Artistic Practices in Museum Education

The course is a thematic continuation of the course “Introduction to Museum Education”. It is supported by the theoretical background taught in the course “Introduction to Museum Education”, such as, namely, the educational theories that are applied in museums, the concept of “museum learning”, the model of the “interactive museum experience”, the concept of the “active visitor/learner”, etc. The course focuses on the investigation and analysis of artistic practices in the context of museum learning. It examines how the methods of creative writing, visual arts, storytelling, theater, dance and music are utilized in the contemporary museum to approach collections, the experiential understanding of culture and the development of critical thinking. Artistic practices are approached and analyzed in terms of their pedagogical background and their characteristics as tools of active learning and participation. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between artistic practice and museum object, on art-based mediation methodologies, as well as on the programs developed by contemporary art, history, archaeology and culture museums. References to examples, Greek and international, are specialized in various audience groups (children, adolescents, adults, families, vulnerable social groups). Methodologies for designing and implementing educational actions based on artistic practice are presented, as well as criteria for evaluating their effectiveness.