Monet in a Box the portable museum

Monet in a Box
the portable museum
An exhibition and publication in
Museum Langmatt
August 20 - October 30, 2005
Project documentation
CAS 2008, Culture and Museum Education
University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland and Kuverum
Kristen Erdmann-Jonsson
Art Education
Museum Langmatt
Römerstrasse 30
5401 Baden, Switzerland
+41 56 200 86 70
www.langmatt.ch
[email protected]
Contents:
Starting point
A new idea
Goals
Motivation
What’s new, what’s special
Project process
Challenges
Insights
Delights, accomplishments
Impact
Relevance
Materials
Summary in German
Starting point: The challenge in Museum Langmatt
The Museum Langmatt exhibits an exquisite Impressionist art collection within the original
context of the Sidney and Jenny Brown family home in Baden, Switzerland. Since its opening
in 1990, the Museum had attracted many adult visitors, but very few young people. The
Museum did not include an art education programme for children and teenagers in its palette
of art appreciation activities.
In 2001, the Friends of Museum Langmatt set the goal of creating an art education programme
especially for teenagers. I was motivated to accept this challenge because I was interested in
answering two questions:
•
How can the Museum Langmatt become a place in which young people feel
welcome, can enjoy art, exchange ideas and participate in a creative process?
•
How can schools and the Museum be connected?
A new idea: The LangmattBox
The goal of the art education pilot project in Museum Langmatt was to find new ways to
involve young people in the active exploration of art. A new „seeing tool“, the LangmattBox,
was designed to spark a creative process by inspiring teenagers to think and talk about art.
LangmattBox workshops begin in the classroom before the students even set a foot in the
museum. Students are sent „thinking cards“, inviting them to collect pictures on an art theme.
Once in the Museum Langmatt, the young visitors embark in a creative process: They find
connections between the images from their every-day lives and the works of the Impresssionists,
contrasting, comparing, thinking visually. The teenagers are involved in a dialogue, make
presentations and communicate their ideas with their peers, thereby exchanging their role as
learners for a new role as eductors.
During their visit to the Museum, students make drawings and take notes, add
them to their collected images, and place them in a small white cardboard box. Back in the
schoolroom, students design their own individual LangmattBox: a personal, portable
mini-museum.
Goal: Share knowledge and experience
The main goal of the exhibition and publication project ‹Monet in a Box: the portable
museum› was to make the LangmattBox activities and knowledge gained during the first four
years of the art education project in Museum Langmatt accessible to others. In addition, we
aimed to intensify the cooperation between the Museum and regional schools as well as create a
network between the Museum Langmatt and other Swiss and international museums with
innovative art education programmes.
Motivation: Teamwork
After four years of working primarily on my own with over 3,000 students in the Museum
Langmatt, I was motivated to take on an in-depth art education project which would allow me
to work in a team and more intensely with individual schoolclasses.
During their visits to the Museum and through creating mini-museums, the students had
become young art experts. I was inspired to design an exhibition which would make their work
and ideas visible while strengthening the connection between the Langmatt and schools.
What’s new, what’s special: Young people communicate on art
The exhibition ‹Monet in a Box: the portable museum› provided an opportunity to experience
young people’s discoveries on art within a museum context. Children and teenagers were
involved in every step of project process: Over 400 students designed and exhibited paintings,
fotos, objects, and mini-museums for the exhibition. Others created performances especially for
the exhibition opening in the park of the Villa Langmatt. One student contributed to the
publication, another made a film that documented the creative process in the classroom. The
students became communicators about art through their involvement in the project, guiding
their families and friends through the exhibition, proudly showing and talking about their
work.
Participants: Team effort, team success
The main team:
Simonetta Balzarini, Culture manager, MAS in Arts Management
Beda Büchi, Art and Design teacher, Kantonsschule Baden
Kristen Erdmann-Jonsson, Art Educator, Museum Langmatt Baden
Gerhard Gindeley, President, Society of the Friends of Museum Langmatt
The extended team:
The exhibition and publication ‹Monet in a Box: The portable Museum› were made possible
through cooperation with the Langmatt Foundation Sidney and Jenny Brown, the Museum
directors Dr. Eva-Maria Preiswerk-Lösel (until August 2005) and Dr. Rudolf Velhagen (from
August 2005). The support of the Friends of Museum Langmatt, Axpo, UBS, the Canton
Aargau and private donors was essential and much appreciated. The publication was realised
with Schwabe Publishers, Basel.
