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Connecting to the Museum Experience: The Beauty of Human Complexity in Action

image of Connecting to the Museum Experience: The Beauty of Human Complexity in Action

Considering cultural democracy and democratization as the modalities of cultural mediation, arts educators’ acknowledgment of human beings in all their complexity seems to be a central element in creating inclusive museum education programs. Viewing the museum as a multifaceted mirror of society where one envisions other realities, our research aims to examine the variety of possible connections that adults can make through engagement with artworks. Mapping adults’ experiences in art museums during their appreciation highlights the meaning of an encounter that encourages reflection on self and others. This occurs when an adult can experience tension and reconciliation in the process of selfdiscovery while exploring artworks. For art educators, this involves creating mediation strategies that allow for openness to multiple perspectives, in which an individual can engage with artworks while recognizing divergent perspectives that may be addressed in ways that reflect on one's actions and societal impacts.

Keywords: adult's interactions with artworks in the museum context ; art education ; art museum mediation ; art museum transformational experiences ; art museums as potential sites for reflection on society ; Canadian art education research ; complexity of adult art appreciation ; contemporary art ; developping museum programs for adults ; mapping adults’ art experiences in a museum ; museum education ; museum education and cultural democracy and cultural democratization ; museum experience ; psychological functioning of an adult exploring art in a museum ; understanding adult responses to artworks

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References

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References

  1. Anderson, D. (1995). Gradgrind driving Queen Mab's Chariot: What museums have (and have not) learnt from adult education. In A. Chadwick & A. Stannett (Eds.), Museums and the education of adults (pp. 11–33). NIACE.
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  2. Brinck, I. (2007). Situated cognition, dynamic systems, and art: On artistic creativity and aesthetic experience. Janus Head, 9(2), 407–431. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279943018_Situated_Cognition_Dynamic_Systems_and_Art_On_Artistic_Creativity_and_Aesthetic_Experience
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Carr, D. (1985). Self-directed learning in cultural institutions. New Directions for Adult & ContinuingEducation, 25, 51–62. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ace.36719852507
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper Perennial.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Émond, A. M. (2016a). Identifying a conceptual framework for the study of visitors’ verbalizations of self-awareness while exploring contemporary art in a museum context. Canadian Review of Art Education: Research and Issues, 43(1), 153–169. http://crae.mcgill.ca/article/view/23
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Émond, A. M. (2016b). La pertinence pour les musées de développer des outils de médiations écrites pour l'appréciation de l'art contemporain. In A. Savoie , A. M. Émond , F. Gagnon-Bourget , & P. Gosselin (Eds.), Actes du Colloque sur la recherche en enseignement des arts visuels (pp. 26–32). CRÉA.
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     [Google Scholar]
  8. Émond, A. M. (2018). The intellectual functioning of art museums visitors: Identifying components of a transformative aesthetic experience. In C. Pracana & M. Wang (Eds.), InPACT Book of Proceedings (pp. 156–160). InScience Press. http://inpact-psychologyconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/InPACT-2018_Book-Proceedings.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Émond, A. M. (2019). Adult visitors’ intellectual functioning exploring contemporary art: Experiences that generate self-discovery. In C. Pracana & M. Wang (Eds.), InPACT Book of Proceedings (pp. 101–105). InScience Press. http://inpact-psychologyconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/InPACT-2019_Book-Proceedings.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Émond, A. M. (2020). A journey from self-discovery to self-caring: Older adults engaging with contemporary art. In C. Pracana & M. Wang (Eds.), InPACT Book of Proceedings (pp. 59–63). InScience Press. http://inpact-psychologyconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/InPACT-2020_Proceedings.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Émond, A. M. , & Mendonça, J. P. (2018). Cultural action-making in English Canada's museums: A historical overview 1840–2018. In S. Wintzerith (Ed.), ICOM Education 28 (pp. 89–108). Committee for Education and Cultural Action. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EErtwOgLOiMfKe7cOBBAFWINIvPTmoAy/view
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Jakesch, M. , Leder, H. , & Forster, M. (2013). Image ambiguity and fluency. PLoS ONE, 8(9): e74084. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074084
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Knowles, M. S. (1990). The adult learners: A neglected species (4th ed.). Gulf Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Kokkos, A. (2010). Transformative learning through aesthetic experience: Towards a comprehensive method. Journal of Transformative Education, 8(3), 155–177. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5934/7b9e3b38154e84884162439feac8e2f21147.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Leder, H. , Belke, B. , Oeberst, A. , & Augustin, D. (2004). A model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments. British Journal of Psychology, 95(4), 489–508.
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  16. Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. Jossey-Bass.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Morin, A. , & Racy, F. (2021). Dynamic self-processes. In J. F. Rauthmann (Ed.), The handbook of personality dynamics and processes (pp. 365–386). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813995-0.00015-7
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Pelowski, M. , & Akiba, F. (2011). A model of art perception, evaluation and emotion in transformative aesthetic experience. New Ideas Psychology, 29, 80–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2010.04.001
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Perkins, D. (2019). Art as civic inspiration. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 38(1), 33–41. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0276237419868951
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Radford, M. (2004). Emotion and creativity. The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 38(1), 53–61. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3527362?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Sandell, R. (Ed.). (2002). Museums, society, inequality. Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Smith, J. K. (2014). The museum effect: How museums, libraries, and cultural institutions educate and civilize society. Rowman & Littlefield.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Soren, B. (2009). Museum experiences that change visitors. Museum Management and Curatorship, 24(3), 233–251. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09647770903073060
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Sternberg, S. (1989). The art of participation. In N. Berry & S. Mayer (Eds.), Museum education history, theory, and practice (pp. 154–171). The National Art Education Association.193
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Thompson, L. , & Chatterjee, H. (2014). Assessing well-being outcomes for arts and heritage activities: Development of a museum well-being measures toolkit. Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 5(1), 29–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Witcomb, A. (2010). Remembering the dead by affecting the living: The case of a miniature model of Treblinka. In S. H. Dudley (Ed.), Museum materialities: Objects, engagements, interpretations (pp. 39–53). Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]

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