Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper addresses a current research process and findings from a feminist inquiry using arts-based methodologies to create the narratives of analysis. The research project took place over the past two years and involved interviewing contemporary arts researchers, some university-based and some based in art museums, who are interested in more qualitative ways of gaining understandings about how viewers make meaning from art experiences. The research data analysis included feminist discourse and arts-based processes to thread together the stories of participants revealing findings through metaphor and visual art production through weaving. This study considers the theme of Pedagogies of the Arts by exploring learning through the arts within qualitative research contexts. The authors consider ways of seeing, learning, and knowing in the reporting of findings from a specific research project. This is the “what” of the study. The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life theme encompasses the “why” of the presentation and our research. It is our hope that the findings from our research about qualitative research in art museums, shared through this presentation, will assist museums and galleries as they become social institutions and begin asking questions about inclusion, community, access, and social justice. Readers from various fields may benefit from this discussion of feminist inquiry and arts-based methodologies and take away insights for their own artistic practices and organizations.

Presenters

Deborah Randolph
Principal Researcher, International Scholars Group, United States

Ann Rowson Love
Associate Professor, Museum Education and Visitor-Centered Curation, and Liaison to The Ringling, Department of Art Education, Florida State University, United States