New Patterns of Museum and Gallery Education
This report starts with a description of our research project, the scope and origins of gallery and museum education and the central issue of interpretation. This is followed by a discussion of the context, particularly that provided by the two reports, 'Substance and Shadow' (Selwood & Clive, 1992) and 'Art Feat & Mystery' (Binch & Kennedy, 1994), both of which focus on the relationship between museums and galleries and the formal statutory education sector. An evaluation of the recommendations of the two reports is followed by our research findings, including three brief case studies, to give a current view of the field and the emergence of new patterns.
The Research Project
LAADE is London-wide networking organisation supporting primary and secondary teachers involved or interested in art education, backed by the London Arts Board (LAB). We carried out a small scale research project to improve our Database listings of all museums and galleries providing education services in the capital, relating to our subject area - art, design and craft. The field includes all the visual and spatial arts including architecture, environmental design, forms concerned with mass media and communications such as photography, film, video, IT and multi-media, combined artforms such as carnival, and contemporary fine art forms such as installation and live art. The research also provides an opportunity to reflect on current activity and evaluate developments since the publication of 'Substance and Shadow' (Selwood & Clive 1992) and 'Art Feat & Mystery' (Binch & Kennedy, 1994), two reports which made recommendations aimed at developing cooperation and interaction between teachers and gallery educators in the context of the upheaval caused by the introduction of Local Management of Schools (LMS).
The earliest stage of our research involved identifying the range of museums and galleries in the inner and greater London area which are large or stable enough to support some sort of education service. We used published directories (Adams 1989, Olding 1989), the educational press and our own experience to produce a growing list. A set of standard questions (Appendix 1) was developed to elicit a range of practical and policy information. Information was first gathered from published sources, then followed up by phone, and finally by a draft Database entry, for correction, by post. Three institutions were then contacted for an in depth interview to provide some detailed case study material.
When journeys across London can at times take more time than journeys from other parts of the country, there is much to be said in cultivating local galleries. This is particularly important for visits by the youngest of children where providing experience, establishing learning skills and basic concepts, appropriate behavioural patterns and expectations, may be more important than specific content. A relationship with a local gallery can also encourage increased community use as pupils establish regular visiting habits, extending to their peers or parents, outside school time. We were therefore just as interested in contacting and publicising the services of small local galleries as the well known 'flagship institutions'.
Scope
London has an embarrassment of riches in its choice of museums and galleries. They range from great national institutions with an international reputation to small local museums and galleries. A distinction can also be made between those with permanent collections and those that initiate or provide a venue for changing exhibitions. Of course, many of the larger institutions provide both, with temporary exhibitions refocusing or providing a draw to complement the familiar. Education departments have different remits. For instance, the National Gallery covers the whole of Great Britain (80% of visiting schools to the Monet Exhibition came from outside London) while others, such as the Livesey Museum, serve inner London. A few are used only by local schools (Selwood & Clive, 1992, p. 5). Museums and galleries also answer to a wider constituency than the statutory education sector alone, including community and special interest groups, old people, adult education, as well as the casual visitor, although research suggests that between 25% and 100% of education budgets are spent on use by schools. The proportion of an institution's overall budget spent on the education programme can range from less than 1% to over 50% while the proportion brought in by sponsorship, again, can vary enormously with some education services being almost totally dependent on externally generated funds (op. cit., p. 6).
Origins
Growing from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries educated middle class fashion for collecting 'cabinets of curiosities' (Adams, 1989, p. 1), historical surveys suggest that the great nineteenth century museums were founded as educational institutions. This was motivated by a belief in the improving effect of self-help and the power of art to humanise and civilise (Hooper-Greenhill, 1994, pp. 9 - 61). Museums were seen as neutral spaces where all social classes could meet. Society could be improved through the rational use of leisure time and the shared experiences of the museum visit. This view has been overlaid with other conflicting conceptions, particularly through the split between curation and education. The curatorial focus has been on collection and documentation leading to an elitist, academic image connected to the pursuit of pure knowledge.
