Abstract:

Visitors to museums and exhibitions, regardless of age or socio-cultural background, attend exhibitions not only for the aesthetic experience, but also for the learning and education opportunities offered.
Museum management and exhibition design must involve communication, transmission of knowledge and, above all, education. However, in the case of exhibitions of contemporary art, the curatorship does not always meet the needs of today’s plural society.
The subjects and contents of contemporary art exhibitions are designed with a well-informed public in mind, and the educational aspects are often conditioned by the overall aesthetic of the presentation. Visitors to many contemporary art museums and exhibitions share similar profiles and common cultural interests. Unlike many other types of museum visitors, contemporary art consumers are educated people with previous knowledge of the subject and a high degree of interest in the exhibition theme.
A pioneering attempt to break away from the stereotype of the inaccessibility of contemporary art took place at an exhibition in “La Caixa” Foundation, through artistic disciplines such as literature, dance, cinema and music. Local and internationally acclaimed artists collaborated in an innovative educational project with the aim of transmitting new ways of presenting art. Various artistic disciplines and qualified professionals from a wide range of backgrounds came together in this up-to-date project with the aim of bringing contemporary art closer to a wider public: experts and non-experts, amateurs and occasional visitors, schools and family groups. The experience was very positive, above all in the interest shown by city teachers who, for the first time, could bring pupils of all ages to an exhibition where art was merely the leitmotif for different academic disciplines.

Keywords:

Exhibition design, contemporary art exhibitions, education, innovative educational project, academic disciplines.