Open Collections

The embodied and emotive role of the art gallery educator

University of British Columbia

This self-study outlines the uncertainties and insecurities that art gallery and museum educators face as our roles are defined by shifting policies and mandates in education as well as within the museum. I collaborated with a classroom teacher who observed a tour I gave her grade three class. After an in depth dialogue and ongoing correspondence reflecting upon ways of engaging students, I led her class through another exhibition to see if our collaboration and dialogue shifted my thinking and practice as an art gallery educator. As I searched for a way to articulate my role, I found the roles of collaborator, audience evaluator, and emotive catalyst to be just as valuable as engaging school groups in verbal dialogue in the gallery. The dialogue that was transformative for my thinking was the one outside of the gallery with the teacher. This self-study tells the story of the shifts in my thinking and practice. I learned to hold back information rather than focus on verbal dialogue to allow students to have their own ‘emotive embodied experience’ of learning in the gallery.

Text

2016-02-05

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/56910

Art Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/