The Art Engager Podcast with Claire Bown is your go-to resource for creating engaging experiences in museums and cultural spaces. Explore practices that deepen connections with art, objects, people and ideas. Learn techniques to spark curiosity, foster dialogue, and transform how you engage with your audience. Each episode offers practical insights to enhance your skills and bring your museum experiences to life.
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In this episode, Claire Bown delves into the concept of wonder, defining it as a feeling of amazement and admiration, distinct yet connected to awe and curiosity. She highlights why museums are ideal spaces for fostering wonder and explains why adults often lose this natural capacity. Bown then provides eight actionable strategies for museum educators, from encouraging slow looking and a beginner's mind to utilizing sensory engagement and leaving space for reflection, helping to create truly wonder-filled visitor experiences.
Over the past four years, we've explored slow looking in 20 different episodes on The Art Engager , making it our most discussed topic . Today, I'm taking you on a curated journey through all of these episodes, creating a roadmap, if you will, that you can use to understand and implement slow looking in your personal practice and professional work. The Art Engager is written and presented by Claire Bown . Editing is by Matt Jacobs and Claire Bown. Music by Richard Bown. Support the show on Patre...
After 150 episodes exploring engagement in museums and cultural organisations – including 101 solo episodes and 49 guest conversations – host Claire Bown shares 10 of the most powerful insights that have emerged over four years of thinking deeply about engagement principles and practices. For this milestone episode, Claire revisited the entire back catalogue, re-listening to past episodes and looking for patterns. What she found were 10 essential insights about engagement that can shift how we t...
In this episode host Claire Bown talks with Geraldine Collinge, Chief Executive at Compton Verney, about their bold approach to creating genuinely engaging cultural spaces through play, accessibility and joy. Geraldine shares how this unique ' art space in a park ' in Warwickshire brings together a historic Robert Adam mansion, 120 acres of Capability Brown landscape, and six distinctive collections ranging from Chinese bronzes to British folk art. She explains how Compton Verney's core values -...
In this 4th birthday episode of The Art Engager, host Claire Bown explores what active engagement really means and why it matters so much for creating meaningful guided experiences. She addresses what many educators struggle with – we know visitors learn better when actively participating, but how do we consistently make this happen in our daily practice? How can we move beyond knowing that active participation matters to actually implementing it day after day? What practical techniques make the...
In this episode of The Art Engager podcast, host Claire Bown talks with Sita Sargeant, founder and self-described 'Chief Troublemaker' at She Shapes History, a trailblazing Australian company on a mission. What began as weekly walks in Canberra has grown into a thriving social enterprise with nationwide expansion plans for their women-focused history tours. In today's conversation, Sita shares her people-centred approach to guide hiring and training, and how she builds community around a cause r...
In this episode, host Claire Bown talks with Tonia Dhaese and Armand Storck about the church-based Slow Art Day movement in Antwerp. We explore why churches provide ideal settings for slow looking and how the architecture, lighting, and atmosphere naturally encourage contemplation. For Slow Art Day 2025 (April 5), listeners will learn about events across four Antwerp churches, including St. Paul's exhibition featuring masterpieces by Rubens and Van Dyck displayed at eye level - a rare opportunit...
In this episode host Claire Bown talks with Francine Boon, a self-described 'sociologist turned mystery maker' and co-director of Sherlocked, an award-winning experience design studio based in Amsterdam, about transforming how visitors engage with museums through immersive storytelling and game design. Francine shares two major museum projects in this episode: her Rijksmuseum escape room that attracted 10,000 participants in nine weeks and received a 9.4/10 rating, and her recent Palace Mysterie...
In today's solo episode, host Claire Bown explores why museums are as much about people as they are about objects, and shares six powerful ways to create meaningful connections in your guided experiences. How can museums provide spaces for genuine human interaction in our increasingly disconnected world? What might happen when we put 'connection before content' in our museum practice? In this episode, we're exploring the unique role museums play in bringing people together. Claire introduces the...