Interpretation
According to Hooper-Greenhill (1994, pp. 3-5), the essential role of gallery education is to make a relationship between the collection or exhibit and the interests of the particular museum visitor. This will involve the museum or gallery teacher in flexible interpretation of the same objects in different ways, according to the interests or needs of specific groups. This is a fundamental skill for museum and gallery educators. 'Active methods are favoured. Thus, handling objects, using role play, working around a site or building, being involved in theatre in education, making a large scale collage, building a group sculpture, making deductions from first hand evidence, watching a demonstration, and using tape or video-recorders are standard ways of working' (op. cit., p.4). Galleries seeking new audiences amongst the community, particularly those who 'have not reached the gallery door because they feel excluded, afraid, indifferent, or contemptuous' (Jackson, 1989, p.16), are conscious of the need to use familiar language, often beginning 'with the visitor's own observations and interpretations'. They also acknowledge the need to 'generate new meanings' through an 'open and divergent' process where outcomes 'are not predetermined' (ibid.). In the context of contemporary art, Dawe-Lane (1996 p. 137)) suggests that art objects 'are purpose-built for receiving meanings from those who use them' and that 'pupils.... furnish mute art objects with diverse and often startlingly sophisticated readings of their own making'. Durbin (1989 p.12), evaluating learning from objects in the museum setting, suggests that successful practice will mean that pupils 'will know that objects reflect the choices and assumptions of the people who made and used them' and that this 'will lead them to see that displays in museums reflect the priorities of curators past and present', thus enabling a more interesting and critical approach.
There are clearly issues and questions around the role of the museum, gallery and curator in framing and helping to construct meaning and the potential for diverse and multiple readings. While Hooper-Greenhill highlights the benevolent origins of our national collections, others have made different readings. For instance, Duncan & Wallach (1980, cited in Dyson, 1993, p.8) have identified the legacy of the British imperial and colonial past in our national collections and their function as 'permanent triumphal processions, testifying to Western supremacy and world domination' in the Roman tradition. Boime (1990) further identifies the ideology implicit in the representation of 'people of colour' in 19th. century western art as linked to the dialectical tension between slavery and its abolition. This representation, which fixes stereotypes in British national collections, often goes unquestioned and unacknowledged. In a similar way critiques of established art histories have developed from feminist perspectives. Both these strands have led to new practices and even new institutions, such as Black art galleries, the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA), the Women's Art Library and the soon to be opened, Museum of Womens' Art.
The relationship between statutory education and museum education
'Most museum educators do not want to reproduce a traditional classroom atmosphere..... on the grounds that learning in museums should be a different experience, and should enable a first hand encounter with both the collections of the museum and the site in which the collections are held' (Hooper-Greenhill, 1994, p. 5).
'The greatest exhibit is the museum itself' - John Reeve, British Museum.
'Substance and Shadow' (Selwood & Clive, 1992) was commissioned by Greater London Arts (GLA) in 1991 to gather information about the needs of the statutory education sector in their use of London's Visual Arts organisations, survey the range and distribution of their educational services and 'to map the concerns' of those working in the educational sector and the organisations themselves. The two key changes identified at the time of publication were the introduction of the art National Curriculum and the impact of the introduction of Local Management of Schools (LMS). At the same time pressures on the arts sector, through Government policy and reduced subsidy, placed greater emphasis on increasing earned income, sponsorship, accessibility and attracting new audiences. A report and survey charting the impact of museum charges on school visits (Adams & Cole, 1990) had highlighted the impact of these, plus the costs of transport and supply teachers. DES Circular 2/89 maintained the right of free education and that activities offered wholly or mainly during normal teaching time should be available to all pupils regardless of their ability or willingness to help meet the cost (op cit., p. 16). The debate about museum charges has continued with some major institutions imposing charges others introducing voluntary schemes and others seeking resolutely to remain free. Charging institutions often offer education services to schools free or at reduced prices.
'Substance and Shadow' concluded with several recommendations for action, picking up on the main findings of their enquiry (pp. 19-20). The researchers had found that communication was poor between visual arts organisations and schools; each constituency was preoccupied with its own agenda; and there was often a conspicuous lack of respect between LEA inspectors, advisors, teachers and education officers. They recommended that the organisations with a regional remit, LAB (London Arts Board, successor to GLA), NAGE (National Association for Gallery Education, recently metamorphosed into engage) and LAADE (London Association for Art and Design Education), should help establish effective communication networks between visual arts organisations and schools. The roles each organisation would play would be different, but there was a stress on the value of collaboration. They identified the need for agreed objectives; better quality evaluation, particularly from schools using education services; greater respect between constituencies through greater understanding of each other's working context, principles, priorities and pressures (promoting teacher placements in museums and galleries); a commonality of interest in improving status, as both art education in schools and education services in visual arts organisations are generally regarded as 'low priority'; and finally, access, indicating the value of outreach and the need for a clear rationale defining the institution's conception of access and the priorities which inform their policies.
