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National Art Education Association

Talking about Art: From Past to Present, Here to There: Preservice Art Teachers Collaboratewith a MuseumAuthor(s): Renee Sandell and Schroeder CherrySource: Art Education, Vol. 47, No. 4, Cultural University (Jul., 1994), pp. 18-24Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193485 .

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TALKING ABOUT ART:

From Past to Present,Here toThere

Preservice Art Teachers

Participants play a color association game in preparation for seeing Anne Truitt's exhibition. Photo credit: Karen Carroll.

BY RENEE SANDELL AND SCHROEDER CHERRY

ART EDUCATION / JULY 1994



Collaborate with A Museum

In the wake of discipline-based and multicultural art education, art teachers, and those who train them, are concerned with devel-

oping visual literacy. An expanded, Post-moder definition of art requires broader representation of the types of objects special enough to be consid- ered art, along with accurate descrip- tion and credit given to the diverse cultures and genders that created and valued them. An extremely challeng- ing task lies ahead in helping people of all ages learn about any art object more fully-in terms of its form, subject and context-and, most importantly, its rel- evance to their lives.

Museum educators share this educational concern of how to get visitors to explore and value diverse art objects. The museum and school are disparate educational settings, each making a characteristic impact on the learning experience. Unlike classroom teachers who can establish rapport with a group of students during an academic year, museum educators often work with strangers who come to a learning situa- tion voluntarily, during leisure time, for

about an hour. The learning experience between a museum educator and a visitor is easily compared to a blind date: one doesn't quite know what to expect from another until they actually meet; the time together is predeter- mined and brief; and the quality of the encounter may well determine whether the relationship will continue.

This article describes a collaborative college/museum project between The Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) and The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), which aimed to develop multicultural visual literacy. The project established an ongoing family tour program beneficial to both the College and the Museum. Preservice art teachers are provided an opportunity to develop and implement multicultural teaching experiences based on original artworks in a museum setting. The museum benefits by offering its visitors innovative educational experiences in the galleries, and by receiving creative, object-specific instructional resources developed by preservice teachers.

INITIATIVE, PURPOSE AND POSSIBILITIES

A significant art education collaboration began in August 1991, when the Director of Education at the BMA approached the Art Education Department at MICA. He was interest- ed in having preservice training use Museum resources to develop public programs.

A spring course focused on teaching strategies using objects seemed to be the appropriate avenue for collaboration. Goals included relating art criticism, art history, and aesthetics in a meaningful, multicultural context. Using the BMA collection, students would have the opportunity to work with original objects rather than with slide reproductions or book illustra- tions. They could select from a wide range of cultures and a time period spanning antiquity to the present. Moreover, by developing and present- ing a lesson for museum visitors, adults as well as children, students would gain firsthand knowledge about how teaching in museums differs from traditional

JULY 1994 / ART EDUCATION



classroom teaching. The collaboration fit within the education department's interest to serve as a learning laborato- ry for teachers-in-training, while preservice art teachers would provide public programming for an audience the Museum wanted to reach. For the art education majors, this tour was to be the initial part of a multicultural visual literacy project in which MICA students would become immersed throughout the semester.

The project focused on a new family program entitled, 'Talking About Art: From Past to Present, Here to There" and to date has been implemented three times, although this article describes Spring 1992 and Spring 1993. On each occasion, the entire class of art education students, working in groups of three, designed and conducted inti- mate family tours for one and one-half hours on a Sunday in March or April. The goal was to develop innovative strategies for effective teaching in galleries which would involve families in productive aesthetic discussion. Each of the tours was based on the selection, study and research of three diverse art objects from the BMA's permanent col- lections. Each grouping of objects included non-western and traditional western art.

In addition to the focus on three different objects, each tour featured art in a current exhibition. In Spring 1992, the contemporary work of Anne Truitt was woven into each of the tours. Anne Truitt is a native Maryland artist in her 70s, who produces three-dimensional painted objects. Her minimalist sculpture has been widely exhibited and she is the author of two books, Daybook and Turn, which are journals that document her life and creative process. The students had been studying Anne Truitt by viewing her exhibited work, reading her books, viewing a video of Truitt

These students would soon be faced

with the joys and tribulations of museum

education-maximizing the teaching moment with temporary learners.

addressing docents at the BMA, and meeting her in person on campus at an art history seminar. Tours offered in the spring of 1993 focused on Guardian Spirits, a display of intricately embroi- dered Chinese children's hats. This exhibition was explored in terms of the symbolism of animals and the Chinese calendar, as well as the nature of spiri- tual guardians and other protective measures for children in different cultures.

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT In addition to undertaking class

readings and discussions on art criticism, art history, and aesthetics, MICA students met at the BMA for orienta- tion at the beginning of the planning stage. They learned how the BMA operates as an organization, the role education plays at the Museum as well as teaching strategies and tour techniques used in the galleries. Emphasis was placed on the importance of actively engaging visitors in an enjoyable learning experience focusing on objects. Differences between museum learners and classroom learners were discussed; however, the realities of these differences didn't impress MICA students until they were actually involved with their gallery projects.

