La aportación educativa de Los museos a La ... - Fundación Typa

the educative contribution of museums to society
Object lessons
LEARNING ABouT LEARNING
fRoM MuSEuM STuDy CENTERS 1
Shari Tishman
Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Harvard Art Museums are home to two well-known study centers.
The Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings,
and Photographs specializes in works on paper from the collection of
the Fogg Museum. The Study Room of the Busch-Reisinger Museum
brings together works on paper as well as small-scale sculpture, decorative
arts, and research materials on modern art and design. Like the study rooms
in many museums, the Harvard study centers were designed with a methodology
of connoisseurship in mind: They offer scholars and collectors quiet, welllit
spaces for the intimate study of works of art and artifacts, and make accessible
a far greater variety of objects than appear on display in the galleries.
Though designed with specialists in mind, the Harvard Art Museums’ study
centers have always been open to the public, and they are viewed by many as
a jewel in the crown of the Museums.
Most obviously, they are portals to
an exceptional collection. But beyond
that, they are also exceptional learning
environments—rare places where visitors
can immerse themselves in prolonged,
intimate, and often profound
experiences with objects.
In 2006, though the museums
wouldn’t close their doors for another
two years, the The Fogg and Busch
Reisinger began preparing for a longplanned
renovation. Director Tom
Lentz took the upcoming renovation
as an opportunity to reflect on the museums’ educational mission, and he
used the study centers as a point of departure. Lentz understood how powerful
study-center learning experiences could be, and he wanted to make these
The Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints,
Drawings, and Photographs, the fogg art museum.
1 Many of the ideas discussed in this article were developed in discussions with Alythea
McKinney and Celka Straughn, fellow researchers and co-authors of the final report on the
Project Zero / Harvard Art Museum Study Center research. I gratefully acknowledge their contribution.
This work is based on a presentation at: Symposium on Education: The Contribution of
Museums to Society Through Education, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May, 13-14, 2009.
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