One of the most notable outcomes following the introduction of LMS (and the privatisation of the inspection process and the creation of the OFSTED system) has been the demise of the local authority advisor. The time the remaining local authority inspectors have to spend on subject advice is reduced and local authority support for gallery and museum education is reduced or withdrawn. The ILEA contributed to the education budgets of many London institutions (the Geffrye and Horniman are referred to as former ILEA museums in Adams & Cole, 1990, p. 3), financing teacher support in a number of art galleries. However, the new London Boroughs have been forced to curtail support as a result of cuts to their education budgets (in 1991 Tower Hamlets was forced to cut the Whitchapel Art Gallery's funding from £67,000 to £10,000 soon after the London Borough Grants Committee support was also reduced from £85,00 to £50,000, - Evening Standard, 8/7/91, p. 22). At the same time as national curriculum policy put pupils' learning about cultural traditions in art, design and craft into the centre stage, a project that the education services of galleries and museums were well placed to assist with, other policies pushed these services into the market place and uncertain futures.
'Art Feat & Mystery' (Binch & Kennedy, 1994) was a report of, and response to, the conference which launched 'Substance and Shadow', held at the Royal Academy. It proposed further specific recommendations including the formation of a standing conference from representatives of the gallery/museum and teaching sectors; the joint publication of a termly newsletter and digest of activity and opportunity for school/gallery collaboration; the design, planning and delivery of borough and central professional development with the focus on school/gallery collaboration; and the possibility of siting resource centres designed to inform and promote effective school/gallery collaboration in a small number of Professional Development Centres (p. 28).
The aims were ambitious, but none of the three key organisations have really had the personnel to maintain a systematic approach to development. LAB has taken the role of 'enabler' supporting financially through networking and project grants, commissioning and disseminating research and developing strategic policy which it seeks to realise through advice, debate and awarding grant aid. Only two education officers cover all the arts' formal and informal sectors. They can rarely undertake direct organisation themselves, rather they focus on stimulating activity and collaboration. A fundamental aim of LAB is to bring professional arts organisation and artists into collaboration with the education sector. While much of the networking and research support has multiple outcomes, it is important to remember this mission, evident in LAB's Senior Education Officer's proviso that a standing conference should include the voice of the artist / maker.
NAGE (now engage) signalled its reservations and independence in 'The View From The Gallery', section three of 'Art Feat & Mystery', pointing out that NAGE is a national organisation and that, while London NAGE has a regional remit, members are also involved with national initiatives and also have to reflect national policies. Its remit and conception of education also goes beyond the statutory sector. It also points out that teachers have had a professional training related to their work, work within a publicly recognised institutional framework, have a National Curriculum to unite them, and recognised rates of pay. Gallery education, as opposed to museum education (note the distinction), lacks these benefits, is comparatively new, and its practitioners come from differing professional backgrounds. It does claim that the majority of London galleries have at least one member, so that London NAGE 'can speak for gallery education staff in the region with some credibility'. It finally endorses the recommendations of the publication, identifying the need to obtain funding for one or two people with administrative support, to act as a catalyst to establish the core of a coordinating agency structure.
LAADE, like NAGE, is dependent on a few core members to initiate action and a slightly larger group who are willing to attend meetings, provide ideas and lend practical assistance at times. Action seems to progress in fits and starts and complements the rhythms and pressures of academic life. Facilities are provided by the active member's institutions (in museums, galleries, schools and universities) while network funding (from LAB) provides some stability to maintain the LAADE Database and Newsletter and project funding supports publications such as 'Art, Feat and Mystery' and the Video documenting artist's residencies: 'Head, Hands and Heart'. The steadily growing membership base also provides matching funding and has, for instance, financed small scale research projects, the publication of a teacher's pack for Africa '95, and bought in speakers of national reputation such as Rod Taylor. The recommendations in 'Art, Feat and Mystery' are LAADE recommendations, although clearly building on the context provided by 'Substance and Shadow'. It is timely to assess progress, acknowledge success and failure as well as map the changing context.
A standing conference has not been convened although there has been increasing contact and collaboration between LAADE and engage. A joint publication has not developed, but the LAADE newsletter has become increasingly professional and carries much material direct from London galleries and museums detailing educational services, opportunities and events. The delivery of borough and central professional development focused on school/gallery collaboration is harder to evaluate. There are pockets of activity in some boroughs and museum and gallery education departments offer varied INSET opportunities themselves. There are the beginnings of central provision through the recent appointment of a National Society for Education in Art and Design Inset Officer working in partnership with University Education Departments and Local Authorities in the London area. The resource centres suggested have not materialised, perhaps because the concept of visiting a centre which is not a museum or gallery to gain information is not encouraging. Perhaps this function will also be better served by direct access through the Internet as more and more schools go 'on line'. The LAADE 'trade fair' approach at major London venues has also shown that gallery and museum educators are keen to take up the opportunity to network directly with teachers, particularly at the start of the school year.
