When: March 4-6, 2016
Where: Cambridge, MA
Institution: Harvard Extension School
Facilitator: Doris Sommer
An intensive three-days Pre-Texts workshop took place at the Harvard Extension School as part of the course Museum as Active Learning Space. The workshop was designed using the Pre-Texts model to train participants, most of them museum educators and administrators, in the use of art-making as a pedagogical tool to turn museum collections into powerful resources to explore difficult texts. Participants were challenged to think creatively, to play with the complex text “Cosmos” from Carl Sagan and create their own museum activities to create community and develop an appreciation for art.
During three days a total of 13 people had the opportunity to use the museum space in new ways in order to encourage visitors to get involved with art and intervene in their context. From acting to painting, expressing through body language or singing, group activities and individual interventions, participants of this Pre-Texts intensive experience learned to imagine creatively, develop citizenship and turn the museum space into a resource for approaching difficult texts.
– Thenesoya Martín de la Nuez, Doctoral Student, Department of Romance Languages and Literature, Harvard University
