Same Exhibits, New Eyes

By John Anderson, Susan Thompson and Amanda Trainor

The New England Aquarium continually seeks to engage visitors in experiences that capture their attention and foster a stewardship ethic—a desire to care for animals and their natural habitats and ecosystems. We try to foster creative approaches.

Recently, we have taken several steps to use the strengths and skills of art and artists to this purpose. This paper describes one example—a recent pilot program to train volunteers and staff to begin using art as a means to facilitate experiences for visitors—and how we plan to extend lessons learned from the pilot program.

There is a misperception that the New England Aquarium stays the same. It is true that some of our most cherished collection animals have lived with us for decades—in fact, many visitors are delighted that iconic exhibits and individual animals they grew up with are still here to astound their children. Unfortunately, they don't feel they've missed much in the intervening years. But the aquarium has more than 600 species—most of which go largely unnoticed—and continually introduces new animals to the collections, so visitors who haven't come in years have missed a lot. We think art can help exhibition and program audiences notice more of what is available and deepen their appreciation of and personal sense of connection to the animals in our exhibits.

We recently launched a five-year strategic action plan that makes it a priority to revitalize the visitor experience to focus on discovery. As part of that action plan, we are asking how we can facilitate new ways for visitors to experience our exhibits, so they will do more, see more and become more interested. Can we help people learn to look carefully enough to notice new things? We believe that we can, and we think artists can help.

In January 2008, the New England Aquarium's education department piloted an art workshop for a group of education volunteers. It focused on sketching and drawing aspects of various exhibits. The goals were to promote fun, to engage volunteers in trying something new, to explore whether drawing exhibit animals would help volunteers to see the animals or exhibits in a new way and to imagine new ways to engage visitors using art. The pilot program trained interpretive staff and volunteers to use new tools—particularly a sketchpad and pencil. We also thought that staff would themselves develop a deeper understanding and connection to individual exhibits, making their interpretation for visitors more personal.

The Pilot Workshop
Ten education volunteers participated in the pilot program, led by Polly Anastasi, a local artist who volunteered her services. Each participant responded to several pre-program questions about the challenge of finding new ways to see and think about exhibits and animals. The workshop proceeded with exercises, beginning with drawing from memory, contour drawing, modified contour drawing, gesture sketching and a final careful illustration of a single object. We asked participants to respond to a post-workshop survey in order to assess their immediate views about its usefulness.

Pre-program surveys suggested that the volunteers were aware of the perception that the aquarium never changes. Comments included, for example, "It is hard to change the format of the aquarium," "We usually have the same animals," and "[Frequent visitors] many times . . . feel that the aquarium is small and does not have many animals."

Looking more closely and more carefully was a central theme within the workshop. They began by making two drawings of familiar species from memory, one of a lobster and one of a horseshoe crab, animals they know well because we work with them on a regular basis for live presentations and exhibit interpretation. The volunteers were surprised and amused at how difficult it was to draw a realistic lobster or horseshoe crab from memory only.

Ms. Anastasi began the lessons with an introduction to blind contour drawing. Volunteers focused on a single biofact (an object from an animal or plant) and, without taking their eyes off the biofact and without removing their pencils from the paper, outlined the contours of the subject. Participants were amused by the results: The jagged, mismatched outlines on their papers looked very little like their subjects. With modified contour drawings, Ms. Anastasi allowed participants to look back and forth between the biofact and their paper; the illustrations took on a much more realistic appearance.

The next challenge was to begin sketching a moving target, one of the most popular species at the aquarium: penguins! For this, Ms. Anastasi introduced a technique called the gesture sketch. Gesture sketching uses light, quick strokes to make a drawing from a foundation of simple shapes. Participants went into the exhibit areas to try their hands at creating gesture sketches from the colony of rockhopper, African and little blue penguins.

This was an important component of the workshop because the volunteers were in uniform while visitors were all around them. In addition to practicing the technique, volunteers also had to respond to visitor questions. Based on these questions, we were able to interpret aspects of our penguin exhibit and discuss behaviors and anatomy that affected our attempts to sketch them.

When some curious visitors approached one volunteer and began peeking over her shoulder at her work, she engaged them with a smile and explained what she was doing. She continued sketching as she told them why she was there and took the opportunity to share other information about the penguins she was drawing. As a result, the visitors learned more about the penguins, and they were inspired to stop and look for details that the volunteer was concentrating on.

The general feeling among the volunteers was that sketching could function simultaneously as a learning tool for themselves and an interpretive tool for starting conversations with visitors. We often use biofacts to attract visitors' attention and to provide a tangible focal point for engaging in conversation. Biofacts make a stronger impression than reciting facts. Similarly, drawing is attractive and can entice visitors who might not otherwise approach an educator with questions.

It keeps the conversation going, too, because the drawing is not static but changes before the visitors' eyes. As our penguin sketches took shape, observant visitors could see how the parts of a penguin fit together, not only on paper but on our living models, leading to questions about why penguins can't fly, why they hop so clumsily on land and why some species have such colorful yellow feathers above their eyes.

Volunteers reflected positively on the program. One wrote, "My drawing skills have greatly improved in the past couple of hours, as illustrated by my horseshoe crabs!" Another wrote, "I thought it was very interesting; a new perspective on the live animals we see all the time," and another enjoyed "really looking at everything a little differently—and definitely for the better."

Participants also expressed enthusiasm through offering ideas for incorporating this type of experience into programs for visitors and other programs. They commented that since they had enjoyed it, probably visitors would, too. "I really noticed new things that I never saw before on the biofacts and penguins. . . . Visitor groups [in this program] would really dissect every animal with their drawing, learning more than they would by just looking at exhibits when passing by."

Some suggestions:

"Add lessons similar to this into our Overnight Programs for students and family groups. In addition to the learning, participants would also have a portfolio to bring home."
"Kids on field trips would get a lot from this workshop. It adds another educational activity that's really fun as well."
This "unique and fun experience . . . would be an awesome program for members."
It would be a great program that "visitors could sign up to do"; after going through one class, there "could be a level 1 and level 2 (or more levels)" to help keep returning visitors challenged.
"A definite next step" would be to "display visitors' work" in the building, allowing them to share their accomplishments and inspire others.
This initial experience suggests there is great potential for art to play a new and powerful role in our future work. We intend to pursue this direction in several ways, which we expect will be low-cost and potentially high-impact opportunities:
Offer this workshop three to four times each year for volunteers and staff.
Identify a few volunteers who are particularly enthusiastic and encourage them to use a sketchpad and pencil as tools for catching visitors' attention and initiating dialogue about aquarium exhibits.
Seek funding to hire an artist to lead this workshop for members.
Pilot-test new art activities, based on experiences with this workshop, with our overnight programs.
Continue to gather ideas and feedback from volunteers, staff and program participants for how we can help people look carefully and discover much more about the New England Aquarium.
Seek funding to support deeper and more regular engagements with artists and practicing art and to carefully evaluate the impact of such programs on the attitudes of participants toward aquatic and marine species and habitats.

Ultimately, we envision practicing art as a creative way to support two broad, important goals. One is to enrich people's lives, to help them appreciate more fully the wonder of the New England Aquarium and of the world's aquatic and marine ecosystems. Another is to engage people in considering their personal connections to the subjects of our exhibits and their wild counterparts; we hope they will be inspired to take steps as ocean stewards.

John Anderson is director of education, Susan Thompson is director of foundation and government relations and Amanda Trainor is program coordinator of volunteer programs and internships at the New England Aquarium in Boston.