Some Pedagogical Aspects of Museum Education of Pupils and Students from the Perspective of Collaboration between the Art Museum and Learning Institutions ()
1. Short Diving into the History of the Art Museum and of Museum Pedagogy
The beginning of the XIX century can be considered as the beginning of the systematization of museum collections and the establishment of the art museums as a cultural institution, oriented towards familiarization of the audience with visual arts.
Is relevant the fact that until now the art museum acquires, restores, researches, promotes by exposing works of decorative, applied arts, pictures, drawings, sculpture, etc., offering to the visitor the possibility to identify and acknowledge the historical-artistical values, assuming the role of intermediary in the process of education and enlightenment of the person. Art museums have collections and works by famous artists, representatives of various directions, artistic orientations, or schools that represent certain historical periods of art development; children’s creations, etc. (Ануфриев, Шахеров, & Шахерова, 2013).
Art museums are valuable socio-cultural institutions not only because they acquire, preserve, restore and promote the work of fine art, decorative and folk art, but they are true educational centers that make connections with the general public.
Within this frame of reference it is necessary to specify that in the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Moldova, we can identify a significant cultural heritage both national and international cross-cultural level, reflected in collections and works of decorative art, painting, graphics, and sculptures. Analyses and descriptions of the heritage pieces, of the activity of the remarkable personalities, who contributed to the development of the national and international plastic arts are reflected in the works of several local researchers: (Stăvilă, 2019; Stăvilă & Ciobanu, 2014; Rocaciuc, 2010, 2013; Petrescu, 2016; Munteanu, 2016; etc.
National Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Moldova was established in 1939 and it is considered the successor of the Chisinau art gallery, which holds in its custody three valuable architectural monuments dating from the XIX-XX century (Kilgman House-1897; building of Princess Natalia Dadiani-1901; Casa Herța-1906) (Nicolaev, 2016). Today, the museum operates in the building of Princess Natalia Dadiani, intended for the girls’ gymnasium built according to the project of the architect Alexandru Bernardazii (Petrescu 2016). The museum’s heritage consists of the following collections:
· Collection of ancient art (coins, sculptures, decorative arts).
· Medieval art collection (icons, cult objects, old books).
· Moldovan painting collection, XIX-XX c.
· Moldovan graphics collection, XIX-XX c.
· Moldovan sculpture collection, XIX-XX c.
· The collection of Moldovan decorative art (carpets, tapestries, ceramics, wooden objects, glass, etc.) XX c.
· Russian painting and miniature collection, XVIII-XX c.
· Russian graphics collection, XVIII-XX c.
· Russian sculpture collection, XVIII-XX c.
· Russian decorative art collection, XIX-XX c.
· Western European painting and miniature collection, sec. XV-XX c (Italy, France, Austria, Holland, Flanders, England, Spain).
· Western European sculpture collection, XVIII-XX c.
· The numismatic and medal collection (Romania, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Egypt, Spain, Ireland, USA), XVI-XX c [14]. https://www.mnam.md/colectia-de-pictura-nationala?lang=ro (accessed 17.04.2021).
As we can see, the treasure of the National Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Moldova is of undeniable value with promising openings in the development of art, science, culture, and education.
It is important to mention that the considerable development of the socio-cultural environment, the discovery, exploration, and implementation of new information technologies in various fields of activity have encouraged museum institutions to redefine and restructure their role and importance in contemporary society. Museums built in the last half-century, especially art museums, are distinguished both by the fascinating architectural contribution of the exterior and by the application of innovative formulas for displaying the heritage they have (Filipski, 2018).
Also, the museums inherited from the last century, among which the art museums, have largely been reorganized, detaching themselves from the traditional presentation of the gallery of works to the involvement of the public, of educational institutions in various cultural—educational activities focused on promoting the artistic treasure.
An important and decisive effect on the activation and progress of education generated mainly by the art museum space had the German professor of art history A. Likhtvark (Столяров, 2004), considered one of the founders of the Pedagogy Museum which as the director of the Hamburg Museum of Art, Kunsthalle has developed and practiced several methods, techniques, and achievement practices for the awareness of museum education. An important method of working with visitors which was proposed by A. Likhtvark and successfully developed in the local art museum was the method of museum dialogue, designed to facilitate communication with the work of art and the reception of messages sent by the author. Likewise, we can highlight the following large-scale actions focused on the relationship of the museum with the audience recommended by A. Likhtvark:
· organizing and conducting painting and graphics courses focused on the public who shows a predilection for art, through the involvement of professional artists.
