The Effect of Educational Workshops in an Art Gallery on Children's Evaluation and Interpretation of Contemporary Art. (July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Szubielska, Magdalena; Ratomska, Marta; Wójtowicz, Marzena; Szymańska, Anna
• Is Part Of: Empirical studies of the arts. Volume 38:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 135
• Page End: 148
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Subjects: contemporary art -- child viewer -- art gallery space -- educational workshops -- esthetic assessment -- artwork interpretation; Arts -- Periodicals; 700.5
• DOI: 10.1177/0276237418790917
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0276-2374

Abstract

Our experiment, conducted in an art gallery, was designed to investigate how educational classes, provided for children of different ages, affect their (a) esthetic judgment and (b) interpretation of contemporary art. We found that curator-led tours and art workshops affected the ratings given by the youngest children (aged 4–5 years), while interpretation was influenced by contextual cues only in the case of older children (aged 6–7 and 8–9 years). In addition, in the control condition (uncued exhibition tour), the oldest children (aged 8–9 years) rated the artworks higher than the youngest children (4–5). We conclude that the deeper understanding of the context of art increases its attractiveness and may change the way in which artworks are interpreted. Our results suggest that cognitive development is not an indispensable requirement to appreciate art, as contextual cues provided to preschool-aged children substantially affect their esthetic assessment of contemporary art.