Music and Museum Education. Preliminary Results of a Case-Study

Museum education programs can play an important role in addressing the issue of informal education. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of any systematic educative activity, organized outside from the official framework in order to facilitate educative experiences. Besides concert pedagogy or musical mediation, in Romania far too little attention has been paid to the possibilities of music in museum education. The aim of this essay is to explore the different ways music education can occur during a visit to the museum. It describes the design and implementation of a local pioneer program, more precisely conducting an educational program based on the musical collection of a temporary exhibition. The purpose of the hands-on approach of the Folk music instruments exhibition of the Hungarian Folk Museum was to enhance the young visitors’ ability to understand, appreciate and use different musical instruments. Present case-study refers to the goals, questions for viewing, activities, targeted audiences, resources, objects in the collection related to the program and it also enumerates the qualities and roles of music educators. This project was conceived during my time working for the Haáz Rezső Museum (Odorheiu Secuiesc), Romania in 2022. As a music educator, I witnessed guided tours and workshops tailored to different age groups of audiences, engaging them in dialog and encouraging them to try out musical instruments and a range of creative techniques in order to make music accessible. Of course, there is abundant room for further progress in determining the methodology of museum music education or the specific learning objectives in music. Still, among the variety of formal and non-formal (e. g. extracurricular) activities, informal learning and museum music education will almost certainly will become more common in the future.