Engaging Children in Objects and Art Using High-Tech to No-Tech Tools
- By Emogene Schilling
- May 31, 2011
Night Kitchen’s principals Matthew Fisher and Dan Kuetemeyer facilitated a fun, informative presentation and hands-on activity at the AAM 2011 conference in Houston last month. “Engaging Children in Objects and Art Using High-Tech to No-Tech Tools”, was presented in collaboration with Julie Charles and Erica Gangsei of SFMOMA, and Sharon Shaffer, Ph.D., of the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center. Together, the team compared and contrasted the SFMOMA’s new mobile game and the Early Enrichment Center’s object-based facilitated approach to engaging children with art in a museum setting.
The panel discussed challenges facing museums in engaging families with collections and one other. Children often do not have the tools necessary to understand all that a museum has to offer and parents often do not have the experience or vocabulary to engage their children in the fundamentals of art.
Shaping a museum experience begins with understanding the audience and their learning style and selecting appropriate strategies. Sensory-based experiences using authentic objects, storytelling, and activities help to provide opportunities for learning and engagement.
The session then shifted into a workshop where attendees participated in two different activities. The Hi-Tech activity explored SFMOMA’s new Country Dog Gentlemen Gallery Game (available in the App Store this summer) developed by Night Kitchen Interactive, which invites visitors to use a museum as a game board. The mobile device prompts families to engage with the art and each other as they move, look, and listen, and find fun ways to talk about art. The No-Tech activities were led by a facilitator and encouraged attendees to explore art by physically interacting with objects and materials. The session closed with a discussion of both approaches and the opportunities they might afford.
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