After a familiarization tour of the museum, students began their task of selecting a special object about which they were to become experts. Each student began by selecting several art-

works, based on the object's attractive power. Each student narrowed choices to three diverse objects, which were sketched in the gallery. Later, in class, the drawings were mounted, and tour groups were formed based on interest- ing relationships between three diverse objects, which had to include the fol- lowing criteria: western and non-western, traditional and modem, two- and three-dimensional.

Students soon saw that tour planning involved not only their own in- depth research but also creative team work. Students met in their respective groups, frequently at the museum. They made lists of motivational props which needed prior museum approval, that would be useful in the tour. They wrote scripts and ran through their gallery activity sequences in class, as a dress rehearsal. They also planned how they would coordinate use of teaching spaces in the museum galleries. Student understanding of the necessity of flexible planning grew as they speculated about the big day. Many questions arose as they anticipat- ed their "blind date" with their families: what type of family would come? what would be their ages and art back- ground? These students would soon be faced with the joys and tribulations of museum education-maximizing the teaching moment with temporary learners.




LEFT: Participants use a flashlight to closely observe Anne Truitt's sculpture in terms of

color perception. Photo credit: Karen

Carroll.

BOTTOM: Tour leaders and family partici-

pants wear personalized viewing glasses to

help them look at art in a new way. Photo

credit: Karen Carroll.




IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FAMILY TOUR

Well-prepared on the day of the tour, the student groups met early. One student was painfully introduced to the dif- ficult realities of museum teaching: her object, a Navajo rug, had been removed from the gallery display a day earlier. The groups cloistered themselves in the docent room about an hour before the tours were scheduled. All dressed up with readied props, they attended to last minute details as they prepared for the big moment.

At 2:00, the families arrived in the museum. The education director gathered the entire assembly of art education students, assigning different families to each of the five groups. Initial unions were congenial, for the most part, and certainly a relief. One group, who thought they had prepared for everything, greeted their assigned family and learned that the two Korean daughters spoke no English; the tour leaders had to quickly adapt their tour to communicate via the English-speaking father and other children.

To learn names and establish group identity, each set of tour leaders provided diverse motivational, group-identify- ing name tags to wear. These badges included references to the works studied as well as to the theme of ritual and performance. One group provided passports that also served as travel diaries. Images identified with Polaroid photos were contained in passports issued to tour members who wrote and/or drew responses as they moved to different cultures. Another group handed out rolled-up treasure maps of the world with clues to help identify specific museum objects in terms of geographical location.

Each group had developed unique, innovative strategies for teaching in the

gallery. One group, whose interest was stained glass Tiffany columns, provided the family with handmade, personalized viewing glasses to help them look at art in a new way; they also employed a shopping cart filled with related materials and books about the selected art objects. Another group took along a picnic basket full of objects for games, including a blanket for the children to lie on as if at a picnic, while looking at a

Hat-wearing participants admire

Chinese Children's Hats exhibition.

Photo credit: Mary S. Connor

Hans Hofman painting. Still another group encouraged participants to become "detail detectives" with a Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glasses to look closer at a painting; sam- ples of actual fabrics and other materials that were rendered in a portrait




painting were passed around for study and comparison.

Object-specific techniques were designed to get families talking about the form, subject, and context of the art works. To learn more aboutAnne Truitts minimalist, color-laden sculp- tures, one group involved families in playing a color association game, using an array of hues in color aid paper along with "mood" words. Another group used a flashlight in the gallery to closely observe Anne Truitt's sculpture and enhance viewer perceptions of color changes.

Each of the tours stressed careful, in-depth inquiry into works of art. One group created an investigative game in which large art puzzle pieces made by students were periodically distributed to family members as positive rein- forcement for art ideas. This allowed group members to "own" a tangible piece of their expanding knowledge about art. The culminating activity had all participants, including the two non English-speaking Korean girls, working collaboratively to put the puzzle together on the floor.

During the second year, in conjunc- tion with the Guardian Spirits exhibition, one group provided felt hats with add-on stickers of art reproductions and visual treasures that were awarded as learning reinforcements during the galleries tour. By the end of the tour, all the participants proudly wore their colorful hats, covered with visual stimuli that reflected their visual experience.

When the tours were over, MICA students gathered with their instructor and the museum's education director to share immediate responses. Students were given a written evaluation form to

Object-specific techniques were

designed to get fam-

ilies talking about

the form, subject, and context of the

art works.

analyze individually the experience of tour participants, the tour itself, and the group project. Several days later, the forms were collected by the course instructor. She responded to these, in turn, by giving each student a three- part written evaluation: one set of remarks was written to the entire class, another to tour group leaders, and still another to each individual student.

