Museum education isn’t just about kids! And adult learning isn’t just about lectures! Come spend a day with colleagues as we address life-long learners, their needs, and what they want from museum experiences. From college students to seniors and everyone in between, we’ll look at a variety of learning environments for all these age groups, discussing programs, exhibitions, and activities geared to adults. A hands-on session on the Mystic Seaport grounds and roundtable discussions will keep our own adult learners active and help put our speakers’ case studies into context.
Agenda

10:00 am Registration and Coffee

10:30 am Welcome and Introductions
Rebecca Furer, Director of Research, Education & Interpretation, Connecticut Historical Society; Brooke DiGiovanni Evans, Head of Gallery Learning Education, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

10:45 am Case Studies #1
Multi-sensory Programs for Adults
Wendy Dodek, Adjunct Educator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Ms. Dodek focused her Master’s thesis on evaluating the learning outcomes for adults who participated in a multi-sensory gallery talk, versus those who attended a regular lecture style gallery talk. She interviewed 80 people and the results from those interviews highlight the importance of multi-sensory experiences for adults. By including objects to touch, smell, and hear, adults not only retain more details from the talks but also connect the learning to their personal lives. Ms. Dodek will discuss how this approach could be applied to different adult programs.

Lifelong Learning: The Exploritas Model
Fran Rivkin, AVP North America Programs, Exploritas/Elderhostel, MA
The not-for-profit Elderhostel, Inc. was founded in 1975 to provide lifelong learning opportunities for older adults and today offers programs in every state in the U.S. and in more than 90 countries. Although their participants are still mostly over the age of 50, the audience and their expectations have changed dramatically over the past 35 years. Fran Rivkin will discuss this audience and some of Elderhostel’s most successful museum collaborations in recent years.

12:00 pm Lunchtime Roundtables
Enjoy your lunch and casual conversation with colleagues about different aspects of serving adult audiences in museums. Our guest speakers and others will facilitate discussions about successful adult programs, working with seniors, resources for additional information on adult learning, marketing to adult groups, and more. Bring your own ideas, or just listen!

1:00 pm Case Studies #2
Transforming Adult Programs
Michelle Moon, Assistant Director of Education for Adult Programs, Peabody Essex Museum, MA
Across the field, adult museum visitors have too often been thought of as a “general audience,” undifferentiated and lumped together in contrast to the carefully honed education strategies aimed at the youth and student audience. Today, the Peabody Essex Museum has embarked on a project to rectify that oversight by re-evaluating and restructuring its services to adult audiences. Strategies include replacing traditional lecture programs and stand-alone events with multilayered, interactive, and engaging opportunities for adult audiences; exploring ways in which social media can help connect to new audiences; and identifying audience sectors with specific interests and approaches to learning. Michelle and staff will discuss the process behind this transformation, and what the Museum has learned along the way.

Impact, Inquiry and Undergraduates: Positioning Gallery Design for College Students
Dabney Hailey, Curator of Painting, Sculpture and Photography, Alexa Miller, Curator of Education, and Beth Musser, Reinstallation Project Assistant, Davis Museum, MA
In 2006, the Davis Museum began reinstalling its permanent collection with funding from the Getty Foundation. The project engendered a shift away from a chronological and geographical presentation towards a topically-organized display. It further entailed systematic means of research on Wellesley’s undergraduate student audience, and curatorial response to the findings. These efforts yielded unexpected changes, both in the programming of the galleries and in the museum’s examination of its impact on student audiences. Dabney and Alexa will discuss the reinstallation in light of curatorial process, research findings and implications for practice.

2:15 pm Hands-on Activity on the Museum Grounds
What kind of adult learner are you? How can recognizing different learning styles and visitor motivations help you create valuable museum experiences for a variety of adult audiences? Contemplate these questions (and have some fun!) during this session on the Mystic Seaport grounds.

3:15 pm Wrap Up and Evaluations


Directions to Mystic Seaport will be emailed with your registration confirmation two weeks prior to the workshop.

Questions? Call NEMA, 781-641-0013 or contact the PAG Chairs:
Rebecca Furer, 860-236-5621 or rebecca_furer@chs.org
Brooke DiGiovanni Evans, 617-369-3309 or BDigiovannievans@mfa.org.