Education Travels

The Tomlins are a very generous and visionary family who give art teachers the opportunity to explore, investigate, reflect and establish contacts to discover an art world which is so far away. Yet we continue to teach its history and influences from significantly reduced reproductions in books, slides, films and if you're lucky power point presentations. But it is not the same as being there. How the hell do we continue to teach art through painting and drawing when neither the teacher nor the student often never sees most of the influential artworks of the western culture? How anyone ever becomes an artist from such humble beginnings in Australia is extraordinary.

The answer we can guess is that art is not created just from what we see but a strange mixture of what we think and the desire to reflect this in a visual form. 'Ideas' are the vital ingredient to the making of any art. We know as art teachers that we can really only guide and suggest directions into which students are able to extend and explore their own instincts for expressing themselves in a visual form

My curiosity of what art museums are about and how they engage their public to discover and explore ideas for themselves led me to the art museums of St. Petersburg, Russia; Belgium; The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. So, this morning I will recall a little about art museum education, you will be able to look at samples of things I've seen (which are poor substitutes for the real thing) but will give you something to do as I speak.

These images are not a direct reference to what I say but are places I've been to when finding things to say. The last group of slides are of East Berlin of which is not included in today's talk but which have given me many ideas for my own work and are mentioned in my written report

While my visit to many art museums was extraordinary not only in viewing the collections but also interviewing museum education directors, sometimes the interview became impractical. It is surprising how many overseas people I had conversed with while in Australia with the use of the e-mail, and were no longer employed when I arrived in their country. One organisation simply didn't exist and the entire building was in rubble. After a while I become a little paranoid.

Today's report is a recollection of interviews and findings of some of the places I had visited and some of the people I had discussed education/and or museum collections with, of which some, I fear, may now be unemployed

To memory, the most outstanding quality found when discovering art museums is their shear drive to achieve. When comparing art museums visited on this trip, no other place exercises this drive more than the museums of Russia.

Quietly I had expected to see a world, which was busily keeping up with the western ideal of art. But they are more than aware of the western art scene; in fact many art movements which we know as Realism and Impressionism and Abstraction were practised much earlier than we had witnessed in the western world.

Instead, their efforts are practised in a far more important field; their art scene is extremely well networked. Their artists work extremely close with the internet and are very well informed on art in the west. Like the west, St Petersburg is working with the trend of moving back to painting. What is most evident is their keen interest in performance art, based on literature, working within the area of body art and the theatre of the absurd.

The political upheaval in Russia is a major influence in their art. Ranging from Terrorism, Chechnya's war and philosophical subjects but more importantly the new generation have hardly felt growing up in the Soviet Union and were more interested in travelling as much as possible but not with the feeling of being inferior to the west, on the contrary, they are very self confident. A confidence by the younger generation who to the distain of their elders, can no longer make chicken dumplings like they use to.

The world's biggest collection of national fine art is found in 'The Russian Museum.' St. Petersburg. This extraordinary museum dedicates its efforts to educating the public of a1000 years of historical development purely through the visual means of the arts. Its entire collection is displayed in chronological order and housed within the Mikailovsky Palace, Marble Palace, Strogonov Palace, Michael's (Engineer's) Castle and the Russian Museum Gardens.

The State Hermitage Museum and its efforts in reaching out to the public in its many forms, spans over 47,000 sq. m. in exhibition space and its permanent collection occupies 300 rooms. The museum's conception has been attributed to Catherine the Great in1764 with the purchase of 225 paintings from a dealer in Berlin. Today it boasts a collection consisting of over 3,000,000 items contained within five brilliant architectural ensembles, the Winter Palace, the Hermitage Theatre, and the Small, Old and New Hermitage.

While there are great concerns in Western Europe about diminishing funds for many educational programs within art museums, Russia appears consistent in its efforts to improve accessibility and creativity in presenting its major museums as places of continuous discoveries.

Russia's grand collection of palaces may initially battle with the idea of heritage-classed museums as being regarded as 'traditional' and therefore synonymous with 'boring'. But instead the museums have gone to great lengths to maintain a spectacular collection and thoroughly interesting education programs as well as bringing the museum far beyond the museum walls.

The many surrounding parks are well utilised in the staging of free concerts and theatrical performances in keeping with the background of a current exhibition, as well as market stalls including material normally confined to the museum bookshop.

