The CAMIT provides a different perspective on museum education based on curricula of childrens art workshop. Experience of artist educators working with the museum highlighted the importance of interaction with children and art materials or mediums as among the critical factors to consider in exhibition design and conceptualization. Artist educators understanding of how children may respond to the theme of materials selected requires an understanding of learning and development that is often more associated with classroom settings. In a similar manner, childrens reaction and response to art materials are associated more with recreation or art training, may require extension to museum settings, again requiring professional training and experience. According to Costantino (2008), these challenges, developing effective, interactive and educational exhibits, have become highlighted with the need to reinforce classroom education and at the same time, extend from it. In response, Dove (2006) has highlighted the need for active planning and development of environments that can support creative learning, thus increasing not only childrens educational interaction but also the relevance of their experience. This requires not only the inclusion of educational and play strategies into current exhibits but also the accommodation of a new institutional perspective to sustain long-term or continuing programs.
Artist educators experience CAMIT working with children at the studio workshops provided important insights to childrens response to the themes of the exhibit as well as the materials utilized. Their experience gave them information on modes of response to specific curricula, particularly the vantage point and perspective taken by the children in the course of the interacting with exhibits. One observation is that the children have a tendency to take eye-level perspective when creating their painting or drawings. The observation in the Taipei museum however suggest that eye-level information has a high retention but also that they become the platform of childrens contribution or art works during the workshops that they participate in. This is also consistent with their behavior in viewing museum exhibits, suggesting the persistence of the importance of eye-level visual registry (Xanthoudaki et al, 2003). Thus, the researchers believe that this also highlights the need for further study into the issue that can improvement engagement strategies or develop new ones.
At the same time, observations related to the childrens response and use of the art materials in the museum also have critical implications to museum education perspectives. From their experience in designing the art workshops for children, the artist educators recognized the potential of traditional and non-traditional art materials. The use of these materials also gives a window for diversity and even multiculturalism for the participants. Thus, it also can be seen as a response for greater inclusion in museum education which has emphasized both creativity and cultural sensitivity (Tlili, 2008). The extension to non-traditional media can be considered as a strategy to capture the interest of workshop participants. However, with the exploration of both traditional and non-traditional art materials, there was also a realization of the need for mastery over either types of material. The implication is that though museum educational perspectives have primarily focused on the education function, in efforts such as the art workshops, there is also a need to reinforce not only their art education training but actual skills so that they can provide adequate support to workshop participants. Artist educators experiences and knowledge of these materials because they can enhance understanding of materials not only to children in the course of the workshops but also in communication the rationale behind the design of the interactive gallery. This supports the idea that they have to apply both principles of art education as well as exhibition design of materials in three-dimensional space (Metz, 2005).
These considerations become even more critical in view of the challenges revealed by the art workshops. Moreover, there is suggestion that these concerns have persisted despite significant art and educational experience. The teaching apparatus and method used in the studio workshops where evaluated to need further testing and experimentation. According to the workshop managers and teachers at the CAMIT, the materials that they in the teaching studio workshops needed to be reconsidered or further experimented in different way in the three-dimensional space. This seems to suggest that the settings that the artist educators encounter more challenging than typical classrooms. According to Koke and Dierking (2007), this may be due the need to create marriage between learning principles and highly varied museum or exhibit settings. More importantly, this suggests that it cannot be readily assumed that educational concepts have to be clearly conveyed through the space, that ideas or concepts that the artist educators thought might work sometimes turned out to fail to convey the concepts to children. One of the strategies to address the issue that have identified is the development of multiple methodologies or programs to communicate the thematic value of the exhibits.
As seen in both Worms Eye and Birds Eye exhibits, the development of alternative viewing techniques has increased the appeal and learning exhibited by the children who viewed and utilized the space as subject of workshops or discussion. According to the workshops experience, multiple revisions become necessary, either in the use of materials or in the ways the space or the interactive, but need to remain structured. These realizations have been since evident in all of the programs, not just in the art workshop or exhibits designed for children, that the museum is developing. For example, in its conceptualization of Chinese painting their objective is to make the exhibit more relatable and relevant to its current audience. Their strategy, rooted from the experience of the value of utilizing three-dimensional space of the exhibits, the two-dimensional traditional Chinese paintings when the concept is used to realize the three-dimensional space. This created the audience or visitors a new way of experiencing the paintings which are relatively widely viewed in Taiwan and thus not previously considered as still remarkable. In utilizing the strategy, the museum is not just able to renew interest in the exhibits but also the artistic and cultural traditions that gave rise to these works (Golding, 2009).
