The Art Engager
Claire Bown
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Top 10 The Art Engager Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Art Engager episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Art Engager for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Art Engager episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
03/30/23 • 29 min
In Episode 92, I'm chatting to Heather Thomas, the Head of Learning and Engagement at the Lightbox Museum and Gallery in Woking, UK.
Heather talks about how their Art and Wellbeing programme of creative and therapeutic workshops provides opportunities for those that would otherwise not be able to access arts and heritage services.
We discuss the guiding principles behind the Lightbox Museum and Gallery's work in learning and engagement, which has always included helping people with mental health issues or those who are isolated.
We also discuss what the Open Mind project is and how it provides a safe space for individuals to come and learn something new, chat with others and engage with art.
We talk about how Open Mind tours prioritise connection over content and are wholly participant-led, open conversations that take their cues directly from the participants, not the facilitator.
Finally, we talk about the positive outcomes of the programme and the Lightbox's plans for the future.
Links
Lightbox website: www.thelightbox.org.uk
Museums Journal (Museums Association UK) article: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/analysis/2022/11/its-time-for-museums-to-address-mental-health/
Baring report: https://baringfoundation.org.uk/resource/creatively-minded-at-the-museum/
Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/
Catalyst: https://www.catalystsupport.org.uk/
If you are struggling, please contact Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/
Young Minds website for children and young people: https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
2 Listeners
Slow Art and the Power of Slowing Down with Carl Honoré
The Art Engager
04/06/23 • 45 min
Today on the podcast, I'm delighted to be talking to bestselling author, broadcaster, two-time TED speaker and voice of the Slow Movement, Carl Honoré.
In this episode, Carl Honoré, author of "In Praise of Slow," shares his insights on the benefits of slowing down in every aspect of life.
Our conversation centres around the slow movement, and how slowness can 'rehumanise' us in a culture that values speed above everything else.
We also discuss the slow art movement and how museums and other cultural institutions can be more welcoming for visitors who want to take a slower approach to art.
Main talking points:
- Carl Honoré's book "In Praise of Slow" and the impact it had on society and the slow movement
- How the slow movement is not just about slowing down for its own sake, but about reclaiming our humanity in a culture that treats us like machines.
- How the slow movement fits into the larger cultural conversation about resisting the pressures of a culture that values speed and productivity above all else
- How the pandemic has affected our relationship with time and speed, and whether it has led to a greater appreciation for slowness.
- How slow art can be an antidote to the fast-paced culture we live in
- How museums are finding ways to create slow environments and programmes to invite people to engage deeply with art.
- How blockbuster exhibitions (such as the Vermeer exhibition in the Rijksmuseum)and wall labels can help or hinder us in the experience we might have in a museum.
- The importance of building the muscle to observe, contemplate, and look deeply at art, especially in children
- Four ways we can all incorporate the principles of slow more fully into our own lives
Links
Download my new Slow Art Guide
Download the resource - how to look at art (slowly)
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Carl Honoré's website:
Useful links www.carlhonore.info
Carl Honoré on Social Media:
TED Talk 'In Praise of Slow'
1 Listener
How to Look at Art (Slowly)
The Art Engager
11/17/22 • 11 min
We’ve reached another milestone and in honour of 75 episodes, I’m releasing a new FREE resource today.
How to Look at Art (Slowly) shares 30+ different ways that you can look at art or objects in museums.
In today’s special episode I’m talking you through some of these different ways of looking slowly.
I'll share why it's important to slow down and look carefully, before explaining the 4 sections of the guide: Static Looking, Movement, Observation by Drawing, Observation by Writing and Viewfinders.
How to Look at Art (Slowly) is a resource that can be used by anyone.
Whether you’re going to a museum alone and would like some strategies for looking, or if you’re visiting with a friend and are on the lookout for some new ways to engage with what you’re seeing.
Likewise, if you’re an educator or guide, you can use these activities with your groups. All of the activities are coded as either solo or group activities.
These simple activities offer a framework and tools for looking at art and objects for longer.
Choose a variety of different ways to look as you move around the museum. You may want to choose activities that appeal to you or you might want to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. All of the activities will help you to see more.
Download this free guide via the link below and then listen to the episode!
LINKS
HOW TO LOOK AT ART (SLOWLY) - a free guide for looking with 30+ activities!
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
1 Listener
How to ask more open-ended questions
The Art Engager
02/23/23 • 18 min
Today I’m returning to one of my favourite subjects - questions.
I’m going to explore open-ended questions in detail - not just what they are, but why they are important and when you can use them for the best engagement.
Plus, how can you get better at asking open ended questions and ask more of them in your programmes? How can you make sure that you don’t default to closed questions or recall questions?
I'm sharing 4 ideas that will help you to ask more open-ended questions & keep the conversation flowing in an open and engaging way.
Links
The Art of Questioning Class with Claire Bown
Download the 2023 Ultimate Thinking Routine List
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Download my free guide - how to look at art (slowly)
Curated newsletter by Claire Bown
1 Listener
03/23/23 • 22 min
Are you tired of using the same old thinking routines in your museum and gallery programmes? Maybe it's time to try something new? In this week’s episode, I'm sharing three exciting thinking routines that you can add to your repertoire.
