Active engagement with the exhibition included discussion of selected works on display and creating artworks inspired by it. Many of the participants had never visited the Gallery before so this was an opportunity to become familiar with the space. Before their visits, together with environmental artist Ashleigh Downey I called in to see the students in their learning and afterschool environments. In an activity directly inspired by Mark Dion’s artistic practice,2 we introduced the themes and ideas of the exhibition and assisted the young people in creating field notebooks which they later used for sketching and note-taking at the Hugh Lane. These pre-visits helped to establish interpersonal connections with museum staff, fostering a sense of familiarity that allowed them to feel welcome when they entered the Gallery space. In this way they established a sense of ownership vis á vis the institution, thus also effectively expanding the Gallery’s stakeholder base and increasing its social permeability. Fifth year students, from Beneavin de la Salle College in Finglas, sketch The Old Crow by Mark Dion.
working artist, their connections to the Gallery
Credit: Kimberly Griffith
were strengthened. Dion’s 2018 exhibition, Theatre of the Natural World, at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, was a critical meditation on the history of the scientific
The jumping-off point for this project, inspired
institutions and bodies of literature that have
by Dion’s artistic practice, was an exploration of
described and so fixed our understandings of the
curiosity. Through direct engagement with Our
natural world. In his artworks, Dion endeavours
Plundered Planet, participants explored their own
to de-institutionalize the ways in which humans
natural curiosities, sharing their unique stories
have historically generated and shared knowledge,
and interpretations of the works on display.
questioning their authority in claiming to be the
Their engagement was enabled by our package of
last word on the way we understand the world and
kinesthetic learning techniques3, that began with
our place in it.5 If recent events are any indication,
a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) tour4 during
this democratization of knowledge and power will
which they shared their interpretations on key
allow humanity to effect positive change on our
artworks in the exhibition. These participant-
environment for future generations. Increasingly,
driven discussions, rich in ideas and analyses,
cultural spaces like the Hugh Lane Gallery are
were recorded for inclusion in a forthcoming
realizing the benefits of engaging their youngest
podcast inspired by the teens’ insights. Following
stakeholders beyond solely getting them through
this, they participated in artist-led workshops,
their doors. Young people are the inheritors of our
building on the long-held museum tradition of
planet and it is up to our cultural institutions to
gallery sketching to create artworks inspired by
listen to them, learn from them, and work with
their interpretations. This was an opportunity
them in order to create a sustainable model, both
both to experiment with new mediums and to
for preserving our past, and ensuring our future.
allow their minds to work through and develop their discussions on the exhibition’s themes. Through these meaningful interactions with a
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