Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book presents the first full-length ethnographic study of museum education practices, by exploring a four-year long engagement with adult classes at a major urban art gallery in the United Kingdom. Using detailed descriptions of gallery tours, creative writing classes, and in-depth interviews with class members and gallery educators, it provides a richly layered picture of how and why experiencing and making 'art' matters. By tracing the process of creativity through the minds of the participants, the book also offers a powerful critique of the ways in which museums view themselves as spaces of 'inspiration', and of how 'older adults' are constructed through educational programming.
Synopsis
Creativity and Learning in Later Life examines how processes such as 'creativity' and 'inspiration' are experienced by writers who engage with the visual arts, and questions how age is perceived in relation to these processes. The author's careful analysis challenges many of the assumptions on which museum education currently operates, contributing to wider debates surrounding the value of arts and cultural heritage education.
Containing detailed descriptions of museum tours, viewers' engagements with specific artworks, and the processes of creative writing and editing that result from such encounters, the book draws on a ground-breaking study to challenge the way in which the value of education and creative activity for older adult learners has been conceptualized in existing literature. It also demonstrates how learners adapt and subvert the intended pedagogies to suit their own needs and accommodate their ageing selves.
Drawing on a spectrum of disciplines including education, anthropology, art history, sociology, museum studies and the practice and theory of creative writing, this book will be of interest to academics, postgraduate students, and researchers in a range of fields, as well museum practitioners, creative writing teachers and those working in adult and community education settings.