These routines will help you engage your audience and encourage them to think creatively about art and objects.
- Start with the basics: building a repertoire of thinking routines.
- Experiment and try new thinking routines to stay curious and inspired.
- Three new thinking routines to try out: Imagine If, Take Note, and Creating Space for Learning
- Imagine If: a thinking routine for looking closely, finding opportunity, and pursuing new ideas.
- Take Note: a thinking routine for distilling ideas in response to a piece of art or an object.
- Creating Space for Learning: a thinking routine that is essentially a grounding exercise that helps us to prepare for any programme, class or task.
Three new thinking routines for you to try out. I hope you find them helpful in engaging your audience with art and objects in a new and exciting way.
Links
EPISODE WEB PAGE
Episode 6 - 6 Essential Thinking Routines You Need in your Repertoire
Episode 16 - How to use See Think Wonder in your Art Discussions
Episode 57 - How to End Well
Episode 59 - 9 Thinking Routines to Improve your Powers of Observation
Download the Ultimate Thinking Routine List
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Download the NEW resource - how to look at art (slowly)
Curated newsletter by Claire Bown
1 Listener
What if objects could talk with Hannah Cushion
The Art Engager
03/09/23 • 39 min
I have a guest for you today on the show. I’m really happy to be talking to Hannah Cushion about her work as an artist and educator.
Hannah is an artist and museum educator working in London and Oxfordshire in the UK. Her work is interested in themes around archiving and preservation. She’s interested in why we keep the things we keep and who we're keeping them for.
Since receiving a creative practice grant from Arts Council England in 2021, Hannah has been looking at ways to directly connect her museum practice with her art practice.
This has led to the development of the Memory Bank Project, a collection of stories and memories connected to everyday objects.
In our chat today, Hannah and I discuss how inclusivity, curiosity, and the opportunity to collaborate with people and to create meaningful connections with objects and between people are really important values in her practice.
Museum labels tell us one story but what if the objects themselves could talk? How do we encourage people to include their own stories and experiences when we talk about objects?
As this project develops Hannah is exploring how she can adapt her skills as a facilitator to her role as a story collector.
We talk about what the Memory Bank Project is, how it works and how Hannah encourages participants to share their personal connections, stories, experiences and memories around an object. And we tell you how you can take part too!
So here it is, enjoy!
Links
Episode Web Page
https://www.hannahcushion.com/the-memory-bank
Instagram: @hannahcushionartist @thememorybankproject
Download the NEW resource - how to look at art (slowly)
Download the Ultimate Thinking Routine List
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Curated newsletter by Claire Bown
1 Listener
Why inclusive language matters with Margaret Middleton
The Art Engager
02/02/23 • 28 min
I’m talking to Margaret Middleton today about what inclusive language is and why it matters.
Margaret Middleton is an American independent exhibit designer and museum consultant currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
With a degree in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and over 15 years of experience in the museum field, they work at the intersection of design and social justice.
We know museums aim to be welcoming places for everyone, but the ways museums communicate can unintentionally exclude and alienate visitors.
Likewise, when we’re working as museum teachers, guides and educators the words we choose when we communicate can hide unconscious biases and assumptions, especially about subjects like “family.”
10 years ago, Margaret created a tool called the Family Inclusive Language chart which helps us to choose words that avoid labelling and making assumptions about the identities and relationships between museum visitors.
We discuss:
- the ways you might use the Family Inclusive Language chart in the museum
- how certain words, phrases and tenses can have a positive or negative effect on a group.
- why choosing the right words is just as important as avoiding the wrong ones.
- how we can be more intentional about the language we use and can train ourselves to not automatically default to words that may not be inclusive.
This chat will make you more aware of the language and the words you use when you’re with visitors in the museum. And you’ll gain useful insight into how thoughtful word choices have the power to create connections and include everyone.
Links
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Download the NEW resource - how to look at art (slowly)
Curated newsletter by Claire Bown
Episode webpage (+ transcript)
margaretmiddleton.com for Family Inclusive Language chart, helpful articles, and other free resources
Welcoming Young Children into the Museum: A Practical Guide - Sarah Erdman, Nhi Nguyen, Margaret Middleton
1 Listener
Making space and time for slow looking
The Art Engager
01/19/23 • 20 min
I’m talking today about making space and time for slow looking.
So if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you'll know that I've been practising the art of slow looking for a long time now the last 11/12 years. And it's very much a personal practice and also something that I use with groups of all ages with a variety of objects, artworks, situations and places.
But why is it so important to incorporate slow looking into your guided tours, educational programmes and art experiences?
In today's episode you'll hear:
- who inspired my love of slow looking when I first got started in 2011
- myth-busting: about what slow looking is and how it works.
- how slow looking is the key to engagement
- 3 main reasons why it's important to make space and time for slow looking
- how you can incorporate it into your guided tours, your educational programmes your online session, even if you think you don't have the time or the space
- the key benefits to including slow looking onto your programmes - whatever format they take
If you're not making space and time for slow looking, then you're really missing a trick - listen to today's episode about making the space and time for slow looking and embed it as a fundamental part of all your programmes.
