Museum Education, What's That Supposed to Mean...
The curved walls of Chiasma embrace the viewer. From the ground floor one can enter the theatre, the cafeteria, the children's and school groups' room, and the seminar room, all providing food for mind and body alike, catering to a number of needs. Visitors can also find out what the museum has to offer via electronic billboards and interactive info boxes. On the upper floors, the visitor can seek insights into the exhibitions by talking with the guides or by reading exhibition texts. Following a guided tour is an easy way to get an overview of the museum and its collections. Background for the works in the collection are available in the multimedia programmes running in the info boxes. Films and videos about exhibition themes and artists are frequently screened, and the workshops provide an opportunity to learn about topical issues by doing. The exhibition materials aim to present art in a way significant to the visitor.
The 'Aavan meren tuolla puolen' exhibition, due to open in the early summer, will be accompanied by a series of discussions and other events approaching the same themes. The following autumn's Bruce Nauman exhibition will be a veritable horn of plenty when it comes to contemporary art; various themes will be explored through publications, films, and discussions. The Bruce Nauman exhibition is a good start for the cooperation between schools and the museum, a kind of initiation into the multiplicity of contemporary art.
And what, then, is museum education all about? It covers a broad range of activities complementing and contributing to exhibitions and performances. It can also mean independent events, or production of material on art. The activity of the museum education unit is activity in cooperation with all other units. In fact, we wish to see the entire museum as an "education" in the sense that all museum activities aim at increasing understanding, whether we are dealing with the special field of the museum, art, or any other theme, be it topical or eternal. This understanding is based on supporting public discussions on contemporary art and providing new fora for discussion. We will eagerly grasp public phenomena, offer information on art and its background, and encourage people to come closer: contemporary art need not be obscure!
With the opening of the new museum building, we will reconsider what we are doing and why, what our position is both in Finland and abroad. One example of the cooperation between the different units will be the Nordic seminar to be organised soon after the opening; quite naturally, it will focus on museums. In Chiasma, the project is realised by Chiasma theatre, the unit of museum education, and the media curator from the exhibition department. The seminar will be realised as a video conference in cooperation with two other Nordic museums.
Kaija Kaitavuori and Jyrki Simovaara
