Abstract

An experimental professional development workshop on the paintings and drawings of Zoran Mušič (1909–2005) from Slovenian public and private collections, temporarily exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, was designed for preschool teachers. The training aimed at reflecting current preschool art education and practice, which is centred principally on art-making activities, with an obvious lack of art appreciation. Mušič’s landscapes, portraits and the series We are not the Last (an extraordinary portrayal of concentration-camp life) as well as the artist’s style, served as a challenging tool to discuss the pedagogy of early art viewing. Having little experience with visual art objects in museums, preschool teachers engaged in artwork in new and different ways through personally meaningful and peer collaborative activities. This paper demonstrates how the complexity of teacher learning in a specific professional development context can be addressed.