Understanding in an art museum: A case study of interpretations of art by Japanese and American children

Japanese museums have been inspired by Western museums for a long time, but their lack of educational goals and understanding of the nature of museum learning often prevents them from successfully providing meaningful educational experiences, especially for young children. This case study investigates what children from Japan and the United States, ages 6 to 8, understand and how they develop meaningful experiences in their encounters with selected works of art in a museum environment. This study demonstrates how children from two different cultural backgrounds interpret works of art and offers insights for Japanese museums to improve their educational provision.;Eighteen Japanese and 19 American children, ages 6 to 8, participated in two weekend sessions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They looked at eight paintings with two themes---human figures and landscapes---from both Western and Eastern traditions. Children discussed the paintings in the galleries by responding to open-ended questions and then created their own drawings. Data from discussions in the galleries and individual interviews with children about their drawings were treated for emergent themes, and the results are presented in terms of how they reflect individual and cultural perspectives.;Children from both cultures began their interpretations of the paintings by telling stories. The study found that narrative helped the children observe, organize, imagine, think critically, and develop meanings, as well as express their ideas through verbal and non-verbal forms. Due to their unique individual and cultural backgrounds, children often drew upon visual elements of the paintings in different ways in their stories. What children included and paid attention to and how they told stories were related to cultural factors in their everyday lives. Narrative interpretations of works of art reflected children's cultural ways of experiencing the world around them.;Narratives allowed the children in this study to have meaningful interpretations of experience beyond cultural and individual differences. The study urges Japanese museums to be aware of the importance of narrative encounters with works of art and narratives that draw on children's everyday and imagined experiences in order to make young visitors' museum learning more meaningful.