In this episode host Claire Bown talks with Maggie Jackson, an award-winning author, former Boston Globe columnist and independent scholar, about the power of uncertainty and how embracing not-knowing might transform our work in museums. Maggie Jackson's latest book "Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure" has been making waves - named on four top books of 2024 lists and recently awarded Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Independent Publishers of New England. Drawing from cutting-edge...
In today's solo episode, host Claire Bown discusses the importance of trust and psychological safety in guided museum experiences. In this episode, we're looking at how to create the conditions that allow people to really engage with art and objects. We're going to explore why trust matters in museum facilitation, what psychological safety looks like in practice, and how to create environments where people feel able to share, question, and discover. The Art Engager is written and presented by Cl...
In this episode host Claire Bown talks with Nicole Cromartie, Director of Learning and Engagement, and Paris Baker, Family, Early Childhood and Community Engagement Manager at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. Inspired by Nicole's experience with her baby niece 13 years ago, the Clyfford Still Museum has pioneered innovative ways to engage infants with art, including their groundbreaking 2022 exhibition 'Clyfford Still Art and the Young Mind' and Art Crawl, a monthly programme for infants and...
In this episode host Claire Bown talks with Nicky McIntosh, a museum consultant with over 25 years of experience in the UK museum sector. Inspired by her own family's experiences, Nicky specialises in making museums more accessible for children who struggle to attend school and is currently developing a toolkit to support museums and galleries in their work with home educators. Listen in as Nicky shares insights from her Arts Council funded research exploring how museums can better serve the est...
In this episode host Claire Bown talks with Beth Clare McManus, a coaching psychologist, artist and researcher based in Manchester, UK. Beth's work as a coach and supervisor aims to support people to be happy and well in their professional practice. Listen in as Beth shares how museum and gallery spaces offer unique potential for coaching - creating softer, more reflective environments where the space itself becomes part of the coaching process. If you're interested in exploring innovative ways ...
In today's episode, host Claire Bown talks with illustrator and educator Jessica Hartshorn. Based in the UK, Jessi specialises in creating engaging artwork for the cultural and heritage sector, blending her background as a museum educator with her artistic skills. Her work includes family trails, maps, and educational resources designed to foster deeper connections with museum collections—even the overlooked pieces! We explore Jessi’s journey from museum educator to illustrator, her process for ...
In today's solo episode, host Claire Bown focusing on one of the key Questioning Practices from her book, The Art Engager: Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums . In this episode, we’ll be exploring The Universal Questioning Practice in detail, how it came about and how you can use it with art and objects. The Universal is an all-purpose and versatile Questioning Practice that can be applied to all types of art and objects, across any museum setting. The Universal's 4 stages provide a logica...
In today's solo episode, host Claire Bown explores one of the key practices from her new book, "The Art Engager, Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums" - Questioning Practices. Questioning Practices (QP) are structured sets of questions or prompts designed to guide inquiry, stimulate critical thinking, and facilitate learning in museum and gallery environments. These practices are powerful structures for crafting deeper, more engaging experiences. This episode explains what Questioning Pract...
In today's episode, host Claire Bown talks with museum educator and project manager Anja Høegh. Anja shares her passion for creating engaging experiences in museums and cultural spaces, emphasising the importance of building trust and making meaningful connections with visitors. Anja reveals practical techniques to enhance visitor engagement, including the use of "chatterboxes" to spark conversations, sensory experiences to deepen artwork connections, and slow looking practices to encourage thou...
In today's episode host Claire Bown talks with museum consultant Rebecca Shulman. Rebecca has a wealth of experience in museum education and leadership, and is passionate about how we can make museums better places to work through improving organisational culture. Listen in to discover why museum educators are naturally suited for leadership roles through our skills in fostering inquiry, trust, and psychological safety. Rebecca also discusses the current challenges museums face, such as generati...
In this episode, host Claire Bown talks with Linda Norris, a Senior Specialist in Methodology and Practice at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Linda is known for her work in museum capacity-building, leading training and workshops for major museums and historic sites like the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the War Childhood Museum. Listen in to uncover practical frameworks (such as the 4 Truths and the Arc of Dialogue) for facilitating productive dialogues and handling conf...
