ART LEARNING LAB

The Art Learning Lab (ALL) offers an entryway to works in the SJMA collection, allowing visitors to engage with art using a cross-disciplinary STEAM approach to learning. Youth and adults experiment, play, and create as they make connections between their own creative explorations and the ideas, tools, and techniques they encounter in the works on view. Art Learning Lab is an iterative space that uses human-centered design thinking, current museum pedagogy, and visitor feedback to meet the needs of our diverse audience. The Art learning Lab can take on many forms such as "ALL For You" a prototyping space where visitors have an active role in developing content and ides for future ALL iterations or "ALL For Science" where the science behind art conservation is highlighted.

A SPACE FOR...

• connecting to integrated learning models and Sowing Creativity STEAM lessons.
• gaining insight into the creative process.
• quiet reading/reflection.
• dialogue and sharing.

GOALS

• stimulate curiosity, inquiry, reflection
• transformational experiences of seeing, connecting, creating with works of art
• increase appreciation and enjoyment of objects in the Museum
• to transition visitors unfamiliar with the museum to a state of confidence in their ability to visit any gallery
• educate visitors about art museums as institutions, to help them to better understand our strength and mission
• non-antiseptic; a place where families feel comfortable

PHILOSOPHY

• Harvard's Project Zero, and Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM)
• Dewey: experience-based approach to learning. Hands-on learning, activity-based
• Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory: learners are diverse in their experiences, strengths, and abilities
• Constructivist Learning Theory (learners construct knowledge for themselves)
• Human-Centered Design Thinking:  An iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent.

INTERPRETATION STATIONS

• Provide multiple points of access to create meaningful and relevant experiences for all visitors.
• Examples of experiences: make and take, make and give, observational, reactionary

READING GALLERY

• Comfortable seating with books selected for youth, teens, and adults. Books can relate to works on view and/or educational concepts.

EVALUATION

• "I See, I Think, I Wonder" visitor comment area used to conduct audience research by collecting feedback about the current Art Learning Lab iteration and to gain insight about audience interests and suggestions for future ALL iterations. Allows visitors to reflect on and share their ideas about the art on view.
• Tracking studies (unobtrusive observations of visitors) conducted to determine patterns in visitor behavior when visiting the Art learning Lab.
• Evaluation data is analyzed and used to improve the design of future ALL exhibitions, including adjustments to object placement, didactic type/length/placement, directional signage, seating, lighting, and wall color.