Engagement & learning

Engagement and learning in UK museum and gallery settings is a major area of research and is already central to museum-led research on ARTIST ROOMS.

Primary school children with BALTIC freelance artist Natalie Frost — © Dan Brady

The partnership looks to develop evaluation methods on how ARTIST ROOMS has had an impact on audiences, particularly young people, whether through formal evaluation or as embedded in new research projects.

The lead partners in this area are the School of Education, University of Edinburgh and the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, University of Newcastle (ICCHS), combining expertise in the areas of digital engagement and learning, modern and contemporary art and formal curriculum and pedagogy.

A Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Workshop took place in February 2014 and several projects are in development.

The University of Edinburgh is currently designing an ARTIST ROOMS MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on works by Andy Warhol in the collection. This project will explore the impact of MOOCs on outreach for both ARTIST ROOMS and the cultural sector more generally.

Collaborative opportunities within the ARTIST ROOMS Research consortium are being developed for research into the areas of Art Practice, Interpretation and Curating, while digital media and networking is being explored for its potential for different sorts of learning encounters with ARTIST ROOMS and the ways that inspiration is playing out in the practices of community groups, young artists and art-lovers, both online and offline.

The research partnership is also working with Engage to support its intended future work with the ARTIST ROOMS Associate network in Engagement and Learning areas, and to disseminate relevant research more widely.

Making learning with ARTIST ROOMS massive

This strand of research will investigate what happens when ARTIST ROOMS engage with one of the most interesting and large-scale developments current in online education - the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).

Encounters in and beyond the room

This strand of research will investigate the extent to which specificity and immediacy can be ‘coathooks’ in digital environments, particularly for young people.

Digital heritage

The team has considerable expertise in the area of digital heritage and experience of working with cultural heritage organisations on collaborative projects.

Art practice, interpretation and curating

Several members of International Centre for Cultural & Heritage Studies (ICCHS) at Newcastle University have considerable teaching and research experience in the area of art practice, curation, collaborating with major museums and galleries in Newcastle upon Tyne and beyond.

Engage

Engage is a membership organization representing gallery, art and education professionals in the UK and abroad.

This article was published on 4 Apr, 2016