No Longer Just An Optical Illusion

WHAT
The Interactive Room
Transform the first room of the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Vasarely Museum into an interactive, hand-on area for visitors of all ages. Original works of art were displayed on a rotational basis. Materials in the form of games, tasks and problems to solve and art activities helped visitors better understand many aspects of Vasarely’s works of art.

The Zebra Studio Days Program
As the “opening” for each new installation, a Zebra Studio Day was planned where visitors could use materials which had been developed. The events were free of charge.

WHERE
The Interactive Room
In the first exhibition room at the Museum of Fine Arts Vasarely Museum. Visitors enter it after purchasing a ticket and passing the coat check area.  The Vasarely Museum is located on the Buda side of the Danube, at Szentlélek tér.  This room, like most in the museum has archways, small alcoves for windows, poor lighting, and some walls half built with bricks showing.  Therefore, not an ideal room to create installations in.

The Zebra Studio Days Program
Activities took place in the interactive room as well as in galleries on the second floor.

WHEN
The Interactive Room
The interactive room is open to visitors from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday during normal opening hours.

The Zebra Studio Days Program
Programs took place in 2011, on February 6th, March 6th and April 3rd from 10.00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

WHO
Facilitators and Staff

The Interactive Room
The interactive room was developed by the three people listed below and installations were built by maintenance staff at the museum.  The room, itself, is un-staffed.  Room guards assist guests when needed and Litza Juhasz oversees the space.

The Zebra Studio Days Program
The following staff worked with visitors:
Litza Juhasz, Museum Educator
Anna Tóth, Museum Educator, Art Historian and Teacher
Zoltán Czeglédy, Museum Educator and Graphic Artist
At each occasion 4 or 5 volunteers assisted as well.

Adult Learners

Approximately 190, 280 and 240 people came to the three events, with approximately half of them being adults.  Since the program was advertised for adults, teenagers and children, some adults came by themselves or with a relative or friend.  Eighty percent of the people surveyed said that they lived in the district the museum is located in.  Most visitors who were not already on the museum’s mailing list heard about it from an article in the local district newspaper.  While the district has some more wealthy areas, most of it is populated by average wage earners, living in large blocks of flats.

WHY
For Facilitators and Learners

For the interactive room:
Facilitators have the long term goal of allowing visitors to engage with the collection on a more interactive, hands-on level.  Materials in the form of games, tasks and problems to solve and art activities help visitors better understand many aspects of Vasarely’s works of art.

For the Zebra Studio Days:

Questions facilitators had about how learners will respond:

1.    Will adults attending without children engage in art activities?
2.    Will adults attending with children engage in art activities independently of their children?
3.    Will adults and children create works of art together, sharing the tasks?
4.    How important is what is stated at reception when people arrive?
5.    How many activities are needed so that adults find something which suits them?
6.    If materials are left in self-service cloth bags, how will visitors use them?

HOW
Interactive Room

1.    Three or four works of art were displayed on the walls or on sculpture stands in the gallery.
2.    On two walls a wooden rod with hooks attached was hung about a 130 cm from the floor.  Labeled cloth bags were hung from the hooks.  The cloth bags contained games, tasks or art materials.  The labels gave information on the contents and ideas on how to begin.
3.    Each installation was a little different, but other elements included: 
a.    Blocks of many sizes placed in front of one picture for visitors to make their own installation.
b.    Pre-folded geometric origami elements for visitors to make their own sculpture.  Stands were provided for people to leave their sculptures on for other visitors to see.
c.    Small pieces of paper were hung up on nails on a stand and people were asked to write their own description of a picture and leave their messages for other visitors.
d.    Large wooden frames where hung at about 140 cm from the floor.  Nails lined the edge of the frame all the way around.  Black and white or colored yarn was available for visitors to “add one line” to a group composition.
e.    Floor and wall text asking visitors to find something particular in a work of art, step sideways and look again, seeing how it changed as they moved from place to place, seeing the work of art from different places.
f.    Quotes by Vasarely were written on floor and wall text.
4.    A table and chairs were set up for people to use.
5.    Feedback cards were set out on the table and a post box was placed on a stand next to the door leading to the room of the permanent exhibition.

