This article seeks to reflect on mediation in museums based on experiences that occurred in the “Learning in order to Teach” Project. In this case, the mediation acquires specific characteristics because it deals with young deaf people learning art-related contents in order to teach other youth in their first language. The most interesting aspect of this encounter between museum and deaf culture is a mutual, immediate and highly visible influence. While museum-goers and professionals understand that the “gestures” used by the deaf are not random (rather, on the contrary, they make up a
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Daina LeytonCibele LucenaJoana Zatz Mussi
Artists create new aesthetics to communicate new messages and new concerns. Apprehension about the climate, its changes, global warming and a disposition to anxiously running after an ideal sustainable development are part of the issues we all now experience with a certain degree of anxiety. This is why the sensitive antennae of artists have perceived and evolved that. Now they are committed on many fields to making their voice be heard and to raising ethical and social issues, also regarding the scientific instruments man possesses to manipulate nature. So they have now accessed the group of
In the globalisation era, arts have provided food for thought on “how latitudes became forms”, to stress again that now, at global level, one should no longer define art as a contemplation “space”, but as an “environment”, a place for experience. On the other hand, already when Bern saw the inauguration of the historic exhibition “When Attitudes became Forms” in 1969, people realised that the problem was lying in the behaviour, in the attitude, of making arts towards the world. Basically, the formalistic concept of self-referentiality in a work of art was to be overcome, and attention was to
The world, all at once, has become a small world. Not only owing to TV, satellites and the Internet that allow us to jump from side to side of our planet in a click. But also owing to a phenomenon that evokes dry lands, devastating rains, tsunamis and hurricanes, torrid summers and melting glaciers: global warming. In the heated argument on this issue with so many people talking, in the past few years also artists have made their rising voice be heard. Artists-popularisers, aware of their role and of the considerable communication potential of the art medium. Because “One salient image
This report presents the findings from a summative evaluation of the NSF-funded Wild Music traveling exhibition conducted by Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A), for the Science Museum of Minnesota in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The evaluation documents the exhibition’s impact and effectiveness using timing and tracking observations and onsite exit interviews. Data were collected at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) in July and August 2007 and at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (PNNM) in March and April 2008.
Based upon the findings of hundreds of long-term interviews with museum visitors, Falk observes that museum visits generate complex, personally rich meanings for people. He hypothesizes that visitors have a working model of what an art museum affords and self-select to use the museum based on a limited set of identity-related self-aspects--traits, roles, attitudes, and group memberships associated with self-identification. He further hypothesizes that visitors utilize these self-aspects both prospectively in justifying their visit, revealed through self-defined visit motivations, and again
This front-end evaluation study provided information about how potential visitors to the Dena'ina exhibition (scheduled to open at the Anchorage Museum in 2010) might think and feel about the exhibition's themes. Twenty interviews were conducted with a diverse group that included people with Dena'ina and other Native American cultures. The key findings were: There was a lot of diversity about what participants knew, or didn't know, about the Dena'ina, and how the Dena'ina culture was similar to others. People knew about the effects of contact on religion, education, and dress. Non-Natives (as
With the support of a Wallace Excellence Award, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (the Gardner) contracted with Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to study its young adult visitors. The study is part of an initiative to engage young adults between 18 and 34 years old, and to create conditions for a compelling experience at the Gardner that will foster continuing relationships with the Museum. Data for this study were collected from in-depth interviews with 55 groups of young adult visitors (184 individuals) between 18 and 43 years of age. After the interview, each participant completed
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Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Partnering with National Musical Arts, the Science Museum of Minnesota seeks to develop BioMusic, a 4,000 sq. ft. traveling exhibition that explores the origins of music in nature and the connections between music and sound of living things. This project is based on planning grant ESI-0211611 (The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music) awarded to NMA. The project is based on the emerging interdisciplinary research field of biomusic, which includes musicology plus aspects of neuroscience, biology, zoology, environmental science, physics, psychology, math and anthropology. The exhibit sections -- "Humanimal" Music; Natural Symphonies; Ancient Roots; Music, Body and Mind; and World of Music -- use both music and natural sound to explore biodiversity, cultural diversity, the physics of sound and the brain. BROADER IMPACT: The exhibition is expected to travel for at least six years, reaching some two million people in 18 communities. It is to be accompanied by a six-part radio series (Sweet Bird Classics) for young children. Because of the connection to music and many other areas of public interest, this exhibition has the potential to attract and engage new audiences to science museums and stimulate their interest in STEM.
In this article, Jenni Martin, Director of Education at Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, describes how and why her team developed a new exhibit, "The Wonder Cabinet" for children ages 4 and under and accompanying adults. Martin outlines the design process associated with this exhibit, noting challenges and best practices.
In this article, Joan Krevlin, Partner at BKSK Architects, discusses the "Preschool Playground" exhibition at the New York Hall of Science, where children discover the environment and learn principles of science through sensory exploration. Krevlin outlines the background, planning process, and design of the unique exhibit.
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences proposal is based on Cindy Van Dover's NSF-funded research, OCE 0350554, Biogeography and community structure in mussel beds at Pacific hydrothermal vents. The primary deliverable is a traveling science and art exhibit that focuses on the PI's deep sea research of hydrothermal vents and the organisms living in those environments. On several of these expeditions, the PI was accompanied by nature watercolorist/scientific illustrator, Karen Jacobsen. Jacobsen's work, along with animated sculptures of tubeworms by sculptor, Chuck Pell, and displays of dive artifacts will form the body of the exhibition, which will travel to both marine and art museums. Major partners are the North Carolina Maritime Museum and the Muscarelle Museum of the College of William & Mary. Muscarelle will manage the tour. Additional learning products will include an exhibition catalog with essays by Van Dover and others, a naturalist's guide to the exhibition, educational materials for children, video podcasts, docent training materials, and website content