Design team considerations in conceptualization, design and creation of exhibits
From the study of the CAMIT, it can be said that the artist educators who design the interactive exhibition have a fundamental belief and educational objective that by encouraging exploration and having a multi-sensory interactive experience they will be able to better engage children and thus, create effective and collaborative exhibits that will be able to support both educational and art objectives. This is an idea that has been often echoed in the most current perspectives on education and art education. Brown and Vaughan (2009), Landreth and associates (2009), Porter and associates (2009), Rivera (2009), as well as Stephens (2009) among others have all highlighted the potential of using creative strategies to create play environments in education to support learning, creativity and imaginative thinking. They all concluded that in doing so, instead of going against childrens desire for play, they will instead utilize it to engage childrens participation.
There is even evidence that through these types of activities, childrens creative potential may be fostered. In doing so, the museum encourages not only the appreciation of the materials, concepts or themes that it is being focused on by the exhibits, but encourages children to become artist themselves or at the very least, develop creative avenues for self-expression. The artist educators imply that by experiencing the interactive space, children are able to connect that they learn in such a space to their everyday life experiences. This proposition is supported by museum education and development researchers. Sutton (2007) points out that museums now understand that it has to be able to provide dynamic modes of interaction so that it can be more able to compete with new education platforms, particularly those that utilized technology to a high degree. This is one of the main reasons why the IMLS (2008) has established the development of engaging interactive exhibits as part of its standards of evaluation and success the implication is that these programs are not anymore a variable prerogative but has been required as an institutional need for todays museums.
Like any other museum, the CAMITs interactive gallery aims to be educational. However, in the course of realizing this objective, it has also come to realize that it has to be able to effectively marry learning and art concepts to effectively engage and deliver the value, themes and information, of the exhibits. According to Hooper-Greenhill (2007), this will require a comprehensive review and redevelopment of exhibit conceptualization, design and creation methodologies to its most basic elements. In the Taiwan, this can be seen in the exhibit labels the content of the exhibit labels will help visitors engage with the concept that the exhibition is trying to convey. The labels consider not only the exhibit but also the social cultural context of the museum which serves Chinese and English speaking visitors which may have limited language facility in the other language.
Children and parents learning experiences and responses to interactive exhibition
Three childrens experience and response in the CAMITs was considered for evaluation. Viewing the A Vastly Different Perspective exhibit, Feis play was characterized of overt expression of the play activity she was engaged in as well as the role she set for herself. This is considered to be typical of a four-year old childrens have a need for verification that their activity and role is being recognized correctly is a major component of fantasy play activities (Brown Vaughan, 2009.) This implies that their role play incorporates reality which serves as the foundation of the roles that they create and how they think people should react to it. In this activity, she makes roaring vocalizations and uses her hands to represent paws. She tells her mother she is charizard, a direct reference to the exhibit that she viewed as well as to a Pokemon which she ways watches on television often. Eight-year old Yo-Yus play is more reality-based. Yo-Yu integrated his experience of natural events such as earthquakes and typhoons and is quiet common in Taipei. Though considered part of everyday life in the city, the damages brought on by either condition are often featured in popular media and is part of schools emergency response education programs. Though he engages in his dramatic play according to the constraints given by the exhibit, he also used the activity to move beyond what he experience and imagine what could have happened. This inferential component to the activity suggests that play can have a role in reality conceptual development and learning application (Livingstone Lemelin, 2001). Thus, the inclusion of external elements into the play such as the collapsed house and tower or a village destroyed by subsidence and the thematic imagery suggested by the imagery of people laying on the ground and the chaos after a typhoon are all an indication of the degree of engagement that the exhibit was able to elicit from Yo-Yu.
Observation of eleven-year old Tai is considered to be the most complex. For Tai, his play in the exhibition, was based on the My Many Sides exhibit. From the introduction of the exhibit, he took the initiative to actively explore the materials that were used to construct the space. He used his insights from this to figure out what the abstract sculpture was trying to represent. Tais curiosity was evoked both by the materials used for the physical construction of the My Many Sides exhibit, constructed by the artist educators using welded steels and non-traditional art materials, as well as the opportunity it gave him to have a hands-on museum experience. In comparison to younger children who also played in the space of the exhibit, Tais interest in the exhibit is high younger children did not show any significant interest and left the exhibit area after only a few minutes. This also suggests that some of the exhibits are better suited to engage children of Tais age range. This supports research that suggests that differences based on age or level of growth and development can have an impact on how visitors will explore the space observation of younger children indicated that they tend to integrate more narratives or create a setting for their play which can imply that younger children need these components to sustain their play scenarios and limit their ability to actually focus on exhibits specifically (Savva Trimis, 2005 Rivera, 2009). Comparing Tais reaction to the exhibit and the fantasy and dramatic play that Fei and Yo-Yu engaged in respectively, Tais reaction is more able to focus on the exhibit itself. This can also be seen as indication of the cognitive capacity to manage both play and reality for effectively to respond to the educational objectives of the exhibit.