The Zebra Studio Days

1.    For all three Zebra Studio Days visitors were met at the entrance to the interactive room and told about options listed under points 2 and 4 below.
2.    For the first two Zebra Studio Days the interactive room was set up in the same way as appear above.  However, more chairs and tables as well as pillows were provided.
3.    The activities in the interactive room were offered in the following manner:
a.    Visitors were asked to look at the works of art on display and then choose an activity that suited them best from the ones provided.
b.    The facilitator and volunteers were available if they needed assistance.
4.    In addition, four art activities were offered in 2, 3 or 4 rooms upstairs in the permanent collection.  Visitors worked at tables and chairs or by sitting on pillows on the floor. 
5.    The art activities were offered in the following manner: 
a.    Visitors were asked to look at the work of art which inspired the art activity.
b.    They were shown a model of what they could make and/or shown materials they could use.
c.    The facilitator was available if they needed assistance.
6.    For the third Zebra Studio Day, the interactive room was set up in the following way:
a.    No cloth bags were hung from the rods
b.    Looking at Art cards hung from a stand located in front of each work of art.
c.    Games connected with each work of art were located in front of it.
d.    Art activities for each work of art were facilitated in front of the work, with the facilitator delivering the task in the same way as in point 5: a-c above.

VALUE FOR LEARNERS
Interactive Room – open for visitors daily

While room guards reported that individual visitors enjoyed the interactive room and the activities they found in it, no feedback was gathered from visitors.  Each time a facilitator visited the room, approximately once a week or every two weeks, she noticed that new sculptures were on display, the blocks had been rearranged and new addition had been made to the stand where visitors could leave a message.

Zebra Studio Days

Visitors reported similar experiences to those of people participating in Thursday evening Museum + sessions: Create your own Art!  For more information, please see other case studies from the Museum of Fine Arts.  Facilitators noticed that tasks connected with symmetry allowed adult visitors to engage with their children through a dynamic interaction where often the adult followed what their child did.  Symmetry activities also allowed two adults to explore a particular material, not only pen and paper, but for example, wire as well.  With so many activities available, visitors had to choose which one they wanted to try out, since during the three hour program they would not have time to do them all.  This encouraged them to take an active role in their museum visit.  Facilitators also noticed stating at reception that some tasks were planned especially for adults, but not naming them specifically encouraged adults to engage more freely, not worrying if they had the skills to begin or not, seeing that easier and more challenging tasks were available. 

VALUE FOR FACILITATORS
Interactive Room – open for visitors daily

Since the long term goal is to allow visitors to engage in art activities at their leisure, the facilitators will apply what they learned about how visitors used art materials from the Zebra Studio Days when designing activities in the future.

Zebra Studio Days

Facilitators were pleasantly surprised by many things.  First, adults attending without children engaged in art activities.  In addition, some adults who attended the first session with their child returned on another occasion without their child, but with an adult companion instead.  Second, some adults visiting alone found “friends” to spend their time with and explore materials with.  Third, even older adults were happy to sit on the floor and work with materials in the space provided. Fourth, and maybe most importantly, for the first time facilitators really felt that adults visiting with children were not making decisions about their child’s art work, but either working together with them to create something cooperatively or working in parallel.  That is, both the adult and the child worked with the same materials, both creating their own work of art.

After the first two sessions the facilitators realized that with so many people, placing the materials in cloth bags did not work well.  They also realized that having an art activity and one or two games in front of one work of art may not be the best approach.  While more research needs to be done in this area, their current theory is that for public programs it might be better to offer either games or art activities in connection with one work of art.  Some of the games/tasks/activities allow visitors to create a picture or sculpture with sets of materials:  origami elements, blocks and pre-cut shapes that they can not take with them. Therefore, visitors might find it easier to navigate through their options if for one specific work of art they do not have to choose between making something that they can take home and making something that will be disassembled and then reassembled by someone else.

Facilitators also observed that while adults reported enjoying complex tasks that they found challenging, the level of challenge needed to be kept lower than what some facilitators had originally thought.  Consequently, some tasks will be always be offered which allow people to create as complex or simple an image or construction as they want while a few will be available which include step by step directions.

Facilitators found that during the first two Zebra Studio Day program some people did not read the instructions on the activity cards or expected that the facilitator would deliver the session.  In addition, some adults reported that when little guidance was given on the card they were at a loss.  How much signage and direction seems to be an issue that exhibition curators and museum educators struggle with.  How much will people read?  How directed do they want their experience?  On one hand, museum educators creating the installations must consider neither overwhelming visitors with text nor not providing enough.  However, since no interactive galleries like this exist in other non-science specific museums in Hungary, Hungarian visitors have no previous experience with engaging with collections in this way.  In 5-10 years, if more museums create such galleries, visitors will enter “knowing” what to do.  Adults attending more than on Zebra Studio Day program proved this theory correct as after greeting the person at reception, the entered the interactive room and got on their way without any problems.