The Getty Museum Family Room is symbolic of the effort of museums to create access to art and realize its potential for art education and socialization. This requires the accommodation of different learning styles and modalities. Creating a learning environment that allows children to experience exhibits personally through sensory experience, interactivity, and other activities, reinforces the art education and learning objectives. These perspectives developed from extensive research and experience.
Managers and designers of the exhibit realized a hands-on approach that will not only support the development of the exhibits, but also validate research and the effectiveness of current strategies. The design teams had to consider the role that parents have in childrens response and participation in exhibits. Instead of having an educator available at the space to facilitate childrens learning, parents are expected to play the role of a facilitator. Parents help in the reinforcement of exhibit objectives and facilitate their childrens activities within the museum. The designers of the Family Room considered a number of perspectives and theories including Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development theory, research developed by Falk and Dierking, as well as internal research, developed at the Getty Museum in other exhibits. A multi-disciplinary exhibition team of curators, family education specialists, designers, and facilities, developed a strategy from insight and reflection on how children and their parents conduct their museum experience, as documented in interviews and observations from study participants.
The current exhibit design is an indication that museum administrators have recognized the need to develop exhibits that engage visitors and help create, within their social and familial context, the concept of museums as an interactive experience. The administrators also recognized that successfully completing such an objective would improve educational intentions of the museum. The 756 square-foot exhibit area of the Family Room is designed to engage both adults and young visitors into participating in the activities. Providing a wide range of learning experiences and modes of interaction, make it more accessible to a varied population, particularly families. The exhibit designers had to consider a number of educational issues. The most critical of which were, concepts to be transferred, learning interactions of children and families, principles of learning through play, and prevailing perspectives in museum education studies. Findings, from research and experience, were incorporated into the design, which the architectural firm, Predock Frane, constructed and executed.
Conceptual Tools to Transfer from the Family Room to Getty Galleries
Scruggs et al. (1988) suggest that the transfer of learning and experiences, in this case from the Family Room to the rest of the gallery, may depend upon the individual levels of development or capacity for learning of visitors. However, they also point out that regardless of these competencies, there is an indication that developing effective learning strategies can mitigate differences in performance or rate of learning. As indicated by Foggleman, the former education director at the Getty Museum, the Family Room is designed to meet the goal of teaching young children basic artistic elements and to provide them with conceptual tools with which to access art. In an interview, he stated, I decided that the job of the Family Room was to engage visitors with basic concepts of art, elemental concepts of art, which they can then apply to artworks in the gallery. In other words, it is hoped that after a visit to the Family Room, visitors could be able to transfer the artistic concepts that they learned to other artworks that they encounter within other galleries. For example, the Puryear sculpture That Profile, shows artistic concepts such as positive space, negative space, and lines in silhouette, which are all important concepts in sculpting. After playing and learning in an immersive environment designed based on That Profile, visitors should be able to apply the concepts such as positive space, negative space, and lines in silhouette to other sculptures that they encounter within the Gettys sculpture galleries.
The design team specified that the design of the interactive environment was to facilitate transfer of learning about the Getty collection. The visitors should be able to transfer the fundamental artistic concepts learned in the Family Room to the objects in the Centers Galleries. More specifically, the objects featured in the Family Room were considered by the team as exemplary. After visitors interacted with, and learned about, the fundamental concepts of a specific medium, such as painting, photography, or sculpture, visitors could transfer and apply the concepts to other works in the same medium. Thus, exhibitors recognize how the transfer of learning is reinforced by positive transfer, and mitigated by negative transfers (Perkins Salomon, 1992). Moreover, since reflexive, or low road, transfers have a greater potential for stimulating learners and require less deliberate effort, there is a need for designers to utilize them more in creating exhibits.
