The Art Engager

Are you tired of using the same old thinking routines in your museum and gallery programmes? Maybe it's time to try something new? In this week’s episode, I'm sharing three exciting thinking routines that you can add to your repertoire. These routines will help you engage your audience and encourage them to think creatively about art and objects. Start with the basics: building a repertoire of thi...

Today I’m exploring the concept of creating intellectual comfort in your museum and gallery programmes.  In my (forthcoming) book Slow Looking at Art: The Visible Thinking in the Museum Approach I have a chapter dedicated to creating a collaborative culture in your museum and gallery programmes. As part of this chapter, I talk about how important it is to make participants feel not only psych...

I have a guest for you today on the show. I’m really happy to be talking to Hannah Cushion about her work as an artist and educator.  Hannah is an artist and museum educator working in London and Oxfordshire in the UK. Her work is interested in themes around archiving and preservation. She’s interested in why we keep the things we keep and who we're keeping them for.  Since receiving a c...

Today I’m exploring play in museum education practice. How can we create and lead playful museum programmes? How can we bring more opportunities for play into our guided tours and educational programmes? I was inspired for today's post by our new theme in the Slow Looking Club . Every two weeks we have a new theme and right now we’re exploring play as the focus for our slow looking . We’re looking...

Today I’m returning to one of my favourite subjects - questions.  I’m going to explore open-ended questions in detail - not just what they are, but why they are important and when you can use them for the best engagement. Plus, how can you get better at asking open ended questions and ask more of them in your programmes? How can you make sure that you don’t default to closed questions or reca...

I often get asked about neutrality as a 'stance' for museum facilitators of discussions around art and objects. So today I'm addressing the question: How neutral do we need to be as a facilitator in the museum?   Facilitation is a key part of creating engaging and interactive discussions around art and museum objects. As a facilitator, you are guiding the process, creating participation...

I know thinking routines are a huge crowd pleaser. I’m their biggest fan too - they have fundamentally changed the way I lead discussions around art and objects. Used in combination with the other 7  practices of the VTM approach such as  good questions , a range of facilitation skills , slow looking   and more, you can create wonderfully engaging discussions in the museum about art...

I’m talking to Margaret Middleton today about what inclusive language is and why it matters.  Margaret Middleton is an American independent exhibit designer and museum consultant currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  With a degree in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and over 15 years of experience in the museum field, they work at the intersection of desi...

What words come to mind when you hear the word ‘teenager’? Or the word ‘adolescence’? Do you love working with teens or feel a little apprehensive?  I’ve recently been facilitating some team trainings in museums about how to engage with teenagers and so I’ve been thinking a lot about the best ways to work with teens. It's also a subject I get asked about a lot.  Here are some tips and id...

I’m talking today about making space and time for slow looking. So if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you'll know that I've been practising the art of slow looking for a long time now the last 11/12 years. And it's very much a personal practice and also something that I use with groups of all ages with a variety of objects, artworks, situations and places. But why is it so import...

Today I’m sharing a variety of different ways to refresh your practice for 2023 so you don’t get stuck in a rut. Are you looking forward to designing and leading guided tours, art experiences, educational programmes in 2023? If, however, you’re not sure about your answers to those questions, or about how you feel about the coming year, then it’s definitely time to shake things up a little. If you’...

Today I'm really happy to be chatting to Sarah Ciacci about her wonderful work as a family tour specialist. We’re exploring how to engage and inspire families on a guided tour. Sarah Ciacci has been a Professional Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008 and specialises in family tours and art tours.  She set up Tours For My Kids to provide inspiring and engaging tours to families in London and...

Today I’m sharing 5 different thinking routines that you can use to compare, contrast and make connections. I’m exploring how you can use these thinking routines to create engaging discussions with art, objects and ideas.  I'll look first at what comparing & contrasting is and why it’s important.  Then I'm sharing some ideas for things you might want to compare and contrast, bef...

I’ve recently lost my voice so I’m taking some time to recover this week and sharing an episode from the back catalogue.  Today I'm revisiting an episode about to survive tumbleweed moments. This episode first aired in Oct 2021. It takes a deep dive into what a tumbleweed moment is and how to get over one when it happens. I'm also exploring 7 ways to avoid one in the first place.  A tumb...

Today I’m talking about how we can get ourselves into our best state - our most resourceful state - for when we show up to facilitate art discussions, tours, programmes or lessons. And sharing 8 different ways for you to turn up at your best! How you show up is important. Whether you’re leading a tour, teaching an educational programme, teaching a lesson in a classroom or facilitating a training....

I’m really happy to be talking to Dr Alex Woodall about her wonderful work with objects. We’re talking about how the joys of working with objects creatively. We’re exploring how you can use objects to spark all sorts of connections, associations and fun in the museum and beyond… Dr Alex Woodall is a museum professional and academic, inspired by the creative use of objects and rummaging in stores.&...

We’ve reached another milestone and in honour of 75 episodes, I’m releasing a new FREE resource today. How to Look at Art (Slowly) shares 30+ different ways that you can look at art or objects in museums. In today’s special episode I’m talking you through some of these different ways of looking slowly.  I'll share why it's important to slow down and look carefully, before explaining the...

Today I’m chatting to Ben Street about his new book 'How to Enjoy Art: A Guide for Everyone'. We’re talking about how we can enjoy art without needing to know anything about it. Ben Street is an author, educator and art historian. He’s also been a school teacher and museum educator. He’s a writer of interpretation for museums and exhibitions and a writer of art criticism. He’s an academic and he w...

Today’s episode follows on from a popular post I wrote on social media recently about how to talk about the recent climate activist protests in art museums with your participants.  I wanted to take the opportunity to explore the subject in a bit more detail here.  Art has been hitting the headlines recently with numerous climate activist protests targeting famous paintings in museums - f...

Today I’m talking to Rachel Ropeik about her work. We’re talking about how we can use our bodies to react to art & the many ways in which we can incorporate movement into museum learning . Rachel Ropeik is an educator, facilitator, adventurer, experience builder and pirate who brings thoughtful, playful, and progressive approaches to catalysing change in arts and culture.  She currently w...

Today I’m talking about why I created my method Visible Thinking in the Museum (or VTM for short) and who I created it for. Why did I go and develop a new teaching method when there were plenty of methods already out there? So, today I’m sharing exactly what prompted this 11 year mission into creating a method for engaging discussions in museums around art and objects. Over the years, I have done...

Today I’m so happy to be talking to Hanna Piksen about deconstructing the traditional guided tour and creating a completely new experience where guides are given free rein to design and lead the tour entirely from their own perspective.  Hanna Piksen is the Head of Co-learning at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. This is the national museum for digital culture, design and architecture in the...

Body language is defined as ‘ the conscious and unconscious movements and postures by which attitudes and feelings are communicated ’. When we talk about body language we’re talking about a wide range of human expression - such as posture, eye contact, use of space, voice, gesture, and so on. And these are signals that communicate with us nonverbally, they are ‘ wordless signals ’ that can be indi...

Today I'm delighted to be talking to Marina Gross Hoy about how to look, and in particular, how to look at your daily life as if you were looking at a work of art. Marina Gross Hoy is a museum studies PhD candidate and a writer. Her doctoral research at the University of Quebec in Montreal focusing on how museums develop digital projects to create engaging experiences for visitors. She has a Maste...

Many of us are experts in our field - possibly art historians, historians or archaeologists - and want to share that incredible knowledge with the groups we lead in our programmes. But sometimes having that knowledge can be a burden. It can weigh heavy on us. Knowing what information to share, when to share it and how to share it is tricky. How much is too much? And how can you share it in way tha...