what that process and experience will awaken within each individual.  
• Older adults do enjoy new and novel experiences although from a more cautious and passive approach at first. They will embrace odd or curious things that make them wonder or create questions to discuss and explore. You just have to provide the stimulus then open the door for that process.
• Learn something new yourself from adult audiences, not just in how you can facilitate a better experience for them but, some new bit of knowledge, wisdom, information or insight you didn't know or have before.  Consider it a special gift. 
• As far as working with care facilities, be aware of their goals and try to find ways to blend into their world as seamlessly as possible so as not to disrupt their jobs.  Understand that while they care about their patients emotional states, they are there to ensure the fragile physical health of a lot of people and they need to keep to their schedules and tasks.  In fact, try to find ways to help them, lend a hand or otherwise show you are there for them too.  Even though they probably will not have time to act upon it, invite them to participate in art activities.  This lets them know they are appreciated and it improves resident/staff relationships by creating a new relationship of just two people enjoying creating art together.   

I look forward to continuing working with and learning from the Good Sam Group throughout the next semester by facilitating a once-weekly class.  They, and facility, still have more to teach me.

My other internship, working as a grant researcher and writer, will also continue, but at a more formal level, and I look forward to that as well.  This is a skill that is extremely useful for anyone interested in a museum career and I am very thankful for the opportunity and experience.  Writing grants takes understanding the institution's mission, the project's objectives, the grantor's preferences for funding and putting it all together with necessary input from many of the institution's departments and other partners while keeping organized and keeping on schedule.  It is very engrossing and you have the knowledge that you and everyone else are working towards a goal that will benefit the public or support the institution's mission to serve the public. 

From Apprehension to Enthusiasm

Our initial project had seven participants but generated enough interest and general "buzz" that our second project has had twelve.  Each project we've done has taken part in weekly steps beginning with a slide presentation showing artworks and methods and a short discussion about the history of the pieces being reflected upon. Conversation is always interesting and happens spontaneously without much effort on my part although I will bounce off of comments to introduce new information.  At this initial meeting I also include a sample of what we will be working to create as well as samples of the tools we will use.  If there is time, we get to work. 

This second project involved a simple printmaking technique which we stretched into two separate artworks.  Working with the residents can be a very individualized procedure since you are working with people from a broad variety of backgrounds and with a wide variety of abilities and limitations.  We've worked to keep it light and keep it fun (these residents and myself have been very fortunate to have an energetic, happy and positive activity director to work with) by improvising, staying flexible and providing plenty of encouragement.  What I've found with working with any age of adults in a museum education type setting is that they tend to be self-conscious with the belief that art is only for accomplished artists and the naturally talented.  Adults also feel that if they do something they need to do it well, whereas children, being novices at most things, just jump in and go for it enjoying the process as an adventure.  The feeling of doing for the sake of doing, "it's the journey and not the destination", is the atmosphere and attitude I have tried to instill and nurture.  Most of what we have done has had aspects of experimentation with an open and acknowledged attitude of "let's see what happens and let's see where it takes us."  This seems to release everyone from preconceived ideas or notions of  artistic perfection.  There is no right and there is no wrong, it is all an intentional experiment to learn and grow from, have fun with, and share with each other.

 The people who created these prints have a wide-range of varying abilities including near blindness, stages of dementia, very limited use of their hands, and conditions such as Parkinson's.  Each person was allowed and encouraged to do as much as they could.  However, it was often a challenge for "helpers" to do this, as they naturally wanted to over accommodate and "do for" residents.  Conversely, residents have been acclimated to an environment where they are submissive and daily activities have been taken over for them, often for the sake of getting things done efficiently and quickly rather than out of necessity.  Part of the benefit of art in a facility like this is to give back some of the control to residents and to let them rebuild a feeling of self-sufficiency and self-esteem through a sense of self-guided accomplishment.  What has been exciting and encouraging for me to see is the increase in enthusiasm.  When the summer first started out, I would have to search residents out and bring them to the activity room.  Now, they eagerly come and search out the next art project! 

Museum stories from the road. Visitor engagement and self-guided activities

Since I mentioned that my internship experience this summer is a "donut", lest it seems that I didn't actually do anything in the middle, here is a brief recap of what I saw and learned in the meantime that is related to museum education and can be useful as an idea to others.

