Publication details
Transformation of educational work in state-established galleries in the Czech Republic
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | The paper deals with the specifics of the transformation of educational work in stateestablished galleries in the Czech Republic. It compares the situation of the Moravian Gallery (MG) in Brno with the National Gallery in Prague and the Museum of Art in Olomouc. The core of the text is a description of new formats of education. These are characterised by a tendency towards forms of entertainment; e.g. LARP, geocaching, slide and other game elements in the MG buildings. The paper demonstrates that opening up to the public and strengthening gallery education has been met with a negative evaluation by the professional community. The latter accuses MG of shifting its emphasis (and funding) from research and professional activities to the attractiveness of the gallery to the general public. The expansion of animation activities (and their equation with professional activities) is criticized as an invasion of low culture elements (edutainment) into an institution perceived as a pillar of high culture. Economic considerations are also criticised. For the founder, the criterion of the gallery's success is the growth of visitor numbers. The innovations in educational programmes are demonstrably leading to this; the structure of the visitor base is also changing positively (MG is gaining children's visitors, it is also succeeding in reaching other segments of the public, families, the elderly, etc.) It seems that if a gallery institution wants to be successful, it has to move towards the egalitarian pole in the competition of attractive media and social networks, and abandon the idea of an elite (purely academic) institution. The consequences of the educational turn thus include a further blurring of the boundaries of high and low culture |
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