By Amy E. Herman
This article was published in Museum News, May/June issue of 2007.
What are the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the FBI and the National Guard doing in the majestic galleries of the Frick Collection? Since 2004, agents and officers of all ranks have been participating in an unprecedented museum education program whose objectives of enhancing visual observation skills and improving verbal communication are resonating throughout the law enforcement world. “The Art of Observation,” initially begun as a collaborative program between the Frick and members of the NYPD, has evolved into an ongoing educational initiative that uses the masterpieces in the Frick Collection as the basis for substantive professional training. After receiving national and international newspaper and television coverage, the program has grown and been replicated and adapted for museums throughout the country, cultivating new and untraditional audiences who bring a renewed sense of vision and inquiry to these institutions.
Adapted from a similar program implemented at the Frick with the Weill Cornell Medical School in 2000, which was designed to enhance medical students’ observation skills and ultimately, the quality of care of their patients, “The Art of Observation” seemed equally suited to training professionals in law enforcement. The need for precision in observation and perception exists not only in exigent circumstances but also when pursuing criminals and assessing crime scenes, where thorough observation minimizes the potential for compromising evidence. Improved communication in law enforcement also has assumed paramount importance in view of recent and troubling events involving miscommunication among police officers and the public. Thus, the dual objectives of improving observation and communication skills by using art as the pedagogical model emerged as the foundation for this program.
With this mission in mind, Amy Herman, the Frick Collection’s head of education, invited the NYPD deputy commissioner for training along with his colleagues to the Frick for a demonstration of the program. When they arrived, guns in tow, they were captivated by the works of art in their magnificent setting and were thrilled at the potential for a professional collaboration at the museum. Homicide, special victims, domestic violence or detectives? What specialties within the hierarchy of the police department would most benefit from training at one of New York’s most treasured cultural institutions?
Herman and the Deputy Commissioner, together with the commanding officer of the Police Academy, determined that every class of newly promoted captains as well as executive development sections, comprising senior police executives in managerial and leadership positions, would participate in “The Art of Observation.” The sessions were subsequently expanded to include sergeants, lieutenants and academy recruits who also would attend when no classes of captains were promoted.
With great anticipation, in August 2004 the inaugural group of captains arrived at the Frick Collection. Having no idea why they had been assigned to 1 East 70th Street, many assumed a security briefing would occur. Imagine their surprise when they were told the real reason: They were there to look at art. In Henry Clay Frick’s former bedroom, now a conference room, the officers were introduced to the concept of looking at art, were shown introductory slides of paintings and were asked to describe exactly what they saw, no detail being too precise and no observation too obvious. If they had previous knowledge of art, Herman requested that they refrain from revealing such factual information, concentrating instead on the image before them.
After viewing the slides, the group progressed downstairs to the Frick’s galleries, which were closed to the public on Mondays, when the sessions were conducted. Divided into small groups, the captains were assigned to a portrait, a landscape or a sculpture to examine closely for five minutes. Museum educators circulated to lead discussions at each object, asking officers to describe the work to each other and reach a consensus about not only the subject but also the formal elements utilized by the artist. All the participants then reconvened in front of each object, and the smaller groups were asked to present their findings and observations to the assembled group. Each officer had the opportunity to articulate his or her own observations instead of electing a group spokesperson. Not surprisingly, dialogue and disagreement were spirited, and consensus was not always achieved. Groups were allotted only five minutes for presentation, in an effort to duplicate real-life circumstances, which do not often afford the luxury of time to assess and describe.
Based on the success of that first course, over 30 sessions of “The Art of Observation” have been completed for law enforcement professionals at the Frick. Typically, officers are instructed to articulate the attributes of the works of art, attempting to answer the questions of “who, what, where, why, and when,” as they would at a crime scene. When describing Claude Lorrain’s Sermon on the Mount, one sergeant assessed the landscape as he would a scenario encountered on the street: “If I came to this scene and saw everyone looking up as they are in this painting, my first thought would be, ‘We’ve got a jumper on our hands,’ and I would prepare for a perp to try to escape by jumping off of a building.”
Following their session in the Frick’s galleries, participants return to the conference room, where they view a series of photographs of crime scenes, urban landscapes and portraits of individuals. Asked to articulate in descriptive language similar to that utilized when looking at paintings, the officers respond by describing, in detail, what it is they see before them. Consistently, it seems that the previous hour spent discussing observations of works of art instills in the participants a sense of confidence that is evident when relaying their visual observations of the photographs. In the later discussions, consensus is generally reached after thoughtful, deliberate and focused dialogue. More often than not, participants ask to revisit the slides of paintings so they can articulate their observations with a renewed approach to looking.
All participants in “The Art of Observation” complete a written evaluation of the program, which specifically asks them to rate, on a numeric scale, the relevancy of the program, its applicability to their daily responsibilities and the efficacy of correlating between paintings and photographs of crime scenes. Overwhelmingly positive, written comments range from simple gratitude for the opportunity to spend time in a world-class art museum when it was closed to the public to lauding the program as the best training the NYPD has ever offered in (one individual’s) 22 years with the department. The vast majority of evaluators wax enthusiastic about the concept of enhancing observation skills in a setting removed from the daily work environment and praise the methodology used by museum educators to refresh their perspective on acute observation. At the conclusion of the training, all participants receive a catalogue of the paintings in the Frick as well as free admission passes to return with their families at a later date. Their spirited appreciation is consistently expressed to museum educators, both in person at the conclusion of the program and in letters of thanks sent as unsolicited follow-up correspondence.
