Discovery Centre spaces and the ability to connect with a wider audience

Discovery Centre spaces and the ability to connect with a wider audience.

A comparison of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, VietnamWomen’s Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) discovery spaces will look at the possibilities available to the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts. If the discovery space is set up correctly it could increase audience numbers and engage different audience clusters. This would intern help with the merge to self-sustainability for this museum. While the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts discovery space has been closed for the last year it is easy to see that the education team are trying to make it a viable space with a thriving program. However, this museum needs to look further than just fine arts activities and programs for this to become sustainable. QAGOMA’s Children’s Centre and education programs or the Vietnam Women’s Museum Discovery Space or public programs would be good places to look at to start with.

QAGOMA Children’s Centre is a vibrant, open, interactive and engaging space. It connects the exhibition space and artists with the public, especially families. Children and families are given a range of free-choice learning opportunities and hands-on activities which cater to diverse range of audiences. There are multiple activities and types of learning available which accommodate different age groups and learning styles from Toddler Tuesdays and specific online content to teacher programs, disability tours and regional touring exhibitions. [1] The public programming also incorporates diverse learning styles and free-choice learning, from the Up Late to the Over 50 to the Cinema programming everyone is offered something that could appeal to them. While these programs are labour intensive it is possible to run these types of programs with volunteer staff.  The vibrancy and availability of these programs are draw cards not only for families but all audience clusters to QAGOMA.

Vietnam Women’s Museum is also a dynamic vibrant interactive space. It connects the themes and objects of the permanent exhibition space to the public, especially families. Like QAGOMA children are given a range of learning opportunities and free-choice learning through the discovery space. This museum is not an art museum so it does not connect artists but rather the topic and concepts of the exhibition to the audience. The public programming also incorporates a wider audience connection to the exhibitions. The online content is not as available however, they also have touring exhibitions which reach wider and diverse audience.

The Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts could look at the programs run by these two museums to incorporate better programs that reach a more diverse audience with a range of learning styles and free-choice learning activities. They could also look to the Queensland Museum’s discovery centre and the lunchtime programs offered.[2] Where the audience can ask an expert, or the expert discusses an object. In short just creating an education program for school students is no longer enough, there needs to be a variety of programs that cater to a diverse audience with free-choice learning options.

[1] QAGOMA annual report 2015

[2] Visit to Queensland Museum 2016 as part of Museum studies program