· launching the Hamburg Society of Friends of Art, which deals with the identification and clarification of problems concerning the Photographic Art, the Art of Interior Design, etc.
· organizing and conducting exhibitions with creative works by children and young people.
· establishing of a society of amateur photographers focused on the development and promotion of Photographic Art, creating collections of valuable works.
· designing a set of teaching materials and resources.
· contributing to the expansion of modern painting, including the painting of artists in Hamburg.
From the above mentioned, we can conclude that art museums strengthen their position as a socio-cultural and educational institution of culture by their involvement in education for the artistic values of children/students, youth, and adults. We note that half of the six positions proposed by the German researcher, contain elements of pedagogy and museum education.
2. Museum Education
In this research, the museum education of pupils and students made in collaboration with art museums is the main vector of intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and artistic formation-development of the learners, and the specific dimension of this public institution of culture oriented towards education motivates the person to benefit and to promote the national and international artistic heritage to future generations.
Carrying out the investigative experiment and the theoretical study, we started from the visions of the German researcher A. Likhtvark (Столяров, 2004) and the researcher (Столяров, 2004), according to which the educational environment of the museum, especially that of art, exerts its action on the visitor in three essential directions (Figure 1).
We come with a supplement to these findings of the scientist. We established in the pedagogical experiment that the activities carried out in the art museum not only stimulate the creative potential of pupils and students, which is an important aspect for the development of a personality able to harness, protect and promote the national and universal artistic heritage, but also contribute on the creation of the self-awareness, interest in self-development, and encourages a series of moral and aesthetic traits.
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Figure 1. The essential directions of action of the museum space on the visitor.
Educational activities in art museums have taken place on two stable dimensions: development of professional skills and artistic education (Гафар, 2010).
At the same time, the involvement of the students’ families by the educational institutions shown that adults are to gain in the direction of their self-education and knowledge of cultural values as well.
Concerning the approached problem, the researcher (Cuznețov, 2018) states that nowadays, society has become aware of the fact of dual family-educational institution responsibility, supported by the state and community, the focus being on the collaboration and educational partnership family-school-community. In line with what was stated by the researchers, we mention an acute need of museums to collaborate with educational institutions, the family, and the community.
Obviously, the art museum can and has to become the appropriate educational space for initiating and conducting cultural events within which the pupils and the students can observe and accumulate new experiences and practices from artists, scientists, teachers, etc.
According to the inquiry and the principles developed by the researcher (Столяров, 2004), the museum education aims to develop a creative person by respecting moral-ethical, humanistic norms. The principles of the researcher have been harnessed in the museum education of pupils, students, and adults (parents), linking their essence with a series of pedagogical strategies that we implemented during the process of museum—educational institutions—community collaboration, as follows:
· the principle of personal orientation—Pedagogical strategy that supposes knowledge the personal qualities of the subject, its value orientation, behavior, and field of activity;
· the principle of differentiating individual and age particularities—Pedagogical strategy that involves the elaboration and development of educational actions individually or in groups by the age, the interests of the subjects, etc;
· the principle of developing the active personality—the strategy of encouraging students and pupils in active participation in the educational actions conducted in the museum;
· the principle of coordinating the activity of the museum education process actors—The strategy of efficient and accessible collaboration between the museum pedagogue, the museum object, and the public.
An efficient and productive education of pupils and students launched in the museum space must be designed and planned by museum specialists in collaboration with teachers in educational institutions, which would facilitate communication with the visual arts and contribute to the formation of aesthetic sense, thinking, and visual memory, artistic perception, motivation for the professional orientation of young people, studying the cultural and spiritual heritage of its people and civilization.
We are emphasizing the findings of the researcher (Кожевникова, 2010) who states that museum education plays an important role in the process of career guidance and developing the competence of the students through information, and contributing to the developing of their own opinion on various outstanding personalities of visual artists, professions and the specifics of their fields of activity.
We also noticed that art museums actively collaborate with educational institutions, which successively involve not only pupils and students, but also their families, as the visits to the museum are widely discussed in the family. This very important fact was fixed by the results of a recent survey. Our survey showed that 74% of parents of pupils and 69% of parents of students are interested in non-formal educational activities, organized and carried out by educational institutions, especially visits to exhibitions, museums, etc. An impressive 63% of parents of high school and middle school students, after discussions with their children, began to visit the art exhibitions and various museums. Our research related to the museum-school-family educational collaboration started in 2019 and continues until now in the online format. In this study, we will clarify some pedagogical aspects of the collaboration of educational institutions with students’ families and the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Moldova.
