An exploration of art museum educators’ practice in Australia and the United States
Until around 2010, school education in Australian museums was supplied by state government education departments through secondment of teachers. This practice saw art museum education activities strongly align to government initiatives, curriculum and support for classroom teachers. With these roles becoming incorporated into the museum and state education departments providing activity funding instead of staff, museums often fail to acknowledge the value of their schools’ education and public program staff. Noticeably, teaching qualifications or experience is no longer key criteria for selection of educators, and the desirability of museum work ensures there is no shortage of applicants to fill these roles. Face-to-face delivery of programs is increasingly provided by sessional casual staff or volunteers and overseen by key education or public program staff responsible for overarching program development, evaluation and administration, thereby diminishing the capacity of art museum educators to mobilise, professionalise and build a cohesive industry structure to improve visitor experience and engagement. Australian art museum education as a profession now finds itself at a tipping point. Moreover, with COVID-19 impacting and recalibrating art museum engagement, many of these ongoing issues have come to a boiling point.
This PhD project seeks to address these issues.
This thesis documents and compares the practice and pedagogies of educators working at two art museums in Australia and one in the United States. Framed by the perspective of a museum educator and taking an ethnographic approach, this PhD focuses on key case studies of art museum professionals in transition. This study contributes to the fields of art history, visitor experience, art studies and education. It seeks to offer through nuanced case study models and first-person vignettes alternative ways for conducting and advancing art education practices within Australian museums.
Dr Christine Healey 