Provoking Points of Convergence: Museum and University Collaboratingand Co-evolving

This article outlines art education courses undertaken in museum and gallery contexts as a component of the Certificate Programme in Visual and Material Culture within the University of British Columbia’s Department of Curriculum Studies. With the creation of this programme and through the forging of relationships with area museums, unique ways have evolved for graduate students from diverse areas of education and art teacher education candidates to interact with works of art, museum professionals, artists, and the museum space itself. The purpose of these courses is to use museum and gallery settings as sites to test ideas, critique educational programmes, and advance new approaches for teachers to use museums in more creative and integrated ways in their teaching while expanding theoretical knowledge and interpretive repertoires. Through participating in this collaborative venture we have learned that when you invite teachers into museums, make efforts to increase their comfort within these spaces, while recognising what interpretive insights they offer as active participants in museum discourses, points of convergence between teachers, universities, and museums are formed. Over the past five years, a collaborative venture between the University of British Columbia (UBC) art education programme, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the UBC Museum of Anthropology has been under way. In 2001, Kit Grauer, chair of art education at UBC, originated the Certificate Programme in Visual and Material Culture within UBC’s Department of Curriculum Studies. Through the creation of this programme and through the forging of relationships with these museums, unique ways evolved for graduate students from diverse areas of education and art teacher education candidates to interact with works of art, museum professionals, artists, and the museum space itself. The purpose of these courses is to use museum and gallery settings as sites to test ideas, critique educational programmes, and advance new approaches for teachers to use museums in more creative and integrated ways while expanding theoretical knowledge and interpretive repertoires.