Today, I'm talking to Sasha Igdalova about the exciting research she’s been conducting over the past few years around aesthetic experience, slow looking and social interaction in museums. Aleksandra (Sasha) Igdalova is an interdisciplinary researcher in the final year of her Psychology PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London conducting large-scale, experimental studies on slow looking within exhibition spaces at Manchester Art Gallery. Her work investigates how popular engagement strategies may ...
How can we use our sense of smell to engage visitors? My guest today, Sofia Collette Ehrich is an art historian and curator of multisensory experiences. She was a key researcher on Odeuropa - a European funded Horizon 2020 project that advocated for smell as an important part of Europe’s cultural heritage. We discuss when she first realised her passion for working with scents and how smell can make museum experiences more engaging. We cover her creation of a scent-based tour for Museum Ulm in Ge...
My guest today, Trevor MacKenzie is an experienced teacher, author, keynote speaker and inquiry consultant who has worked in schools throughout North America, Asia, Australia, South Africa and Europe. Trevor’s day job is as a high school English teacher in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, He teaches from an inquiry stance , guided by specific values and beliefs. In addition, Trevor is also an author , speaker and consultant, travelling worldwide to help schools implement inquiry-based teachin...
How can we engage children with classical music in the museum environment? Today, I'm talking to Cecilie Skøtt about how to engage students with the music of Carl Nielsen through a blend of philosophical questioning and the art of slow listening. Cecilie Skøtt is a mediation designer at Hans Christian Andersen’s House and the Carl Nielsen Museum in Denmark. Cecilie plays a key role in crafting and delivering school programmes for both museums, as well as interacting with visitors of all ages on ...
Today, I'm excited to chat with Kylie Neagle about fostering curiosity and critical thinking on self-guided field trips for teachers and students. Kylie Neagle is the Education Coordinator at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in Adelaide . With a small team and limited resources, catering to diverse student needs can be challenging. Volunteer Gallery Guides, though invaluable, cannot always provide guided tours. At the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (AGSA), this prompted a sh...
In this episode, we take a closer look at museum visitor teams with Dickon Moore, Visitor Experience Manager at Wellcome Collection in London. Discover how these teams master the art of informal engagement, creating meaningful interactions that enhance visitors' museum experiences. Key Points: Understanding the importance of informal engagement in fostering meaningful interactions. How the role of visitor teams has changed over time from a more security-focused role to their current role as faci...
Today, in a special BONUS episode for Slow Art Day, I’m talking to Harma van Uffelen. Harma works as a curator of education for the Van Gogh Museum where they have just created a brand new slow looking programme and a slow looking experience for the Matthew Wong exhibition. Listen in to hear: How the programme started and why they chose the Matthew Wong exhibition Techniques for engaging participants, including a deep dive into one of Wong's artworks Considerations in programme design: ensuring ...
In today's episode: what is rapport, why is it important and how can we build it in our museum and gallery programmes? I recently wrote an article for the Journal of Museum Education inspired by the coaching training I did in 2022. In ' Fostering a coaching mindset: applying coaching competencies to enhance museum educator practice and visitor experience ' I explored how museum educators can benefit from using coaching skills to enhance their teaching and improve the visitor experience . One of ...
Today, Bianca Boska, an award-winning journalist and author of ' Get The Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See ' discusses her new book and her journey into the art world with Claire Bown, host of The Art Engager podcast. Bianca immersed herself for 5 years into the New York art scene as a gallery assistant, artist assistant, curator, museum security guard and more as part of a journey to understand why art matters and how we...
Host Claire Bown chats with Sofie Vermeiren , about The Art Bridge , a long-term collaboration between Museum Leuven and a local school, exploring how art can boost children's self-confidence and visual literacy. Episode links Episode webpage + transcript Sofie Vermeiren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofie-v-172093167/ More info about the Art Bridge: https://www.mleuven.be/en/about-m/m-community/art-bridge https://www.mleuven.be/sites/default/files/2023-04/Publication_MaterDei_TheArtB...
