博物館的慢體驗

From Show and Look to Show and Teach

博物館的慢體驗

THERE have been many strange sightings outside the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Marcel Breuer building over the years: a giant bird’s nest precariously perched on the cantilevered entrance; a neon sign that spelled out “Negro Sunshine”; and a giant replica of a toy fire truck parked at the curb for nearly three months, to name a few. So it is hardly surprising that recent passers-by don’t seem at all curious at the sight of tall black shipping containers rising from the sculpture court.

多年來，在馬塞爾·布勞耶(Marcel Breuer)為惠特尼美國藝術(shù)博物館設(shè)計的大樓外，總是能看到些奇怪的東西，任舉幾例：入口頂蓋上搖搖欲墜的巨大鳥巢;霓虹燈拼出的“黑鬼陽光”幾個大字;在路邊停了將近三個月的巨型玩具消防車。因此也就不難理解，為什么路人們看到近來在雕塑園里拔地而起的黑色大集裝箱時，并沒有表現(xiàn)出什么好奇心。

It is not, as most people assume, some wacky installation for the 2012 Biennial, which opened on March 1. It is perhaps the first-ever pop-up education center at a New York museum.

很多人猜想它是為2012年雙年展準備的某種荒唐的裝置，其實不是。它可能是有史以來紐約博物館建起的第一座簡易教育中心。

“We really do put education front and center,” said Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s director.

“教育的確是我們最看重的一部分。”惠特尼總監(jiān)亞當·D. 魏恩伯格(Adam D. Weinberg)說。

Known as the Whitney Studio, it will stay there until the museum moves to its new home in Manhattan’s meatpacking district in 2015. The design is singular — a 600-square-foot space composed of six black-painted shipping containers that form a 17-foot-tall studio space and storage mezzanine — and the idea is perhaps the most tangible example of what museum education is about these days.

這個名為惠特尼工作室的建筑將一直待在這里，直到2015年博物館搬遷至位于曼哈頓肉庫區(qū)新館址。建筑的設(shè)計很奇特——這是一個600平方英尺(約合55.7平方米)的空間，用六只漆成黑色的集裝箱組成了一個17英尺(約合5.1米)高的工作室和夾層儲藏室——這個創(chuàng)意可能是當今博物館教育宗旨的一次最鮮明的展示。

教育必不可少

“The big movement right now is experiential learning,” said Kathryn Potts, an associate director who is chairwoman of the Whitney’s education department. “And what museums offer is a unique experience you can’t get anywhere else: of being in galleries, meeting artists and understanding their world.”

“目前最重要的一個趨勢就是體驗式學習，”惠特尼教育部主任、副總監(jiān)凱瑟琳·珀茨(Kathryn Potts)說：“博物館提供的是一種在別處絕對找不到的獨特體驗：在畫廊里，和藝術(shù)家會面，去領(lǐng)會他們的世界。”

At the Whitney, the pop-up center is an inventive solution to a space problem. When the museum sold its neighboring brownstones last year, with them went the space where some education programs were held.

簡易中心對空間有限的惠特尼來說是一個創(chuàng)造性的解決方案。去年博物館賣掉了附近那座褐砂石大樓，同時也就沒有了做教育項目的空間。

Desperate for a solution, the museum called upon LOT-EK, the Manhattan architects known for their innovative use of recycled materials, to create a place where people of all ages could participate in classes, art-making workshops, studio demonstrations and other educational endeavors. The design calls for a diagonal, continuous band of glass running along two sides and across the roof, allowing visitors to watch what’s going on inside.

萬般無奈之下，博物館找到以活用回收材料著稱的曼哈頓建筑師事務所LOT-EK，設(shè)計出一個讓男女老少都可以參與課堂、藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作講習班、工作室演示等等教育活動的空間。這個設(shè)計需要安裝斜線形的、連續(xù)性的條形玻璃窗，貼著相鄰的兩個表面一直延伸到屋頂，這樣在外面的觀眾就可以看到里面在做什么。

“So often education is a behind-the-scene activity either relegated to a wing by itself or in the basement,” Mr. Weinberg said. “But for us education is part and parcel of what we do.”

“教育總是被當作一種幕后活動，丟在附樓或者某個地下室里自生自滅，”魏恩伯格先生說：“但我們把教育當作必不可少的一部分。”

The space is just the kind of thing the public wants these days. “Audiences today are more interested in participatory events, not just being talked to,” Ms. Potts said.

