The Art Engager

Slow looking is simply the art of learning through observation. I’ve been working in this way for the last 10+ years and can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone - both as an individual practice and as a way of working with and connecting your participants to art and objects.  But don’t just take my word for it.  But, why would you want to slow down and spend time with just one artwork...

Have you been using the same thinking routines for a while now? Maybe you’ve got a few core routines that you’re comfortable with and now you’re looking for some new routines to add to your repertoire? I’m always looking for new ways to engage with our audiences and love trying out new routines in my membership monthly thinking routine classes. I really enjoy seeing all the possibilities of how th...

As we get older, we ask fewer questions. We wonder less. We are less curious.  We don’t lose the ability to be curious, we just don’t use or ‘exercise’ it as much. Further on in life people tend to expect answers rather than questions. Staying curious and wondering keeps your mind active and strong, makes you more receptive to new ideas, opens up new worlds and possibilities and brings excite...

So in today’s episode is the first of 2 episodes devoted to a subject close to my heart: curiosity. This week I'll be exploring what curiosity is and sharing 3 key ways you can provoke curiosity and wonder with your audiences on your tours and programmes. Next week, I'll be discussing how we can stay curious ourselves as educators, guides and teachers. Curiosity is notoriously difficult to de...

This week on the podcast: I’m delighted to be talking to Yaël van Loosbroek - Speck about art and mental health Yaël believes, like me, that everyone can engage with art, and that it all starts with looking - hence the name of her company, ArtSee. About ten years ago Yaël herself suffered from depression and severe anxiety disorder. The only place she could find peace of mind was in front of an ar...

The ability to ask powerful, relevant and incisive questions is one of the most useful skills you can have.  With a good questioning technique you can instantly engage people, provoke their curiosity, find out what they already know and make your programmes more interactive. Questioning is not an innate talent for most of us - we have to work hard at developing a good questioning technique.&n...

Today we’re exploring 9 different ways that looking at art can make you a better writer.  Throughout the ages, looking at art has been a unique way of finding inspiration and creativity. If you go as far back as the Greeks, you can find examples of writing inspired by art, called  ekphrasis , which means “a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art” Art is a frequent...

For our last episode of the year, I'm sharing 3 slow looking activities for over the holidays.  It’s a busy time of year and we’re all rushed off our feet. There’s also still a huge amount of uncertainty around right now just to add to the levels of stress and anxiety. Slow looking is a wonderful antidote to life in the fast line. Looking at something slowly and carefully is in itself a rewar...

This week I’m delighted to be talking to Claire Bradshaw. Claire is an experienced coach, trainer and facilitator who brings a lot of positive energy and curiosity to her work. In today’s chat we talk about the values that drive her work, listening with full attention, the power of questions, and her passion for outdoor coaching.  We talk about the similarities between her work and the work w...

Awe is an emotion that can be triggered by being around something larger than yourself, that’s not immediately understandable. It's that feeling you get when you look up and see millions of stars in the night sky; witness a beautiful landscape or set eyes on an artwork for the first time.  Museums and galleries, historic settings and buildings can all provoke awe. And you can foster more of i...

This week on the podcast: I’m delighted to be talking to Jo-Anne Sunderland Bowe and we're talking about how to teach with objects.   Jo-Anne is director of Heritec Limited, a UK-based heritage education consultancy which works on European collaborative projects. Jo-Anne has a keen interest in object-based learning and creative and critical thinking.  in today’s chat we talk about the va...

For our thirtieth episode, I’m delighted to be talking to Catherine Chastney. Catherine is an art educator and owner of social enterprise I Picture This. Catherine’s work focuses on bringing art and the joy of discussing art to older people, from creating conversations in care homes, to creating art cards during lockdown and working with people living with dementia.  In this chat we explore t...