According to Golding (2009), developing effective strategies from learning is not straightforward. She points out even if museum and exhibit designers are able to develop excellent insight there is a challenge of application. Similarly, Hui (2003) points out there are variances in the interpretation of learning and outcomes. Inter-subjectivity has direct implications of how learning from the Family Room can be extended to the Centers Gallery. In addition, there is a need to recognize that the Family Room is a more controlled space than the Centers Gallery and, therefore, the response that was gathered from the former can have a difference due to the respective difference in the design and manner of exploration of the respective exhibits. Carbonell (2004) and Hooper-Greenhill (2007) highlight that to address these issues, there is a need to ensure that exhibit designers have sufficient professional know-how and experience to be able to validate research and observations.
During their interviews, parents and children were asked about their learning experiences in the Family Room. Some parents discussed what they learned about their childrens interest. For instance, Natasha said that she learned how to trace Richard said that he learned that it required skills to do everything. It may take longer for museum visitors, especially young children, to reflect on what they have learned in the visit. Yet, it can be concluded that not much of the visitor observations and interview data showed that the visitors, both children and adults, learned about the fundamental artistic concepts related to works featured. The design teams vision to transfer the fundamental concepts to other works in the Centers galleries is even more challenged by the data gathered.
Learning Through Play and Experience
In the planning documents and in interviews of members of the Getty Family Room design team, the emphasis on hands-on experiences and learning through play is evident. In planning documents, such as Guiding Principles and Call for Proposals, the Getty Museums Education Department states explicitly that children learn best through hands-on experiences and through multiple senses. Call for Proposals further states that it is critical to provide children with the opportunity to learn through various modes of play. Therefore, the design must address childrens diverse learning styles and incorporate different learning modalities. Learning modalities such as learning through touch, close looking, small motor play, physical interaction, strategy play, and self-directed art making, were listed as high or medium priority with regard to what the design should incorporate.
In Guiding Principles, the Education Department specified that hands-on experiences should engage visitors in different forms of play so that visitors understanding of art may be facilitated. In conclusion, it emphasized the concept that play can support childrens social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development. In interviews, various members of the design team also commented on the importance of facilitating play and hands-on experiences for children. The curator of the decorative arts, Bremer-David, indicated she recognized that it is critical to address hands-on approach in the Family Room because it would create a powerful learning experience for young visitors. The family education specialist, Edwards, made an even stronger comment, They Families are not here because they want an injection of education. They are here because they just want to spend time with their family and to do something fun. And maybe learn a little bit, too.
Creating a Context to Facilitate Learning with Family
The design team considered the role that parents might play in the Family Room. They endorsed current museum scholars views on learning within museums. In addition to the Zone of Proximal Development theory, the design team also considered museum scholars Falk and Dierkings work on museum as a space, which encourages social learning experience within a family. They advocated that museums should design exhibitions in which adults and children can work collaboratively and learn from each other. Thus, the experiences that visitors bring with them would influence the learning and the interaction that they have with the exhibition. Therefore, learning should not be narrowly defined in a museum setting. Learning should be open-ended in a museum what visitors learn depends on what they bring. In the case of the Family Room, parents interests would control the kind of conversation they have with their children.
Experience of exhibit designers on how families use the museum indicate that they consider it as a venue for education. Therefore, programming educational components to exhibits can easily gain support from parents. According to Allen (2004), this highlights the natural congruence between the objective of families museum visits and public education. From the observations and interviews made from study participants, this perspective is clearly reflected and is often mentioned as a primary consideration of parents for the success of museum visits. Dilek (2009) also pointed out that family visitors tend to use childrens level of participation or interaction with exhibits as a measure of success. Thus, there is a need to increase the capacity of exhibits to elicit and prolong participation and interactivity. Some parents would even extend the exhibit activity to childrens home play activities. This is an indication not only of their recognition of the value of the educational value of exhibits, but also their potential to enrich childrens learning and playing activities.