Parents interaction with their children should also be considered closely. According to Fei mother, Lia, this was their third visit to the A Vastly Different Perspective exhibit. During their first exhibit, they joined the guided for the exhibit wherein she was made aware of the educational objectives of the exhibit. Subsequently, they have visited the exhibit independently but Lia has made an effort to stay true to the educational objectives of the exhibit. She engages Fei to be physically and cognitively engaged. Accordingly, this supports the rationale utilized by the CAMIT in the development of the exhibit. Lias effort to get Fei to become really involved in the exhibit also extended to other exhibits such as Worms Eye and Birds Eye she encouraged Fei to lay down with her on their stomachs so that they could view the blue-block city landscape. After which, Lia held Fei up so that she could pretend to be an airplane going over the city, an activity that Fei really enjoyed. Though the last activity is not anymore strongly related to the exhibit, the enjoyment that Fei had from the activity can further reinforce the childs positive experience of the museum visit.
Bien and Mimi, Yo-Yus parents, say that they have visited the Framing a Landscape exhibits three times already. According to Bien, to illustrate what he learned from the exhibit, his son took on the role of teacher and oriented him about the exhibit. He also incorporated the concepts presented in another exhibit Rivers and Mountains. One implication of the behavior is that after joining the guided tour and playing with the interactives from previous visits, Yo-Yu became familiar with the concept. Another implication is that Yo-Yu is not just able to absorb and communicate leanings from one exhibit but is also able to develop correlations across exhibit themes and concepts. The art educators can consider this as a successful viewing since this can be taken as an indication that they were successful in conveying that the gallery space Rivers and Mountains and Framing a Landscape as an extension of Rivers and Mountains. The education concepts integrated in both spaces is the traditional Chinese painting technique of using blank space to imagine and to create possibilities in paintings. At the same because blank space in Chinese painting has many meanings, the works feature in the exhibit themselves provide a platform for imagination and interactivity. Moreover, because this interactive gallery space gives Yo-Yu and his parents opportunities to learn not only about art, but also from each other. For both Hui (2003) and Adams and associates (2008), this enhances the social relevance of the museum experience. From the interviews and observation of the parents, it is suggest that they consider the exhibit activity an empowering experience for their child.
In terms of its potential to enhance a childs growth and development instead of learning from the authoritative figures, such as teachers and parents, Yo-Yu, as well as Fei and Tai, also had the opportunity to take the role of a leader who can contribute the art concepts that he had learned and provide his father suggestions to work on the activities. This again highlights the importance of family learning experience to support childrens museum engagement and learning. Thus, museums are right in changing their exhibit development programs to be in line with developing research that have suggested that the traditional strategies of exhibiting artworks in art museums and museums are not anymore effective in achieving the goal of educating children and family visitors (Lin Gregor, 2006 Livingstone Lemelin, 2001). Because CAMIT provides opportunities for families to independently pursue their own explorations and learning, they are able to also accommodate a variety of perspective in learning and child development such multiple intelligence theories and how individual pursuit and fulfillment of them can in turn enhance socialization and development of others such as parents with their children (Gardner, 1993). In doing so, CAMIT is able to answer to the challenge of encouraging families to experience the museum as a family unit and in turn develop social support and opportunities for individual enrichment.
Soliciting opinions from the childrens parent, Feis mother commended the exhibits having an environment where children with multiple options to play and being engaged cognitively and physically. For Yo-Yus mother, what she liked most was the opportunity for her son to make-art, that is different from the traditional or more typical art studio learning using paint and brush, represented by Yo-Yus art using the three dimensional space. However, they also believe that there is still room for improvement. Feis mother suggests that the museum should provide more guidance or strategies telling them how to extend the educational concepts and how to use the interactives so that they are able to make the visit an educational and meaningful experience for their child. For Tais mother, she points out that because that parents need support in understanding the approaches that CAMIT is undertaking because the traditional didactic education that she received in school is different from the explorative or constructive education theories that CAMIT has used to structure the interactive exhibition. According to her, though she understands that inquiry based approach or constructivist approach is good for her child, she is not used to guide her children this way.
