Purposeful Museum Programming Using Visitor Response Pedagogies - by Ames Morton-Winter (Paperback)

About the Book

Purposeful Museum Programming Using Visitor Response Pedagogies offers museums of all sizes and genres practical, accessible, and inclusive programming ideas.

Book Synopsis

Purposeful Museum Programming Using Visitor Response Pedagogies offers museums of all sizes and genres practical, accessible, and inclusive programming ideas.

Review Quotes

"[Museum] educators facilitate experiences ... that become part of our students' consciousness and emotional memory. Avoiding the facilitation of a negative memory is the ultimate goal" (p. ix). With this in mind, Morton-Winter (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) intends this book for museum educators seeking to better connect their visitors with the museum experience. Significantly, chapter 3 provides an "A-Z toolkit" of activities, customizable to engage "any visitor" at "any museum" (p. 33). This generalization means that it is up to readers to determine how to modify the activity for specific visitors at their unique museum. For example, children, people with differing abilities, or people with differing language skills will likely not have the same experience with each activity. Also important, places like art museums and war memorial museums are very different and can obviously evoke different experiences, understandings, and emotions. Yet, the toolkit contains tried and true activities like "Think-Pair-Share," versions of which have been fruitfully applied with adolescents after visits to terrorism museums. Carefully curated, activities offered in this book can create museum experiences that live on in positive memories of visitors. Highly recommended. Graduate students through faculty; professionals.

Ames Morton-Winter fills a critical gap in museum education with her Visitor Response Pedagogies framework. This versatile toolkit empowers cultural organizations of all types and sizes to become change-making spaces for fostering empathy and critical thinking through purposeful and inclusive programming. Purposeful Museum Programming Using Visitor Response Pedagogies is an essential read for anyone who believes museums can play a vital role in enriching lives and building stronger communities.

About the Author

Ames Morton-Winter received her Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Virginia, a Master's degree in Education - Curriculum and Teaching from the College of William and Mary, and a Master's degree in Liberal Arts - Museum Studies from Harvard University. She has spent more than two decades teaching History, English, and English as a Second Language in public schools and has worked with museums in many capacities, including as a volunteer, an educational consultant, and a board member. Her background in teaching and curriculum development, passion for museum collections, and love of teaching culminated in the creation of Visitor Response Pedagogies.