當下公眾需要的正是這樣的空間。“現(xiàn)在的觀眾對參與性的活動更感興趣，不愿意只是被動地聽。”珀茨說。

On a recent rainy Friday evening, a few blocks north at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a group was gathered for “Drop-in Drawing.” The program meets every two weeks in a different part of the museum, and this session convened in the new painting galleries of the American Wing.

前不久一個陰雨連連的周五晚上，在距離大都會藝術(shù)博物館以北幾個街區(qū)的地方，聚集著參加“來畫畫”(Drop-in Drawing)活動的人群。這個活動每兩周會在博物館舉行一次，地點各不相同，這一期放在了大都會“美利堅之翼”的新畫廊里。

Perched on folding seats, armed with clipboards, paper and colored pencils (all provided free by the Met), a group ranging in age from roughly 6 to upward of 65 listened with rapt attention as Pamela Lawton, a New York artist, explained how artists traditionally compose a canvas: with a foreground, a middle ground and a background.

參與者的年齡大約在6歲到65歲之間，他們坐在折凳上，拿著畫板、紙和彩色鉛筆(全都由大都會免費提供)，全神貫注地聽著紐約藝術(shù)家帕梅拉·勞頓(Pamela Lawton)講解畫家在畫布上的傳統(tǒng)構(gòu)圖方式：有一層前景，一層中景，還有背景。

The group then started sketching, inspired by examples of the Hudson River School painters surrounding them, including works by Jasper Francis Cropsey, Frederic Edwin Church and George Inness. After 20 minutes or so, the group moved to the nearby American Impressionist galleries, where Deborah Lutz, another artist, continued teaching.

接下來大家開始畫素描，四周展示著的哈德遜派畫家作品， 其中包括賈斯培爾·弗朗西斯·克羅普西(Jasper Francis Cropsey)、弗雷德里克·埃德溫·丘奇(Frederic Edwin Church)和喬治·英尼斯(George Inness)，這對他們是一種啟發(fā)。過了大約20分鐘，人群開始轉(zhuǎn)向附近的美國印象派畫廊，另一位藝術(shù)家——黛博拉·拉茨(Deborah Lutz)——將在那里繼續(xù)講解。

“Programs like this are amazing,” said Kristine Mustillo, the principal of Public School 97 in Brooklyn, as she watched her daughters, Jillian, 8, and Emily, 9, create landscapes inspired by the 19th-century artist William Pickwell’s painting “Banks of the Loing.”

“像這樣的學習班太有意思了，”布魯克林第97公立學校校長克麗絲汀·馬斯提洛(Kristine Mustillo)說，她的兩個女兒，八歲的吉莉安和九歲的艾米麗，此刻正在仿照19世紀畫家威廉·匹克維爾(William Pickwell)的《盧萬河岸》(Banks of the Loing)的畫風創(chuàng)作風景畫。

“Schools have cut back a lot, so you don’t get much arts education these days,” she said. “We’ve been to nearly every museum in the city.” (Jillian said her favorite so far was the New Museum because she loved the slide, by the artist Carsten Höller. Emily is a fan of the Museum of Modern Art, which has the best selection of works by Warhol, her favorite artist.)

“學校的預算大幅縮減，所以如今得不到多少藝術(shù)教育了，”她說：“我們幾乎走遍了全城所有的博物館。”(吉莉安說她目前為止最喜歡的是新博物館，因為有藝術(shù)家卡斯滕·霍勒[Carsten Höller]做的幻燈片。艾米麗是現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)博物館的擁躉，因為那里收藏了最好的安迪·沃霍爾[Andy Warhol]——她最喜歡的藝術(shù)家。)

“The point is to use drawing to look more closely at art,” said Peggy Fogelman, the Met’s chairwoman of education. “Our Drop-In Drawing program fosters a kind of social learning environment.”

“關(guān)鍵在于通過畫畫來近距離觀察藝術(shù)品，”大都會教育部主任佩琪·福格爾曼(Peggy Fogelman)說：“我們的‘來畫畫’學習班就是要培養(yǎng)一種協(xié)作學習的環(huán)境。”

In the world of museum educators, learning today is all about do-it-yourself, sometimes called free-choice learning. “More and more people are directing their own learning experience,” Ms. Fogelman explained. “And part of that equation involves artists. They help connect the past with the present.”

