Sabbatical Report for Kim Codella, PhD.
“Museum Education”
For Fall 2012
Submitted March 2013
Abstract
During the late summer and fall of 2012 I travelled to the east coast to visit and learn from the education departments of some of the nation’s great museums. I teach Humanities which relies heavily on the arts for subject matter. In all of my classes I encourage students to visit local museums, normally by offering extra credit. I had several goals for my sabbatical; however the primary goal was to learn how to develop an effective audio guide that students in my Introduction to the Humanities courses could take into the Crocker Museum and De Young Museum. These guides are normally delivered by handheld devices. I wanted to develop a guide that uses the class I am teaching as the starting point. The student will use the museum for a practical application of concepts learned in class, but more importantly they will be in a museum environment. My biggest concern was that this might prove technically difficult; it is not. This semester, spring 2013, my students will have the option of completing some of their final assignment this way.
I had other goals for the sabbatical outside of the practical application of what I learned above. This included visiting museums in addition to those I planned to meet with professionally; to work at the University of Pennsylvania archives on the publication of several years’ excavation at the site of ancient Gordion; and to visit several famous Frank Lloyd Wright structures (we study his work in my classes). Activities that I had not planned on included consulting on a small grant proposal for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology education department and being asked to return to Gordion this summer to work on some of the archaeological remains at the site.
Because so many of these activities overlapped, I lived in central Philadelphia from 8/12-11/12, flying back to California twice to check on my parents. Because I was able to take train easily between Philadelphia, New York, and Washington D.C., this enabled me to see many museum collections multiple times. This was made possible by the length of my sabbatical for which I am very grateful. I also travelled to Los Angeles and to eastern Pennsylvania to see several Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, including “Falling Water.” Later I travelled to Williamsburg VA, to work on Gordion material.
Report
This report primarily addresses my observations of and meetings with the education staff at the University of Pennsylvania Museum Of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. Because an additional goal of my sabbatical was to also refresh my own knowledge, I also visited other museums than those above, and made a study of their public outreach from the standpoint of a visitor. By outreach I mean specifically educational materials geared to high school and community college students, in particular audio/visual tours (a couple of docent tours as well).
The additional institutions I was able to visit were, in Philadelphia: the Rodin Museum, the Barnes Museum, The Natural History Museum, and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art Museum. In New York: the Guggenheim Museum, the Frick Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. In Washington D.C.: the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Gallery, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, The Sackler and Freer Galleries, as well as many national monuments and memorials, in particular Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (which I discuss in my courses). I have also included a section at the end of the report on the activities that were not museum related.
At the start I should emphasize that I found several common features between the museums I visited. All of them do what is colloquially referred to as “reinvent the wheel”. Each institution has its own culture and views on education and public outreach. They also differ on how they deliver educational materials. I worked for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 2003 curating their permanent gallery on West Asia and Persia, and today I am an advisor the Asian Art Society of San Francisco. Museums work very hard to present material and exhibits clearly and enjoyably but often have different ways of seeing the museum experience. When we consider that each museum has different resources, and that the technology is changing quickly, we have an exciting and dynamic mix of approaches.
A common thread through all of my interviews was the dedication of the people I spoke. I am convinced that educators in the museum setting are very similar to community college professors. We all teach those that are largely underserved (i.e., lay or general public); we have limited resources; and we start with the assumption that people come to us knowing little or nothing about the material we are about to present to them. In the museum setting this lack of background information is more acute since the experience is much shorter in time than in a college classroom, and there is the real danger of information overload if you try to convey too much. I received a “recharge” from talking to all of these museum staff and professionals about teaching and learning, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my sabbatical.
Methodology
For my museum visits my methodology was to first visit the museum as a member of the public before meeting with museum staff. I paid attention to the write ups of objects, how did the exhibits flow as a whole: And how was the overall experience? If audio tours were available I would take them (these normally involve an additional charge). My questions were: how does the audio enhance or detract from the experience of being in the museum; was the experience enjoyable, understandable and educational; and was the device easy to use? In addition I observed fellow museum guests: how did they interact with the museums exhibits including audio tours if they had them? The difference between my sabbatical experience and a usual museum visit for me was that I had the luxury of time and was able to visit these venues several times over the months I was living in Philadelphia.
In meeting with museum staff, I emphasized high school and community college level programs when I could. In addition all of these groups provided me with hundreds of pages of printed materials and a ground up look at how programs were developed. In addition to free printed materials most of these locations have online resources, ranging from ticket sales to access to the entire museum collection. Below is a synopsis for each of the institutions with whom I consulted. In the final statements about museums I have also included my observations made while at the other institutions above.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology
Contact Person: Prema Deshmukh, Education Program Manager, Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 190104, Phone 215-898-4066.
The Penn Museum is one of the best established museums of anthropology and archaeology in the world, being first established in 1887. The museum is located on the university campus and serves as a teaching museum for university as well as destination for the public. Because of the age of the museum it is has a long tradition in the city and is utilized by other institutions, including elementary, high school and community college programs. I visited the museum throughout my stay in Philadelphia.