The art educators Franziska Dürr Reinhard from the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau, Regula
Malin from the Daros Exhibitions in Zurich, Lilian Schmidt und Beat Klein from the Museum
Tinguely in Basle, Dr. Martina Kral from the Museum Sammlung Rosengart in Lucerne and
Christin Markovic from the children’s museum Creaviva in the Paul Klee Centre in Berne, as
well as individuals from various schools and institutions all contributed to the publication.
The art and design teachers Sonja Kreis (Kantonsschule Baden), Gaby Weber and Ursula
Rutishauser (Kantonsschule Wettingen) and their students contributed to the exhibition and
the opening ceremonies.
Project progression: From a pilot project to a permanent position
The LangmattBox pilot project was initiated with much enthusiasm in 2001 by the Friends of
the Museum Langmatt to bring young visitors and art together. Beda Büchi, Art and Design
teacher at the Kantonsschule in Baden, and I were responsible for the art education concept.
Klaus Zumbühl, Kuverum 1, was involved in the project during the pilot year.
Within four years over 3,000 children and teenagers had taken part in workshops and tours.
The Friends of the Museum Langmatt were pleased with the programme and willing to organise
the funding of a large-scale project, thus the idea for an exhibition with an accompanying
publication was born. The project concept, planning and realisation phases spanned one year.
After the completion of the ‹Monet in a Box: the portable museum› project, art education
became an integral part of the Museum’s structure and a permanent position for an art
educator was established.
Challenge: Keeping a balance
Coordinating a large-scale, low-budget project with part-time team members was a challenge.
However, the pure joy of bringing art and young people together balanced out any difficulties
that arose during the project. The project strengthened my conviction that I had found my
métier and whetted my appetite for large-scale projects.
Working with young people in Museum Langmatt is a challenging priviledge. Children and
teenagers bring new energy and a propensity for risk-taking into the predictable world of the
museum. The key word is balance: The inexhaustible enthusiasm of youth enlivens the museum
environment, children and teengers gain from learning how to treat precious, authentic objects
with respect.
Insights: Recipe for a project
•
•
•
•
The „feu sacré“ is the most important ingredient in a project, everything else
can be organised.
Think big! Set goals high. New ideas are waiting to be discovered and realised by
innovative people.
Get a good team together, get the funding and get going!
Stick to it! A don’t-give-up attitude is the motor when the going gets tough. Be
willing to face conflicts and crises as a normal part of projects: Problems have
solutions.
Delights, accomplishments
The exhibition and publication project ‹Monet in a Box: the portable museum› was a creative
adventure in which teenagers were the discoverers: They became experts on the art of the
Impressionists, gained communication and social skills, and were inspired to make their own
works of art and performances. They now see the Museum Langmatt as a place to experience
the pleasures of creating, learning and imagining.
Impact: An art education tool and cultural ambassadors
The LangmattBox is an art education tool that connects schools with the Museum. A multitasking element, it can be implemented in different museums for varying purposes and themes.
The mini-museums can also be used as a connection between museums: Students visit several
museums, focusing on a theme such as portraits, adding to their mini-museums as they go.
My vision for the future: The portable mini-museum goes to London! I imagine children and
teenagers being part of an international dialogue on art, exchanging mini-museums full of
their ideas, sketches and artcard-size reproductions of their favourite paintings. Young people
would thereby become international Culture-Attaché(e)s für „their“ museums, taking the idea
of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, a step further. By communicating with each other,
young people would stengthen their sense of their own cultural heritage and become aware of
art in museums around the world.
Relevance: The museum is a place of discovery
As a direct result of the exhibition and publication ‹Monet in a Box: the portable museum›, art
education for young people has become an integral part of the Museum Langmatt. This project
is evidence of the power of art education to bring innovation and positive change to the
museum.