A number of theories have been adapted by museum and exhibit designers. They have adapted theories from education, pedagogy, and learning, in an attempt to improve the ability of museums to connect with, and draw out support from, the public for educational objectives. One of the key theories that have been core to current efforts is the Zone of Proximal Development, which motivated designers to create exhibits where parents could play the role of scaffold to guide and support their childrens learning process. In addition, in supporting learning, this also encourages families to support learning and education among each other, extending the efforts to childrens homes. This also highlights the Falk Dierkings (2002) hypotheses various factors affect learning in museums, such as prior knowledge, interests, and beliefs, which play a tremendous role in learning. This constructivist approach suggests that,
The meaning that is made of museum experience is framed within, and constrained by, prior knowledge, interests, and beliefs within family groups, parents help children understand and learn from their experiences. Children provide a way for parents to see the world with new eyes. (p. 139)
Accurate Interpretation of the Featured Works
One of the most critical issues in the designing process was whether the design teams interpretation of the object stayed true and meaningful to the object. For instance, at the sculpture cove, Predock Franes original proposal was to engage children in an excavation activity that was designed to interpret an ancient Greek sculpture, Male Harp Player. The architects proposed to provide children with a three-dimensional puzzle with an image of this ancient Geek sculpture. Children could take the puzzle pieces apart and combine the pieces. When other team members reviewed the proposal, they pointed out Predock Franes interpretation of how this antique sculpture was made and excavated was inaccurate though it is true that creating a marble sculpture also involves the removal of pieces of marbles. However, the activity proposed suggested to children that the sculpture making process involved removing pre-cut blocks. In addition, the activity titled, excavation, proposed misleading concept of excavation.
Visitor Observation and Interviews
Interviews of parents of children who were considered in this study stated that the experience of working with and observing their children has allowed them to develop critical insights into how their children learn and build knowledge. In the case of Richard, who worked with his father in replicating Puryears sculpture That Profile, his father first supported the childs activity, giving suggestions and strategies. Richard ultimately continued the project independently without his fathers guidance. This suggests not only that there was effective family collaboration, but also that the activity supported the childs independent learning. Though there were times the children worked independently and did not work with their parents, they still readily recognized parental input in their activities.
During interviews, comments of the design team members reflected their understanding of current research on how family visitors use museums. The issues related to family learning that were frequently mentioned include children and families should be encouraged to explore the activities in their own speed and in their own ways (Hein, 2002) and each activity should enable personal connections between the work of art and the visitors. In addition to applying current museum research to the design, the Education Department also conducted research on how family visitors use the Center. Informed by their internal research, the design team also considered the Family Room as a place where families can take a break from touring the galleries.
As asserted by Edwards, when art museums design an interactive learning environment for children, the designers are proposing interpretations of the featured object to children. Sometimes the interpretation is more concrete, such as the selection of the fabric of the bed had to stay approximated to the original fabric so that visually people can identify it. Other times, the interpretation is more abstract such as the concept proposed on how an ancient marble sculpture was made. Exhibition designers have to make sure that they do not present false interpretations of artistic concepts or art-making processes.
Labels Designed to Encourage Personal and Social Construction of Knowledge
The design team wanted to make an effort to work against the traditional education paradigm in art museums, text as a way of communicating and as a mechanism of exploration. In other words, instead of relying on text written by museum professionals, the design team wanted to foster children and families learning at the Family Room, through collaborative exploration, discussion, and play. Stated in Call for Proposals, the Family Room should be an environment where parents feel competent in guiding their childrens experience. Therefore, instead of using text to guide children and families visit, the design team decided to limit the information provided in the exhibition label. In each label, visitors can find only the artists name, the title of the work, the year it was made, and the material used. A photograph of the original work was also included on the label, for visitors to see.
Childrens and Families Learning Experience
Natashas interviews revealed that she engaged in dramatic play, often pretending she was a teacher. Her play consisted of writing letters and numbers and then asking her sister to copy what she had written. Natashas activities reflect her current developmental stage highlights, writing and communication development. In addition, her taking on the persona of a teacher suggests that she has a positive view of teachers and learning. In the research developed by De Corte (2003), it has been pointed out that the development of role-play is an indication of a childs efforts to process experiences and validate interpretations of real life. This suggests that researchers can utilize Natashas behaviors to develop insight into how she processes information and subsequently applies it to her social interactions and learning strategies.