Research findings
The research questions are documented in Appendix 1. Some were quite specific and factual while others were more open ended and aimed at identifying funding, policy, values and plans. Conclusions here are drawn from forty four institutions in the London area, although the number continues to grow. The data is retrievable within this publication by looking up individual institutional entries.
Teachers were consulted and involved in planning education programmes in just under a quarter of museums and galleries surveyed. This was often quite a recent innovation and can be seen as a development in both policy and practice. The most often given reasons for non-involvement was the existence of qualified teachers on the staff of a department or lack of interest from teachers due to the heavy demands of the National Curriculum.
It was good to see that free entrance for schools has been maintained at just over half of the institutions surveyed, although some of these charged for special exhibitions. Therefore, it is still possible, in the capital, to call on free educational services and visits. A quarter had extended their hours of opening to extend access, although, as in the case of late evening openings, this would be of benefit to teachers' preparation rather than pupils unless on independent visits.
Funding for educational services was varied and it was interesting that all the few completely privately funded institutions offered free entry. Besides core funding from the institutions themselves, other sources included, London Borough Grants Commission, London Arts Board, The Arts Council, Local Councils, City Challenge, Corporation of London, Department of National Heritage, Business Sponsorship, Charitable Foundations, Learned Societies and Institutes. Many topped up their grants with fund raising events and 'friends' membership income.
Access and facilities for SEN of all kinds were seen as a priority with only a few institutions unable to offer physical access due mainly to the nature of their premises, particularly where listed buildings were unable to alter doorway widths or accommodate lift shafts.
A third of the institutions in the survey were actively planning to extend and redevelop their premises, many of these relying on successful lottery bids. Often these would include improvements to education facilities. Most of the institutions in the full survey have permanently staffed education departments, though these vary greatly in size. The range of services is great, including workshops, talks, guides, INSET, outreach, information packs, teachers evenings, study days, mailing lists, etc. The one thing they all have in common was the desire for more money to develop and expand their education service.
Case Studies
To give a flavour of developments in the field, including the emergence of new patterns, three institutions were chosen for a visit. Some open-ended question were prepared to elicit information around the themes of funding, status within the institution, relationships with the educational sector, current policy, context, planned developments and broad aims for the future. These brief case studies concentrate on what was particularly different or illuminating about each situation.
The Whitechapel Art Gallery Community Education Programme
At one time the Whitechapel was the innovative leader with its programmes of imaginative artist-led, gallery education workshops and artist-in-schools schemes, exploring the heady territory of introducing school children to contemporary art. Nowadays their approach is common to many contemporary art galleries and continues to be used successfully at the Whitechapel.
A current focus for the community education team is consultation, and their recently founded advisory group includes practising teachers. Teachers have also been involved in co-writing education packs which suggest activities and contextual material designed to facilitate access by groups visiting the gallery independently. This involvement is extended to teacher and artist partnerships running INSET sessions focussed on each current exhibition. These new developments provide evidence of a new spirit of respect, equality and partnership between gallery education and the statutory sector, sometimes so sadly missing in the experience of the 'Substance and Shadow' researchers (Selwood & Clive, 1992, pp. 19-20).
At the Whitechapel a number of issues are being addressed. One is to continue to explore the role that gallery education should play in relation to the National Curriculum. How much support can really be given to delivery? Is their role to provide a different kind of experience, developing new concepts and language through a critical encounter with contemporary art, and new ways of working with materials and processes not normally available in the classroom? Whatever the answer, there is a commitment to giving participants an 'equal voice' and encouraging 'talking about art'.
Limits on visiting group size is a perennial issue which, together with a number of other factors, means there are many more primary visits than secondary. It is easier to split the traditional primary class into groups of fifteen and find additional parent helpers and classroom assistants to supervise. Part of the team's in-gallery provision includes an in-house or commissioned video linked to each exhibition. There is surely scope for wider dissemination of these tapes to schools, particularly to stimulate, inform and engage secondary art specialists and their older students. The gallery viewing room is not necessarily the best context for viewing and there is potential for considerable outreach effect at a reasonably low cost.
The Photographers' Gallery Programme
Relying entirely on outside funding, education work at The Photographers' Gallery draws on a number of sources including charitable funds, notably the Gulbenkian Foundation, and sponsorship from Kodak. There is always a danger of concentrating on funding led initiatives, but the team believe they are fortunate in having good relationships with their funders who 'like what they do'.
