Child‐centered Practice in Museums: Experiential Learning through Creative Play at the Ipswich Art Gallery

Over the past two decades, museums and galleries have significantly expanded the scope and diversity of programs and exhibitions offered to children, families and schools. Parents and teachers are increasingly interested in curated public play spaces for children in the early years (from birth to eight years old), and they actively search for accessibility, affordability and quality when planning young children's excursions. In 2013, the Ipswich Art Gallery (in Queensland, Australia) developed and presented Light Play, an interactive exhibition designed especially for children up to the age of eight. Light Play promoted the use of light as a creative material for making ephemeral art through collaborative play, experimentation and discovery‐based learning. As part of the exhibition, a formal research project was run as an integral component of Light Play. Our research documented the qualities that lead to successful creative play experiences for young children in art museums by examining three key aspects of the exhibition: the participants, the environment, and the program. This paper discusses the findings of that research, in relation to making financial and human resource investments in interactive and immersive exhibitions and play spaces for children in the early years.     

An Identity‐Centered Approach to Understanding Museum Learning

This paper advances the thesis that museum visitors' identities, motivations and learning are inextricably intertwined. All individuals enact multiple identities, many of which are situational and constructed in response to a social and physical context. Identity influences motivations, which in turn directly influence behavior and learning. Visitors to museums tend to enact one or various combinations of five museum‐specific identities, described here as: explorer; facilitator; professional/hobbyist; experience seeker; and spiritual pilgrim. Preliminary findings suggest that these identity‐specific motivational categories might help to explain the long‐term learning impacts of a museum visit.     

Family Learning in Museums: A Bibliographic Review

The literature on family behavior in informal science settings consists primarily of observational studies of behavior, focusing on generation and gender roles and learning strategies. Much effort has been expended studying the family visit, building the foundation for further study. A question that remains is: Can we infer learning from observations of learning behavior among family members? The literature in this annotated bibliography addresses issues involved in understanding the family learning process — what a family is, why families visit museums, how they behave in museums, how they learn in museums, and measuring learning.     

Redefining Successful Interpretation in Art Museums

Abstract This article aims to capture the spirit and content of a lively exchange among museum staff members at the Denver Art Museum. It began as a conference call and continued as an online dialogue about how definitions of success have evolved with advances in technology and changing expectations of visitors. Together we explored how DAM staff encourage more active participation in the museum and the creative tension that ensues between visitor co‐creation and institutional control. Woven throughout this conversation are examples that demonstrate the need to move fluidly between high tech and low tech interpretives, onsite and online experiences, and the impact of environments that break down museum stereotypes. It is our hope that this discussion will spark similar dialogues among colleagues in individual institutions and in the profession at large. Readers are encouraged to respond through the blog at Curator’s new website: http://www.curatorjournal.org .     

自然博物馆亲子教育活动中的对话内容研究

博物馆亲子教育活动能够促进亲子之间互动交流,帮助家长在活动中更好地了解儿童、发现儿童。本文从认知、行为和情感三个维度出发,分析了博物馆教育活动中的亲子对话,对比了不同类型对话内容的差异、整体对话类型,分析了不同环节、不同家庭之间对话内容存在的差异,希望研究结果能对未来教育活动的设计开发带来有益的启示。     

“Art Girls”: Philanthropy,Corporate Sponsorship,and Private Art Museums in Post‐Communist Russia

Russian art sponsorship is dominated by women of the oligarch elite. Rather than dismissing this phenomenon as a faddish diversion of new money, this article takes a broader perspective on the motivations of these “art girls” along a trajectory of Russian women's involvement in patronage, philanthropy, and sponsorship extending back to the late eighteenth century. It considers how socio‐political circumstances have shaped philanthropy directed at the arts in Russia, and uses interviews to explore the reasons behind this recent focus on the contemporary in the sponsorship of exhibitions, art centers, and private museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Siberia.     

