Partnership in the sphere of education

 

This report deals with the matters of educational activities and interaction in the arts domain in museums, as well as of cooperation of museums and schools in the sphere of education.

The first part of this report is devoted to objectives, the understanding of education, role, and structure of interaction in the sphere of education and culture in German museums.

The cooperation of museums and schools will be touched upon in the second part of the report. This activity will be illustrated by a series of examples drawn from practice.

My report is based on the experience of work in museums where I held various positions: from the free-lancer to the head of a subdivision. As a rule, these were fine arts museums or cultural-and-historical collections and expositions. Since 2013, I have led the subdivision of education and communications of the State Museums of Berlin. In this position, together with the team of employees, I am in charge of the educational activities of 19 museums and 15 collections, including the Pergamon Museum on the Museum Island, New and Old National Galleries.

The scope of this report does not allow for any detailed presentation of interaction of arts and cultures within the framework of the museum activity or the history of «museum education,» the school in Germany, which is rather durable and embraces many aspects. I will have to restrict myself to few theses which are immediately related to my speech.

 

Background

First, I should note pioneers of «museum education» who were at the outset of this area. Alfred Lichtwark (1886-1914), the director of the Hamburg Arts Museum, justified and implemented the idea of necessity of involving the museum and modern arts in the public life of Hamburg. He spoke for the necessity of the museum which was in the state of expectance, or for the need of an institution which would have a real impact and «intervenes» in the civic upbringing.

Also, we should remember the role of museum activists of 1960s-70s, such as Wolfgang Zacharias (Munich), Thomas Zello (Hamburg), and Julia Brighthaupt (Dusseldorf). They were at the zero ground of using the potential of arts, pedagogy, and education for the new interpretation of political involvement of citizens. Olaf Schwenke, one of representatives of this movement said that esthetical upbringing was the same as political upbringing by means of sensual material.

One more deviation concerns the scientific discipline which has been taught in German-speaking higher schools for 45 years and is devoted to the interaction of culture and arts; it is the so-called museum education. One should note especially among the others, e.g., Carmen Mersch (the Institute of Arts Education of the Zurich University) and Eva Schturm (the Institute of Arts, Textile and Means of Communication at the University named after Carl von Ossietzky in the city of Oldenburg).

There is the increasing number of new themes and areas at the cross of arts and education appearing and forming now. Champions of the new approach in museums call for the «change of the paradigm», «criticism of institutions» and «involvement and profit-sharing of visitors». Briefly the idea of the new approach which actively involves adults, children, teachers and students in the museum activities can be formulated as «from the visitor to the user» (Heike Kropff, 2007).

Let us turn to the terminological analysis of basic concepts. It is necessary because the concepts designating educational activities and interaction in the sphere of arts in German museums differ from each other.

The notion of «museum education» is the term dated back to mid-1960s and close to the concept of «school pedagogy».

The set phrase «interaction in culture and arts» implies all kinds of activities creating access for stakeholders to the cultural and arts heritage within the context of an intermediate institution and motivating them to interact» (Gruber, 2006, p. 23). On the one hand, «interaction in the sphere of arts / culture» means the interaction related to inner understanding, and on the other hand, a broad spectrum of goals of museum employees engaged in educational activities.

In Berlin, the general consensus is to use the set phrase «education and interaction», which highlights openness and practical orientation. Here, the matter is not only the activities of museum workers who are related to educational activities, but also of museum directors and curators of collections and expos. Openness which is the matter is very important, if interaction of education and arts is to be defined as the basic task, as it follows from the Charter of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). «Museum» implies a noncommercial, long-term, public-access institution at the service of the society and its development, which acquires, stores, studies, acquaints and exposes material and intangible articles related to people and environment for the purposes of education, teaching, and emotional enrichment» (Ethical Provisions for Museums by ICOM, 2010).

According to information of the Institute of Museum Studies, Germany has above 6,250 museums, differing in size and sources of financing. During the congress of the German Museum Union held in 2009, one could very clearly trace the differences in the concept of education as it was interpreted in different public institutions. Given it, please let me give a brief narrative of two stands, or two poles, between which the educational activities and interaction in the sphere of culture in German museums are positioned.

