Museums · 01-26-2017
Throughout my teaching and museum education career, I have visited numerous museums. One year, while teaching fourth grade in York County, Virginia, the students and I visited eight museums! We immersed ourselves in awe-inspiring, active learning. Like all successful learning experiences, we spent time building our background knowledge prior to the visits. This allowed students to make connections and understand the central ideas within each museum’s program. Convincing administrators of the...
Museums · 11-23-2016
Anne Patterson’s captivating installation, Pathless Woods references a line from a Lord Byron poem – “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore. . . " The interactive experience, currently at the Ringling Museum, encourages visitors to find their own path through a forest of ribbons. Each ribboned path takes you on a different journey of sounds, colors, and light. Patterson describes the feeling as, “swimming through color.” Consisting of over...
Museums · 09-11-2015
Terracotta statuette of a girl, 3rd century B.C., On view in gallery 171, Metropolitan Museum of Art, OASC image
Museums · 03-12-2014
Research in Brief In the classroom, students often tune out teachers who talk too much. Likewise, in the museum, too much information about art can cause eyes to glaze over. What follows are 3 guidelines for sharing information while promoting dialogue about art. Question: How can we use information effectively within dialogues about art? 1. Be informed, yet consider the relevance of the information to the audience. "What an adult finds helpful might not be useful to an 8-year-old." 2. Invite...
Museums · 09-23-2013
"The definition of a museum has evolved, in line with developments in society." Museum professionals have struggled over the definition, which often centers on things. Do the objects have to be real? What about living things: animals, plants, fish? Do museums have to display objects? What about a place that stores memories or a living history center? The following group definitions are from college undergraduates in response to the question, "What is a museum?" The definitions were created...
Museums · 09-09-2013
Museum Monday Since many museums are closed on Mondays, I'll bring a few museums to you. The following 3 museums offer excellent educational explorations for both families and educators. They also provide support for the interests and learning needs of creative children.
Museums · 07-12-2013
During a recent visit to Washington, D.C., I witnessed a “behavioral museum meltdown” at the National Mall. In response to his parents, a child was screaming, “I don’t care what we do, as long as we don’t visit another museum!” Perhaps his museum fatigue (and outburst) could have been prevented had his parents followed the four “B's” of family museum-going as detailed in the classic, Where’s the Me in Museum: Going to Museums with Children. They are paraphrased below: 1....
Museums · 07-10-2013
Do you love art, but dislike visiting museums? If yes, you may enjoy Brian Cohen's article, “How to Visit a Museum,” a comical critique of museum practices. While many of Cohen's recommendations focus on a need for visitor solitude, he realizes that museum-going is “unavoidably and unfortunately” a social experience. His recommendation to avoid the museum guards is one I disagree with. Guards are observers who often have interesting opinions about the collections. Read the article in...