Links
Episode 2 - What is slow looking (and how can I get started?)
Episode 7 - How to Develop a Daily Slow Looking Practice
Free resource - Thinking Routines for Observation
Free guide - how to look at art (slowly)
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Curated newsletter by Claire Bown
1 Listener
11/10/22 • 44 min
Today I’m chatting to Ben Street about his new book 'How to Enjoy Art: A Guide for Everyone'. We’re talking about how we can enjoy art without needing to know anything about it.
Ben Street is an author, educator and art historian. He’s also been a school teacher and museum educator. He’s a writer of interpretation for museums and exhibitions and a writer of art criticism. He’s an academic and he writes books - “How to Enjoy Art: A Guide for Everyone” (Yale) and “How to be an Art Rebel” (Thames and Hudson) are out now.
In our chat today, we talk about the values that guide Ben’s work and how he’s passionate about us all being able to enjoy art without needing any specialist knowledge.
We talk about slow looking and open questioning and how we can approach art with the tools we already have within us.
We focus on why looking is so important to the art experience, we explore ways in which we can look for longer and we talk about how scale and space affects how we relate to art.
We discuss why we rarely feel we need to read about a piece of music before we listen to it, but with art, we feel we need to know something about it to look at it. And that artworks come ‘wrapped in text’ before we can even get to them. Why is this? How has this come about?
This chat is jam-packed with ideas and inspiration for you. Here’s my chat with Ben. Enjoy!
LINKS
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Ben Street -
Books - How to Enjoy Art; How to be an Art Rebel
1 Listener
The joy of engaging with objects with Dr Alex Woodall
The Art Engager
11/24/22 • 36 min
I’m really happy to be talking to Dr Alex Woodall about her wonderful work with objects. We’re talking about how the joys of working with objects creatively. We’re exploring how you can use objects to spark all sorts of connections, associations and fun in the museum and beyond...
Dr Alex Woodall is a museum professional and academic, inspired by the creative use of objects and rummaging in stores.
She has 20 years’ experience working in learning, interpretation and exhibition management and leadership roles, including at Sheffield Museums, Manchester Art Gallery, the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia.
She is currently Programme Director for the Postgraduate Creative and Cultural Industries Management degree at the University of Sheffield, where she teaches a large international cohort about museum management.
In our chat today, we talk about the joys of working with objects creatively. Alex shares how her love for objects started when she was very small rummaging through her dad’s ‘museum’ full of amazing finds that he’d dug up in the garden - rocks and fossils and clay pipes and so on. And how that developed into a career-long fascination with all kinds of objects.
We talk about what objects do, how we can use them and what we can get out of working with objects.
Alex tells us what an object dialogue box is and how you can use objects to spark all sorts of connections, associations and fun in the museum. She takes us through a wonderful activity that I did with her at the ICOM CECA conference in Denmark recently that helps us to notice more details and find stuff in museums that we would normally overlook.
We also talk about how we can use objects to inspire more creativity and imagination organisations in for example meetings, in teams, programming, brainstorming etc. And she shares two wonderful books to read if you’re as fascinated by objects as we both are.
This is a delightful chat about creating joyful engaging experiences with objects -Enjoy!
LINKSHOW TO LOOK AT ART (SLOWLY) - a free guide for looking with 30+ activities!
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
https://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/
Karl and Kimberley Foster - Object Dialogue Boxes https://www.sorhed.com/
http://www.marymaryquitecontrary.org.uk/
Books mentioned:
Sandra Dudley (2010) Museum Materialities: https://www.routledge.com/Museum-Materialities-Objects-Engagements-Interpretations/Dudley/p/book/9780415492188
Pablo Neruda (1994) Odes to Common Things: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Common-Things-First-Pablo-Neruda/dp/B0058WGC84
Written by Alex Woodall:
- Woodall A (2020) 'Storehouses of Unimagined Treasures': Delightful Rummaging and Artists' Responses to 'Unloved' Collections In Woodham A, Hess A & Smith R (Ed.), Emotion, Care, and Engagement in Museums: Interventions in Unloved Collections Arc Humanities Press View this article in WRRO
- Woodall A (2015) Rummaging as a Strategy for Creative Thinking and Imaginative Engagement in Higher Education In Chatterjee H & Hannan L (Ed.), Engaging the Senses: Object-Based Learning in Higher Education (pp. 133-155). Surrey: Ashgate. View this article in WRRO
- Woodall A (2015) Object Dialogue Boxes and Unknowing In Farnell G (Ed.), Interpreting the Art Museum (pp. 366-377). MuseumsEtc
1 Listener
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Art Engager have?
The Art Engager currently has 140 episodes available.
What topics does The Art Engager cover?
The podcast is about Visual Arts, Podcasts, Education and Arts.
What is the most popular episode on The Art Engager?
The episode title 'Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing Through Art with Heather Thomas' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Art Engager?
The average episode length on The Art Engager is 26 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Art Engager released?
Episodes of The Art Engager are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of The Art Engager?
The first episode of The Art Engager was released on Apr 21, 2021.
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