Families Are Learning in Science Museums

This report is based on research findings of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study conducted by the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC), which consists of four institutions: The Franklin Institute Science Museum, the New Jersey State Aquarium, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Philadelphia Zoological Garden. The first year's study addressed the question “How can we identify and measure family learning in science museums?” It documented a relationship between learning levels and observable behaviors. On the basis of coding family conversations and interview data for level of learning, we see that families do learn from exhibits and that the level of learning is related to specific observed behaviors. Grouping these behaviors as performance indicators provides a useful measure of exhibit learning.     

Prescriptions for Art Museums in the Decade Ahead

Abstract The landscape of art museums has been altered since the AAM's 1992 publication Excellence and Equity. Rather than following a path towards community service or an educational mandate, the field has been led astray by a corporate mindset. The author identifies the primary challenges facing art museums in rebalancing their mission, and suggests a series of remedies to the unrealistic economic model that threatens to exclude education as museums' primary mandate.     

Audience Research Informs Strategic Planning in Two Art Museums

Abstract This article describes how two art museums have used the results of audience research for institution‐wide planning. Results and outcomes are reported from a visitor audit at the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain), and from a survey of Black cultural tourists and local African Americans visiting The Art Institute of Chicago. A follow‐up interview five years later with the head of communications at the Tate Gallery highlights how exhibit developers and museum staff used visitor feedback and response to improve visitor care, and ultimately visitor experience. A conference presentation a year after the audience research was conducted at the Art Institute and an exhibition two years following are indications of the extent to which the African American audience research project had an institutional impact. The article concludes with a review of helpful methods and suggestions for other institutions.     

Art and National Identity: Some Museums in Prague

In histories of the art museum, Prague has only a minor place. Yet at one crucial early moment, Prague played an important role in what we might call the prehistory of European public museums. There is a close link between art museums and nationalism. One necessary condition for being a country, it might be said, is that its people have a distinctive artistic tradition and therefore reason to build a museum in which to house it. What, then, is the relationship between Prague’s art museums and the identity of the Czech people?     

Climate Change Education at Nature‐Based Museums

The status of climate change education at nature‐based museums (i.e., zoos, aquariums and nature centers) was examined, with a particular focus on centers participating in a National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) leadership training program. Study 1 revealed that, relative to nature‐based museums that did not participate in the training, NNOCCI‐participating institutions provided resources for staff to work on the topic and professional development programs and were more likely than non‐participating museums to be comfortable with and provide climate change education programming. Study 2 confirms these results via visitor reports about the exhibits they observed. Study 2 also reveals that, relative to non‐visitors and visitors to non‐participating nature‐based museums, visitors to NNOCCI‐participating nature‐based museums were more knowledgeable about and concerned about climate change and ocean acidification, hopeful about their ability to talk about the topic, and likely to engage in climate change actions than those who did not visit these centers. Importantly, results from both studies indicate that nature‐based museums, especially NNOCCI participating museums, have an institutional culture supportive of climate science education and suggests that NNOCCI interpreter training programming facilitates this culture which in turn is reflected in visitor engagement.     

Evaluation of Touchable 3D‐Printed Replicas in Museums

The multisensory aspect of the museum, while neglected for many years, is undergoing a resurgence as museum workers have begun to push towards re‐establishing the senses as a major component of museum pedagogy. However, for many museums a major roadblock lies in the need to conserve rare objects, a need that prevents visitors from being able to interact with many objects in a meaningful way. This issue can be potentially overcome by the rapidly evolving field of 3D printing, which allows museum visitors to handle authentic replicas without damaging the originals. However, little is known about how museum visitors consider this approach, how they understand it and whether these surrogates are welcome within museums. A front‐end evaluation of this approach is presented, finding that visitors were enthusiastic about interacting with touchable 3D printed replicas, highlighting potential educational benefits among other considerations. Suggestions about the presentation of touchable 3D printed replicas are also discussed.