Abstract
Studying the emergence of visitors’ self-awareness contributes to the wave of research conducted by Barrett (2000), Hooper-Greenhill (1992, 2000), Garoian (2001), McLean (1999), Reese (2003), Roberts (1997) and Wallach (1998), who have all sought to develop alternative museum educational practices focused on visitors. From this perspective, scholars such as Degain and Benharkate (2009) mentioned visitors’ self-awareness as one of the benefits that a museum visitor could enjoy, but the authors cited did not supply any empirical support. In keeping with these previous research results, we consider the study of visitors’ self-awareness an important component in the development of innovative museum educational programs especially concerning contemporary art exhibits. Acknowledging the importance of the self in a museum experience and identifying the type of self-awareness visitors verbalize during their interactions with contemporary artworks, we believe will have promising implications for museum education practices. This will inform museum professionals on how visitors behave and interact with contemporary artworks and how those interactions might contribute to evolving visitors’ self-awareness as a source of pleasure. In order to achieve this objective, Morin’s model (2005) of self-information was used as a conceptual framework to study more closely the manifestations of visitors’ self-awareness.
Presenters
Anne-Marie EmondPedro Mendonça
Professor, Education (Arts), Université du Québec en Abitbi Témiscamingue, Quebec, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Adult, Community, and Professional Learning
KEYWORDS
"Adult Learners", " Museum Education", " Contemporary Art"