In accordance with the first stance, the museum education is a service, which tries to differentiate the society clearly into target groups, where «everyone gets his or her own share of attention, and everybody is under surveillance»; it wants to have on hand an individual offer for all people, attempts to fulfill all voiced or supposed wishes of visitors as well as answer to all raised or presumed questions.

According to the second approach, the museum education fulfills the function of an intermediary as a program for «the study in one’s own interests» or as a «laboratory» creating educational programs with sometimes an «unknown result», in order to furnish «instructions for self-education» and «intensive reflection at the level of images/arts» stemming from them.

Let me propose my own understanding of the place held by educational activities in the museums.

Integration in the structure, provision of personnel and funding – all these items differ radically depending on the specific museum. There are museums with own subdivision for educational activities and communication; the other museums may only afford maintenance of one staffer who is vested with tasks concerning educational activities; and there are museums which work only with free-lancers in this area. As a rule, employees with the functionality related to educational work get a position on the staff sheet of the museum. But in the best scenario, we deal here with the parity partnership which starts at the stage when expositions are planned and collections presented.

With the support of my colleagues, I actively champion the improvement of structural and institutional conditions of maintaining educational activities and communication in German museums, and I speak for such structures which would fit the idea saying that «the major goal of museums is education.»

Since 2000, German schools carry out investigations of the knowledge level on a regular basis. Results of the so-called PISA trial are the changes in the system of school education, because natural sciences have been emphasized increasingly since that time. Often it is carried out at the expense of education in the field of music and fine-arts culture. Many public figures have voiced much criticism about such change, highlighting the significance of cultural education: this critical assessment has led to the fact that the topic of cultural enlightenment has been experiencing a boom for few years already, which borders with unprecedented fuss. «Arts and culture is a locomotive of public development – it is this which makes cultural education so significant. Enlightenment in the cultural domain creates new techniques of education and progressively influences our life within the framework of the school and out of it. Germs of cultural education bear a huge potential for political education.» (The Federal Center for Political Enlightenment, 2015)

The Council for Education in the Sphere of Culture is the amalgamation of 7 noncommercial foundations acting in the economic domain. According to its members’ understanding, education in culture means, in particular, general education in arts through arts. The Council deems the financial support and further expansion of this form of cultural enlightenment as necessary for four reasons:

The first reason is rooted in the field of anthropology: fine arts and cultural education are the best means of development of human senses, thus making a crucial contribution in the development of the ability to perceive and creativity.

The second reason is of cultural nature: artistic culture is the meaningful sphere of social and cultural life; it cannot unfold itself by its own means but requires the initial acquaintance (e.g., through cultural education) in order to develop the relevant interests both in the sphere of perception and in the sphere of creativity (social/cultural co-involvement).

The third reason is that the creative activity within the framework of cultural education renders a unique possibility of cognition and learning, via which one may learn not only about the surrounding world but about oneself, while alternating perception and creativity.

Finally, fourth: the creative activities within the framework of cultural education offers possibilities of communication in different artistic disciplines which express meanings nonverbally.

Communication in the sphere of arts and educational activities in museums have different target groups: children and families; teenagers and adults; kindergarten children and students; amateurs and professionals. However, nearly all museums center on schoolchildren and teachers.

In State Museums of Berlin, we offer a broad range of variants, or the so-called «background noise». Most often, there are hour-long discussions of exhibitions and two-hour master classes for students, as well as teacher training programs. Staffers in charge of communication in arts and culture, engaged in these events, have a wide spectrum of techniques like maintaining a discussion in the form of the dialogue; the method of concentration on the individual or action; as well as change of techniques; these are only few basic components of our activities in the sphere of communication.

Various didactic materials and tools help motivate schoolchildren to carry out own their own studies and continue education. Often, perception of pieces of art and artistic-historical objects at the expos and in museums takes place together with artistic-and-practical activities. The artistic creative process offers an additional opportunity to get closer to what has been seen. Not the piece of art, but rather the process of rapprochement is in the focus of attention. During each discussion at the exhibition or in the master class, one should build a bridge to the live space of the schooler. The main question is «How does it concern me personally?», and it affords many answers. I believe that such educational programs are important and deserve attention. Besides, they fit well the view that visiting the museum is a positive result of one’s own biography. They make possible public involvement in the exhibitions which are the subject of discussions of all citizens in a city or region. Such proposals also coincide with my idea about the «arbitrary use» of museums: if there is a desire, one may make a brief visit, even when it is once a year during the school excursion, the Long Night of Museums or on one rainy Sunday.

