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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Over the past year, I’ve attended some fantastic interactive online sessions and I’ve led hundreds of my own. I’ve also attended some pretty dull one-way presentations and long lectures. No matter what type of session you are leading - be it a virtual tour, an online art discussion, an online class or course - you need to keep your session interactive to stop participants from tuning out. You need to find a variety of ways to engage people throughout the session. Online experiences that emphasi...
Today I’m doing a deep dive on the most famous and well-known thinking routine of them all - See Think Wonder. I’m going to share with you how you can use this thinking routine in your art discussions and why it’s one of the best routines for getting started with Visible Thinking in the Museum - my method for engaging and connecting with audiences, art and ideas. It’s actually the first thinking routine that I teach when I do a training with teams of educators or guides in a museum and the first...
How can you improve your questioning skills without resorting to reading long lists of tips and techniques and do's and don'ts? What can you use to help you create, sort and evaluate better questions? The simple answer is: ART. I’ve been using artworks for years to help me to brainstorm, sort, re-word and improve my questions. Artworks (and objects) provide an engaging and focused way to work on your questioning skills. I’m not an ‘expert questioner’ by any means and have found that this is a sk...
Today I’m sharing 5 simple slow looking ideas for the summer. In our fast-paced society, we scan, we skim and we scroll. We have forgotten what it’s like to really look at something. Slow looking is a wonderful alternative to life in the fast lane. The 5 activities I'll be sharing in this episode are simple, effective ways to slow down, improve your observational skills and focus and notice more details around you. You can use these slow looking activities throughout the summer - either on your ...
Today I’m talking all about how to use the ‘Unveiling Stories’ thinking routine to investigate multiple layers of meaning with a photograph. This is part of a new series of episodes on the podcast where I share a thinking routine with you and all the insights for how you might be able to use it with an artwork or object with groups - either in-person or online. Unveiling Stories was our ‘thinking routine of the month’ for June in my Membership Programme. Every month we have a specialist thinking...
Many of us are experts in our field - possibly art historians, historians or archaeologists - and want to share that incredible knowledge with the groups we lead in our programmes. But knowing what information to share, how to share it and when to share it is often tricky – especially on interactive, discussion-based programmes. And what happens when you add too much information? And how much is too much ? Sharing information that is engaging and memorable (without overloading your participants)...
Perspective-taking is about seeing a situation or understanding a concept from an alternative view point, such as that of someone else. It is a skill that needs to be encouraged - particularly in children. Your brain has to work quite hard to get good at perspective-taking. And in the opposite direction of what it is hard-wired to do - which is to place YOU at the centre of everything. Engaging in perspective-taking means moving away from this starting point in order to understand others. THE GO...
So, this week in honour of our 10th episode I’m talking about 10 common traps to avoid when asking questions! For some people questioning comes easily. But for the majority of us, we are not asking enough questions AND we’re not phrasing them in the best way. The good news is that we can all become better questioners with time and practice. To become a better questioner, it’s really important first all to avoid these 10 common mistakes. Which ones of these are you guilty of? I’ve certainly done ...
Welcome back to the Art Engager podcast! Today I’m talking about building rapport and creating a great group dynamic in the 'new now'. Creating a great group dynamic is even MORE important now after the last year or so. We will need to take extra care to create social comfort and psychological safety, we will also need to build trust and social interaction. In this episode I'm talking about : what group dynamics are the different types of groups you might come across the roles people play in gro...
Today I’m talking all about how to use the ‘See Think Me We’ thinking routine to create personal and community connections with artworks. This is part of a new series of episodes on the podcast where I share a thinking routine with you and all the insights for how you might be able to use it with an artwork or object with groups - either in-person or online. See Think Me We was our ‘thinking routine of the month’ recently in the Visible Thinking Membership . Every month we have a specialist thin...
Slow looking is not only an important part of my work, it is also a personal practice - something that I’ve been doing regularly for the last few years. I’m really interested in developing my observational skills and I’m also fascinated by what happens when we spend a longer period of time looking at something. Our general approach to looking is, however, flawed and we try to look at things as briskly and efficiently as possible. We need to slow our looking down and give our brain the time and s...
In this episode, I’m discussing 6 essential thinking routines you should have in your educator repertoire. These are thinking routines that you can use to create engaging discussions with art or artefacts or routines that will help you develop and grow in your work as an educator. I’ve found it really hard to select just 6 thinking routine out of the 100+ routines out there, but I’ve come up with a list that every educator should have in their repertoire to draw upon in different situations or f...
Facilitation is a key part of creating engaging and interactive discussions around art and museum objects. But developing the skills of a good facilitator is an art form in itself – it requires practice, patience and the best facilitators MAKE IT LOOK SO EASY. Sometimes people wonder why I chose the word 'facilitator' - rather than guide, educator, teacher, docent, or interpreter - to describe people who lead participative, discussion-based experiences around art and objects. It’s certainly not ...
Claire Bown shares her 5 golden rules for crafting questions that spark interaction and engagement. She delves into the crucial difference between open and closed questions, emphasizing when and how to use each effectively. The discussion also covers the power of conditional language, structuring questions for a natural flow, the importance of follow-up, and leveraging thinking routines to consistently ask better questions, ultimately transforming participant experiences.
Thinking routines are an essential part of the Visible Thinking in the Museum method and my core course, Visible Thinking in the Museum Online (VTMO). They have been a magical ingredient in helping me to confidently create engaging discussions around objects and artworks over the past 10 years. They’ve also been a great way to engage audiences to get them really interested in art and objects, making them curious and asking questions and, of course, getting them thinking. But what are thinking ro...
I believe engagement starts with slow looking. I’ve been practising the art of slow looking for the last 10 years as a personal practice and with groups of all ages with a variety of objects, artworks, situations and places. Slow looking has played a pivotal role in the most engaging discussions I've led over the last 10 years. Slow looking has played a pivotal role in the most engaging discussions I've led over the last 10 years. Recently, slow looking has become more popular with Tate ‘recomme...
Claire Bown recounts the pivotal moment she discovered "Visible Thinking" during her master's research at the Troben Museum, leading to the development of her "Visible Thinking in the Museum" method. She details how this framework combines Harvard Project Zero's Visible Thinking with museum education practices to foster discussion, slow looking, and collaborative learning. The episode explores the initial "Stop, Look, Think" program, "Stories Around the World," and its successful application with various objects, showcasing how it transformed museum engagement for both students and teachers.
Welcome to The Art Engager podcast with Claire Bown, designed for educators, guides, and creatives struggling to engage audiences with art. This podcast offers easy-to-learn, flexible techniques and tools to create participant-centered experiences, transforming traditional approaches into lively, discussion-based programs. Learn strategies for formulating questions, handling knowledge, and improving communication to confidently lead art discussions.