Between the State and The Hermitage Museum, the public are offered a number of services. This includes, a 'Computer Aid' stand where visitors can plan a print out of their own chosen route of the collection, Internet Cafes, Multimedia Centre, multi-lingual audio guides, Audio-Visual Centre, The Children's Museum, education programs which educate parents and teachers of children with various physical and psychological needs. Theatrical Studio, Art Studio, Publishing Centre, a postal service and in the near future photographic services, a 'Virtual World ' project including virtual museum displays and an interactive cinema. The theatre of The State Hermitage has recently installed equipment for simultaneous translation of up to five languages at any one time.

In contrast to the splendours of these great art museums and almost at the expense of their collections and programs, the upkeep of these grand palaces is astronomical. The reality of an under-funded, dilapidated city is easily seen by simply catching a tram where heavy winters freeze not only the exteriors of windows, but also tempt the tongues of small children which stick to the frozen windows of the interior.

St. Petersburg is modelled on Venice, Italy, and therefore has many islands surrounded by water with rivers, canals and bridges. In summer the street cafes are abuzz with live music and dancing couples. The Neva River is widely utilised by both locals and tourists where many tours include visits to the State Hermitage and The Russian Museum.

The Arts Centre of arts for physically and mentally handicapped citizens in St. Petersburg offers the opportunity for handicapped citizens to learn art and craft at a level which enables them to create watercolours, sculptures and crafts of painted wooden boxes, spoons, bowls and decorative cheese boards.

The course also includes examinations and assessments. It is free to all participants. There is an entrance exam. All students sit exams in theory and practical areas of the arts during the year and are given a certificate at the end of the course.

The government's aim is to offer training in a specialist skill to enable handicapped people to be self employed with successfully making items which are traditional in design and extremely popular with tourists.

Many of these items beautifully display extraordinary fine motor skills. All classes are heavily influenced by the designs of 'traditional folk art', except for one, 'the free expression lessons' where beautifully crafted clay horses and crowing roosters adorn, what else but the ash-tray, bong and large but slender lidded vases for the vodka bottle.
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Accidentally I came across the organisation, CANON in Belgium while seemingly researching the arts in Holland.

The primary objective of the Organisation CANON is to give art and culture a full and active role in all levels of education from both primary and secondary schools. It offers its services to all educational networks by-

. Supporting projects devised and set up by schools.

. Offering it's own projects designed to give a creative stimulus to those who are working with art and culture within their schools.

CANON's strengths are integrating the experience of culture within any curriculum program including teacher training.

CANON FUNCTIONS AS A BRIDGE between SCHOOLS AND SOCIETY. It endeavours to give schools access to the immense variety of culture in the world and to make education more accessible to the cultural sector.

CANON EMPHASISES that if teachers feel insecure about artistic and cultural disciplines within their classrooms and their own curriculum, then experienced teachers of the CANON unit would offer workshops for the individual teachers and within their specific programs. Some of these workshops include:

DynaMo - regarded as CANON's 'mother project' has a basic purpose to launch 'dynamics in schools. Each spring all 4000 schools in Flanders receive a DynoMo catalogue offering a variety of workshops and programs that can be used to base the school's curricular activities. Activities are organised for 5 of their educational areas, business, democracy, health, ecology and the arts. Artists are listed in with the activities to support staff in schools.

DynaMo 2 provides all schools with the possibility to run these projects with financial support. Proposals from schools are submitted outlining the possible programs that could be run with activities based on CANON's ideas. These can be offered with or without the cooperation of CANON staff,

The major activity run in this program is aimed at art and culture and the other 4 fields are treated in a broader sense for instance artistically interpreting a democratic or enterprising theme. Each project is carefully designed with strong emphasis on the school's own needs.

Successful submissions of proposed projects receive a subsidy by CANON with a financial input from the school itself. On average, 50% of the applications submitted are successful'

RIGHT YOU ARE
Is a workshop run on cooperation with the Minister Of Equal Opportunities and with 'De Standaard' who publish a series of 10 books with a CD ROM to support workshops which are musically orientated within schools on themes such as 'bullying' 'multiculturalism' and 'poverty'

Spoiling Days
Hundreds of teachers are invited to be spoilt with words of poetry, images and food. Teachers sit at a richly decorated table accompanied with 6 special guests from the world of art and media. These special guests would discuss how their teacher in school inspired them and what effect this had to the present day.

While in Amsterdam, the opportunity was presented to me to discuss recent research on education in museums with Cyprus.

It appears that the importance of education in museums was not types of programs run but whether there were programs at all.

This information is based on a PhD research set out to provide a conceptual framework for collaborations between primary schools and museums in Cyprus for developing art based educational programmes in museums.

