Looking outside the frame

I found this article interesting to read, because museum education was never part of my childhood learning. Due to the education system in Korea, and having both working parents left me no option to visit the museum. I never knew museum education existed until last year, when I read an article in my art education class. Because I had less knowledge on museum education, many points in the article seemed refreshing and new. 

The “looking outside the frame” by Melinda M. Mayer identifies habitual ways of responding to what she considered to be myths of art museum education. She quoted that “our teaching is shaped by the preconceptions-the myths- that our learners hold, as well as by our own values about what is good for visitors” (Mayer 15). She listed top 10 myths in museum education, and some myths grabbed my attention.

When I think of museums, the first thing comes in my mind is a quiet place. In the first myth, Melinda makes a point where museums are also a place of shared conversation, and the museum educators should debunk the myth of silence and raise visitor’s voices. I thought this was a challenging problem for museum educators to solve, being silent in the museums were embedded in many people. It made me think of if there are ways to debunk the myth of silence and leading the visitor’s to speak of their thoughts.

The third myth strongly caught my attention as well. She makes a point that the great thing about art is that there are no wrong answers. Unlike math, there may be multiples of answers in responding to an artwork. At the same time, she questioned the reader if it is a myth to have no wrong answers in art? And if our practice is consistent with what we teach? This got me think back to my belief in teaching art in a classroom. Since when I was young, I believed that there was a right answer for art. I began to think differently about art having no answer, but there were times I faced with this question in teaching art in a classroom. This reading made me think of the point where I need to be consistent with my belief in art when teaching in a classroom.

Overall, this article was pretty new for me to process. I had to do some researches on some museum educations to have a better understanding of the article. The question leaves with what Melinda said, “ Whether or not the myths we live and work by are beneficial or need demythtifying, being aware of them and interrogating the assumptions that underlie out mythology is important work” (Mayer 18).