PZ Resource Library

Study Center Learning

By Shari Tishman
2007
An Investigation of the Educational Power and Potential of the Harvard University Art Museum Study Centers
SUMMARY
The Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) currently have two active study centers. The Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs specializes in works on paper from the collection of the Fogg Art Museum. The Study Room of the Busch-Reisinger Museum brings together works on paper as well as small-scale sculpture, decorative arts, and research materials on modern art and design. More dynamic, participatory, and self-directed than visits to the museum galleries, study center experiences allow visitors to view a far greater variety of objects than appear on display in the galleries and to focus on works specific to their individual interests. Although the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, which focuses on Ancient, Asian, Islamic, and Later Indian art, doesn’t currently have space for a study center, it partakes of the study center spirit; by arrangement it, too, makes works in its collection that are not on display available to classes and visitors who wish to view them. The historic building at 32 Quincy Street, the site of the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger Museums, will close for extensive renovations in June of 2008. When the building reopens, it will house all three museums, along with study centers for each of the collections.
 
Though they were originally designed with specialists in mind, the HUAM study centers have always been open to the public. Their design was derived from a methodology of connoisseurship and they offered scholars and collectors quiet, well-lit spaces for the intimate study primarily of prints and drawings. The study centers are viewed by many as a jewel in the crown of the Art Museums. Most obviously, they are portals to an exceptional collection. But beyond that, they are also exceptional learning environments—rare places where visitors can immerse themselves in prolonged, intimate, and often profound experiences with original works of art.
 
 

Learning In and From Museum Study Centers

 

Led by Shari Tishman, HUAM and PZ conducted a one-year collaborative research project to investigate the nature of visitor learning at HUAM's two study centers, the Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and the Study Room of the Busch-Reisinger Museum. The Agnes Mongan Center specializes in works on paper from the collection of the Fogg Art Museum. The Study Room of the Busch-Reisinger Museum brings together works of all media, including sculpture and decorative arts as well as research materials on modern art and design. Both centers are open to the public. 

 

Through onsite observations and interviews with a wide range of study center users, this project seeks to identify, examine and articulate the special kinds of learning experiences offered by study centers. More dynamic, participatory and self-directed than the museum galleries, the HAM study centers enable visitors to view a far greater variety of objects than appear on display in the galleries and to focus on works specific to their individual interests. The study centers provide visitors valuable opportunities to interact directly with objects, to set their own learning goals and chart their own path of inquiry, to ask questions, to make comparisons and to explore problems of interpretation. 

 

This increased accessibility to works in the collection expands the possibilities for close, intimate encounters with objects in their full complexity. It also invites greater interaction with museum staff and other visitors, fostering opportunities for critical thinking and looking that complement gallery experiences. The kinds of dynamic engagement with original works of art that can be experienced in the study centers not only form part of the history and mission of the Harvard Art Museum, but also serve as a model for the future of the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger and Sackler Museums. Interestingly, despite the apparent power of study centers, there has been little systematic research on their educational benefits or potential. Nor is there research on how to extend the benefits of study center learning to a broader range of museum offerings. 

 

To address these knowledge gaps, the research project had three goals: 

  • Develop a clear and common language to describe study center learning and articulate the potentials of the study center environment
  • Situate study center learning within the larger contexts of museum education, cognitive science, educational research and theory
  • Build on existing study center research to provide HUAM with a research-based perspective that can leverage the learning potential of all its education offerings
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