Study of Visual Commentary

Why aren't some students engaged with artwork during Interpretive Museum Tours?

For my Midterm project I focused on why some students aren't engaged with artwork during Interpretive Museum tours. I want to clarify that I am not criticizing Interpretive Museum Tours, I am just looking to improve them. I found some possible answers that I will utilize in my future interpretive museum tours for BRAINY. “BRAINY is is a program of the Allicar Museum of Art with assistance from the School of the Arts departments of Visual Art, Music, Theater and Dance. BRAINY was conceived to provide arts opportunities for students from Title 1 schools in northern Colorado.” The overall goal of BRAINY is to introduce Title One students to the arts. Title One students come from low income families, specifically in the Fort Collins area. Nina Simon explores how cultural institutions should promote visitor participation while also promoting institutional goals. “Over the last twenty years, audiences for museums, galleries, and performing arts institutions have decreased, and the audiences that remain are older and whiter than the overall population.” (Simon, 2010)

In Jiayi Jin’s Experience through Interpretive Devices – Cognitive Process in the Perception of Art, he states that “it should try to make each work of art more accessible and relatable”. ( Jin, 2015, p.3) -Talking about interpretive museum tours. I agree with this statement. Interpretive tours allow anyone to relate to the art and for the art to be accessible. Most of these Title One students have never even been to a museum. Interpretive tours should allow them to have the ultimate museum experience. In another case study, Chelsea Conway describes the tour guides as “Connectors”. Chelsea states that the visitors are “encouraged to pause and have a self-determined interactive experience with the art.” (Conway, 2017, p.2) I kept this in consideration for two aspects of my own tours. The first one being that I am the individual connecting these students with the art (being a connector not a tour guide). Lastly, I considered to make sure I give the students enough time to think about my interpretive question before calling on students. I also referenced The Gaze from Duncan's Seven Principles. This helped me understand the power structure relating to the Institutional Gaze. Meaning, why peoples interpretation shifts when the power shifts (me being the source of power as the Connector)

I referenced Museum Education Principles and Standards, from American Association of Museums in my own interpretive tours. The first principle is Accessibility. Accessibility is a major factor within interpretive tours. This “Engages the community and serves the museum’s audience.” (American Association of Museums, 2000)Most importantly, I learned it is crucial to consider the sensitivity and diversity of these Title One student’s perspective. “Promote the elimination of physical, socio-economic, and cultural barriers to museums.” (American Association of Museums, 2000) It is my responsibility to be accountable (being another principle and standard) for these students. I am responsible for making sure the students do not damage the art, and that I can provide them with factual information.

Survey

I first created a survey to determine what materials these Title One students have experience with. I asked four of the teachers to fill out the surveys. The results were actually very surprising.

Here are the results:

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As you can see, these Title One students do have experience with a good amount of materials. From my research I found that, “More Than 40% of Low-Income Schools Don't Get a Fair Share of State and Local Funds, Department of Education Research Finds.” (2011, U.S. Department of Education) These results may be not accurate because these participants are not the art teachers, but could very well be accurate.

Interpretive Questions

The other part of my midterm project, is finding out why these students aren't engaged during my tours. My original questions on my tours are based from my tour plan. I estimated that around 30% of the students are engaged during my tour and are answering questions. As you can see in my documentation bellow, some of the students look unengaged and few look engaged.

Here are some examples of the specific questions I originally asked:

Question #1(Initial Reaction)

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Question #2 (Emotion and Color)

Question #4 (Questions relating to my art activity)

After each tour was completed, I spoke with four students who were not engaged during the tour. I first told each student that I noticed they were not engaged during the tour. I assured them that they were not in any sort of trouble. I kindly asked each student what can I do better next time to make other students more engaged. All four of their responses were that they suggest that I talk about the history behind the artwork.