Already for few years, together with the above-described rising recognition of the precious value of education in the field of culture, we, workers of museums, have been facing a special challenge. Apart from educational and enlightening programs for schoolers and teachers, we have to master «partnerships in the educational domain between schools and museums.» In this case, the say is about possibilities of long-term and sustained cooperation of institutions, within which the museum claims for a bigger role than merely a place of out-curriculum activities. Such educational partnership – when looking at both systems, the museum and the school, - has a series of complications.

Both institutions follow different «logics of systems» (this is the quotation from the publication by the German Museum Union). Friedrich Waidacher formulated it even shorter in 2004: «The museum is the museum, and school is the school». What aspects are manifested in the asymmetry of the school-museum partnership?

In Germany, the school education is limited by many organizational frames: classes are divided into lessons 45 minutes each. There are classes in school subjects, but little cross-disciplinary forms of learning; strict curricula, educational objectives and scores. Therefore, the school does not have many opportunities of participating in the open-end learning process. But the museums also must learn more to become a good educational partner

In the last time, several «guidebooks on relations-building» were published to help reliably schools and museums lead this partnership through successes and failures. Also, some research and noncommercial projects are devoted to this difficult problem.

Schule @ museum («school in the museum»): recommendations how to cooperate

Kunz Ottа. Paths to successful cooperation, 2005

Agents in the sphere of culture

The first project is called «Your own history». In brief on the project: sponsor is the foundation «Berlin’s life». The site is the New National Gallery. Scheduled: May-June 2014. Participants are students of the primary school named after J. von Moltke (2nd /3rd grades). Project leader: artist Tille Christ; art teacher: Julia Davis, the female teacher. Time course: one week at school and one week in museum.

The essence of the project is that schoolchildren deal with pieces of art from 1980 through 2000, try various techniques of mastering, for instance, write tests, draw pictures… work out their own approaches to masterpieces. Ideas and drawings of the children are collected in a booklet which is free of charge and is in open access of other visitors of the New National Gallery. There is the effect of co-involvement in this project: schoolchildren introduce their cultural techniques and methods of mastering to other schoolchildren.

This project was interesting to me for the following reasons:

Why I was interested in this project?

Limited size: expenses (1 week, 3 free-lancers) and budget (15,000 euro)

Unification: cooperation with not only one school, but also with another partner which perfectly fits our educational goals: it is the housing-construction company with the function of the managing company.

Extensive process of reflection in the strange surrounding: (museum), masterpieces, aliens (the museum educator, security officers); the whole process posed certain requirements to the participants, but they were not excessive.

The time period (1 week) was enough for shaping one’s own attitude to the situation.

Co-involvement: children participate in the transfer of cultural techniques and mastering methods to other children.

Variance: a possibility of development of strategies for further projects!

The next project bears the name «Copy and Paste», and it is the fake workshop.

Site: the Hamburg Railway Station – the Modern Art Museum – Berlin. It is the joint project of the museum and secondary school named after Kurt Tucholski. Period: since 2009. Participants: schoolchildren of different grades. Leaders: artists, museum educators, and teachers.

«Copy and paste» describes the principle of action! In the course of the project and within the framework of a special discipline, schoolchildren of 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 grades copy (starting from 2009) the masterpieces, exposed at the Hamburg Railway Station and in the New National Gallery. Thematic projects and classes refer to the emerging copies or current exhibitions in the partner museum with the account of practice. Since 2012, this project has brought the following fruit: exposition of copies of pieces of art at the Hamburg Railway Station and at school and the supporting program: (discussion, debates over the exhibition, audio guide, and catalogues).

Why I was interested in this project?

Concept: the multi-layer nature / never-never of the idea / sense of humor

Critical analysis of the «museum» as the institution, its content, regularities; and of «school» as the institution

Unification of various systems

Combined analytic and creative approach

Long-term: «finally, the non-attenuating effect!» Schtrider)

Educational processes enrich the project as they are considered during its further course of development.

