A JOURNEY FROM SELF-DISCOVERY TO SELF-CARING: OLDER ADULTS ENGAGING WITH CONTEMPORARY ART

Abstract

Context: Museum education is seen as a means of enriching individuals, creating meaningful situations that generate purpose for visitors. From the point of view of cultural democracy and cultural democratization, museums now realize that they must constantly innovate to meet the diverse and changing needs of communities in which they are embedded, and in so doing, fulfill their social role. Objectives: This is true when studying art museums, most specifically their contemporary art collection. Contemporary art, no longer primarily based on canonical principles of beauty, is still today considered a challenge for many individuals. In this context, the principal objective of our research program was centered around accessing and understanding the actual experiences of adults. To understand the intellectual functioning of visitors is an avenue in providing useful information for the elaboration of powerful museum programs. This is a key issue, for museum professionals since it is imperative to find ways to provide a diversity of museum experiences for all. More specifically, our paper presents effects of contemporary art exploration on older adults. Methods: Our research was conducted at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Twenty-four adult visitors aged 65 and over that visited museums more than five times per year were selected. Data was collected using the Thinking Aloud protocol. This approach is one where visitors were asked to articulate ideas, thoughts they might have as they toured the galleries. The verbal comments were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using instruments created in previous research, that is, a typology of dissonances and consonances, the identification of eight mental operations, and these results were put in relation to Pelowski and Akiba’s psychological model of a transformative art experience comprising five stages with three possible outcomes to the art experience. Results: Results indicate the importance of reaching Pelowski and Akiba’s meta-cognitive Stage 4 of the aesthetic experience. Engaging with contemporary art seems to be, for the elderly visitor, an exercise in self-discovery where, with contemporary art, it is possible to find meaning. For our visitors, the aesthetic experience has the power of regenerating the self, resulting in self-caring. The museum can then be viewed as a self-care environment that provides elderly visitors with possible transformative aesthetic experiences that can help improve their well-being and quality of life. However, this would require additional research in exploring different museum experiences, considering different artistic periods, and this, as part of a longitudinal study.