Taking the museum to school: An experience of dramatic play using works of art

Abstract

When works of art are brought into the school, students are given the opportunity to closely examine these art objects and, as it were, to make them their own; the young people become acquainted with the artists who produced the works or art and can both express their opinions about these creations and communicate their ideas to others. Students thus interact with the works themselves. When art becomes the starting point for dramatic play, the experience has the effect of making art come alive. In other words, students communicate with works of art through play, giving these works a new life, one which each student discovers in the drama workshop. We put together an exhibit of landscape paintings which we chose from among the collection of works on loan from the Musee du Quebec. The exhibit took place in the fall of 1998 in an elementary school in Rimouski. My paper will deal with this unique experience: I wish to analyse, among other things, what this daily contact with figurative and abstract works of art evoked within the students, both from the point of view of dramatic play and as seen in the comments that were made and the questions that were asked. Like Alice in Wonderland, students ranging from pre-school age all the way up to the sixth grade were invited to interact with a work of art, to make it their own and to give it new life through drama activities. Though this experiment is basically of an interdisciplinary nature, it mainly revolves around dramatic play, enhanced by works of art which are meant to open up new horizons for the students involved.