3.9.10 Museum Studies for the Gifted: Making Art More Inclusive and Appealing for the Talented

This qualitative project worked on a topic of importance in Education and Arts in the areas related to accessibility for learning at museum settings. These places are a source for gifted students’ learning which in several occasions do not cater to the needs of fast advanced but hyperactive students. A research project was required to identify if museum-based art teaching is an optimal option for the inclusion of this type of population. Therefore, this project focused on the development and use of different audience engagement and art teaching methods for students with special needs. Essentially, we worked with fifteen K-12 talented students with dual exceptionality (Giftedness and Attention Deficit Disorder) at two national art museums located in Mexico City. We found several key roles from accessibility strategies measured at exhibits’ audience engagement and how these aided in developing cognitive abilities and competencies in students (including attention span). This joint program between Museum designers and Educators further described the arts museums’ role in the education of young audiences, the challenge to teach K-12 population with giftedness but also diagnosed as ADD; and its application at a Mexican educational context. As a consequence, we conducted a qualitative study on the application of art teaching as an inclusive strategy through the interaction of an educational center and art museums. Through seven months of interviews and field observation this project described the impressions, motivations and points of view from several participants’ perspectives (students, professors, museum curators and art directors) at this process to create a more inclusive learning space (the museum) towards students. In addition, from these results an instructional inclusion guideline was developed which served to describe the specific steps how the joint project with the art museum achieved its goals for gifted students’ audience engagement. This guide may suggest further actions other non-art museums could develop to be more accessible to this type of population that has dual exceptionality and special needs of their learning environments; such as internships, field-visits and summer camps. Finally, through this specific project, we were able to delve into how to combine Mexican art museum’s actions to better comprehend and include gifted students with ADD that can enhance their future educational approach to them. As well, these results suggested a new tendency to consider the potential benefits obtained by the joint work between special needs centers with museum-alike institutions.

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