I have had vast extremes when visiting art museums. I remember going to the Nelson Atkins Museum as a high school field trip. After getting off the bus we were greeted by a docent that led us through the museum stopping at paintings of his choice and telling us about that painting and his opinions on it. While passing past others with just a brief description of the artist and art. There was no interaction, as students we were quiet, we listened, and we were quite bored. We never got a chance to ask questions, speak or look on our own. We could take pictures with no flash, this was my saving grace because I could then examine the individual paintings that I wanted to and try to figure them out for myself. Now fast forward 20 years and a visit to the Tucson Museum of Art with a group of my own students.
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Again, we are greeted by a docent we when get off the bus and enter the museum. This time though the docent speaks about the room we are about to enter. It was short and brief. She had the students enter, walk around, talk amongst peers for a little while before she brought them all together for a planned activity that was followed by a discussion. This continued throughout the museum with different activities in each room. The students were involved, the students were learning about art like I had in the past, but the difference was that this time they were active participants. They did not appear to be bored and they were doing the activities. Though hesitant at first. Postmodernism has challenged the role of the museum visitor in relation to the methods of interactivity and interpretation (Mayer, 2005). Interactivity is defined as the viewer being able to manipulate the exhibition or displays (Mayer, 2005). However, interactivity in and of itself does not create dialogue. Melinda Mayer looks at how the attitudes of museum educators have changed during the postmodern period. In the postmodern era, the role of the interpretation of artwork changed from finding the artist meaning to finding meaning as it relates to the viewer (Mayer, 2005). This is an important shift in the way learning takes place in the museum. Visitor participation became a key component of this educational model creating “active interchange” (Mayer, 2005, p. 358) between artwork and viewer. This allows curators to no longer fully control the environment in which art is presented. As postmodern theorists began to question the idea of a positivist view of knowledge, it opened what is considered knowledge, allowing for more room for the viewers’ experiences in the interpretation of artwork (Mayer, 2005). In the past, many exhibitions, as well as education programs within museums, used a lecture method of interacting with the audience. The museum held the power of the meaning and significance of the artwork. The curator’s job was to make meaning between artworks and the education department to impart this meaning to the audience (Mayer, 2005). However, in a collaborative model, the audience is seen to hold the same power as the curator and the artist, creating context and connections between the works and the outside world (Mayer, 2005). Neoliberalism, as examined by Kundu and Kalin (2015), is to free the individual from the responsibility of the government. The idea is to
Again, we are greeted by a docent we when get off the bus and enter the museum. This time though the docent speaks about the room we are about to enter. It was short and brief. She had the students enter, walk around, talk amongst peers for a little while before she brought them all together for a planned activity that was followed by a discussion. This continued throughout the museum with different activities in each room. The students were involved, the students were learning about art like I had in the past, but the difference was that this time they were active participants. They did not appear to be bored and they were doing the activities. Though hesitant at first. Postmodernism has challenged the role of the museum visitor in relation to the methods of interactivity and interpretation (Mayer, 2005). Interactivity is defined as the viewer being able to manipulate the exhibition or displays (Mayer, 2005). However, interactivity in and of itself does not create dialogue. Melinda Mayer looks at how the attitudes of museum educators have changed during the postmodern period. In the postmodern era, the role of the interpretation of artwork changed from finding the artist meaning to finding meaning as it relates to the viewer (Mayer, 2005). This is an important shift in the way learning takes place in the museum. Visitor participation became a key component of this educational model creating “active interchange” (Mayer, 2005, p. 358) between artwork and viewer. This allows curators to no longer fully control the environment in which art is presented. As postmodern theorists began to question the idea of a positivist view of knowledge, it opened what is considered knowledge, allowing for more room for the viewers’ experiences in the interpretation of artwork (Mayer, 2005). In the past, many exhibitions, as well as education programs within museums, used a lecture method of interacting with the audience. The museum held the power of the meaning and significance of the artwork. The curator’s job was to make meaning between artworks and the education department to impart this meaning to the audience (Mayer, 2005). However, in a collaborative model, the audience is seen to hold the same power as the curator and the artist, creating context and connections between the works and the outside world (Mayer, 2005). Neoliberalism, as examined by Kundu and Kalin (2015), is to free the individual from the responsibility of the government. The idea is to