After I left Dallas, I traveled to Helsinki, Finland, to participate in the InSEA regional congress for the European region, hosted by Aalto University. A partner in the conference was the EMMA, Espoo Museum of Modern Art that has not only some amazing exhibitions and collections, but also a great education program.

What I was most impressed with in EMMA's programs was the self-guided activities - those activities that are designed to happen without the presence of a museum educator, or the need to sign up for them. As I have been recently reading the book The Multisensory Museum by Nina Levent and Alvaro Pascual-Leone (https://www.amazon.it/Multisensory-Museum-Cross-Disciplinary-Perspectives-Memory/dp/0759123543), I was especially interested in those that use senses other than vision, such as touch, because they aid greatly in the perception, enjoyment and learning experience of visitors, of which the EMMA had a rich variety. For example, as it was currently hosting a very large exhibition of the work of surrealist Meret Oppenheim and her circle of artist friends, I was thrilled to find, at the end of the hallway of the exhibition, an array of masks and other hand-held devices hung next to a few mirrors that invited visitors to take a selfie using the masks, following the aesthetics of surrealists just seen. I thought this very brief activity that doesn't feel like purposeful learning to be very engaging and fun while combining touch and photography and embodying some pieces from the museum.

Also, another interesting tactile experience of museum was the transition between sections of the exhibition. Visitors had to brave (use their hands to make a space for themselves) some beaded curtains of the kind that you see on doors to keep flies out. The curtains gently hit visitors on their bodies and so physically prepared them for a different section with a different feel.

In this example, the museum designed a wall around a row of display of surrealist sculptures that only allowed for a small openings. Visitors simply had to approach the openings and put their eye to it - they were intrigued by the mystery - and paid close attention to that small section of the sculpture that their attention was supposed to be drawn to.

Although  these elements are mostly in the area of the exhibition design team rather than the responsibilities of the education department, I can see a collaboration between the educators and curators of the EMMA that works together to engage visitors in the most productive way.

After these enlightening visits, I kept thinking how to embed self-guided activities or features that don't feel like learning but engage the senses. I happened to be in this cathedral in Italy in which I saw a meridian, a line embedded in the floor of the cathedral that indicated the path of the sun of a specific day and time that was for some reason important for the history or liturgical life of the church.

I saw three visitors who read the information and then walked the meridian, debating and demonstrating among themselves how it worked. They were very lively in their discussion and moved around to figure out the meridian. Admiring their enthusiasm, I thought what would take to translate this kind of engagement in an image-based art display that will physically challenge visitors to include them in a process of learning and enjoyment. What if we recognized and put into practice that visual art is not necessarily or only visual? If visitors are required to look only, now wonder they will spend a few seconds in front of each artwork before they moved on.

 

This last example, from the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, showed me how this could be easily and effortlessly achieved. The museum's collection has Renaissance paintings, but also material culture objects ranging from lace to watches. The lace is placed in frames, organized in a structure similar to a vertical filing cabinet, vertical drawers or a like a bookcase. If visitors wanted to see the displays they had to pull each frame and then slide it back to check out the next one. I had no intention to spend time at the lace department at all, but the curious structure and the mystery of the hidden objects practically forced me to keep pulling drawers after drawers to see what the next one was hiding. I could decide by myself how much time I was going to look at each of them. This made me realize that if the lace was simply displayed on the wall, I would not even glance at it, but instead, the hand-held engagement made me slow down, get excited and look closely at it.  

What hand-driven or tactile engagement processes have you seen at your museum in the summer? Please let me know, either here or when I see you in person, of some interesting models to follow that have been especially effective!

The Final Post

Well, it is time for the final post. I am still continuing my internship until the 20th of this month, so, I am grateful to still have a little more time in this awesome setting.

This week I have really been focusing again on community outreach. This week the students will be painting and finishing their community picnic table. I am so excited. I think they are turning out beautifully. Here are the (almost) finished product of two of the community centers:

Preteen table (10-13 years old)

Tiny Human's table (5-8 years old)

The painting process was a tad chaotic. But, I really appreciated the thought of these centers have a reminder of our time with them. 

