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Lesson Plans


RE: VTS - organizing tours to students advantage

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Kimberly Anne Herbert (kimberly)
Mon, 24 May 1999 11:55:44 -0500

Reatha,
At CAM we do split the students time (elementary). They spend approximately
25 minutes in the gallery with a staff member looking at and discussing the
art, 25 minutes creating art, 5 minutes cleaning the art studio (you'd be
amazed what a good job they do), 5 minutes summarizing what they have
learned and what they have done. The activities in the art studio are
related to the exhibit, and they can see the exhibit from the art studio. If
they wish students can stay in the gallery to look at the exhibit. They just
don't have enough time. We give them passes to come back, but we don't see
enough coming back into the museum. I'd like to expand the time, but we are
cramming the classes into the museum as tightly was we can now. I'm thinking
maybe offer expanded tours as an option earlier in the semester, and 1 hour
tours as the only option in the last month of an exhibit or semester (when
everybody wants to come).
The biggest thing that takes away from students time visiting the museum is
the group being late and needing to use the washroom as soon as they get
here. I know it's not usually the teachers fault, busses run late, or the
trip takes longer than expected. I recommend teachers pad their schedule by
about 10 minutes in town (it's a small city), and 15 minutes for out of town
groups (we serve a 15 county area of West Texas). I also tell out of town
groups to check with the bus drivers before finalizing their time, since
school busses have a lower speed limit in Texas it might take longer than
they think to get to town.
Kimberly Herbert
Children's Art Museum Administrator
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and Children's Art Museum
P.O. Box 3092 San Angelo, TX 76902
915/ 659-4391

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-artsednet.edu
[owner-artsednet.edu] On Behalf Of RWilk85411
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 1999 8:48 AM
To: duckplace; artsednet.edu
Subject: Re: VTS

In a message dated 5/22/99 10:03:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
duckplace writes:

<< Having been a docent for quite some time, I tend to
think the VTS method is just as valuable with an
"adult" audience as it is with children. I sometimes
get very frustrated with some docents and others who
think that touring someone is an opportunity to show
how much they know or think they know about an artist,
an "ism", etc., etc. The audience takes a brief
glance at the object, then focuses on the speaker.
The speaker becomes more important than the object.
Art as a visual experience is replaced by this
auditory droning on and on. I do a lot of research,
but more importantly I spend a lot of time with the
objects.

With really "good" art, I think less is better. The
quality of the experience far out-weighs our American
obssession with quantity. That's in reference to the
complaints by teachers that students aren't seeing
"enough."

I gotta jump in again. It seems to me that the solution to the problem of
the
children not seeing enough would be to split the time. Maybe part of the
time
could be spent in discussion and another part with the viewers merely
looking without interruption. Perhaps another part could be a discussion
which could take place after the whole process, back in the classroom, in
another area of the museum, etc.

THEY DISCUSS TO GET INFORMATION
THEY LOOK USING THE NEW INFORMATION
THEY DISCUSS USING THE INFORMATION AND WHAT THEY HAVE SEEN ON THEIR OWN AND
DEVELOP EVEN MORE INFORMATION AND UNDERSTANDING.
Waddya Think?
Reatha
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