Very briefly all interviewees had positive views about museums as a learning environment, it was not yet clear if they were willing to commit time and energy into future collaborations between schools and museums.

Cypriot museums do not employ anyone with specialist knowledge about the collections who could develop resource materials about them

It was felt that unless museum visits or attendance at museum programs are made a requirement in the national curriculum, not a recommendation, a minority of Cypriot teachers only will continue to arrange school visits.

. For the Cypriot situation it was recommended by the majority of both museum staff and school principals that teachers were the most appropriate persons to deliver museum education and emphasised the need for training and specialist knowledge of museum collections.

They felt the problem with poor communication between museums and schools was due to the fact that the majority of the museums employ museum educators without school training experience.

Cyprus is looking at seconding fulltime teachers from schools to develop and deliver their programs.

A Museum in the Netherlands has found a unique way in ensuring that their staff has a very good idea of the public who attend their museums. The Centraal Museum in Utrecht, home to the designer Gerrit Rietveld, has recently been appointed with a new director who involves his staff of conservators, research officers, curators, directors and designers in the body of the museum.

To the displeasure of many professionals who traditionally work behind the scenes, they are required to sell tickets, open doors and patrol exhibition rooms in order to be aware of the public they serve

The education officer of the Centraal Museum, feels that a continuing relationship with schools is vital and so has recently introduced a program involving work experience students of secondary schools resulting in the enrichment and possibly life-changing impressions for some of their volunteers.

Students are responsible for informing their school of the services and events offered by the museum. In return, they gain experience in working within a museum environment, with invitations to openings and the opportunity to address the public with introductory speeches to social and educational events.

The Netherlands is a country where graduating artists are given an opportunity to apply for financial support much like the 'dole' but are exempt from the obligation to apply for a job. Artists are entitled to 70% of their National Assistance benefit.

MOMA's exhibition programmes in Oxford has included the first presentations in Britain of international artists such as Donald Judd, Louise Bourgeois, Lichtenstein and Carl Andre.

MOMA initiates contact with schools and educators through advertising and mailing lists. They soon plan to invite school teachers to consultation evenings with the art museum staff to suggest and negotiate tailor made museum programs for school students. More inservices for school teachers in developing skills in critical analysis and contextual knowledge of museum collections is encouraged.

The Tate Britain displays the national collection of British art spanning over 500 years. Within a chronological framework the displays show the collection from fresh perspective's which track ideas and issues in British art. Traditional and new themes are explored. Collections are interspersed with thematic displays devoted to single major artists such as Constable or Cornelia Parker.

The Tate Modern (whose bridge was still under construction, but I did see the Andy Warhol retrospective), decided chronological order is out the window and the collection is displayed in 4 broadly treated thematic themes. Landscape, including a room dedicated to Rothko, Still Life, including Damien Hirst's Walk in Pharmacy, The Nude including Tracey Emin and History painting with Dan Flavin.

Major developments for the education programmes at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London, has included a saleable teachers' pack written in consultation with teachers on the topics of new displays within the museums. These packs consist of a handbook style information kit, ideas and activities and A4 colour work cards.

Better quality and clearly designed teachers packs based on major exhibitions are available free on line. At the moment the collections of Turner and The Victorians is available.

For the first time, Tate Britain and Tate Modern ran a joint conference in May this year.

Tate Britain runs a very successful out of schools programme for the past 3 years. This program is open to students whose confidence is in need of a boost. The students work in the museum with artists and a range of staff at the gallery behind the scenes. This is further supported with an outreach contact plan for students when they leave the museum program.

Currently, Special Needs Workshops are being piloted together with a broader range of workshops. Programmes include inservices for staff who work with people with learning difficulties and mental health survivors.

Future developments for Tate Britain involve a focus on website development with 'Online Learning' Programmes. The bigger plans seem to involve more cross-site collaboration, especially regarding resources with other major museums.

All art museums agree that teachers and students need support in being able to visit the collections and exhibitions regularly, building a relationship with the museum rather than one- off visits.

My observations when introducing students to art museums has taught me that there are often two types of students. It is obvious that some are very taken by what they experienced and know how to nourish themselves from visiting an art museum. And there are some students who may obviously be talented in technical skill, submit their work on time, attend all classes but struggle to comprehend the significance of what surrounds them. The question has been asked many times. Are we training good students or hoping to produce good artists? Educating students to open their eyes and minds to what to respond to what they see and experience is a vital role for all teachers.