在今天的博物館教育領(lǐng)域中，一切都圍繞著自己動手來展開，有人稱之為自由選擇式學習。“越來越多的人開始注重自己的學習體驗，”福格爾曼女士說：“這其中也包括藝術(shù)家的參與。由他們把過去和現(xiàn)在聯(lián)系起來。”

虛擬世界也要動手

Now that online courses have been available for teachers and the public on museum Web sites for years, a concerted effort is being made to balance what the Internet has to offer with what museums can do on-site.

博物館官網(wǎng)上為教室和公眾準備的在線課程已經(jīng)開展了幾年，在多方協(xié)同之下，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和博物館的現(xiàn)場教學之間正在形成一種平衡。

“It is no longer either/or, but and/and,” said Ms. Fogelman, who explained that recent visitor surveys showed that audiences wanted to learn where the action was — at the museum itself. “Technology is a part of our everyday life, and museums are getting smarter about using it. But it’s our collections and exhibitions that make us unique. At an encyclopedic museum like the Met, that is what defines us.”

“現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不再是非此即彼，而是兩者兼得了。”福格爾曼女士說。博物館通過對近期的觀眾進行調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，人們希望在實體的現(xiàn)場學習——也就是在博物館里。“科技是我們?nèi)粘Ｉ畹囊徊糠?，博物館正在摸索使用它的技巧。但是我們真正得天獨厚的是收藏和展覽。對于大都會這樣的百科全書式博物館，這些才是我們的根本。”

In Washington, at the National Gallery of Art, Lynn Pearson Russell, the director of education, said she saw “a bigger return to teaching from original objects and less of a high-tech approach.” In this high-speed information age, one of the museum’s newer programs is geared toward just the opposite kind of experience — slowing down.

在華盛頓的國立藝術(shù)畫廊，教育總監(jiān)琳恩·皮爾森·拉塞爾(Lynn Pearson Russell)說她發(fā)現(xiàn)“用原始的實物來教學比使用高科技手段的效果更好。”在這個極速信息時代，博物館卻選擇追求截然相反的體驗——慢慢來。

“Families are invited to spend 60 to 75 minutes investigating one work of art,” Ms. Russell said. “It’s a less-is-more approach. In this increasingly fast-paced world, it’s an alternative way to spend time together, learning to look and revealing the complexity of art in a group conversation.” The program also includes a component of drawing. “You’re not dependent on technology, but you’re doing it yourself,” she said.

“我們邀請家庭來對某一件藝術(shù)品進行60到75分鐘的研究，”拉塞爾女士說：“這是一種‘少即是多’的思路。在一個越來越快節(jié)奏的世界里，一家人可以選擇換一種方式來共度時光，通過群體交談來欣賞和發(fā)現(xiàn)藝術(shù)的復雜性。”這個項目同樣也包含繪畫部分。“你不是在依賴科技，而是自己動手。”她說。

Slowing down has also become a priority at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. “The more virtual we’ve become, the more we need to touch,” said Sarah Schultz. As the Walker’s director of education, she also took on the title of curator of public practice, a signal that audience participation and civic engagement were critical. “Visitors are realizing how luxurious and important it is just to be in the present,” she said.

明尼阿波利斯的沃克藝術(shù)中心也把放慢步伐當做頭等大事。“我們的生活越是虛擬化，就越是需要觸碰。”莎拉·舒爾茨(Sarah Schultz)說。作為沃克的教育總監(jiān)，她還身兼公共實踐策劃人之職，這表明觀眾參與和融入城市生活是至關(guān)重要的。“觀眾正在意識到，把握當下是多么奢侈而重要的事。”她說。

Two summers ago, the Walker took a fallow field adjacent to the museum and turned it into what Ms. Schultz described as a “cultural commons.” “It’s meant to be a mash-up of creative life,” she explained.

兩年前的夏天，沃克中心把博物館隔壁的一塊空地變成了舒爾茨女士所說的“文化公地”。“這里應該是一個創(chuàng)造生活的大雜燴。”她說。

Among its offerings is “The Drawing Club,” a collaborative artwork that someone might start — a simple drawing on an 11-by-13 inch sheet of paper — that another person will then pick up and add to. The person who thinks it is complete starts a new drawing. “We invite local artists to come and participate,” she said. “It’s about trying to break down hierarchies.”

