Visual rhythms: facilitating young children's creative engagement at Tate Liverpool
Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
McLeod, Naomi
Wright, Denise
McCall, Katy
Fujii, Michiko
Date published
2017
Abstract
This paper sets out to demonstrate the creative engagement of a group of three and four year old children at Tate Liverpool Art Gallery and how this was facilitated. The paper starts by providing background on the project at Tate Liverpool and to a pedagogy of engagement. In doing so its value of creative engagement within the context of gallery education and the perceived barriers that can sometimes prevent or restrict young children’s engagement are acknowledged. It progresses to show how artworks were used as provocations for encouraging children’s creative engagement as part of workshops in the gallery space and the creative engagement signs that were observed. Vignettes of children’s spontaneous responses are used to illustrate and analyse their engagement, and how this was facilitated by artists. Most significantly, the paper presents ‘visible rhythms’ as a new phenomenon or ‘signs’ of creative engagement. Through a facilitation of curiosity and self-discovery over sustained periods of time, as part of an environment where power is shared, children’s engagement was observed as they expressed themselves through their ‘visible rhythms’.
Journal title
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal
Volume
25
Issue
6
Publisher
Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd
Place of publication
Abingdon
ISSN
1350-293X
eISSN
1752-1807
Official URL