Creativity for all ages at the National Arts Museum

For a while now, the National Arts Museum (MNAR) has been organizing captivating educational programs that manage to stimulate creativity in both children and adult visitors. Recently, the MNAR took part in Weekend Sessions, opening its doors for workshops and creative gatherings. Business Review uncovered the secrets to inspiring creativity with Delia Popa, Coordinator of Education, Communication, and Cultural Projects at MNAR.

Can you tell us about the role and responsibilities of the Education, Communication, and Cultural Projects Department at MNAR?

The main role of our department is to facilitate information access for museum visitors, to offer attractive learning opportunities, and to organize events such as talks, workshops, classes for young people, and tours. Our team has the responsibility of carrying out all the upstream preparations for the events, consisting of visuals, ad production, press releases, event promotion, and logistics. After the event, we disseminate information through social media. Our department is also responsible for designing tours and workshops for children and adults. For that purpose, we collaborate with educational NGOs and companies who help us respond to the educational needs of schools and other institutional bodies and private individuals.

What are some of the key initiatives and programmes the department has implemented to engage the public and promote art education?

Some of the most important and longstanding traditions at MNAR are our educational workshops for schools and families, which consist of looking at artwork, discussing it with children or youth, and working in the studio to create original artwork using various techniques. We thus encourage and practice observation, critical thinking skills, visual awareness, and visual connoisseurship. Children are our best chance to make sure that the museum has a future and people with the necessary skills to understand, support, and improve it.

In your view, what are some of the challenges and opportunities of promoting art and culture in today’s digital age?

Art and culture are still not at the forefront of Romania’s public policies, so museums need to create their own audiences which they have to maintain, cultivate, and educate while making them feel like they are part of something greater than themselves—which they are. Museums and their visitors are creators of identities, be they cultural, national or regional identities, that are so important in a globalised, polarised world. Digital technologies help us stay up to date as well as speak more directly and more often to our various audiences. We also get honest and frequent feedback about our programmes and our management style.

How do you approach the development and implementation of educational programmes for different age groups and audiences?

We publish a new offer for schools every year, which consists of relevant contemporary themes—such as the importance of insects for the environment or the meaning and effects of war to give some recent examples—, in close connection to the museum’s collections and the practical activities that our team conceives together with the educational partners I mentioned earlier. These are designed for different age groups in the following categories: kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, and high school. Additionally, we offer weekend workshops for children in various age groups or for families to share together. In summer we usually have summer schools that welcome children who like visual arts and want to learn some techniques.

Can you share details of some of your department’s notable success stories or high-impact projects?

We can share the fact that since early 2022 there has been a constant increase of visitors each month. Last month, May 2023, we had a new record of 20,788 visitors, a few thousands more than in the same month of last year. We like to think that our promotional work and the increase in the quality and frequency of events at MNAR is responsible for this surprising and pleasant outcome. Some notable educational events for the adult public are the “Meetings at the museum/Intalnire la muzeu” where each month a prominent figure from art, culture or the humanities is invited to discuss current cultural topics with our museum director, Calin Stegerean. Recently we have also had international guests, such as Bernard Blistene and Ami Barak from France in May 2023, to be followed in June 2023 by Christoph Tannert from Germany. These prominent figures raise the level of interest in the museum and ensure we reach new audiences abroad as well.

How was your collaboration with Weekend Sessions? Were there first-time MNAR visitors among the attendees?

It has been a very pleasant long-term collaboration. We first started “flirting” with them last fall, and we finally managed to make our joint project come true in May. There were many logistical challenges that had to be overcome to make it happen, on both sides, but we are happy to say that it has been a successful pilot project. Indeed, some of the attendees were visiting the museum for the very first time, and we had many parents who wanted to find out more about the education opportunities here and to bring their children to our upcoming workshops, which is exactly what the scope of the project was: to bring new people to the museum and to create awareness about museums in general as being good places to spend time with your family during the weekend.

Read also: Silvia Floares, Weekend Sessions: “It was my belief that if we connect many interests, we will reach out to many communities and the program will grow faster and become more relevant in a shorter time”

One of the workshops you host for children features a Constantin Brancusi theme. What is the approach for this workshop?

This workshop is another MNAR tradition. Children are invited to enter the universe of Brancusi’s work through play, senses, and direct experience in the special framework of the Brancusi studio space. Together with the museum educator, they have a discussion about Brancusi’s original works in the dedicated room of the Modern Romanian Art Gallery, then they enter the visual-tactile studio dedicated to Brancusi where they have the opportunity to work with noble materials such as stone, wood, and bronze as well as important tools that were used by Brancusi, such as the chisel, file or whetstone. The “Bird hidden in stone” workshop space was designed and created by education specialists at the National Museum of Modern Art – Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris and donated in 2007 to the Romanian National Arts Museum. It is also worth mentioning that the MNAR is the owner of the largest collection of works by Constantin Brancusi in Romania.

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