Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.

Lesson Plans


Re: Museums

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Kathrine L Walker (klwalk)
Tue, 3 Sep 1996 16:23:09 -0500 (CDT)

Please do not generalize about art museums (or any museum.) There are so
many museums out there that are interactive and doing wonderful things
to involve children and adults in art! We will have artist's boxes,
projects, and gallery games when we open. The Asian galleries at the
Denver Museum of Art has games and interactive activities. Education
departments are actively researching learning in museums and trying to
adapt to their many audiences.

Also, remember there are people who still want a peaceful, reflective
experience in art museums. We need to serve them, too!

Kathrine Walker, Education Coordinator, Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State

P.S. Living artists and Soho are great - use them too! Students should
be exposed to all aspects of the art world.

On Tue, 3 Sep 1996, KPRS wrote:

> dabssw wrote:
> >
> > I recently visited the Smithsonian's collection of art museums/galleries and
> > having a little time left ventured into the air and space museum. I stood in
> > amazement - why is it that the air and space is a haven of excitment and
> > activity from all those, both young and old from counteries all over the globe,
> > who continue to be enthralled by all they see within it? and how sad I felt -
> > why did people trudge heavy footed through the art galleries, those galleries so
> > clinical so - "do not touch"?
> > IT IS TIME TO ACT - ART IS EXCITING IS INTERACTIVE so lets throw out those old
> > museums and replace them with opportunities to touch to feel to do.
>
>
> That is precisely why I take my students to SoHo in New York City 4 times
> a year. There are hundreds of galleries, with a variety of art, some
> good, some not so good, all exciting. No one tells my students that by
> virtue of the fact that the work is hanging in the gallery that it is
> "good" or "important" or "famous" or any other expectations. My students
> get to make up their own minds, and have frequently even had dialogues
> with the artists who happen to be there. Not only do I take 45 of my
> nearest and dearest in the yellow limonsine, I volunteer other discilined
> teachers (i.e. English, Math, History) to be chaparones, and then they
> enter into dialogues with the students about the art. You probably have
> read my definition of art, I sent it through the molecules....so imagine
> if you will when you walk into an art gallery, and see finely crafted,
> hand made, furniture, like credenzas, hutches, and highboys, and you are
> encouraged to open drawers, and doors, only to find nicely arranged piles
> of dog poop in them. Of course, (you don't know me yet, but trust me) I
> roar with laughter, and the kids have to scrape me up off the floor. NOW
> how can you not have a conversation about what art is??????
>
> My students are encouraged to go to the Met, Whitney, and Gugenheim, as
> well as the Museum of Modern Art. They know in their heart of hearts,
> through, that someone else has made the aesthetic and historic and
> cultural decision that these pieces gracing the walls are important. In
> that context they try to dialogue about why, but in the context of SoHo
> they dialogue about why not.
>
> San D
>