Faculty of Art

Criticism and Curatorial Practice

Avery Geboers

Learning Through the Body; Fostering Intellectual and Emotional Accessibility within Museums

"Since museums opened to the public they have maintained rules which influence how people orient themselves in the space. In many major institutions the bodily ways of understanding material culture have been very regimented. Additionally, and more subtly, they have created canons on how to act within museums that are reflective not of how best to learn and interpret material culture, but rather how to uphold societal standard of civility; look, don’t touch. Walk, don’t run. Whisper, don’t yell. Ponder, don’t question. That is not to say, however, that is a hard rule that all museums and galleries uphold. There seems to be a growing number of institutions working towards removing the barriers that keep people from emotionally connecting to the objects, and contextualizing them through their own narratives. Physical engagement with objects allows for deeper reflections because it permits different ways of understanding that aren’t solely dependent on visual and textual comprehension. "