Hands up all those who visited a museum in 2020, either physically or virtually! Probably most of us have not.
Yet, we remain comfortably numb with online distractions, overwhelmed with invitations and adverts for online events. Online invitations promise exciting cultural learning opportunities, such as virtual tours of the finest museums accessible from the comfort of your own home.
National art and the richness of heritage in museums belong to the public and, yet, they remain unnoticed and ignored by too many people they are meant to serve. Museums are simply not part of our lives. The stark reality is that a very large part of public heritage is nothing more than museum storage, admired only be a few curators.
The situation sparked by COVID-19 revealed the long-standing complicated relationship between museums and the public. Forced to shut down, museum professionals were made to question museums’ relevance to the public. Beyond the physical space, can museum exhibits, which take years to curate, be shifted to the virtual realm? Who is the public they serve when they go online?
The stark reality is that many remain unaware of the existence of national museums, lacking knowledge that a national collection actually belongs to them. Taking the national art museum as an example, one needs to ask a basic question: what is the public’s idea of art? Is it that ‘fun’ subject we learn at school before we are enticed to ditch it to focus on what are considered as ‘core’ academic subjects, which would open the doors to a successful job?
Is art the occasional exhibition we visit to admire for a few minutes before the focus turns to the drinks, reception and mingling? Do we look at art in search of beauty or meaning?
As an educator, my intention is to question and rethink museums’ educational role. While carrying out educational projects for my doctoral study between 2014 and 2020, I explored alternative museum educational strategies to reach out to the public beyond the physical museum.
My study, which explores holistic educational methods with reference to the national art museum in Malta, reveals that public education can still be achieved effectively ‘outside’ museum premises.
In fact, none of my three projects were held at the National Museum of Fine Arts because, at the time, it was being transferred to the new MUŻA premises. My study redefines the paradoxical question of whether museum education needs the physical space of a museum. The educational potential of a national art museum lies in providing both physical and virtual accessibility to its collection. That way it may reach out to a wide range of public.
When museums were effectively shuttered because of COVID-19 in March, I was putting the finishing touches to the six-year-old study.
Although challenging, this provoked further questions about strategies to reach out to the public at a time when people started craving face-to-face conversations.
Museums could serve as a space for digital detox, especially after months on end of people interacting via screens.
Focusing on young adults, my study indicates that, for some, an art museum serves as a space that sustains aesthetic and historical facts. Meanwhile, other young adults had no idea of the existence of the national art museum in Malta.
Museums could serve as a space for digital detox, especially after months on end of people interacting via screens
So, what can we do?
The culture pass scheme is a fine initiative, giving children and the elderly free admission to museums and heritage sites. What if we provide students with free transport to incentivise school leaders and their parents? How about freelance educators reaching out to diverse public communities, such as youth centres and homes for the elderly, and using museum collections that tie in with their interests?
Funded by the government’s scholarships post-graduate scheme, my own study prioritised people’s well-being by engaging participants in learning experiences with reference to the museum collection based on their own interests.
Grounded in three participatory projects with three different young adult communities, my study delved into young adults’ own ways of using the national art collection. At the beginning of the projects, the participants admitted they had little or no experience of art museums. Although they still referred to the national art collection, the main focus was on the participants’ own constructed narratives, not the prescribed narratives of the collection.
The projects were not grounded in young adults’ prior knowledge of art history and aesthetics but in the open-endedness of meaning-making, embracing learning as contextual.
My study reveals that, by bringing a museum collection closer to the interests and needs of particular public communities, those who do not ordinarily visit museums start to recognise their educational significance and connection to life.
At a time when people are struggling to make sense of the world, museums as the collectors of culture and knowledge can serve as a space to encourage people to connect.
Instead of waiting for the COVID-19 storm to pass and expecting people to visit museums, what if museums rethink their educational outreach strategies to prioritise their collection’s relevance to the public?
Although museums have swiftly adjusted to an online presence, the experience of engaging with actual objects can help us regain ‘focus’ – a skill that is gradually being lost in an increasingly distracted society.
Post-COVID-19, museums can provide a space away from the constant online bombardment.
A national art museum collection can act as a reference to engage in discussions about social changes. For instance, as they observed landscape paintings from Malta in the past, most of my projects’ participants discussed current environmental concerns due to uncontrolled construction.
If museum curators team up with educators, they can offer opportunities for people to slow down and experience museum objects to reflect, feel and physically interact with others.
What if people are encouraged to experience the texture, the colours, the narrative of an artwork to judge it for themselves and share their interpretation with others?
Ultimately, value is not just determined by museums and tradition. The public has the opportunity to give its own museum collection a new meaning.
Charmaine Zammit has a PhD in Art Education.