Texas Trends in Art Education, 2010 Page: 10

                                
I    V     MAKING CONNECTIONS,
CONSIDERING POSSIBILITES:
Constructivism in Action for the Contempo-
rary Art Viewer at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

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D espite record attendance at the Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), many of our visitors
mention that they are not sure how to look at art
without guidance. They feel that they can easily
appreciate a work's aesthetic qualities and have no problem
expressing their opinions, but they may have trouble making
meaning without the help of a label or the expertise of a docent
with a background in art history. For these visitors, conterrpo-
rary art can be especially challenging, and we routinely hear ex-
pressions of suspicion or frustration in the galleries such as, "My
kid could do that," "I don't get it," and "Why is this art?" Some
visitors feel uncomfortable, skeptical, or believe they lack the
necessary knowledge to understand what they see, so they dis-
engage, move on to the next object, or head to the gift store.
Like other museums, the MFAH offers an extensive array of
tours, lectures, classes, and programs, but none of them offer
visitors a model for looking at and understanding contemporary
art, or address the skepticism that often stymies meaningful
engagement in the galleries. As educators at the MFAH, we rec-
ognized this as an opportunity to develop a program that helps
our visitors become more confident and comfortable with con-
temporary art, especially when a facilitator is not available to
guide them through the looking process.
The result of our efforts is How to Look at Contemporary
Art, a program designed through a constructivist lens to help
visitors independently engage with and comprehend contempo-

rary art on a meaningful level. We conceived How to Look at
Contemporary Art (HLCA) as a multi-visit program, consisting of
both classroom discussions and gallery exercises for adult audi-
ences. It offers participants a four-step strategy for looking at,
thinking about, connecting to, and-ultimately-making sense
of the contemporary art objects in the museum's galleries.
In the program's first year, we faced challenges but also had
some success in transforming theory into workable practice. In
this essay, we will share our progress. We look forward to con-
tinued experimentation with structure and content, obtaining
more participant feedback, and growing the program while
keeping it anchored in constructivist learning theory.
About the Program
nitiated in the summer of 2009, How to Look at Contem-
porary Art is geared toward a wide range of adult par-
ticipants of diverse backgrounds, ages, knowledge lev-
els, beliefs, and interests-all of which contribute to the con-
structivist meaning-making process. As Hein (1998) explains:
A fundamental attribute of any constructivist
position is the need for the learner to be able to
associate an educational situation with what is a
ready known. The importance of "prior knowl-

TRENDS I 2010M