The undoubted plus of this project is the team-styled work of museum educatots, artists, and teachers. «The feeling of intimacy and joint experience has appeared due to long cooperation, which allows for an extremely flexible response in short run to the relevant groups of schoolers and fine-tune the project to the circumstances».

High degree of the school identification / identification of students and teachers with the project

Page in Internet

The school-leavers: life with the museum collection

Lefos: involvement of the faculty

Project’s own dynamics

New formats: COPY & PASTE for the next generation; to create art themselves!

2014/15 VERIFICATION OF SYSTEMS OF VISUAL AIDS PROFESSIONALS: is still going on; schoolchildren study the impact of different systems on the paintings. Similar paintings are exhibited at school, in the museum and at home; similar photos are presented in a youth club or home for the aged …

Difficulties: unconfirmed financing (at the expense of sponsor funds)

The next project is called: «The Language through Arts». Site: the Volkwang Museum, Essen; time period: 2011 – 2015. Partners Volkwang Essen Museum, Duisburg University in Esses, different grades (5th /6th grades). Sponsor is the Mercator Foundation (2011-15). The project consists of three modules. The underlying idea: increase of language competence of schoolchildren due to intensively encountering arts.

The first module is the school, children of the 5th and 6th grades, children from migrant families and those who need additional language lessons. Over half a year the project involved 8 school grades; ten two-hour meetings in the museum and ten meetings in school were held. Typical of this project are the diversity of techniques and enhanced work with the language.

The second module involves additional education which is carried out with the help of animists (? multipliers?), arts teachers and language instructors, as well as other teachers.

The third module deals with students of teacher-training departments since the goals include bringing the project technique in the process of teaching students.

What was interesting to me in this project?

Content: an additional language course with the account of «museum languages»

At a first glance, this topic is very difficult

Attempt to approach the topic with easiness, humor and joy of experiment

Cross-disciplinary approach: arts education, language didactics, arts, theater…

Development of techniques / inventory of teaching aids

Testing the already-known learning techniques / development of new learning techniques

Knowledge transfer: other people acquire and use knowledge

Cooperation with project partners: museum-school, museum-university: the combination «museum-university» was a real pain for both partners

Combination of master classes in the museum and introductory sessions, as well as analysis of classes’ results: students should follow the course of regular classes! Close relationship of mandatory classes and time in museum

Module of Teacher Training and Retraining for students of pedagogical departments: acquaintance with cross-disciplinary approaches

Possibility of techniques‘ transfer to other partners of the museums-school: knowledge-sharing.

In my report, I presented three projects which disclose the peculiarities of cooperation of museums and schools. One of my female colleagues writes on this occasion: «It is important that the school ad museum could all-sufficiently preserve their specific educational competences: school is school, and museum remains a museum. The partner’s success requires the permanent analysis of expectations, set conditions, opportunities and experience of the counterpart, as well as readiness to learn from one another …» (Angelica Wusso).

To conclude, I would like to state that our museums bear a huge potential as sites of education and enlightenment.

Our museums bear a huge potential as sites of education and enlightenment. Our «compatibility» can be expressed by the following phrases:

Museums are the place of sensual perception, of esthetic or artistic education

Museums are the sites of diversity, communication, discussion, and opinion-sharing

Museums are the site of nonstandard thinking and excitement which leaves room for contradiction and objection

One can make much more with this material!

I am interested in the question how we could develop a museum with all its structures, self-assessment, forms of presentation and interaction so that we could offer not only «accessibility», buy also «space for interaction» to various social groups, including still not involved ones.

In July 2016, we are planning to launch a big project in the Bode Museum in cooperation with the federal cultural foundation. The project bears somewhat cumbersome title: «Initiative for development of interaction in museums». We have five years for studying the set questions together with other partners. I welcome the coming project.

In conclusion, one quotation which has become virtually my motto: «Art exists in order to change expectations from it».

Thank you for attention.

 

Секция 4.

«Арт-критика в культуре и образовании

(Современное искусство и образование личности)».

УДК 7.067 + 7.01

 

Честных Елена