Taipei Fine Arts Museum

In recent years, dedicated education spaces have become a trend among major public art museums throughout Taiwan. For example, in 2005 the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts established an affiliate Children’s Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts unveiled its Family Room. In 2008 the National Palace Museum opened its Children’s Gallery. Similarly, Taipei Fine Arts Museum is now in the midst of establishing a comprehensive art education space that will serve the dual functions of social interaction and learning, providing new meaning to the relationship between the museum and the public. Given the prominent position that education spaces now take as a focal point of museum development, TFAM hosted the 6th International Symposium on Art Museum Education from September 30 to October 1, 2011, taking a major step in exploring this vital topic.

The symposium of 2011 embarked on a consideration of the practical issues encountered in various fields of endeavor, concentrating on museum development in response to changes in society: How can we transform the functions of museums to bring learning spaces into being? What is the spirit and content of learning space development? What experiences does the public have when visiting a museum? And how should this impact the policies museums make?

In four separate sessions, 13 museum experts from around the world addressed these topics from a variety of perspectives, including sociology, museum trends and art education. Each paper offered a fully fleshed-out consideration – either real-life case studies and evolving values and concepts from museum affairs, or research analysis and conceptual observations. This deep reservoir of historical development and cumulative research in museum studies allowed us to discover common experiences and challenges, and appropriate methods of response. Even though the symposium participants came from different cultural backgrounds, they still shared a conceptual and practical milieu that all could mutually reference. We hope that the publication of these proceedings does not merely signify an end to a symposium, but also stimulates dialogue that will continue well into the future.

201 List of Contributors
203 Preface
205 Introduction
213 The Educational Mission of the Art Museum
      Pao-teh Han

Session 1
Current Issues Regarding Museum Education Spaces
221 Tate Learning Vision
      Fiona Kingsman
235 Design for Learning: Developing the Sackler Centre for
      Arts Education at the V&A
      Caroline Lang

Session 2
The Positioning and Development of Education Spaces
247 From Impressions to Expressions
      Urs Rietmann
263 Reaching Out to New Audiences: Teenagers and Diaspora
      Communities
      Patrice Chazottes
273 A New Cité des Enfants at the Cité des Sciences et de
      l’Industrie for Children Aged Two and Up
      Marie-Pierre Lahalle

Session 3 The Role of Education Spaces in Visitors’ Museum Experiences
289 Making Spaces for Personal Meanings about Works of Art
      Terry Barrett
307 The Maison des Petits at Centquatre: A Place of the
      Possible
      Nicole Roux
321 Families Visiting a Museum or How to Reconcile
      Individual Interests and Family Group Dynamics
      in the Cultural Context of Museums
      Anne Jonchery

Session 4 The Study and Practical Implementation of Interactive Exhibits
337 Interactive Exhibits – A Key to Engaging Families and
      Schools
      Stephen Nicholls
355 Doing Good Work: Identifying Best Practices in Implementing Interactive Spaces
      Kathryn E. Blake
373 Practices and Principles of Exhibitions Addressed to a
      Young Public in Arts Museums: A Brief Panorama
      Anik Meunier
385 Interactives Exhibitions in the Children’s Gallery at the
      Centre Pompidou: Concepts, Studies, Staging
      and  Accomplishment
      Nadine Combet
405 Contributors’ Biographies