I guess we are supposed to talk about what we learned from out internship this summer. 

I had these major lessons:

- Treat the children like adults: Obviously, I don't mean talk to them about adult subject matters, but, talk to them like I want to be talked to. Kids will surprise us. They know much more than we think; they have interesting thoughts and perspectives that will change yours. But, only if them create that environment for the children to feel safe to participate. 

- Don't be afraid to correct behavior: I posted earlier about my confusion in my role as an educator when it comes to behavior issues. I learned it is completely okay to tell them to be kind, or listen to directions. Fun story, one time, a preteen group of boys was not listening to me and were talking over me while covering some art history prior to an art making activity. I looked them dead in the eye and asked them, "How much do you think I love art?" They nervously said, "A lot?". I looked at my watch and said, we have 40 minutes left together. You are right, I love art A LOT. So, I could talk about this one work of art for 40 long minutes, or you guys can take a different role in this discussion. I will let you pick. The discussion went 10 times more smoothly afterwards. The point of that story is, I learned to correct behavior by, in a way, bargaining with the students, as well as being 100% real with them. 

- Community work is hard, but amazing: At first when I heard we were doing community outreach, I thought that would include bringing the museum here rather than us going to the community. Then I was confused because, we cannot bring artwork out, are we really doing the community justice by showing them the artwork on a tablet? Is the logistical headache worth it? I learned that the answer is YES to both of those questions. So much happens with those kids in that 1-2 hour(s) that we are there with them. Maybe they will never have a further interest in art or maybe they still will never come to the museum, but, maybe they will remember the time they found our roses are edible or maybe they'll remember what a still-life is, or maybe they will just remember that three ladies in bright green shirts came to their community center, but hey, at least they will remember something. The logistics is hard, but that part is always hard. I felt like those students each made an impact in my life, I hope we made an impact in theirs. 

- Be flexible: There were so many times that I felt I was loosing control because I was not sticking word-for-word to the lesson plan. Then I realized, the only one obsessed with that was me. Sometimes, it is okay to think on your feet, sometimes it is even better. 

- Being over-prepared is sometimes worse: This was a hard lesson for me. Before giving my first tour, I became obsessed with learning everything I possibly could about this one work of art. It was not until I was standing in front of the group that I realized I had too much information, so much that I did not know how to even start the tour. I know that half of that was nerves. But, the following time I did a tour, I did an experiment. I looked up very basic information about the artist and that was all. The rest of the information was going to be related to observation and discussion. (I was also lucky that the AC is more focused on the experience and discussion of the artwork rather than solely the historical information). I found that being less prepared was a technique that worked for me. I found myself leading the conversation less and truly waiting to hear what the group was going to bring up. 

- It is okay to voice your opinion: I found myself having this internal battle a lot when I was shadowing in at a meeting: do I say my opinion? Or is this a meeting for employees only? I found myself reminding myself that I am only an intern, no one wanted to hear my thoughts. That was until one meeting I was sitting next to the curator. I was talking notes about the meeting and then writing my thoughts or questions on the margin for later. The curator read my notes and then had me share them with the rest of the meeting group. I was horrified, but, it was awesome. 

Another way I found voicing my opinion successful was when I was writing lesson plans with someone else. Two brains work better than one right? It is also good to voice your boundaries when teaching. If that is too many students per teacher, better say that in the planning stages rather than with 40 eyes starring at you on a tour.

- Think outside the box, then reel it in: I am not sure if this happens to you guys but whenever I write a lesson plan, I think without limitations. I pretend we have all the money in the world. I found this to be how I get the best ideas. Then, the creative part is making everything work with the resources that are available. It was like a moving puzzle and I found that I enjoyed writing lessons more!

- Don't forget to actually enjoy the artwork: This internship gave me every opportunity possible. But, one of my favorite memories was getting to walk the gallery space on a Monday afternoon. The museum was closed, and only the emergency lights were on. But, I walked through all the gallery spaces by myself, with just a note pad to write down any ideas or thoughts. I spend three hours walking around. That was a magical experience. 

I think the most important thing I learned is that I truly love the museum education field. 

It is sad to say goodbye, but most of all, I am just grateful I got to find a home away from home here and receive that reassurance that I am not in the wrong field!