As a museum, how can you introduce your audience to new forms of art?
The Dolhuys has developed a new tour for the Outsider Art Museum, inspired by the visual thinking strategy. We use our ‘Looking differently at art’ guided tour to teach visitors to take a fresh look at art which is unlike what we currently consider to be the norm.
In the Outsider Art Museum we offer special VTS (Visual Thinking Strategy) guided tours, in which the tour guide acts as facilitator. The tour guide takes the group through the museum and teaches them to look and listen to each other’s viewpoints without judging them. By spending a longer period of time reflecting on a single artwork, the group learns to look at art differently and continually recognise new elements in it. During the tour the guide shows three or four different artworks, applying the VTS approach to each one.
"I see Outsider Art as a vehicle for inclusion."
The Dolhuys seeks to portray all aspects of humankind and call stereotypes into question. In particular, our aim is to give people who do not conform to the prevailing ‘norm’ a place in our museum, at both the Dolhuys and the Outsider Art Museum. We use VTS to communicate this vision to our visitors.
Active guided tour
We worked with art historian Liesbeth Water on developing the VTS ‘Looking Differently at Art’ tour, in order to lower the threshold for introducing art to visitors. The active nature of the tour makes it particularly suitable for tutorial groups. The VTS method fits in perfectly with the pure nature of Outsider Art and is therefore a great way of introducing visitors to this emerging art form. Participants in the ‘Looking Differently at Art’ guided tours learn the following competencies: observing more closely, better articulation and justification of ideas, and making an active contribution to group discussions.
To find out more, check out website Outsider Art Museum website or get in touch with Tamar Hefs, Public and Education Assistant at the Dolhuys.