To be able to support positive learning interactions of children and families, the Family Room has been constructed and designed to encourage family interaction. Aside from featuring exhibits that can engage family visitors, the designers of the Family Room designed it to meet social and physical needs of families.
Interviews with some of the young museum visitors who were visiting the gallery with their families reveal that the availability of family support encouraged them to explore and create new strategies to access the exhibits. In a similar fashion, parents interviewed indicated that it allowed them to develop new insights in how to engage their children in learning. They also pointed out that because the exhibits were specifically designed for visitors to interact with their children, they are also able to educate parents themselves and create significant interest in having the museum as a prime recreational destination for their family. However, there was limited to the degree by which the exhibit designers were able to accommodate transfer of learning modalities successfully, which can impede long-term effectiveness and democratic access to the learning objectives of the exhibits (Perkins Salomon, 1992).
Subsequent interviews and observations in the gallery evidence that these efforts were able to yield positive results in terms of how much children were enjoying as much as they were learning through the museum exhibits. Richard viewed the David Hockney photography cove and the neighboring sculpture. Though he was not impressed with the former exhibit, he had a better response to the sculpture exhibit and devoted significant time in the Puryear sculpture, manipulating the exhibits tubes to create a replica of the art. The boy said that his choice of what activities or exhibit to engage in were the ones that he viewed as interesting.
Upon further interview, he says they were good experiences because it was challenging and allowed him to be creative to accomplish the exhibit task. Sarah showed creativity in the literary and design coves and expressed the tubes featured in the sculpture cove was what she enjoyed the most. This was echoed in the interview of other children, which can be considered as an indication that children respond best to activities that allow them to be physically engaged.
At the same time, the case of the sisters, Natasha and Annie, shows that children did not have a positive response from direct interaction with the exhibits. Another source of appeal for the children is because it allows them to play with other children through role-play or working collaboratively on exhibits. This can also be extended to the parents experience as attested to by Sarahs mother Victoria in reflection of the treasure activity she and her daughter participated in. Considering this, together with interviews with other parents of the children interviewed shows that childrens experience can be enhanced by directions or participation of their parents. However, there is indication that parents ability to do so may be limited to the parents in the Getty Museum since observations of the parents in the CAMIT indicated otherwise. However, this may be due to cultural and social variances, this highlights the need to include the rest of the family into the museum experience to ensure that children can be involved in the exhibits and in turn, maximize learning, development, and socialization through the exhibits.
This does not constitute the inaccuracy or falsify the strategies adopted by the designers but rather highlights that museum engagement strategies have to be responsive and evolve together with the changes in the communities they serve. However, because the museum is designed for three to ten year olds, a wide demographic selection in terms of social and cognitive development, marginal age groups may either view the exhibits too challenging or too immature. Thus, there may be a need for museum exhibits to incorporate optional activities or versions of activities designed for these marginal groups to extend their relevance or appeal.
Another option that can be taken is redirecting to other exhibits that can be more engaging or interesting to them. In this sense, the Family Room becomes a transitional platform for more mainstream museum exhibits at the Getty, which reinforces the value of museum experience across demographic groups. There should also be a realization that regardless of how inclusive the exhibits can be designed there will be peripheral populations that will not be accommodated. This highlights the concerns raised previously by Perkins and Salomon (1992) that emphasize the importance of considering the processes involved in the transfer of learning which suggest that varying modes and strategies in the process are determined by individual contexts.
In each of the children interviewed, their play activities showed an element of dramatic play. They engaged in creating scenarios where they had roles to play, though this may be more apparent in the cases of Natasha and Richard. Richards case in particular, he imagined that he could be burned if he touched the corners of the sculpture. This behavior shows that he added elements to the exhibit, thus enriching it beyond the original design. Richards response to the sculpture is actually consistent with the motivation of sculptors, who view their art as something that must be interacted with physically (Tran, 2007). Ultimately, the interviews and observations of the study subjects show that children use the gallery interactives to practice or engage in the activities that they already expressed interest in, such as Natasha writing letters and numbers, Sarah drawing, and Richards interest in physical materials and electronics.