So how do these visitors learning experiences related to art Though learning in itself is difficult to define, it value and role in museum education is universally acknowledged. As pointed out by Gardner (1993, p. 363), just like intelligence, there is a wide range of perspective in what constitutes learning, but they all commonly point out the importance of experience and knowledge building in the learning process. However, to be able to fully realize these learning opportunities, they need to be incorporated into ordinary activities and other educational initiatives (Allen, 2004). Thus, there is a need for parents and teachers to be aware of the different learning theories and have the capacity of creating a learning environment that suits the child the best. At the same time, Ferguson and associates (2000) also point out that this will this will better provide opportunities for inclusive learning since interventions are developed with sensitivity to individual cultural and experiential contexts.
Feis mother Lia said that she found an entry point to guide Fei even when outside the museum she said that when she walked Fei to her school, she pointed out different angles of the street scenes that they based on block built representation from the museum. She also incorporated the museum experience to their play activity such as playing blocks at home, pointing out how the different angels of the structure for her to observe or in Feis drawings where Lia encourages her to consider different viewpoints from which she could choose to draw. Similar to the Vastly Different Perspective exhibit, Lia herself learned about the possibilities of taking different perspectives in art-making which in turn allowed her to provide suggestions of taking different vantage point when her child paints. In a similar manner, Yo-Yus learning from the Water and Mountain and the Framing a Landscape showed that he learned about concepts related to how to depict a head in portraiture which were important in reinforcing the concepts related to the horizontal and vertical lines that artists can use when creating portraiture. According to Mimi, Yo-Yus mother, the exhibit was very beneficial in making her son better communicate or express himself. She said that Yo-Yu is usually shy to create and to express his ideas through drawing but through the interactive environment, Yo-Yu became more comfortable creating and in delivering his ideas. This again brings into the forefront researches that emphasize the importance of play in alleviating learning difficulties because children perceive greater freedom in play (Landreth et al, 2009). At the same time, play can be critical in mitigating conflict or negative experiences in learning, thus affording even students who have been unsuccessful in classroom settings to be learned competently or effectively (Porter et al, 2009). For examples, in a typical school environment in Taiwan, childrens artworks are often judged and graded which is a reason for Yo-Yus more conservative performance.
Finally, this brings to light a critical question given that the writing on museum education is mostly concerned with general museums, what types of teaching principals and learning experiences occur in interactive childrens art galleries The museum educators emphasized the educational potential of interactive exhibitions. The exhibition is conceptualized as art curricula. The curricula was organized and structured in the interactive environment to convey artistic concepts that were typically taught in childrens art workshops. This is supported by Deweys writings on curriculum and education represented by the education theory of constructivist exhibition which stresses the importance of applying constructivism in museum exhibition design (Hein, 1998). In CAMIT, the exhibition was designed to educate through hands-on experience. The expectation was that children would be able to explore and learn about artistic concepts that they could apply to art-making and everyday experience. The data for CAMIT showed that parents in Taiwan brought children to the Museum to learn parents who were observed took active role in guiding and in playing with their children in the space. Most of the concepts or strategies that they used to interact with their children were much aligned with the topic of The Vastly Different Perspective or the Zone of Proximal Development developed by Vygotsky that suggested that actual developmental level and the level of potential development which may be facilitated under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Edwards, 2005).
There is no denying that the interactive exhibition provided new opportunities for teaching and learning for family visitors. Though the CAMITs efforts in encouraging learning through exploring, through play, is a new concept to Taiwanese adults whose educational experience had before been limited to the traditional, didactic approach. Though the progressive education theories were introduced to Taiwan fairly recently and have only been unfamiliar to them they have acknowledge its value as evidenced by their request for more support in terms of how to use the interactives and how to guide their children to learn. Regardless of the setting or the methodology, the CAMITs, as well as other similar museums efforts are aimed at fostering childrens artistic understanding and applying this understanding to their art-making and everyday living is likely to be achieved if parents were willing to offer support. As attested to by parents comments, understanding of the modes and methods of transfer of learning is essential in supporting learning because it creates knowledge network system for both parents and children. For the Taiwan museums, effectively doing so is even more important with the realization that Chinese painting is no longer appreciated by Taiwanese parents and children. In creating exhibits that utilize interactive approaches that transform two-dimensional Chinese painting into a three-dimensional environment, new ways of learning about Chinese painting are introduced. This interactive exhibition approach contents new potential to teach the Taiwanese younger children the old and the traditional culture. Supported by developing museum education perspectives such as immersive environment in exhibition design, which emphasize the need for museum exhibits to recognize and utilize interactions between the individuals personal, socio-cultural, and physical contexts which serve to reinforce learning and appreciation (Falk Dierking, 2001).
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