So in today’s episode I’m talking about how to develop a reflective practice in your work. A reflective practice is simply the art of thinking about or reflecting on what you do. It is a way of recognising, capturing and articulating what we’re learning on a moment by moment basis. By following any of the suggestions in this episode, you will develop a questioning approach to your work . You will...

Today I’m focusing on colour. Colour is one of the 7 elements of art along with shape, line, form, texture, value and space. It's a vast subject - but today I don't want to focus on colour theory or the science of colour. Instead, I want to get you thinking about how you approach colour with your audience during an art discussion. I’m going to look at different ways you can create discussion about...

Today I’m delighted to be talking to Kenia Santos - an educator based in Brazil with specialisations and interests in art history, philosophical inquiry, social and emotional learning, thinking routines and slow looking.  We discuss how she uses thinking routines in her work to encourage and develop slow looking,  how she keeps her teenage students engaged for 3 hours in her art cla...

The traditional lecture-style guided tour is dead, long live the interactive tour! Well, it’s not actually, it’s still alive and kicking in some quarters, but in my opinion it shouldn’t be the way we think about guided tours in the 21st Century. Traditional lecture-style ‘walk and talk ‘ guided tours with an expert guide are still fairly common and in some places are still a standard way of ‘prese...

This week’s episode is inspired by recent classes in the Visible Thinking Membership where we've been exploring the concept of using drawing and sketching for slow looking and observation.  When people are learning how to draw, they actually learn how to observe first. And being a sketcher makes you a better observer - it’s as though you are seeing something for the first time when you’re try...

Today I’m really excited to be chatting to Louise Thompson - a museums and wellbeing consultant as well as the health and wellbeing manager at Manchester Art Gallery for the past 9 years. We’re talking how about art and objects can be used to learn wellbeing skills and improve mental health. Louise has over 12 years experience of arts and health practice and is hugely passionate about using cultur...

Have you ever asked a question that was greeted with nothing but silence? You look around and all you can see are blank faces. The silence is scary because you don’t know what people are thinking. It could mean anything. You wait a little longer and still nothing happens. Just the sound of tumbleweed rustling by…. You've just experienced a ' tumbleweed moment ' - a period of dead air or silence.&n...

In the past week I’ve just started teaching my Visible Thinking in the Museum Online course (VTMO) to a group of international educators excited to start confidently leading  discussions around art and objects.  There’s always a buzz when we get going and an enthusiasm to learn as much as you can as quickly as possible.  But I always try to slow down participants, so that they...

Today I’m really excited to be introducing our first guest chat on the podcast - Samantha Boffin. Samantha is a voice actor, director and audio drama coach working with clients on voice technique, voiceover and communication.⁠ Your voice is one of your biggest assets when it comes to storytelling, entertaining and engaging your audience. In this episode, you will discover how to look after it, use...

Today I’m talking about the 6 core elements in my popular Visible Thinking in the Museum Online (VTMO) course - elements that you should also have in your educator repertoire to connect with your audience and engage them with art and objects. I'm sharing with you: How the course came about during the start of the pandemic in 2020 How it was designed and why The 6 core elements of the course and wh...

Would you love to learn how to design and lead engaging discussions around art and objects in just 4 days? On Monday through to Thursday next week, I’ll be sharing 4 principles that are key 🔑 for creating engagement and connection when you're designing and leading art discussions. ⁠ In this BONUS podcast episode (a first for The Art Engager!) you’ll learn everything you need to know about what ha...

Today I’m sharing some thoughts about how you can successfully design and lead engaging discussion-based programmes around art and objects. I’ll be talking briefly about the difference between different types of 'talking' in museum education - conversations , discussions and dialogue - before moving into 11 tips for success in creating conversations around art and objects. Links Support the Show -...

Leading tours and educational programmes that are based on discussion, inquiry and interaction can be a scary business. Both for you and for your participants. And if you’re about to take your first steps, it might seem really daunting. However, do remember that any concerns you have are perfectly normal and you’re not alone (we’ve all been there and had to start somewhere). Take it one step at a...