With their active part in the exhibition and publication project, young people had the
opportunity show that they are not just consumers, but also producers of culture. They
contribute to the lively atmosphere of discovery in the Museum. My role as an art educator
is to set up environments in which discovery can take place.
The Museum Langmatt is now known as a child- and family-friendly place, a place in which
children and teenagers inspire grown-ups to see art and culture anew. Young people have
reinvented the Museum, changing the way visitors see the Museum and the way the Museum
sees itself.
Materials:
Exhibition invitation
Publication: ‹Monet in a Box: Das Museum zum Mitnehmen. Kunstvermittlung in Fokus›
Schwabe Verlag 2005. ISBN 978-3-7965-2184-3
CD - Film
Inspiring publications:
„The art of looking sideways“ by Alan Fletcher. Phaidon Press Ltd., London 2001.
ISBN 0 7148 3449 1.
„House of cards“ designed by Charles and Ray Eames. First printed in1952. Available from
www.eamesoffice.com or bei Vitra GmbH in Weil am Rhein, Deutschland, www.designmuseum.de.
Photos: Beda Büchi, Kristen Erdmann, Geri Krischker, Andrès Morya
Eine Ausstellung und Publikation in Museum Langmatt Baden
20. August bis 30. Oktober 2005
www.langmatt.ch
Kristen Erdmann-Jonsson
Diplom Kulturvermittlung und Museumspädagogik 2001, Kuverum
CAS Nachzertifizierung 2008, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz und Kuverum
Seit dem Jahre 2001 wird im Impressionisten- und Wohnmuseum Langmatt in Baden das
Kunstvermittlungsprojekt ‹LangmattBox› für Kinder und Jugendliche angeboten. Die Box,
eine weisse Kartonschachtel im Kunstkartenformat, dient als Behälter um persönliche
Impressionen zu verschiedenen Themen in Form von Kunstkarten, Skizzen, Fotos und Texten
zu sammeln. Die jungen Museumsbesucher und -besucherinnen verwandeln die Boxen in
individuelle Mini-Museen, die das Denken zu Themen der Kunst anregen.
Nach vierjähriger Tätigkeit im Museum Langmatt, wurden die Erkenntnisse der
Zusammenarbeit mit Kindern, Jugendlichen und Lehrkräften mit der LangmattBox, Führungen
und Workshops einem breiteren Publikum präsentiert. Eine Ausstellung mit Publikationen
wurde dafür konzipiert.
Im Zentrum der Ausstellung ‹Monet in a Box: Das Museum zum Mitnehmen› standen die aus
den Begegnungen im Museum entstandenen Arbeiten. Neben den vielfältigen Mini-MuseumsProjekten gehörten auch gestaltete Objekte, die einen Einblick in die vermittelnde Arbeit mit
Jungendlichen gaben, dazu.
Zur Ausstellung erschienen eine Publikation, eine Katalogbox mit Textbuch und ein
Kunstkartenset. Die Publikation, ‹Monet in a Box: Das Museum zum Mitnehmen,
Kunstvermittlung in Fokus›, stellt auch weitere Projekte der Kunstvermittlung in Schweizer
Museen und Sammlungen vor. Dazu wurden mit Daros Exhibitions in Zürich, dem Museum
Tinguely in Basel, dem Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau, dem Museum Sammlung Rosengart in
Luzern und dem Kindermuseum Creaviva im Zentrum Paul Klee, in Bern, Institutionen
ausgewählt, die mit eigenständigen Konzepten der Kunstvermittlung aufgefallen sind. Die
ergänzenden Textbeiträge thematisieren die unterschiedlichen Spannungsfelder der
Kunstvermittlungstätigkeit.
Simonetta Balzarini, Kulturmanagerin MA
Beda Büchi, Lehrer für Bildnerisches Gestalten Kantonsschule Baden
Kristen Erdmann-Jonsson, Kunstvermittlerin Museum Langmatt Baden
Gerhard Gindeley, Präsident Vereinigung Freunde Museum Langmatt