The Key to Interest is Mutuality

Interview with Emese Joó

Real museum presence or superfluous activities? Difficult question, especially from the viewpoint of museum pedagogy!

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We asked ethnographer and museum educator Emese Joó about how children can be influenced to love the world of museums. During the conversation she even talked about where we can find the programs of the Ethnographical museum outside its walls in the summer.

−The children of today regard the museums as lifeless places. What is your opinion about this argument?

− If this is what most of them think, I can only understand it, as far as the kids are concerned, they are completely right. The sign systems in the museums’ exhibitions are very different from those of the children. The distance the showcases cause, the number of displayed objects, the many small lettered captions, the old photographs and the maze of the texts don’t give them enough clues what the exhibition wants to tell them. It is quite natural that they move towards all that are moving: films, audio guides, touch screens are much more attractive to them than anything else. In case there is something else besides looking around, the outsider would think how actively the children are involved in the exhibition. The reality is something else however, I think these manual and digital instruments only lead to superfluous activities, they don’t take the kids closer to the content and meaning of the exhibition. The children are not being taught to understand and read the real signs and symbols of the exhibition, thus instead of getting closer, the signs distance themselves from the kids, who play with the familiar toys and other instruments for a while then go home without the feeling of having visited an interesting place called museum.

− How can an average museum visitation transform into an experience?

− Real experience can be created in the young visitors when their attention is focused on the the displayed objects and the message or messages instead of the gadgets found in an exhibition. You don’t need any kind of technical accessory to reach this simple goal, an enthusiastic member of the museum’s staff is more than enough, someone who helps the children interpret all the signs and texts and installations, and who is interested in them and wants to make them interested in everything they see in the museum.  The key to being interesting is mutuality. If the museum becomes a space of partnership, where youngsters are looked upon as partners in an open conversation or even debate, the museum turns into a place full of life and immediately will attract the attention of young people.

− Have the museums changed during the last couple of years? Can they really reach their visitors and talk to them

− The answer is yes. Museums have apparently become more open and have been trying to contact the people in a friendly way. The services the museums can offer to the public are becoming more and more comprehensive, both on personal and virtual levels. Museum education is one of the most significant fields in our institutions; it is most fortunate, that new exhibitions cannot be completed without a public education plan. Thanks to this development groups from nursery schools, primary and secondary schools are greeted with various, quite entertaining exhibition and workshop programs. In the Museum of Ethnography school teachers can ask for guided tours, complex museum lesson or creative workshop program.

The EU tenders of the last years were quite crucial in strengthening the role of museums in public education. The museum pedagogical programs of today are consistently linked with the curriculum of schools, museums have become places of learning through experiencing and enjoying. I think the new museum pedagogical programs focus on the spreading of knowledge in an interesting, amusing way, so that kids could really feel they’re having fun. And that is just all right with me.

Along with the importance of learning through experience the spirit f the place is equally significant. The real speciality of a museum is the presence of objects and works-of-art. The objects in the respective exhibitions are displayed in special context, the message they carry can only be understood by special decoding devices. Though it is often difficult, the aim of a museum visit is precisely that: getting the meaning and content of an exposition to the visitors. It is the museum educator’s task to help (in every way they can) school children experience and understand the messages and meanings of objects and exhibitions. With the help of conversations, playing, humour, with the instruments of the theatrical world the educators have to create the circumstances, where the complicated language of the museum. This is what we are working on.

− What can parents or teachers do to make their children or students want to go to museums?

− Parents got much more influence in making them interested in museum going than educators will ever have. It is quite understandable that schoolchildren don’t get over enthusiastic about compulsory museum visits. As members of their family, the enthusiasm of their parents can be such a strong example that can help them staying open minded and curious when in a museum.  The curiosity can be sustained by not going too often to museums, not examining an exhibition for too long, not looking at each and every object displayed and not reading out loud all the texts for the children.  It is much more exciting and interesting if we look at only a few objects, after we’ve let he kids choose what they want to see in the exhibition, then discuss everything that we experienced together. Personal experience and feelings bring us closer not only to what we saw but to each other as well.

−During the summer vacation maybe there are fewer youngsters whose desire is to go to museums. Where can they meet you and your colleagues in July and August?

− In July the Museum of Ethnography will be present in Kapolcs during the Valley of Arts Festival. Our base will be found in the mansion of the village, where a caravan and a mill history exhibition and several workshops will be arranged for the public. In August we will be there in the Sziget Festival on the Óbuda Island, waiting for all who are curious what our museum would like to „tell them”.

The interview was first published on the website www.meseutca.hu

A big thank you for letting us republish it.

The photo of Emese was taken by Eszter Kerék during the EtnoMobil – Contemporary Art on the Move campaign. For further information visit the following site!