In July 2005, the Wall Street Journal featured “The Art of Observation” on the front page with a color reproduction of the Frick Collection’s painting, Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid. The reporter, Ellen Byron, had attended numerous sessions of the program. Noting the impact of the observation of works of art on the officers’ ability to process visual information on the job, Byron relayed many of her own firsthand observations in the article:
Capt. Ernest Pappas frowned in concentration as he stood before Vermeer’s “Mistress and Maid” in the Frick’s plush West Gallery and was asked to describe the painting. “This woman is right-handed, of well-to-do means, and the pen appears to be in the dropped position,” Mr. Pappas said, assessing the mistress. Unsure about the other figure in the picture, the maid, the 42-year-old asked his colleagues whether they thought she was delivering bad news. “Is she assuming a defensive position? Do you think that’s a smirk?” Though he hadn’t so carefully analyzed a painting before, Mr. Pappas immediately saw how it related to his detective work in Queens: “Crimes—and art—can be solved by looking at the little details.” Standing in front of El Greco’s “The Purification of the Temple,” David Grossi, an NYPD captain, recognized Jesus as the painting’s central figure, characterized the scene as chaotic and explained the work’s use of light and color. “The gang unit would probably be called in,” he continued. “It appears there’s grand larceny here, felony assault there, and Jesus would probably be charged with inciting a riot.” Counting 17 people in the scene, he added: “Good thing there are plenty of witnesses.”
In response to the Wall Street Journal article, the Frick Collection was inundated with inquiries from law enforcement agencies around the country and around the world—most notably, the Metropolitan Police of Scotland Yard, the United States Department of Justice, the Transportation Security Administration of the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Guard. Each of these agencies expressed keen interest in the use of art in museums to advance their overall professional competencies by learning to sharpen the observation skills so vital to their jobs, and the program subsequently received full funding from the David Berg Foundation and the Oceanic Heritage Foundation. Press coverage of this unusual collaboration intensified and in October 2005, the CBS Evening News produced and aired a report on the Frick’s ongoing collaboration with the NYPD.
In 2005, a request from the Strategic Studies Group, Chief Naval Operations of the United States War College (SSG), prompted Herman to test the adaptability of the program to other museums. Owing to a highly structured training schedule, the SSG convenes in Newport, R.I., for six months every year for specialized courses, and therefore they were unable to travel to New York for a session with Herman at the Frick. With the permission of colleagues at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Herman conducted an expanded session of the program there. She and her colleagues spent the day before the session canvassing the galleries of the MFA to select works of art that would be most conducive to discussions of visual observation. So successful was the MFA session, using an encyclopedic collection of art, that the SSG requested the training again in 2006. This time, Herman led “The Art of Observation” for them at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge. (The Fogg hopes to establish a similar program based on the work they did with Herman.) In his acknowledgment note to Herman, Admiral James Hogg of the SSG enthusiastically stated, “The foundation you provided for how we analyze the world around us will stimulate the innovative thinking necessary to generate viable future war-fighting concepts.” More to the museum educator’s gratification, he also noted that “while you certainly achieved your principal objective of improving our observation skills, you also instilled in each of us a greater appreciation for fine art.”
As a result of the publication of the Wall Street Journal article, other non-traditional versions of the program emerged in museums around the country, as did new partners for collaboration at the Frick. This past summer, Herman received a call from a member of the grand larceny team of the NYPD who had participated in a session of “The Art of Observation” at the Frick and who invited her to accompany his patrol in Manhattan. Spending the day with five members of the team on the streets of New York City made it clear why the exercise of looking at works of art, in all their complexity and substantive and formalistic nuance, was unquestionably valuable to these officers. Assessing urban landscapes, focusing observation on individuals and situations and ultimately, apprehending criminals required not only intense concentration but also precise communication.
Central to the foundation of “The Art of Observation” is that art historians are trained to look discerningly at works of art to hone their perception skills and enhance visual acuity. Over the last three years, museum educators at the Frick Collection have formalized this discipline of focused observation and successfully applied it to a variety of fields of law enforcement. They and their colleagues at numerous other museums where similar programs have been implemented have gleaned a collective understanding of the vital importance of observational skills in myriad professional contexts. Although completely objective observation cannot be taught, it appears from the success of this program and the number of requests for its replication that its tenets can be distilled when viewing works of art. It is also clear from the responsiveness of the participants that heightening awareness and perception as well as refining communication have assumed paramount importance for those in security-related professions in our post-9/11 world. On a larger scale, however, using works of art to improve both observation and communication skills of law enforcement professionals not only celebrates the power of art to reach viewers in unusual contexts but also augments the museum’s outreach and audience in a most innovative way.
Amy E. Herman is head of education, the Frick Collection, New York.
