How an artist do his cleaning-up?
Class 2b from the Kivimäki primary school visited Jukka Mäkelä's studio while he was preparing an exhibition for Kiasma. The children approached the everyday life of art-making with a very practical question: how does an artist do his cleaning-up? Of course he does it by painting: first he covers the floor with paper, then he works, and finally he covers the splashes with white paint.
Visiting Jukka Mäkelä's studio, watching him prepare the exhibition, and seeing his art was part of a school co-operation project led by Päivi Venäläinen at Kiasma during last spring. The project included studying the goals of co-operation between a school and a museum at a general level, experimenting with various activities, and discussing the communication between a school and a museum. The most extensive part of the project consisted of ten tailored co-operation programmes, designed for different grades and needs, for example, a class for adapted teaching and a class for immigrant children.
The multifunction of art
It is not always possible to organise a visit to an artist, but there are also other ways to study art. One target of the project has been to illustrate how contemporary art provides excellent material for studies in a number of subjects. In cooperation projects pupils studied matters such as food, gender roles, various cultures and environments, and home and everyday life in contemporary art. Previous topics have included historiography and images of war, expeditions and the spreading of the Western culture, while this autumn's programme highlights contemporary music and sound art. The art world itself and its institutions are worth studying, as well as the artist's work, or, particularly with the class for immigrant children, the Western concept of art and artists.
Art and museums can indeed be approached both from their own viewpoint as well as through themes in school curriculum. Art education in a museum is often thought to relate simply to the museum itself: people visit the museum and see its exhibits. Another option is to use the exhibits as teaching material for other purposes. From the modernistic viewpoint that cherishes the autonomy of art this seems sacrilegious, but the experimentation projects proved that in fact these two cannot be separated. The groups that studied the various themes also learned a lot about the essential features of contemporary art and the functions of the art world. Päivi Venäläinen therefore suggests that when working with art, it is worthwhile considering both its starting points and its instrumental functions, in such a way that the two are not separated, but both are regarded as parts of the essence of art.
Berry pudding and male models
Studying based on a thematic aspect strongly demands an open attitude to learning and studying. In the experimentation projects, the groups' work at the museum was based on exploring, discussing, and doing - active thinking with the help of the teacher and the museum guide. Studying the topic was not merely absorbing and accepting information, but working on and communicating self-acquired information and one's own thoughts.
Wolfgang Laib's works The Rice Meals and Milkstone inspired the pupils of the sixth grade at Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu to study the starvation problem. The pupils made a video of berry pudding eating and showed it in slow motion and backwards, so that taking the pudding out of the mouth became a symbol of giving. Another group of pupils studied the gender-biased way of seeing pictures and the environment in general by performing a female interpretation (perfumes) and male interpretation (female vanity) of Babylon, the odour installation by Christian Skeel and Morten Skriver. They also made a collage of female and male models, based on their discussions.
Inspiring experiences
According to the teachers the co-operation project was an inspiring experience. Project work supports and gives depth to studies, and working in the museum was considered positive: it gives an all-round experience, activates pupils, and provides them with fresh ideas. The threshold to the museum becomes lower, and both art and the museum become familiar and easier to grasp. The skills to do with creating and viewing pictures, so easily overshadowed by theoretical subjects, develop, as do communication skills, the ability to express and argue for one's own opinion, and the ability to listen to others. Pupils learn to analyse their own and other people's artworks, to ponder the different aspects of various issues, and to compare them. They also learn new and sometimes difficult concepts. Contemporary art has proved an excellent base for learning through research and discussion. When planning a visit to a museum, it is wise of the teachers to think of the motives for the visit: is it just a refreshing break during the school year, or does it also contain other pedagogical aims? Incorporating the museum into the curriculum requires a contribution, particularly from the teacher. The whole co-operation project is based on combining the know-how of two professions - the guide contributes his or her knowledge of art and the museum, and the teacher provides information about the subject in question and the pupils.
Kaija Kaitavuori
