Learning About Leadership From a Visit to the Art Museum

• In Event: 72.049 - Situated Learning in the Arts

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of how guided visits to the art museum can provide leadership lessons for aspiring principals. The principal interns (aspiring principals) participated in guided arts engagement sessions (at a large metropolitan art museum) facilitated by teaching artists from the Maxine Green Center for Aesthetic Education and Social Imagination. Data sources for the study included observations of the sessions and interviews with participants. These were analyzed using grounded theory methods and emergent themes were identified. The findings indicate that guided engagement with the visual arts provides insights to participants about self (intra-personal learning), learning about others (interpersonal learning) and helps develop a sense of agency through creative self-expression.

Authors

• Girija Kaimal, Drexel University

• Adele M.L. Gonzaga, Temple University

• Jon Drescher

• Holly Fairbank, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. 

• George White, Lehigh University