Community Contexts
Pro-pedagogy in the Urban Art Museum View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zartasha Shah
Urban art education is an important part of the visual representation at the museums. This field of education supports visual literacy, object-based learning, and critical thinking. The importance of the reductive representations of new ideas, new artistic approaches, and the representations of creativity can be seen in the outcomes of the aesthetics, creativity, and the process of making the artworks in a nontraditional way in education. The implementation, interpretation, and incorporation of personal ideas can be reflected through them. Art education can be related to the history, traditional ways to make the artworks, and the educational environment of the museums that are both repositories of culture and themselves for a comparison with the pro pedagogical ways of teaching and learning about art education. According to O’Donoghue (2011), “In challenging common-sense notions of what learning is, where it occurs and for whom, these pedagogical events anticipate and take us beyond our present sense of the possible in art education”(p. 1). Urban art education expands the knowledge of learners. The exhibited and displayed artworks do have a positive impact on others, and the use of the techniques, methods, materials, and the process of making the artworks inform the museums. According to Lasky (2009), “Learning from objects in museums helps learners access their imaginations to engage with a set of concepts, the history of a people, the history of an aesthetic movement, or the cultural norms of society (p. 73). This research investigates the importance of representation in urban museums.
Culture and Conservation: Redefining Museum Collections through Personal and Communal Narratives
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sushree Sangita Mohanty
Rooted in India’s vibrant cultural fabric, characterized by its multiculturalism and multilingualism, museums stand as vital custodians of heritage and catalysts for intergenerational dialogue. However, their effectiveness in engaging with diverse communities is often hindered by linguistic and cultural barriers. This paper explores the challenges faced by museums in effectively connecting with Indigenous communities across India in general and the state of Odisha in particular. Despite showcasing Indigenous cultures, many museums overlook the inclusion of community members and their specific languages, thus restricting community involvement and ownership. Consequently, the museum atmosphere becomes dominated by speakers of the majority languages, resulting in the misinterpretation or erosion of Indigenous cultures. Furthermore, the absence of mother tongue education exacerbates this issue, as subsequent generations visiting museums may internalize misinterpreted narratives presented in non-Indigenous languages. This perpetuates the dilution and loss of Indigenous cultures and identities over time. Exploring museums as custodians of cultural heritage demands critical reflection on the integrity and accessibility of the narratives they preserve. By excluding Indigenous mother tongue, museums inadvertently perpetuate exclusion and undermine cultural diversity. This paper highlights, the urgent need for museums to embrace linguistic and cultural diversity, ensuring that Indigenous voices and perspectives are integrated into museum narratives. Only through inclusive practices can museum fulfill their role as guardians of cultural heritage and platforms for meaningful intergenerational learning and dialogue in multicultural societies.
Pottery and Ceramics Museums within Korean Local Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jungwon Lee
There has been scarce research on pottery and ceramics museums, with most studies focusing on the artistic techniques, historical, architectural, and geographical aspects of pottery and ceramics themselves. Research related to art education has primarily centered around educational methodologies in elementary schools or the development of art programs. Consequently, there has been a lack of studies analyzing the role of pottery and ceramics museums within local communities or examining their social functions within the framework of contemporary art museums. This study examines the role and social functions of pottery villages as contemporary art museums within local communities, focusing on three representative pottery villages in Korea: Gyeoryongsan Pottery Village, Bangok Pottery Village, and Oegosan Pottery Village. These villages were chosen for their common characteristics: they all preserve traditional handmade pottery techniques, house intangible cultural heritage artisans, and host regular local festivals. Moreover, each village contains pottery or ceramics museums, indicating a close relationship between the village communities and the museums. Therefore, by analyzing these villages, the study explores how pottery and ceramics museums emerged and evolved in response to the rapid changes of contemporary society and examines their relationship with local communities. Finally, the study analyzes the social roles that pottery and ceramics museums, as cultural heritage, play within these local communities.
INOMPOR - Culture of Innovation in Portuguese Museums
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mário Moutinho, Adel Igor Pausini, Nathália Pamio Luiz
This paper presents the results of the R&D project “The social role of innovation in Portuguese museums” - INOMPOR (ID-ILIND: UIDB-04114-2020)” developed at the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Education and Development (CeiED) through the Department of Museology of the Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal. Based on the recognition that museums are service-oriented institutions (according to ICOM), innovation must be promoted as a culture within institutions, seeking to promote it as a movement to generate social change. To verify how museums understand and act in the field of innovation, and based on the Oslo Manual (OECD & Eurostat, 2018), two online surveys were developed: for institutions and for museum professionals. The UNESCO Chair in "Education, Citizenship and Cultural Diversity", as well as the Portuguese Museology Association (APOM) and the International Movement for a New Museology (MINOM - Portugal) supported the dissemination of the data collection tool. With this universe, it was possible to have representation from 14 districts and the country's two autonomous regions. The survey was sent to museums in mainland Portugal and the islands, obtaining 73 institutional responses, and for professionals 52 responses. Among other conclusions, the uses of innovation should be developed as a shared process open to staff, visitors, communities and all the actors involved in democratizing the functioning of museums, thus providing better conditions for contributing to the SDGs. This communication explores the universe of data collected and presents conclusions drawn from the research to support the strategic planning of museums.
