The Effect of Educational Workshops in an Art Gallery on Children’s Evaluation and Interpretation of Contemporary Art

Abstract

Our experiment, conducted in an art gallery, was designed to investigate how educational classes, provided for children of different ages, affect their (a) esthetic judgment and (b) interpretation of contemporary art. We found that curator-led tours and art workshops affected the ratings given by the youngest children (aged 4–5 years), while interpretation was influenced by contextual cues only in the case of older children (aged 6–7 and 8–9 years). In addition, in the control condition (uncued exhibition tour), the oldest children (aged 8–9 years) rated the artworks higher than the youngest children (4–5). We conclude that the deeper understanding of the context of art increases its attractiveness and may change the way in which artworks are interpreted. Our results suggest that cognitive development is not an indispensable requirement to appreciate art, as contextual cues provided to preschool-aged children substantially affect their esthetic assessment of contemporary art.

The Influence of Listening to Curatorial Information on Emotions Caused by Artworks, and the Assessment of Contemporary Art by Students. Research in the Space of an Art Gallery

“…Hypotheses regarding the positive influence of the curatorial description on increased aesthetic evaluations in the dimension of fascination (H2), sense of understanding (H3), mastery (H4), and preference (H5) were confirmed. The results are consistent with the results of previous studies conducted in a gallery and in a laboratory, with adult and minor viewers, with art experts and non-professional viewers, all of which concluded that the aesthetic evaluation increases with access to some kind of artwork description (Cupchik et al, 1994;Jucker et al, 2014;Millis, 2001;Niestorowicz & Szubielska, in press;Russell & Milne, 1997;Russell, 2003;Swami, 2013;Szubielska, 2018;Szubielska et al, 2018bSzubielska et al, , 2018c. We failed to empirically demonstrate that the viewers with curatorial information evaluate the art as more beautiful than the viewers without this information (H1).…”

“…Art viewed in its natural context of a gallery or a museum is known to be more attractive and interesting for the viewers and causes a stronger positive emotional reaction than art viewed in laboratory conditions (Brieber, Nadal, & Leder, 2015;Brieber et al, 2014). Research known to us conducted in a natural context of an art gallery where the positive effect of receiving information about art on the evaluation of an artwork by a contemporary artist was confirmed, was conducted on groups of children (Szubielska, 2018;Szubielska et al, 2018bSzubielska et al, , 2018c, art experts (Niestorowicz & Szubielska, in press) and non-professional adult viewers (Cupchik et al, 1994). For preschool and elementary school children, the participation in curator guided tours caused an increased aesthetic preference for figurative art and had no effect on emotions, valence nor the intensity of the experience (Szubielska et al, 2018c).…”

“…The aim of this study is to decide whether the curatorial description influences the emotions of non-professional adult viewers in confrontation with contemporary art in a gallery; and if so, which aspects of the emotional reaction are influenced and how. The research hypotheses were formulated on the basis of the results of previously conducted studies that demonstrated that the aesthetic evaluation of modern and contemporary art is higher with interpretation guidelines provided than without them (Cupchik et al, 1994;Jucker et al, 2014;Millis, 2001;Niestorowicz & Szubielska, in press;Russell & Milne, 1997;Russell, 2003;Swami, 2013;Szubielska, 2018;Szubielska et al, 2018bSzubielska et al, , 2018c. It was predicted that the viewers who received curatorial information would evaluate the artworks as more beautiful (H1), more fascinating (H2), more understandable (H3), more like a masterpiece (H4) and one they like more (H5) than viewers who did not receive curatorial descriptions.…”

How Does Knowledge About an Artist’s Disability Change the Aesthetic Experience?

“…The results of the above-mentioned studies are in line with the growing body of research which implies that art reception is a conjoint function of the characteristics of the artwork and its contextual information — like its title or description ( Gerger & Leder, 2015 ; Jucker et al, 2014 ; Leder et al, 2006 ; Millis, 2001 ; P.A. Russell, 2003 ; Russell & Milne, 1997 ; Smith et al, 2006 ; Specht, 2010 ; Swami, 2013 ; Szubielska et al, 2019 ; Szubielska et al, 2018 ) or knowledge about the artist ( Cleeremans et al, 2016 ; Mastandrea & Crano, 2019 ; Smith & Newman, 2014 )—which drive top-down processing.…”

The influence of the physical context and knowledge of artworks on the aesthetic experience of interactive installations

“…Belke et al 2010;Cupchik et al 1994;Gerger and Leder 2015;Jucker et al 2014;Leder et al 2006;Mullennix et al 2018;Swami 2013). Even in viewers aged 4 to 5, the positive effects of a curatorial guiding tour on the liking of contemporary art were found (Szubielska et al 2018b). Contextual information about a piece of art increase individuals' evaluation of contemporary art, especially when individuals simultaneously view the artwork and listen to contextual information about it (Szubielska et al 2018a).…”