EDUCATOR AS A CURATOR. MUSEUM POWER EXHIBITION AS EXPERIMENT TO EXTEND MUSEUM EDUCATION FIELD

Abstract

The paper presents the research project implemented by the staff of the University of Silesia in Katowice during the Museum Power Exhibition at the National Museum in Krakow. The semiotic interpretation of the data amassed in FGIs and IGIs, these enriched with class observations, Desk Research, as well as the analysis of purpose-created documents, allowed to fulfil the goal of the investigation. The interdepartmental cooperation launched when educators became Exhibition's curators was of the main interest to the researchers. These actions were considered as examples of the implementation of the 'educational turn' in Polish museology where tendencies to clearly separate and differently evaluate curatorial and educational practices are distinctly visible. The analysis of the manners of extending fields of museum education by educators-curators enabled the identification of a set of recommendations for initiating display projects implemented and co-created by the education department staff. In the presentation of the research results the focus has been put on three areas in which the shift was observed: types of knowledge organizing thinking about the display; perception and application of educators' competences; and shaping informal relations and producing institutional trust. The paper speaks in favour of the necessity to take into account the experience and competences of the education department employees when creating valuable exhibitions and consolidating good relations with committed public.