這塊“公地”上舉行的活動包括“繪畫俱樂部”，由集體協(xié)同創(chuàng)作一件藝術(shù)品，一個人先開始——在一張28X33厘米尺幅的紙上畫個簡單的草圖——然后由另一個人接手，在已有的基礎(chǔ)上添加。如果一個人覺得畫已經(jīng)完成了，就可以另起一幅。“我們邀請本地的藝術(shù)家參與進來，”她說：“我們要消滅等級的隔膜。”

But Ms. Schultz was quick to credit the Internet with helping fuel the project’s success. Even that project, “which is designed around creating real time, face-to-face experiences, relies on a Web-based calendar to share and update information about events,” said Ms. Schultz. “And Facebook and Twitter help us stay in touch with a community of participants and users.”

不過舒爾茨很快也提到了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)對項目運作的助益。即便是這個“針對實時、面對面體驗而設(shè)計的項目，也需要依靠在線日程表來分享和更新活動信息，”舒爾茨說：“我們借助Facebook和Twitter與參與者和用戶的社區(qū)保持聯(lián)系。”

Even in the virtual world, the emphasis is on do-it-yourself. “Digital is definitely the biggest news in the field of education; it’s been a game-changer for everyone,” said Wendy Woon, the deputy director of education at the Museum of Modern Art. “It was as though the museum just got a new wing.”

甚至虛擬世界里也在強調(diào)自己動手。“數(shù)碼技術(shù)無疑是教育領(lǐng)域最重大的變革;它徹底改變了每個人的生活，”現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)博物館教育副總監(jiān)溫迪·伍恩(Wendy Woon)說：“簡直就像是博物館新建了一座附樓。”

Just as art-making classes are all the rage at museums themselves, the same could be said of their courses online. At the Museum of Modern Art, there are in-house programs and digital art-making courses.

藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作課程的風潮已經(jīng)在博物館界興起，在線課程也毫不示弱?，F(xiàn)代藝術(shù)博物館籌辦了自己的教學項目和數(shù)碼藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作課程。

One is called the Print Studio, a series of programs and workshops. “You can just come and make things,” Ms. Woon said. “And there’s a library of images for you to draw from. Triple Canopy, the online magazine and workspace, was here, with the artist and illustrator Jorge Columbo, who lead a digital finger-painting workshop, showing people how to create a work of art on their iPhones or iPads using brushes.”

其中一個叫印刷工作室，由一系列教學項目和講習班組成。“你可以直接過來做點東西，”伍恩女士說：“這里有一個圖片庫可供你臨摹。還有一本叫《Triple Canopy》的在線雜志和工作坊，藝術(shù)家、插畫家豪爾赫·科倫波(Jorge Columbo)主講的一個‘指畫講習班’會向大家展示如何用筆刷在他們的iPhone和iPad上繪畫。”

The museum’s online studio-based courses are the first to sell out. One teaches about Barnett Newman and how he created his paintings. “It’s helping you to understand the process of what the artists go through,” Ms. Woon said. The courses aren’t cheap, costing about $350, with discounts for students, members and teachers.

在博物館的教學項目中，以藝術(shù)家工作室為核心內(nèi)容的在線課程是最早滿員的。其中一個課程講的是巴內(nèi)特·紐曼(Barnett Newman)及其創(chuàng)作手法。沃恩女士說：“這個課程是要幫助你了解藝術(shù)家的創(chuàng)作過程。”課程收費不菲，需要350美元左右，對學生、會員和教師可以打折。

One online class about postwar painting techniques brought together a group from all over the world, “everywhere from Istanbul to the Bronx,” Ms. Woon said. “They meet and see shows together. They even got together in Paris and shared their experiences on Facebook.”

一個關(guān)于戰(zhàn)后繪畫技法的在線課程吸引了來自世界各地的求學者，“從伊斯坦布爾到紐約布朗克斯，”伍恩女士說：“他們聚到一起，一起展覽作品。他們甚至還在巴黎聚會，在Facebook上分享各自的感受。”

Ms. Woon added that in the 21st century, “museums are well-placed as we move from consumption to innovation to stimulate ideas and creativity.”

沃恩女士還提到，在21世紀，“博物館正明智地從消耗轉(zhuǎn)向創(chuàng)新，以此來激發(fā)想法和創(chuàng)造力”。