Impreza muzealna formą działalności edukacyjnej – rozważania na przykładzie działalności Muzeum Historycznego Miasta Krakowa w ramach obchodów jubileuszu 750. rocznicy lokacji Krakowa

Abstract

A MUSEUM EVENT AS A FORM OF EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY – A CASE STUDY OF THE ACTIVITIES OFF ERED BY THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF KRAKOW AS PART OF THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE 750TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF KRAKOW UNDER MAGDEBURG LAW

In the preliminary remarks of the present paper the author introduces the issues of conscious and unconscious forms of infl uence which can either form or deform the identity of an individual. While doing nothing or feeling bored will produce the latter eff ect, in order to form a valuable individual a certain amount of educational and didactic effort is necessary. By engaging in educational activities, a museum becomes one of the factors which can form individuals functioning within society. The paper discusses the history of educational activities offered by the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków. Although this history is quite long, education was initially not perceived as one of the Museum’s key objectives. The author then proceeds to discuss the fundamental goals of contemporary museum education and presents specialists’ opinions on the forms of teaching and learning activities which can take place in a museum. Th e concept of “enlivening” museum exhibitions is the predominant issue here, as the need to introduce movement and polysensory activities which could infl uence visitors to get involved in a more interactive way is emphasized. Th is kind of diversity oriented approach which can make learning in a museum environment more attractive requires the use of advanced tools and techniques, including state of the art scientifi c developments. In the next section the author presents the idea of educational museum events, including one of the most signifi cant types in that category – „live history lesson”. This concept is directly derived from the proposition to “enliven” history. In his discussion of educational museum events organized by the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków the author presents the wide range of educational activities on offer, i.e. guided tours, museum lessons, workshops, lectures, talks, temporary exhibitions, presentations and meetings in schools, competitions, etc. An interesting phenomenon which appeared in the 1970s and the early 1980s was the organization of “live history lessons” in the form of theatrical shows staged by the „Lector’s Th eatre” which operated at the Museum. Th e author emphasizes the openness of the Historical Museum in its approach to utilizing novel techniques of popularizing historical knowledge which facilitate access to the visitors and at the same time make learning in a museum environment more attractive, especially in terms of the visual form of such activities. The author concludes that the tendency to abandon traditional „cabinet” forms of presentation of Kraków’s history at the Historical Museum is a process which began several years ago and has been continued ever since. Among the most interesting educational projects in which the Historical Museum has recently been involved the author mentions the series of Chivalry Workshops and Re-Enactments of Chivalric Tournaments at the Barbican (the starting point for these activities was a weaponry workshop, and the abovementioned events have been organized in cooperation with other organizations). Another interesting project was the series of events titled Meetings with Mediaeval Kraków at the Barbican organized by the Historical Museum as part of the jubilee celebrations of the 750th anniversary of the establishment of Kraków under Magdeburg Law.