2. What is Supported Interpretation (SI)?
SI is a model for visitor-centered exhibitions.
Model development was informed by:
• VanMensch’s (1990) reconceptualization of museum
functions, conflating exhibit and educate into a
communication function
• Knowles’ (1984) conception of guided interaction, an ideal
learning environment for adult learning (andragogy).
• Perceived shortcomings in the constructivist museum (Hein,
1998; Hooper-Greenhill, 1994).
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
2
3. How it Started
Demonstration Project
at the Hispanic
Research Center,
Arizona State
University, 2010
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
3
4. Mixing It Up: Building a
Mexican-American Identity in Art
This exhibition explores
how seven Mexican
American artists have
expressed ideas about
who they are using
symbols and images from
both the Mexican and
U.S. cultures that impact
their lives. Use the
smaller images as clues to
see what is important to
these artists. What are
they telling us about
themselves?
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
4
5. SI Guidelines
• Produced by exhibition team, including curatorial, education,
community members, and others
• Design process anticipates visitors’ needs to know
• Exhibition presented as an interface rich in educational resources
• Interface resources are mostly non-textual and non-authoritarian
and encourage individualized and active learning
• Decisions about content assume diverse audiences but presume no
specialized knowledge
• Interface includes explicit directions to cue visitor participation
• Visitor contributions or feedback are shared in the interface, making
visitors an integral part of the exhibition
• Docents, if used, must be retrained as facilitators of personal
meaning making
• Evaluation is necessary and informs current and future practices
(Villeneuve & Viera, 2014)
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
5
7. 7
The Educational &
Cultural Arts Center
(ECAC) at Texas A&M
University-San Antonio
aims to facilitate an
understanding and
appreciation of Latino
arts and cultures and
their influences on the
United States through
exhibitions and
programming targeting a
variety of audiences.
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
TAMU-SA’s ECAC
37. • Hein, G. E. (1998). Learning in the museum. New York:
Routledge.
• Hooper-Greenhill, E. (1994). Museum learners as active
postmodernists: Contextualizing constructivism. In E. Hooper-
Greenhill (Ed.), The educational role of the art museum (pp.
67-72). New York: Routledge.
• Knowles, M. S. (1984). Andragogy in action. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
• VanMensch, P. (1990). Methodological museology, or towards
a theory of museum practice. In S. Pearce (Ed.), Objects of
knowledge (pp. 141-157). London: Athlone.
• Villeneuve, P., & Viera, A. (2014). Supported interpretation:
Exhibiting for audience engagement. Exhibitionist 33(1).
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
37
References
38. Pat Villeneuve – pvilleneuve@fsu.edu
Alicia Viera – aliciaviera@yahoo.com
April25,2015AAMG2015-ATLANTA
38
Contact Us
