annie peters
graduate student, MAT
corcoran college of art+design
with mara, age 6
Dear Families,
Most of you have visited museums. We can generally agree that, while gift shops and restrooms are user-friendly, artworks don’t always share this description. For those infrequent adult visitors—despite admirable efforts by savvy curators—galleries may seem stoic or confounding, as if missing their instruction manuals. For families with young children, these experiences become more daunting as artworks become potential playthings. However, the exciting benefits awaiting your family at the museum far outweigh any initial discomforts.
The following blog post will offer in-depth explanations regarding the how and why of museum exploration. This site is specifically interested in using the parent(adult)-child relationship to ground the discovery process. Though I focus on the development of children’s vocabulary and observational skills, my hope is that families will use their museum experiences to look and learn together.
Best Wishes,
Annie
Part I: Introduction
Living in Washington, DC with no children of my own, I recently asked Mara and her mother to accompany me to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Mara is six years old and, like her mother, is not a regular art museum visitor. I am very grateful to Mara and her family for their willingness to participate and be recorded for this project.
Part II: Acclimating to the Museum
Our first stop in the museum was at the Black Box, a dark gallery designed to view video art. After jump-starting our eyes and brains with a loop from Semiconductor’s Magnetic Movie, 2007, we headed to the upstairs galleries. (Museum adventures are usually more successful when initiated by exciting visual stimuli. A museum’s website should offer helpful exhibition previews.)
By the time we reached the third floor, Mara and I had already experimented with the digital voice recorder, recording several conversations along the way. I state this to clarify that the two podcasts included in this blog do not represent our first two conversations about art. However, they do represent our fifth and seventh conversations about art, reinforcing the notion that such conversations are indeed attainable.
Part III: Exploring Art with VTS
It was quiet on the third floor, and I asked Mara to pick the pieces of art about which she wanted to speak. I was careful not to ask her to select works that she “liked”. I anticipated that she, unlike overly self-conscious adults, would select works that affected her without discriminating between “ugly” and “beautiful”, without deliberating cultural tastes. I anticipated correctly: Mara chose a variety of sculptures and paintings, figurative and abstract works.
This first podcast documents the conversation between Mara and myself in front of Edward Hopper’s painting, First Row Orchestra, 1951. Listen below:
In this conversation, like in all of our conversations, I began by asking Mara, “What’s going on here [in this picture/painting/sculpture]?” This question is supported by the repeated prompt, “What do you see that makes you say that?”
I have adopted this structure directly from the program, Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). Visual Thinking Strategies was developed by Abigail Housen and MoMA’s former Director of Education, Phillip Yenawine. As a curriculum and teaching method, VTS uses fine art to enhance students’ critical thinking skills. Through guided observation and discussion, VTS directly supports language development, the ability to draw conclusions based on evidence, problem-solving in unfamiliar situations and understanding the existence of multiple “correct” answers.
Though a formal VTS curriculum is designed to facilitate group discussions and fit the needs of a classroom environment, the foundational principles are perfectly suited for an intimate family visit to the museum. The simple two-question structure requires no art historical information (though images might spurn subsequent Google searches). Children should be given adequate time to speak and consider visual cues as they are eager to share their insights. Additionally, their natural tendency to mimic the actions and emotions depicted in an image supports their assimilation of new material into preexisting frameworks of understanding. Such kinetic explorations can be appreciated while efforts are made to translate those actions into words.
In a VTS-based dialogue, most parental input is the summarization of the child’s statements. This reiteration and consolidation maintains focus on the work and familiarizes children with narrative forms and clear communication structures.
Part IV: Balancing the Classroom Curriculum: new sequences of looking
“It’s symmetrical,” Mara immediately observed as we entered the gallery housing Bruce Nauman’s Art Make-Up #1-4, 1967-68. It was clear that symmetry was a relatively new and noteworthy concept for Mara, and it was exciting to witness her satisfaction after contextualizing the artwork. However, the incident led me to consider a larger issue in art education: the hierarchical divide between formal vocabulary and honest observation.
I have been in numerous elementary art rooms, observed art classes and taught them myself, and there is often something amiss about the way in which “formal elements” are addressed. Formal elements refer to traditional descriptors including line, shape, texture, color, composition and—by extension—symmetry. I found that with Mara, once she offered her vocabulary word upon entering the gallery, she required more time to answer the question, “What’s going on here?” She needed more time to make true meaning through looking.
I am not saying that Mara’s observation was wrong (or that symmetry was even introduced by her art teacher); in fact, it was correct and insightful. However, I am arguing that there exists a tendency for art teachers to reinforce “proper” vocabulary before presenting a sufficient number of artworks to their students for exploration. To balance the classroom curriculum and introduce new sequences of learning, family trips to museums or other art viewing venues may supplement the images made available in schools. By offering children multiple modes of discovery, formal terminology can be checked to ensure its support—and not suffocatation—of emotive humanistic response. After all, as you will hear in the podcast below, Mara’s description of black dirt-encrusted worms is far more telling than any alternative discussion about black, curved bumpy lines.
Eva Hesse, Vertiginous Detour, 1966
Listen Below:
Part V: Your Turn
I hope that this blog post rejuvenated your confidence in the museum experience.
Please explore art with your family.
Allow time for honest discussions.
Leave when you’re finished and go back when you’re ready.
