Contemporary Art for Schoolchildren

September 14, 2013

The project has been developed according to the latest museum teaching trends in order, utilising the opportunities provided by modern technologies, to educate schoolchildren about contemporary art and its connection with various teaching subjects (physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, politics, philosophy, literature, culturology and informatics).

The educational project is being implemented for the first time in an exhibition of the collection of the nascent Latvian Contemporary Art Museum in the Rīga Art Space from 20 September to 27 October 2013, but the specifics and strength of the programme are the opportunity, adapting the contents of the programme, to use it for various types of exhibitions in future.

The realisation of the first educational project within the exhibition of the collection of the nascent Latvian Contemporary Art Museum envisages the participation of variously sized groups of schoolchildren in an exciting adventure, completing interactive tasks related to various teaching subjects on various tablet computers that are positioned next to the collection’s most important works of art.

The tour of the tasks has been developed according to the principle of the game. In small groups or individually, schoolchildren can carry out an interactive task on a tablet computer, which is positioned next to the work of art, and, by fulfilling the relevant conditions, the tablet shows them the way to the next task point. 

The interactive tasks to be completed on the tablet computers have been developed based on studies conducted by the project’s organisers regarding the interest of Latvian teachers and schoolchildren in extramural education, the latest pedagogical trends within overseas museums and the effectiveness of modern technologies in the context of education. In order to adapt the knowledge obtained during the research process to the contents of the specific exhibition, a group of specialists has been formed which has developed tasks precipitating learning within the fields of contemporary art and various teaching subjects. The tasks are developed so that they continue to serve as educational material after the exhibition has ended, i.e. as part of a virtual 360º tour of the exhibition. Sustainability in the Internet environment will allow teachers to augment standard teaching matter with interactive tasks that will explain contemporary art using examples from various subjects and put teaching subject matter to practical use in works of art. 

Teachers of both exact and humanitarian subjects and their pupils, individual groups of schoolchildren and pupils who plan to visit the exhibition on their own are cordially invited to take part. Participation in the education programme is quite simple – register your visit or that of your group on the project’s homepage or by phone and take part! Participation is free of charge.