Providing a Pleasant Experience that Encourages Further Exploration and Repeat Visits
Bremer-David, commented, her first expectation of the outcome of the Family Room is to create a pleasurable and inviting experience for visitors. She considered the Family Room an introduction to museum environment to potential life-long museum-visitors. Edwards comment on one of the most critical objectives of the Family Room is aligned with Bremer-Davids thought. Edwards asserted that the Family Room should not be the destination of family visitors. The exhibition designers see visits to the Family Room as an inspiration that would evoke visitors to go to the Centers galleries, to log on to Gettys kiosk, and to join other family programs as a way to learn more about the objects featured within the Family Room. Instead of learning about the specific works, the design team wanted to create an engaging and inviting experience, which would inspire young visitors and their family to learn about the Centers collection or to return to the Center to learn in the future.
Conclusion
Activities such as constructing tube sculptures can better facilitate collaborative learning experience within the family. In comparison to other activities such as in the drawing cove, the tube sculptures have a higher level of interactivity and can accommodate a wider age range of children, which also facilitates family collaboration. However, it should be noted, though the study participants all expressed that they enjoyed or at the very least, appreciated the efforts in designing the exhibits the way they are, the educational objectives set by exhibit designers were not fully realized. As such, there is a need to ensure that exhibits do not just engage or entertain, but they also realize the true goal of the design, which is to communicate the history, value, and significance of the objects effectively. Though learning can be defined as open-ended and multi-faceted, the data suggested that not much in-depth exploration in the artistic concept, related content, contextual information, or meaning, was discussed amongst family members.
Childrens Art Museum in Taipei (CAMIT)
Interactive Exhibit Conceptualization for Thematic Response
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 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 improve engagement strategies and develop new ones.
At the same time, observations related to the childrens responses, and use of the art materials within the museum, 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 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 also actual skills so they can provide adequate support to workshop participants. Artist educators experiences and knowledge of these materials enhance understanding of materials not only to children in the course of the workshops, but also in communicating 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, require 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, for the visitors, a new way of experiencing the paintings, which are relatively widely viewed in Taiwan and thus not previously considered as 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).
Learning Experiences and Responses
Three childrens experiences and responses in the CAMITs were considered for evaluation. Viewing the A Vastly Different Perspective exhibit, Feis play was characterized as overt expression of the play activity she was engaged in, as well as the role she set for herself. This is considered typical of a four-year old. Children have a need for confirmation that their activity and role is being recognized correctly, which 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 feel others should react. In the activity, she made roaring vocalizations using her hands to represent paws. She told her mother she is Charizard, a direct reference to the exhibit that she viewed, as well as to a Pokmon character, which she watches on television. Eight-year old Yo-Yus play was more reality-based. Yo-Yu integrated his experience of natural events, such as earthquakes and typhoons, which are quite 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 are part of schools emergency response education programs. Though he engaged in his dramatic play according to the constraints given by the exhibit, he also used the activity to move beyond what he has experienced and imagined 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 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 explore the materials that were used to construct the space. He used his insights from to figure out what the abstract sculpture was trying to represent. Tais curiosity was evoked by the materials used for the physical construction of the My Many Sides exhibit, constructed by the artist educators using welded steel 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 was 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 the differences based on age and level of growth and development have an impact on how visitors 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 focus on exhibits (Savva Trimis, 2005 Rivera, 2009).