The students' evaluations were enthusiastic and revealed that they had never expected to learn so much, or realized how demanding the extensive tour preparation would be. Yet, they were proud of their research. They were excited to see themselves as teachers. They learned about collaborative team planning and teaching, experiencing both rewards and frustra- tions. They were impressed that the family participants had so much to con- tribute. Overall, they had achieved a new respect for teaching and an excite- ment for using original objects in a museum. Having made the BMA their classroom, these prospective teachers felt at home in a museum teaching envi- ronment. They also had new insights into how art could be creatively explored in family settings.

POST-TOUR LEARNING ABOUT TEACHING AND ART

After the tours, students were engaged in post-tour assignments that extended their learning and growth; art object research was developed towards teaching possibilities. Having become "experts" on their objects in preparation for the tour, now came the time to develop a substantial teaching vehicle that could be given back to the museum. Each student created an instructional resource that explored each selected object in terms of facts, ideas, activities, and resources to help view- ers learn about art and history. In developing these, students broadened their study by relating their objects to those that are similar and different, in terms of art history and cultural ideas. To illustrate the researched material, the museum provided the students with black and white photographs. In turn, the students provided the museum with copies of their instructional resources. Interestingly, students who chose nonwestern objects, about which there was little reference material, often made remarkable discoveries. Based on close observation and intu- ition that helped students "know" the object, their knowledge frequently grew well beyond the limited and often biased information available in art his- torical texts. This project offered the museum a valuable collection of diverse instructional resources, useful to curators and docents.

The culminating problem of the multicultural visual literacy project involved a studio application of the written and teaching research. Challenged to make "Art About Art" (based on the 1978 traveling exhibition which origi- nated at the Whitney Museum of Art),




each student created an interpretive work of art based on his or her in- depth study of the original object at the museum.

One student created a contemporary-styled self-portrait mask in response to an Inuit (Eskimo) "Female Mask" 1850-1900. Another student pro- duced a book containing 15 different media interpretations of Paul Klee's painting 'Traveling Circus." A set of five wool weavings that explored ideas related to Navajo design and Anne Truitt's work was developed. Inspired by Giacometti's "Man Pointing", one student constructed a 6-foot, free-stand- ing abstract self-portrait sculpture using found natural materials. Another student created a painted mystery box containing a ceramic fragment in response to her investigation of William Merritt Chase's painting 'The Broken Jug."

Other "Art About Art" examples included a beautifully designed children's book "Rossinah and the Serpent Train," inspired by a beaded Ndebele bridal train. A costume of feathers, raf- fia, and burlap was created for the Kifwebe mask that a student had studied. Another student, inspired by a wooden box with animals and amulets by 19th century Inuit (Eskimos) created a set of bronzed personal charms as central symbols of his life, all contained in his leather travel purse. Inspired by Ronald Jones's 1989 bronze Untitled (DNA Fragment from Human Chromosome 13 ...), a student sculptor attempted large drawings through which she began to modify her organic, nonobjective ceramic forms to explore the concept of cancer cells.

Several student painters attempted to explore their chosen artist's

approaches. In response to Rembrandt's "Portrait of Titus" (his son), one student created a self-portrait using Rembrandt's style and materials. Another student, a figurative landscape painter, was inspired by Helen Frankenthaler's "Madridscape" to work in her style and scale.

The student artists

achieved a sense of breakthrough, as if they had learned something critical and groundbreaking from the art works they studied.

Set alongside a photograph of the inspirational object, each student's work was exhibited and critiqued at the final class, which was documented by videotape and photographs. The education director and other art education professors attended as guest critics.

"Art About Art" projects demonstrat- ed the relationship of creative expres- sion to critical response. It allowed students to visually explore their relationship to an object-its form, subject and context, leading to a revitalized understanding of art history. The student artists achieved a sense of breakthrough, as if they had learned something critical and groundbreaking from the artists they studied. The experience served as a kind of mentorship with an artist, whose physical absence nevertheless provided a strong sense of artistic connection. Students became

aware of alternative approaches that could be used and most importantly, saw the relationship of their objects of study to their own evolving artwork.

CONCLUSION: REWARDS OF THE COLLEGE/MUSEUM COLLABORATION

'Talking AboutArt: From Past to Present, Here to There" has become an annual offering, benefiting both the college and museum. Students have con- tinued to create unique strategies for viewing, based on their selections of BMAworks. And, the project has con- tinued to evolve in exciting ways, well beyond the original parameters. Three students from the first year's project have written a lesson plan on Anne Truitt which is to be published in a book on art criticism. Another group of students who had handed out self- addressed postcards to their tour members have received ongoing correspondence regarding the participants' art interests. These group leaders were invited by one of the participants, who is an art teacher, to serve as jurors for his school's art exhibition.

Projects like these are likely to have short term and long term benefits. Preservice teachers who become pro- fessional educators have the means to use museums actively as learning resources. And, families who can reflect on enjoyable learning experiences are more likely to support and return to museums in the future.

Renee Sandell is Associate Professor, Department ofArt Education, The Maryland Institute, College ofArt. Schroeder Cherry is Director of Education and Community, The Baltimore Museum ofArt.




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