Investigating the Impact of Contrasting Paradigms of Knowledge on the Emancipatory Aims of Gallery Programmes for Young People

Abstract

Within an emerging philosophy of contemporary gallery education, new pedagogies are required to meet the demands of looking at art, with increasingly varied constituent groups. Strategies that aim to empower young learners come from an ideological framework in which knowledge is negotiated and local significances are produced conversationally by learners and facilitators. Tension exists between the ideological position and the role of the gallery as ‘expert’: this conflict creates ambivalence towards the learner. The discourse of the ‘expert’ and the discourse of ‘local negotiation’ employ different pedagogic strategies, creating tension in the ways in which knowledge is reproduced for the visitor and participant. This article explores interrogatory pilot work with young people at Tate Modern. I use a hermeneutical approach to explore the interpretive roles of facilitator and participant when language‐based strategies are used to look at art. This research aims to construct a pedagogy that enables young people to learn about art in ways that take account of their situation as learners.

Developing Place‐Based Pedagogies to Challenge Institutional Authority

“…The role of the gallery educator is one which has evolved during the past thirty years in tandem with community arts practice and the emergence of more democratic and emancipatory agendas within the gallery and museums sector (McKane ; Hiett & Riding ). As a practice, gallery education is one which has been informed by critical pedagogy and underpinned by the theoretical principles of interpretative philosophy (Pringle ; Sayers ), articulating a new role and function for gallery education within a shifting context that has seen the lines between curatorial, artistic and learning activity continually blurred. Within this context, the role of the expert is increasingly being tested, and yet research has evidenced that hierarchies of knowledge in the gallery context persist, with the art historical and scholarly knowledge associated with the curatorial role, valued the most (Riding ).…”

‘Equality of Intelligences’: Exploring the Barriers to Engagement in Modern and Contemporary Art through a Peer‐to‐Peer Workshop at Tate Modern

“…In the gallery this has different characteristics to the learner subjectivities that we find in more formal sites. Through this data I explore the challenges of creating a pedagogic approach for an unknown learner, as was the case with Raw Canvas, where the educator would meet the learner for the first time during the sessions and, because of this, would employ strategies in which extreme flexibility and responsiveness to the learner and to the status of knowledge were key aspects; this contrasts with a longer-term approach where getting to know the learner and pursuing a particular learning path are possibilities (Sayers 2011).…”

Everyday Encounters with Art: Comparing Expert and Novice Experiences

“…) and from object‐oriented to visitor‐centered (Ebitz ). This more democratic perspective acknowledges the view that art is for everyone, and everyone is capable of having a meaningful exchange with cultural objects (Sayers ).…”

“…This tension has been described as a shift in the role of museums from custodian of cultural content to facilitator of participation (Russo et al 2008) and from object-oriented to visitor-centered (Ebitz 2005). This more democratic perspective acknowledges the view that art is for everyone, and everyone is capable of having a meaningful exchange with cultural objects (Sayers 2011).…”