Comparing Tais reaction to the exhibit and the fantasy and dramatic play that Fei and Yo-Yu engaged in, Tais reaction was more focused on the exhibit itself. This can also be seen as indication of the cognitive capacity to manage both play and reality for effective response 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 visit, they joined the guide for the exhibit where 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 engaged both physically and cognitively. Accordingly, this supports the rationale utilized by the CAMIT in the development of the exhibit. Lias effort to get Fei to become involved in the exhibit also extended to other exhibits such as Worms Eye and Birds Eye. Lia 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 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 exhibit three times. 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 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 learning 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 Framing a Landscape is an extension of Rivers and Mountains. The education concepts integrated in both spaces are traditional Chinese painting technique of using blank space to imagine and to create possibilities in paintings. Blank space in Chinese painting has many meanings. The feature in the exhibit provides 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 et al. (2008), this enhances the social relevance of the museum experience. From the interviews and observation of the parents, it is suggested 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, Fei, and Tai, had the opportunity to take the role of a leader who can contribute the art concepts learned and provide 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 has suggested the traditional strategies of exhibiting artwork in museums are no longer effective in achieving the goal of educating family visitors (Lin Gregor, 2006 Livingstone Lemelin, 2001). CAMIT provides opportunities for families to pursue explorations and learning independently. Thus, they are able to accommodate a variety of learning and child development perspectives, such as multiple-intelligence theories. Individual fulfillment of them enhances socialization and development of parents and children (Gardner, 1993). In doing so, CAMIT is able to answer 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 are given options to play and be cognitively and physically engaged. Yo-Yus mother liked the opportunity for her son to make art, different from the traditional or more typical (using paint and brush), represented by Yo-Yus art using the three dimensional space. However, they also believe that there is room for improvement. Feis mother suggested the museum should provide more guidance and strategies on how to extend the educational concepts and use the interactives so they are able to make the visit an educational and meaningful experience for their child. Tais mother pointed out because parents need support in understanding the approaches that CAMIT is undertaking the traditional didactic education that she received in school is different from the explorative or constructive education theories that CAMIT used to structure the interactive exhibition. According to her, she understands that an inquiry based approach or constructivist approach is good for her child, but she is not used to guiding her children that way.
Considerations in Conceptualization, Design, and Creation
From the study of the CAMIT, it can be said that the artist educators who designed the interactive exhibition have a fundamental belief and educational objective of encouraging exploration and having a multi-sensory interactive experience to better engage children and thus, create effective and collaborative exhibits that will support both educational and art objectives. This is an idea that has echoed in the most current perspectives on education and art education. Brown and Vaughan (2009), Landreth et al. (2009), Porter and associates (2009), Rivera (2009), as well as Stephens (2009), among others, have highlighted the potential of using creative strategies to create play environments in education to support learning, creativity, and imaginative thinking. They concluded that in doing so, instead of going against childrens desire for play, they will utilize it to engage childrens participation.
There is 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, and themes that is being focused on by the exhibits, but encourages children to become artists 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 what 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 museums now understand that they must provide dynamic modes of interaction to be more competitive with new education platforms, particularly those using a high degree of technology. This is one of the primary reasons the Institute of Museum and Library Services (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 no longer a variable prerogative but required as an institutional need for todays museums.
As 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 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 CAMIT, this can be seen in the exhibit labels. The content of the exhibit labels help visitors engage 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 who may have limited language facility in the other language.
Conclusion
In the CAMIT and the Family Room, design intends to educate through hands-on experience. The expectation was that children would be able to explore and learn about artistic concepts 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 roles in guiding and 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 Zone of Proximal Development, developed by Vygotsky, that suggested actual developmental levels and the levels of potential development 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 that serve to reinforce learning and appreciation (Falk Dierking, 2001).
Lord (2007) and Montgomery (2008) both show that museums are perceived by the public as highly intellectualized institutions. There should be a realization that though this can facilitate the participation of the public in museums educational initiatives, this indicates that there are high expectations for the king of educational exhibits, instruments and methodologies that they would develop. Institute of Museum and Library Services (2008) believes that this is also a core reason why museums should commit long-term resources and professionals to developing educational exhibits for children, because such cannot be effectively developed by ad hoc efforts. The key realization is, for the CAMIT and the Family Room to each remain continually relevant and effective in their individual objectives, each has to sustain its current efforts and enhance the ability to communicate and develop collaborative partnerships with visitors and stakeholders effectively.