Based on experimental investigations results of we can see the following: pupils and students are social groups with various intellectual interests, they must have a high level of culture, still formed in the family and pre-university institutions, and the motivation to visit museums can be strengthened through collaboration not only with the general public but also with special activities carried out with educational institutions and the family.
In this pedagogical experiment of museum education, we involved students and their parents from several high schools in Chisinau, rural areas (Orhei district), teachers, and students from the Technical University of the Republic of Moldova, Faculty of Urbanism and Architecture, Interior Design program. Students and parents, teachers from pre-university institutions were acquainted with the works of art in the exhibitions of the Art Museum of the Republic of Moldova. The students from the specialized educational institutions during the internships carried out in the art museums they became acquainted with valuable sources of research, discovery, and acquired knowledge on the historical, physical, chemical, technical, and technological dimensions. And the selection, the real application and the reproduction of a color palette similar to the one used by the masters at the time offered a true polarized professional experience in this educational environment. We established that the research of recipes and methods of preparation of materials and supports used for the elaboration of works of art inherited from our predecessors, allowed us to study and create a favorable environment for recovery, restoration, conservation, and preservation of collections that make up the treasury of the art museums.
Therefore, we choose to adopt curricular and extracurricular contents at all levels of education to the educational resources used in the works and collections owned by art museums. Education in art museums aims to train positive pro-heritage attitudes in students; to ensure the acquisition of knowledge on the cultural treasure preserved in the national and universal art museums, to know deeply the history of fine arts, the plastic language; various artistic means, materials, and techniques; to form and develop children, young people, and adults culture by familiarizing them with the art that accumulates and spreads human patterns and values throughout historical evolution; to strengthen the moral behaviors regarding the communication culture with art objects; intra- and intergenerational relationships in the museum space and the community.
In this part, we will present some details of the good practices made by us in the pilot Project Building educational partnerships in promoting national and international heritage from the perspective of museum education of pupils and students, inside the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Moldova. An interesting workshop dedicated to the International Day of Books and Copyright was organized and held, involving students from Gheorghe Asachi Theoretical High School in Chisinau together with teachers, students from the Technical University of Moldova, Faculty of Urbanism and Architecture, Interior Design program accompanied by university teachers, museum staff and parents. The students, together with the university teachers, and museologists, prepared work assignments for pupils and guided them in making personalized bookmarks and presenting them in an exhibition that was a great success from visitors. Likewise, students, pupils, teachers, and parents were provided with valuable information on the temporary and permanent exhibitions that make up the treasury of the National Museum of Arts of the Republic of Moldova.
Another activity we conducted in the National Museum of Art of the Republic of Moldova was making pencil sketches in the museum to create works of art by the students of the Technical University of Moldova, Faculty of Urbanism and Architecture, Interior Design program, for the Form Study subject provided of the curriculum of the institution. Later, we made artistic creation workshops, round tables, workshops, etc. creating educational partnerships with several museums and libraries in the country. Currently, we carry out online museum education activities using several available educational platforms (Google Classroom, Zoom, Google Meet, etc.) promoting national and international standards in the previously nominated project, which involves museologists, ethnographers from the National Museum of Fine Arts of Moldova; National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History in Chisinau; librarians of the Eminescu International Academic Center in Chisinau, visual artists, professors, teachers, pupils and students of the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University in Chisinau, the Technical University of Moldova, the Ion Luca Caragiale Theoretical High School in Orhei, etc.
As result of the research we come up with some pedagogical proposals, aimed to contribute to the efficiency of the museum education of the pupils and students from the perspective of the collaboration of the art museum with the educational institutions:
- selection of the material and tasks for carrying out the educational activities conducted in the art museums according to the age peculiarities of the museum public;
- professional training of museum pedagogues focused on consolidating psycho-pedagogical, historical, and digital skills, using information technologies; designed to ensure the successful conduct of distance education activities;
- elaboration of leaflets, brochures, posters containing information about the collections and works gathered in the exhibitions of art museums, accessible to pupils and students;
- merging various methods of museum education both in the museum space and in educational institutions;
- maximize the cognitive-constructivist paradigm in the museum education of pupils, students, and parents;
- creating research opportunities for pupils and students in the museum space.
3. Conclusion
To conclude, the collaboration of art museums with educational institutions and other cultural institutions is fundamental in the museum education of the young generation. At the same time, we must be aware of and harness the formative potential of museums, especially art museums in the education of pupils, students, and adults, which contributes to the development of the aesthetic, intellectual and moral culture of the growing generation and adults.