By Helen O’Donoghue

My formative training was as a Fine Artist in the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1970s. I was keenly aware of the privilege of accessing Third Level education and was cognisant of the lack of opportunity that most Irish citizens had at that time in accessing good quality art education. This motivated me to engage in the public domain through community education for over a decade and then as a museum educator from the early 1990s at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

My Story

My life has been one of continuous enquiry-based learning.

I feel that my training as an artist shaped how I approach my own learning and has influenced what I believe is possible in situations where learning occurs in the gallery or studio. Aware of my privilege on graduating from art college I was determined to work as a socially engaged arts practitioner and educator. My practice has always been informed by review, evaluation and re-engaging, maintaining a continuous cycle of learning. I see myself as a Reflective Practitioner (Donald A. Schön).

I rejected the option of a career as a “solo/signature artist”, in favour of collaborative and community practice. This continues to inform how I structure the Engagement & Learning programmes at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) where I currently work. The privilege of having access to ongoing lifelong learning has continued and through my current role I have been able to access learning through action research, interdisciplinary exchange and international and peer-to-peer learning. It has been a rich reservoir that continually nourishes and challenges my thinking.

The importance of critical enquiry in learning from professional practice in other countries

From very early on in my career at IMMA, I sought out opportunities for critical engagement, be that with professionals from complementary fields; through peer-to-peer exchange and by associating my work on an international stage. Membership of the UK-based network ENGAGE; participation in European Learning Partnerships; attendance at Summer Schools and annual conferences and staging similar in my museum. Most recently I was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to research both historical and contemporary practice in the galleries and archives of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)’s Education programmes. This provides a peer-to -peer learning exchange which is bespoke, critical and supportive of a developing professional.

At what point did I feel confident to call myself a professional museum educator?

Reflecting on my experiences over my long career, I realise that I have been incrementally analysing my own learning style and applying that in how I make sense of practice. This enquiry-based learning has offered me access to some of the greatest thinkers in our contemporary field through their writing or through direct interaction on shared learning programmes and provides the means through which I continue to grow, learn and develop my professional instincts and my thinking on adult learning, lifelong learning, obstacles to learning.  

I am a collaborative actor in the field of learning; I connect with the theories of Co-construction and Collaborative Learning as developed by Paolo Freire and George Hein; Experiential Learning theories of David Kolb; and apply these to my work, be that in dialogue with others, in writing or making.

I respond to dialogue around artworks that engage both the narrative of the artwork and the meaning that is unlocked in me, as the viewer.

I have always agreed that “Art accrues meaning over time”: revisiting old favourites from the IMMA Collection after working with them over many decades reveals many narratives:  the original intention of the artist who made the work; and subsequent layers of meaning that has attached to that artwork as an outcome of carefully constructed conversations held in galleries to connect the work with numerous aspects of a museum’s education programme (this spans the life of a learner from childhood to older age):

• it can be an education programme in a child’s schooling;
• a socially constructed dialogue for adults who are living with Dementia;
• a shared conversation to connect newly arrived citizens to Ireland.

“Art gains from the audience who sees it, for its own reservoir of meaning is being added to continuously, just as it leaks meaning out into the world of that audience.” (Maher, 2007)

Learning in the Gallery and connecting with a national Collection is a treasure chest of gifts that can be opened and reopened over time to stimulate the curious, connect a group of enquirers; and spark a heated debate.

My trajectory from artist in the 1970s to museum professional has been a wonderfully rich and varied journey that has centred on my own childhood desire to “make art” to a maturing as adult and discovering how when engaging with art, it in turn can make all types of learning experiences to connect with what is most important: knowledge, understanding, insight or inspiration that helps to make a difference to in the lives of citizens everywhere.

About the author

Helen O’Donoghue is Senior Curator, Head of Engagement & Learning at the Irish Museum of Modern Art since 1991. Initially trained in Fine Art and working on experimental socially engaged arts projects for a decade before joining IMMA, she adopted a pioneering approach to breaking new ground in creating people-centred access programmes. Socially engaged practices and critical pedagogy inform her curatorial work and writing. Fulbright Scholar at MoMA in 2019/ 2020 and currently an Ambassador for Creative Professionals.