From the Galleries to the Clinic: Applying Art Museum Lessons to Patient Care

Increasingly, medical educators integrate art-viewing into curricular interventions that teach clinical observation—often with local art museum educators. How can cross-disciplinary collaborators explicitly connect the skills learned in the art museum with those used at the bedside? One approach is for educators to align their pedagogical approach using similar teaching methods in the separate contexts of the galleries and the clinic. We describe two linked pedagogical exercises—Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in the museum galleries and observation at the bedside—from “Training the Eye: Improving the Art of Physical Diagnosis,” an elective museum-based course at Harvard Medical School. It is our opinion that while strategic interactions with the visual arts can improve skills, it is essential for students to apply them in a clinical context with faculty support—requiring educators across disciplines to learn from one another.     

Reconsidering The Love of Art: Evaluating the Potential of Art Museum Outreach

ABSTRACT

Art museums have long been identified as bastions of social and cultural exclusion. This conclusion was best evidenced by the large-scale 1967 French study by Bourdieu and Darbel demonstrating the exclusionary nature of The Love of Art. However, in recent years there have been increasing efforts to reach out to a broader range of visitors beyond conventional audiences. The present study investigates the impacts of an outreach program at a U.K. art museum, which sought to engage socially excluded young mothers. This study uses ethnographic research methods on a longitudinal basis to develop qualitative insights about the program seeking to mitigate cultural exclusion. Although the study's findings uphold many longstanding critiques of art museums’ conventional approaches, the study also indicates that carefully designed outreach activities can overcome such limitations and enhance cultural engagement. Thus, art museums’ limited appeal is tied to problematic public engagement practices that can be changed.     

Photographing in the Art Museum: Visitor Attitudes and Motivations

There is an animated debate in popular media about whether or not photography should be allowed in art museums. However, there is limited research that examines how visitors themselves feel about visitor photography and the reasons why they choose to take (or not take) photographs in museums. This research, conducted at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, uses semistructured, in-depth interviews and photo elicitation with 40 adults to examine visitors' attitudes to using photography inside art museums and their motivations for doing so. The research results suggest that visitors with positive attitudes towards visitor photography see photographic devices as tools that enhance certain aspects of the museum experience, promote further education, and provide entry points to exhibitions and a more interactive, personal experience. Those with negative attitudes see photographic devices as mediating and distracting lenses that have a detrimental effect on intimate experiences with artworks. Many of the participants with negative attitudes still use photographic devices because they believe that the risk of diminishing art experiences in the museum is worth taking, considering the potential uses of photography. The six main motivations for taking photographs in museums are (a) to aid memory, (b) to share, (c) for further research, (d) to inspire, (e) as building material for self-identity, and (f) as an art form in its own right.     

A Natural History Museum in Transition: Reflections on Visitor Studies in Practice

ABSTRACT

This article documents work done at The Natural History Museum, London in applying exhibit evaluation methodology to the re-configuration of an entire museum. Over a span of 20 years, traditional, curatorial, collection-centered exhibitions were replaced with those reflecting the latest trends in ‘visitor-friendly’ exhibit design. The methodology of exhibit evaluation, as it was being developed and refined in the United States, was used as the basic framework for carrying out this program. Front-end, formative, and summative evaluation techniques became the foundation for the preparation of new exhibition galleries throughout the museum. Here I reflect on the successes achieved and obstacles faced in this process of changing the status quo. The lessons learned still have relevance today for anyone who has tried to incorporate empirical, visitor-based insights into the preparation of museum exhibits and programs.     

Easy Knowledge,Closure Failure,or Skepticism: A Trilemma

This article aims to provide a structural analysis of the problems related to the easy knowledge problem. The easy knowledge problem is well known. If we accept that we can have basic knowledge via a source without having any prior knowledge about the reliability or accuracy of this source, then we can acquire knowledge about the reliability or accuracy of this source too easily via information delivered by the source. Rejecting any kind of basic knowledge, however, leads into an infinite regress and, plausibly, to skepticism. The article argues that the third alternative, accepting basic knowledge but rejecting easy knowledge, entails closure failure. This is obviously the case for deductive bootstrapping, but, notably, the problem also arises for inductive bootstrapping. Hence, the set of problems related to the easy knowledge problem has the structure of a trilemma. We are forced to accept easy knowledge, closure failure, or skepticism.     

Hands-On,Shoes-Off: Multisensory Tools Enhance Family Engagement Within an Art Museum

Families with young children typically struggle to engage with traditional art museum environments. This research examined the impact of multisensory tools on family engagement within Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar. Sixty families with at least one child aged 0–11 were observed during two tasks. One task required participants to look at a series of paintings to select their favorite. In another task, families were given a toolkit of multisensory items to facilitate interaction with a painting. A semi-structured observational method produced quantitative and qualitative data about participant engagement and intergenerational interaction. Self-rating scores of task enjoyment were also collected. Results indicate that multisensory tools enhance family engagement with museums, artworks, and each other. Results also suggest that word-based interpretation was not necessary. We consider the potential implications of these findings in relation to family programming within art museums and museums more generally.     

Big History,Value, and the Art of Continued Existence

Philosophia - There has lately been substantial interest in scrutinizing our evaluative attitudes in light of our evolutionary history. However, these discussions have been hampered by an...