A key initiative at present is an expensive 'Digital Outreach Project'. This is exploring the new technology of digital cameras, computer based image manipulation, multimedia authoring and the Internet, through artist residencies in a primary school. While arguably focused on a small number of participants this can be seen as an important pilot project which in turn will open up new ways of working for others through dissemination. Care has been taken to document, evaluate and publicise at a national level through the appointment of a researcher/evaluator with links to a university education department. Gallery education can at times perform this curriculum development role with its potential to attract funding, generate publicity and draw on professional expertise across a range of disciplines. Resources can permit the creation of small adult-pupil contact ratios which are necessary in developing new forms of practice with new technology.
The Photographers Gallery has recently integrated its curatorial and education roles so that all staff now work together on developing the Gallery's 'programme' which is now the preferred term rather than exhibitions with education tacked on. This allows school pupils and other community groups to be actively involved in developing work which becomes part of exhibitions, rather than becoming passive recipients of other's curatorial decisions. It also signals a radical redefinition of 'education' in the gallery context, reversing the low priority often assigned to education and heals the education/curatorial split. The programme appears to be founded on the principle of building genuine and meaningful relationships with all involved in the gallery process, the press, artists and target audiences including the statutory sector. The present Digital Outreach Project was, for instance, initiated by an approach and request from a primary school headteacher and developed from the ensuing dialogue. Underlying the programme is a non didactic approach, enabling and empowering a wide range of individuals and groups to engage critically with ideas around visual culture in a discursive space. While this approach has led to a diminishing of traditional education service provision, this is perhaps inevitable given the change of emphasis.
The British Museum Education Service
The British Museum Education Service has to operate on a local, regional, national and international level, with an insatiable demand which can never be met fully and therefore requires clear prioritisation. For instance, the introduction of the National Curriculum transformed demand with the new statutory focus of the History Orders at Key Stage 2. Current practice includes a lot of direct work with adults but not school pupils. The statutory education sector is served rather through the provision of INSET and resources such as teachers packs, publications, videos and CD Rom. The Museum of Mankind provides more activities for school pupils and occasionally special funding allows the British Museum itself to provide gallery workshops or outreach work.
The Museum is poised for a major transformation driven by the Millennium Celebrations, its own 250th. anniversary in 2003, lottery funding opportunities and the potential of new technology. The movement of the British Library to a new site and the reintegration of the Museum of Mankind collections also allows for fundamental change. Sir Norman Forster's plans for transforming the central reading rooms into a computer-based information centre and the space around it into a vast, glass-roofed atrium - court are well publicised. New premises are also planned for a centre for education within the museum which will include two auditoriums, a foyer, seminar rooms for object handling, artists in residence and practical workshops, welcoming facilities for school groups, including lunchrooms, cloakrooms and facilities for the disabled. Thirdly, a new study centre is planned in a converted block on the corner of Dury Lane where the reserve collections, including African sculpture and pottery, textiles and North American and Australian material culture will be made accessible for school visits.
The British Museum is embracing the information revolution by developing a multi-media database of all its collections which will become available in the information centre and accessible from anywhere in the world on the Internet. With over seven million items in its collections this will obviously be a long term project approached gradually through the publication of CD Roms with a variety of focuses, often made in partnership with outside sponsors. This is a truly formidable task for the 21st century which will change the way the museum is used, with a physical visit only part of the potential process and access.
Conclusions
London schools are uniquely placed to draw on the richness of art and culture available in the capital, both in the permanent collections and in the programmes of temporary exhibitions which are a feature of many of the institutions surveyed. Our research shows it is still possible to call on free and often bespoke educational visits and services in many institutions. Funding may well increase due to new lottery programmes which have the potential to increase education personnel and facilities in museums and galleries, as well as support schools with the cost of visits. Developing thinking around the notion of interpretation is acknowledging the potential for multiple readings and the validity of personal response, leading to a new respect for audiences and what they bring to the museum and gallery experience. This is breaking through the elitist image of galleries and the academic image of museums. A greater willingness to be involved with practising teachers in consultation and partnership is evident in many of the institutions surveyed. There is great diversity in the policy and practice of education departments or services, ranging from support for delivery of the National Curriculum to resource-hungry curriculum-development projects which would be impossible within the statutory sector alone. New information technology is highly influential in change in the visual and cultural field and has the potential alter our relationship with museums and galleries extending access and opening up new patterns of use. Finally, it is worth remembering that many education departments are tender plants, particularly in smaller institutions, vulnerable to fluctuations in funding, involved in their own battles for status within their parent organisation and deserving teachers' active support and collaboration.
Steve Herne. September 1996