Mode of Delivery
The museum relies on the exhibit case itself (write ups), an audio tour if desired, and an extensive offering of online resources for educators. Because the museum has an abundance of graduate and undergraduate students at its disposal, there is an extensive docent program. In addition speakers are sent out to the field to speak at the K-13 level. Because of the age of the museum, and a self-felt need to constantly raise funds and awareness, the museum actively works to maintain a public profile in Philadelphia.
For instructors planning a trip to the museum there are teaching materials online that are downloadable. The teacher can either use these materials in the classroom or use them as a primer for their own visits to the museum. The university museum has an extensive online presence and has numerous public outreach programs, including student led docent tours. Penn has several creative approaches. The overarching idea is to create lifelong museum goers and, by extension, benefactors. Innovative programs include an overnight for kids in the Egyptian section of the building. In another example of outreach, public concerts are held weekly in the evening in the museum courtyard. These are attended by museum staff, the museum’s director, students and the public. The concert conveniently starts at approximately closing time for the museum.
Practical things I took away.
Because Ms. Deshmukh and I share many common friends and colleagues, I was able to ask her my “dumb” questions before I met with anyone else. My practical questions were: can students bring device into the museum, what is a reasonable amount of time before an audio is too long and, how much work for the student will it be? Also, what part of museum exhibits are permanent? (as I do not want to have to rerecord an audio every few months for new exhibits). She was very encouraging and interested in the end result of my work. Penn uses a hand held audio set, but we discussed the idea of a downloadable file (a windows VMA or MPEG from D2L). Also she was able to connect me with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
I have decided that I will use a downloadable audio format delivered by D2L.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Contact Persons: Barry Marshall King, Coordinator of Teen Programs, Division of Education, Philadelphia Museum of Art, P.O. Box 7646, Philadelphia, PA, 19101-7646, Phone, 215-684-7503, and,
Ah-Young Kim, Museum Educator, Coordinator of School Partnerships, School and Teacher Programs, Philadelphia Museum of Art, P.O. Box 7646, Philadelphia, PA, 19101-7646, Phone 215-684-7608.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a central fixture in the city. The museum is a popular attraction to visitors of Philadelphia. It is perhaps most recognized by a scene it shared with Sylvester Stallone in the film “Rocky.” A feature that should be considered in the museums’ popularity is its location, with its sweeping views of the city and its monumental Neo-Classic architecture, which evokes the great public spaces of ancient Rome.
Of all of the institutions I visited I found this one to the have the most comprehensive and creative outreach program, which was also the most extensive. As an outsider I felt that the local K-12 and Community College system not only had a lot of support from the museum, but also that the community used it. While not knowledgeable regarding the philanthropic scene in Philadelphia, my sense was that the museum was well funded but also had to creatively market itself to make up for the ever present shortfalls in public spending.
Mode of Delivery
Delivery included: pre-recorded audio tours; the exhibits themselves, some of which were multi media and extensive online resources. Special exhibits (for which an extra ticket purchase was required) came with an audio at no extra charge. In addition to these traditional modes of information delivery, the museum had an extensive set of public outreach programs. As an educator, it seemed to me that the PMA was especially geared to the teacher’s needs.
Access to much of the collection is online and the museum offers distance learning (i.e., online) units for the educator, based on the museum’s collection. This makes the educator an expert before visiting, versus using a docent (which is not a bad thing). The museum collection is then adaptable to the needs of the teacher. The more the teacher has under his or her belt, the better the material can be incorporated into a course. The museum also actively recruits high school students as ambassadors for the museum back at the local schools they attend; some of these students have gone on to continue their studies in art history.
More than any other of the museums I visited, the PMA hosts many events staged on the museum premises to encourage attendance. These were numerous and creative. An example of this creative approach is that several evenings a month the museum is reserved just for high school students. Teenagers as we all know are very high energy. In this setting they have the run of the place; they do not have to be quiet and they can run (a little). This transforms the museum from a stuffy library setting to one that is self-directed and full of learning. The important lesson is that not all museum goers are going to have, or even want, the same experience.
Practical things I took away.
If the museum had distance learning for teachers, can I do the same for students who may not be able to attend to museum? Should I, as part of my plan, have a distance learning unit?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
Contact Person: Joseph Loh, Managing Museum Educator, Public and Exhibition Programs, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10028-0198
Phone: 212-535-7710.
I met with Mr. Loh just after hurricane Sandy, which was very gracious on his part. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest museums in the world and also one the world’s most impressive. The sheer amount of materials housed there is daunting. Because my background is in near eastern archeology, I had a contact at the Metropolitan who referred me to Mr. Loh. Despite being the director for the entire museum, he was able to give me an hour of his time and very graciously extended academic privileges to me. This opens up the library and makes it easier to bring in a laptop. I found Mr. Loh very energetic and interested in the ideas I had for my class. An interesting statistic he had from the ticket sales at the MET was that 60% of their visitors were international travelers. We both found it interesting that for a foreign traveler a trip to a museum was a must, while U.S. citizens did not see it as such.