The Art Engager

As we get older, we ask fewer questions. We wonder less. We are less curious. We don’t lose the ability to be curious, we just don’t use or ‘exercise’ it as much. Further on in life people tend to expect answers rather than questions.Staying curious and wondering keeps your mind active and strong, makes you more receptive to new ideas, opens up new worlds and possibilities and brings excitement into your life.Likewise in our work as educators, guides, teachers and creatives, we need to keep curious ourselves in order to keep creating imaginative and lively guided tours, guided discussions and educational programmes. Today is the second part in our curiosity double-bill. Last week I talked about how to foster curiosity with your groups and gave you 3 ways to think about how you can cultivate more curiosity amongst participants. So in today’s episode, part 2, I’m talking about how we can stay curious ourselves in our practice. LinksEpisode Web PageSupport the Show Subscribe to my Friday newsletter - The TM WeeklyTodd Kashdan's book 'Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life'

So in today’s episode is the first of 2 episodes devoted to a subject close to my heart: curiosity. This week I'll be exploring what curiosity is and sharing 3 key ways you can provoke curiosity and wonder with your audiences on your tours and programmes. Next week, I'll be discussing how we can stay curious ourselves as educators, guides and teachers. Curiosity is notoriously difficult to define and it’s even harder to work out how to harness and foster it. It could be defined as an eagerness to encounter what is new or unfamiliar and the desire to learn, to understand new things and to know how they work.We know that artworks, objects and artefacts have the power to inspire, provoke curiosity and interest.  We make unexpected discoveries - find new artists, new artworks we didn’t know about, find out information that we hadn’t heard before, and these new finds take us to new places that we haven’t been before. So how can we really ensure that we are harnessing that power and doing all we can to provoke curiosity and wonder amongst the participants on our tours and programmes?LinksEpisode Web PageMasterclass Art as Perspective 08 FebruaryThe Thinking Museum Membership ProgrammeSupport the Show Ian Leslie's book Curious

This week on the podcast: I’m delighted to be talking to Yaël van Loosbroek - Speck about art and mental healthYaël believes, like me, that everyone can engage with art, and that it all starts with looking - hence the name of her company, ArtSee.About ten years ago Yaël herself suffered from depression and severe anxiety disorder. The only place she could find peace of mind was in front of an artwork. This experience motivated her to create Art as Perspective for people going through the same mental issues as she did.In today’s chat we discuss what Art as Perspective is and how it works. We talk about how to design art programmes for people living with depression & anxiety, the frameworks she uses and the questions she asks. We also talk about how art discussions help people living with depression, anxiety and negative thoughts and the mental health benefits of looking at and discussing art. Yaël also shares some really helpful tips for creating art programmes that have a positive impact on mental health.We had a really lovely chat and I hope you enjoy it. Here it is!LINKSEpisode Web PageMasterclass Art as Perspective 08 FebruaryThe Thinking Museum Membership ProgrammeSupport the Show The Merry Family by Jan SteenArtSee WebsiteYaël’s Instagram

The ability to ask powerful, relevant and incisive questions is one of the most useful skills you can have. With a good questioning technique you can instantly engage people, provoke their curiosity, find out what they already know and make your programmes more interactive.Questioning is not an innate talent for most of us - we have to work hard at developing a good questioning technique. It’s a skill and, like all skills, we need to actively work on it to improve it. So, how exactly can you get better at asking questions? Here are some quick ways to improve your technique.LINKSEpisode web pageSupport the ShowSign up for The TM Weekly newsletter

Today we’re exploring 9 different ways that looking at art can make you a better writer. Throughout the ages, looking at art has been a unique way of finding inspiration and creativity. If you go as far back as the Greeks, you can find examples of writing inspired by art, called ekphrasis, which means “a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art”Art is a frequent source of inspiration for many writers and poets over the centuries. John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a famous example and William Blake said that poetry and art are ‘ways to converse with paradise’.But how does this work for us, mere mortals with a keen interest in improving our creative or reflective writing? In this week’s episode I’m exploring 9 ways looking at and discussing art can make you a better writer.

