"Art in our lives is necessary to make us more human," says art museum educator Philip Yenawine, one of the pioneers of the visual thinking strategy. The strategy, which has been developed and practiced for more than 20 years, has also reached the MO Museum. This is what we are talking about with Aldona Vilutyte, who conducts classes based on the visual thinking strategy method.
theater, cinema, literature, radio, teaching - a lot of everything in your life. And what is the closest? What takes the most time and required the most "searching"?
I have told myself that all my activities, which seem different enough to other people, are connected after all. Teaching at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater, conducting classes at the MO Museum, conducting public speaking classes, voice-overs, dubbing, my work in cinema, theater - for me, it's all related to acting.
So acting is like the beginning of everything for you?
I call acting a human science. It covers many areas. In my opinion, an actor must be a good observer and researcher in everyday life. He has to study life, people, himself. And in order to get to know yourself, realize your limits, expand your possibilities, sometimes you need to throw yourself into various, maybe not always safe or comfortable situations. You need to try something new, unfamiliar, and not lose your curiosity. Later comes the time and need to share everything you have noticed, learned, found out, experienced, experienced. All my activities and works combine into a whole for me - a creative process and an interesting life. It also gives me the opportunity to meet many different people, interesting personalities. There was a time when my life was dominated by theater alone, now it is not. But it's still a big part of my life. Acting experience helps me in all activities. Probably, my experience as a practitioner and not as a theoretician probably allows me to be in certain spheres, in certain activities.
How did you end up at the MO Museum, and what inspired you to become interested in the visual thinking strategy that you teach?
When I was invited to conduct classes at the museum, the first thought was - how is it? After all, I am not an artist, nor a creator, nor an art theoretician, nor an art researcher. However, when I started to delve into the strategy of visual thinking, I was not 100 percent, I was intrigued. I met with MO Museum coordinator of education projects, later we were joined by Karen Vanhercke, a specialist in education in art museums from Belgium, who has extensive experience. I got a lot of material and spent almost half a year researching and mastering this methodology. Over time, everything fell into place and now it's very natural for me to be here. Growing up among artists, I was surrounded by artists throughout my childhood less – parents, grandparents, sisters are artists, there are a number of my father's works in the MO collection. When I conduct classes, I am also among the works of artists that I have seen since childhood, and whose authors I have known since childhood.
So, what is your session "Experience art MO: visual discoveries with Aldona Vilutyte" about?
This is an activity based on the visual thinking strategy. It offers a way to get to know art and at the same time develops the thinking and communication skills of the visitors. People observe the artworks and I encourage them to discuss. By examining and thinking aloud, viewers try to find meaning in a work of art. Meaning is discovered and created by everyone, and this strategy simply contributes to the stimulation of aesthetic development. Broad and active deliberations and discussions help to develop critical thinking, communication skills and the courage to interpret art. I present one of the ways - how to come and be at the exhibition, how to look and observe art, analyze artworks, search for your own personal relationship. And to summarize, after all, these visual thinking activities coincide with the MO museum's vision, that the person who comes is a co-creator, a partner who makes his contribution. And everyone can and is encouraged to have their own opinion.
Many people associate the word education with children and school. Why not for children?
The MO museum has classes based on the visual thinking strategy for children, but I haven't been working with children lately. Although in my youth I worked in camps and in a theater studio and had many performances for children. As the years go by, the sense of responsibility increases and now I don't even know if I have the necessary qualities, especially patience. Working with children is a big responsibility. Teachers who work with children, they are heroes. After all, teachers and doctors used to be prestigious professions in Lithuania, and I think that's how it should be.
You conduct education for adults. How do they "give in" to your game? How are you getting them interested?
The most important thing is to make the rules of presence very clear. To name what we will do today and how we will be with the artworks and each other. The activity has very clear parts. We start in a small space with reproductions, postcards and only later move to the exhibition hall. Anyway, I invite you to take it as a game.
What is your main task during the session?
I invite people to stay a little longer with one work, observe it, talk. There is a set of VMS (Visual Thinking Strategy) questions that I ask to encourage people to share their thoughts, impressions and observations. And there are no right or wrong answers here, no need to guess what is depicted here or what the artist wanted to say with this painting. It is important what each of us sees in the picture and share it. My main task is to create the right atmosphere for a group of people, to introduce them into the context so that they feel comfortable and dare to speak. This is a conversation with people about what feelings and impulses the work of art itself causes, so the participant does not need the knowledge of an art critic. I try to arouse their curiosity with the first impulse, what was dictated by the picture, and only after that - to be more interested. Therefore, with the participants of the session, we stay at one work, talk about it and only later find out more about its title and author. The purpose of the activity is not some finite result, the process itself becomes important and interesting. To arouse the desire to continue to be interested, maybe to come again to the painting, the same work, after reading about the author, the period, the context. During the session with the group, I stay with the same works selected according to VMS. Interestingly, although there have been quite a few sessions, none have been the same. With each group of people I keep hearing something new, different and it gives me the opportunity to discover even more in those works. This is how the creative process of the viewer takes place. It is very nice that the same people who attended the first classes at the previous exhibition come to the class at the new big exhibition "Animal - Human - Robot".
After all, how to be in an exhibition for a person who does not know how to be in it? How not to be afraid to be with art and to art?
When I told my friends that I conduct such classes, I got this question. Many of us have been to world-renowned museums, but still don't know how to be in an exhibition. Something seems to be happening, but you want a result. We hear: art is not for me, I don't understand anything here, etc. We often evaluate works based on names we have heard, biographies or films created. Perhaps, ignoring the whole context, you would stop at a work whose author you have never heard of and see something different, close to you. I think that this strategy is applied in the MO museum, because it corresponds to the worldview of the museum. Art is accessible to everyone: both professionals and passers-by are welcome here. So this activity shows one of the ways for people who feel curious to get to know art, but are not frequent visitors of galleries and exhibitions. As if the first step, one of the suggestions is how to be with pictures. And yes, I am of the opinion that when you come to the Louvre, maybe it is enough to see two works, or maybe even one, instead of going around the entire museum in two hours. We often hear the debate: is it necessary to understand art? Will you survive? Do you feel it? It seems to me that every work of art, painting, performance, film I saw, or line of poetry I read, music I heard stays with me and influences my decisions and choices in life.
A. Vilutytė was interviewed by Greta Vainauskaitė
