The Art of Teaching in the Museum

American Art Collector, Jack Warner, "teaching" a group of 5th graders about "Freedom and the Founding Fathers." These fifth graders would be guided through Warner's collection of art by the docents lining the back walls. The museum educators used similar questioning, guiding techniques to the ones described in the Burnham & Kai Kee article. This photo was taken at the former Westervelt Warner Musuem of Art.   

In this essay, Burhnam and Kai-Kee expound upon two different museum experiences in order to articulate their ideal for teaching within the museum. Throughout the essay, it is made clear that the onus is on the museum educator to properly facilitate discussion so that all visitors will have “an experience” with the artwork or artworks they encounter. In my observation, informal learning occurs least or is absent when the instructor is involved to such a level. In both of these examples, the educator had a clear direction in which she intended to guide her students. As stated in the article, the educator’s “goal [on one hand] is for people to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of a given work, and on the other, for them to connect with it personally, directly” (Burnham & Kai-Kee, 2011: 15). With this in mind, she directs conversation, intermittently adds information, and aids the visitors in drawing certain conclusions or connections (the hands in all of the paintings) throughout her experience.

Informal learning occurs through the unscripted fresh dialogue of the museum visitors as they experience a piece of art for the first, second, third time. When the museum educator is viewed as a facilitator and only one source of information rather than the ultimate authority on the piece, visitors freely offer and seek information from all sources (text panels, other visitors, past experiences, similar paintings hanging in proximity) at their disposal. They do not look to the educator for affirmation or answers, but rather collaborate to extract the meaning with their peers. Ideally, the educator becomes one of their peers and they view the painting anew together.

Unfortunately, certain expectations are placed upon the educator by the nature of the experience: a directed tour. As the article states and many of us have experienced, museum visitors seeking out group tour experiences are “held together by the implicit promise and conviction that they [will] leave with an understanding of the artwork that they did not have when they began” (Burnham & Kai-Kee, 2011: 16). A truly informal learning experience may be impossible to create in a “guided tour” setting.

Sources:
Burnham, R., & Kai-Kee, E. (2011). Teaching in the art museum. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.