Informalities in the art museum: mobilizing educators’ professional learning for policy renewal

Abstract

As art museums reckon with their colonial roots and ongoing exclusions, critical—if not activist—discourse and approaches have begun to inform even establishment museums. However authentic, intentional, or successful such efforts have been to date, this trend has resulted in exhibitions, programming, and, for some, structural change that imagine individual, collective, and institutional transformation is possible. It is in this context that professional development focused on equity and social change is on the rise. Looking beyond training, this chapter examines informal professional learning; specifically, its role and value in supporting progressive reimaginings of who art museums are for and what they can do. Drawing on qualitative research I conducted with gallery educators in Scotland during the first wave of COVID-19, I consider how informal learning can be leveraged to enact personal and organizational change in a post-pandemic future. In my discussion I propose a tentative framework for critically engaged informal learning and key areas for policy renewal in art museums. Mobilizing this data for critical analysis responds to both a paucity of literature on transformative professional learning in art museums and a lack of research and policy attention to informal learning among educators more broadly.