Public learning and the art museum : future directions

Abstract

The question of the art museum's failure to engage wider audiences remains relatively unexamined and has neither widely catalysed nor changed professional practice either in curatorial, educational, or public program domains. In this study, the educational aim of the art museum is discussed. The work of Pierre Bourdieu is examined. Bourdieu argues that museum display principles, interpretive strategies, and educational techniques, propagated within the paradigm of modernism, implicitly assume possession of cultural literacy skills which are the sole privilege of the educated.The author concludes that working within and across the curatorial and educational environments of an art museum, while avoiding the pitfalls of the modernist tradition, is also a significant step toward engaging wider audiences than the cultual 'elite' in the development of visual literacy skills.

Date of Award	2002
Original language	English