Fifteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This paper explores ways in which art historians and art therapists might collaborate through pedagogical practices that focus on cultural identity exploration in a museum setting. We explore ways in which museum objects can connect to interpretive and engagement strategies designed by art therapists to enhance the exploration of intersectional aspects of one’s identity around culture, family, and religion. We present a recent collaboration that incorporates the use of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as student-led curation in a university gallery to develop a model for designing inclusive practices in the museum. Students in an undergraduate seminar entitled Global Baroque Art will curate an exhibition of seventeenth-century objects (using reproductions) that contribute to the formation of cultural identity through representations of family, spirituality, and religion. Graduate students from art therapy courses Family Art Therapy and Multicultural Issues in Art Therapy will then design interpretive strategies and experiential arts-based workshops based on this student show. This paper presents a summary of the results of this ongoing collaboration. The project explores opportunities for new ideas around connecting the museum and the community, as well as intersections between art history and art therapy in the academic and museum fields. Future implications for research in this area are also discussed.