For our last episode of the year, I'm sharing 3 slow looking activities for over the holidays. It’s a busy time of year and we’re all rushed off our feet. There’s also still a huge amount of uncertainty around right now just to add to the levels of stress and anxiety.Slow looking is a wonderful antidote to life in the fast line.Looking at something slowly and carefully is in itself a rewarding process. More than that, slow looking improves your observational skills, helps us to become less distracted and more focused and develop more patience. Ultimately, slow looking is GOOD FOR THE SOUL.I recommend choosing one or all of these activities to do at some point over the festive period - it will give you time out, time to slow down and time to notice the wood for the trees. You can do these activities on your own or with friends and family and children. Each activity should take no more than 10-15 mins. One is based on drawing, one on looking and thinking and one on writing. Choose the one that suits you best or the one that matches how you’re feeling today. I’d love to hear how you get on with any of this activities, Please share your thoughts, photos, sketches and or notes via Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #winterslowlooking

This week I’m delighted to be talking to Claire Bradshaw.Claire is an experienced coach, trainer and facilitator who brings a lot of positive energy and curiosity to her work. In today’s chat we talk about the values that drive her work, listening with full attention, the power of questions, and her passion for outdoor coaching. We talk about the similarities between her work and the work we do facilitating discussions around artworks with participants. We discuss the importance of listening skills and what good listening is. Claire shares a variety of tips for how you can develop your listening skills - including some practical exercises too!LINKSSupport the Show Claire Bradshaw websiteConsciously Connected NewsletterJulian Treasure 5 Ways to Listen BetterNancy Kline’s Time to Think and other booksJohn Whittington’s Systemic Coaching and Constellations: The Principles, Practices and Application for Individuals, Teams and Groups

Awe is an emotion that can be triggered by being around something larger than yourself, that’s not immediately understandable. It's that feeling you get when you look up and see millions of stars in the night sky; witness a beautiful landscape or set eyes on an artwork for the first time. Museums and galleries, historic settings and buildings can all provoke awe. And you can foster more of it in your programmes by thinking carefully about the artworks, objects you include, the questions you ask and the information you share. How about you try to sprinkle some awe-moments throughout your next guided tour or educational programme?So today, I’m talking about what awe is, why it’s important and sharing 6 ways you can create awe-inspiring experiences with art and objects. At the end I’ll be sharing 3 things to look for to check you’ve succeeded in inspiring awe in your audience. LINKSSupport the showDacher Keltner quote taken from Psyche - How to Fill your Life with More Awe Every Day Dacher Keltner & Jonathan Haidt Approaching Awe: A Moral, Spiritual and Aesthetic Emotion Dacher Keltner's 8 Wonders of Modern Life

This week on the podcast: I’m delighted to be talking to Jo-Anne Sunderland Bowe and we're talking about how to teach with objects.  Jo-Anne is director of Heritec Limited, a UK-based heritage education consultancy which works on European collaborative projects. Jo-Anne has a keen interest in object-based learning and creative and critical thinking. in today’s chat we talk about the values that drive her work and her passion for object-based learning and teaching.We talk about what object-based learning means and dive into the processes around it - collective thinking, collaborative action, inquiry dialogue and the acts of wondering. Jo-Anne discusses the many benefits of working with objects and shares her tips for how you can better engage your audience with objects. I hope our chat inspires you to think about how you might use objects of any kind to engage your audiences.LINKSSupport the Show Masterclass - How to use slow listening to engage the senses and make connections with objects Creative SchoolFlinders University Objects in Teaching and Learning wheelJo-Anne Sunderland Bowe on LinkedInHeritec websiteHeritec on Facebook

For our thirtieth episode, I’m delighted to be talking to Catherine Chastney. Catherine is an art educator and owner of social enterprise I Picture This. Catherine’s work focuses on bringing art and the joy of discussing art to older people, from creating conversations in care homes, to creating art cards during lockdown and working with people living with dementia. In this chat we explore the strong values that guide Catherine's work - she is passionate about that anyone can look at and discuss art, she loves using art to bring people together and to improve wellbeingWe talk to about the toolkit she has just published with the Wallace Collection for Looking at Art designed for anyone working or volunteering in care settings and, of course, her work with people living with dementia. Catherine shares some wonderful tips for discussing art with people with dementia - from creating trust seeking permission, active listening and creating space.This conversation will inspire you to think about how you might use art to bring people together, create conversations, forge connections and ultimately improve wellbeing. LINKSSupport the Show Masterclass - A dementia-friendly approach to art I Picture This on InstagramI Picture This on FacebookI Picture This on LinkedInI Picture This websiteToolkit for Looking at Art