Museum Gallery Activities: A Handbook

During the course of an interactive museum tour a skilled educator will be able to elicit multiple responses and keep the conversation moving toward new discoveries, but no matter how competent the educator, there will always be some participants who enthusiastically contribute their ideas to the discussion, while others listen, but are reluctant to speak-up.

In order to engage the entire group in the interpretive process, museum educators frequently employ gallery activities. Gallery activities enlist other sensory components and learning styles to experiencing the work of art. As in crafting open-ended discussion questions, the activity must be carefully designed to allow everyone in the group to contribute, be inquiry based, and be directly related to the work of art under consideration.

This handbook provides a compendium of successful gallery activities:

*Writing *Debating *Drawing *Movement *Music *Close looking and observation *Touch and tactility

Features include: *Photographs of youth and adults participating in gallery activities
*Sidebars with favorite gallery activities contributed by museum educators at many museums across the country *Planning templates