Museum educational methods and material that approach works of art. Creating an educational package for the Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas Gallery

 The purpose of this research was to create an educational package that could be used in the course of 6-7 years old students’ visit to the Nikos Hadjikyriakos- Ghika Gallery, Athens, Greece. The package included educational material in print and digital form. A central feature of this project has been the use (along of course with others activities that employed painting, craft, drama and pretend-play) of creative music making activities as a means for communicating with the artworks of Nikos Hadjikyriakos- Ghika. This study interrogates into the question of whether music improvisation and composition activities could be an effective means for helping students develop a multi-level understanding of the artist’s artworks. Furthermore, we investigated students’ forms of interaction with the animator, with their peers -and the class-teachers- during the course of these museum education activities. To investigate these questions, 22 first and second graders at a primary school of Piraeus took part in a pilot implementation of this program, participating in a series of activities both in the gallery and at their school setting. Data collected included video recordings as well as material created by students during the program. Results showed that the students communicated actively during the program, interacting creatively with their peers, the animator, the artworks, and the class-teachers both in class and the Gallery. Moreover (and despite severe time restrictions) improvisation and composition emerged as successful means of initiating a multi-sensory experience that enabled students to creatively engage with Hadjikyriakos-Ghika’s work. The structure and materials of this educational packaged were subsequently redesigned as a result of the evaluation of the program’s implementation.

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