Museums and Galleries in Adult Education

Publisher Summary This chapter examines museums and galleries in adult education. Galleries attached to museums have been specifically designed to serve the needs of particular adult groups. There exist galleries, and exhibits for the blind, and for those confined to wheelchairs, and for the deaf, and for the illiterate, and for the emotionally disturbed. Many urban museums have designed specific exhibits to serve the needs of ghetto residents, and attention to the needs of the elderly has increased since the early 1970s. In general, there has been little interaction between the labor movement and museums for purposes of education, or for the enrichment of the worker, although some attempts to remedy this are noted in Austria, Mexico, and the Soviet Union. For adults, formal educational activities in museums and galleries have, for many years, been very similar to those provided for juveniles, and children. The visitor encounters the object, or the display in a small group under the direction of a lecturer, or guide.