This case study is an analysis of the art criticism of one undergraduate and eight graduate art education students about the work of contemporary artist Robert Rauschenberg. The purpose of the analysis is to identify the students' use or nonuse of four thinking strategies found in the practice of three professional art critics and to assess implications for classroom art criticism.
The contemporary approach to art education focuses on content that is derived from a broad range of the visual arts with an emphasis on what can be learned from works of art. This is a significant departure from earlier aesthetic approaches which led to purely formalist criticism in the classroom. Based on the work of Arthur Danto, the author proposes that teachers develop student abilities to go beyond the visual level of artworks and enable them to gain access to the complexity of meanings that works of art possess. To exemplify this practice, an analysis of Adrian Piper's work entitled I
This paper describes the process researchers and staff used to improve wayfinding at the Minnesota History Center. The authors discuss findings from this research as well as general recommendations for helping visitors find their way around and make choices.
This paper describes the evaluation questions that drove two front-end studies conducted by Randi Korn & Associates (RKA) that were not in art museums. This paper also addresses of exhibition development with significant implications for front-end evaluation in the context of the studies. Then, the discussion returns to exhibition development and evaluation in art museums. Following this more abstract examination of the topic is a discussion of two front-end studies conducted by RKA at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1996, looking at how the process worked there and what benefit the staff
This paper discusses the "Growing Up and Away" project at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, in which a team consisting of a curator, programmer, designer and project team leader, developed a family-friendly exhibit that showcased the vast diversity of Glenbow's collection of artifacts related to childhood. This paper outlines the team's approach to development, front-end evaluation, formative evaluation, advisory groups, and related programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Linda HawkeChristina J. Simpson
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this article, Florence Bramley-Hill, independent consultant and creativity couch, presents brainstorming techniques that can be used as a tool for enhancing creativity and problem-solving.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Florence Bramley-HillVisitor Studies Association
In this paper, Margaret M. Ropp of the Michigan State University Museum discusses a study that explored visitors' experiences with the exhibit, "Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity" and the role that the video interpretation played. The exhibition team was concerned that African art is often seen as primitive, anonymous, and devoid of creativity, so they developed individual videos for the 11 featured artists in an effort to counter those stereotypes. The major finding is that the videos helped the visitors who watched them to connect the creative process, the artist and the final product
In this article, Petra Seidensticker and Heiner Treinen, both of Universitat Bochum, discuss their evaluation work of the 1995 exhibition "Im Takt der Maschine," of the Deutsche Arbeitsschutzausstellung (German Exhibition for Safety on the Job, abbr. DASA) run by the Bundesanstalt fur Arbeitsschutz and Unfallforschung (Federal Institution for Worker Safety and Accident Research, BAU) in Dortmund. The purpose of the exhibition is to graphically familiarize visitors with important problems of worker safety in industrial production.
In this article, Bernhard Graf discusses the work of the Institut fur Museumskunde (Institute of Museum Studies), a division of the Staatliche Museen (State Museums) in Berlin. The Institut is devoted to research and documentation in the various areas of museum work, defined by the scientific disciplines relevant to the individual project.
In this article, Marilyn G. Hood of Hood Associates, discusses the importance of high response rates to museum audience research. Hood argues that museums can produce more reliable, accurate measurements of their work by becoming knowledgeable about about questionnaire design, sampling, and appropriate response rates.
In this article, Stephen Bitgood, of Jacksonville State University, discusses evaluation efforts to assess people's understanding of evolution and to determine what type of messages might be most effective in communicating evolutionary theory. This article focuses on one aspect of their findings--the relationship between attitudes toward evolution/creation theories and the perception that evolution conflicts with Christian religions.
Summative evaluation of the NSF- and NEH-funded Hunters of the Sky exhibition, including remedial, timing and tracking, and summative. The 5,000 square foot exhibition takes a science and humanities perspective on birds of prey. A particular focus of the evaluation was the exhibition's impact on "getting visitors to explore their own values and beliefs about the human relationship to the natural world" as well as "getting visitors to critically examine questions of economics, public policy, and environmental ethics related to the survival of raptors and their habitats." Sample data collection
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Deborah PerryKarla NiehusScience Museum of Minnesota