My thesis is about creating a lesson structure for making an exhibition together with students, because this can lead to a meaningful educational experience. In my opinion, visual art education is unnecessarily individualistic and isolated, and exhibition-making can bring about a change here. Cooperation is an essential part of exhibition-making, which involves a common goal that each student can shape in his or her unique way. Based on the educational philosophy of John Dewey, which has participation at its core, I have been researching whether the making of an exhibition contributes to meaningful visual art education by actively involving students in the lesson, creating a space for their ideas (i.e. connecting the lesson to the world of the student) and working towards a common goal (with space for the individual, but attention and appreciation for the ideas of others).
I conducted semi-structured interviews with professionals who work as teachers or employees at art institutions and have knowledge about exhibition-making with students. Based on those interviews and my research of literature on the subject, I designed a flexible lesson structure. As a guest teacher, I implemented and tested this framework during visual art lessons at a primary school. In those lessons, the pupils developed a theme, made artworks and realized an exhibition together, based on their own ideas. The practical research outcome consists of a sample lesson plan and suggestions, which are intended to inspire policy makers and teachers in primary schools and cultural centres.

My research shows that by taking actual participation as a starting point for making an exhibition, the shared goal (the exhibition) becomes meaningful to students because the content of the goal (the theme and therefore the visual work) is based on their own contribution. Right from the start of the project there is already energy because the students know that they will be presenting their work to an audience. Subsequently, the active contribution of the students and a socially interactive learning environment become the core of meaningful visual art education.

External critic: Folkert Haanstra (Senior lecturer, Master of Education in Arts, Amsterdam University of the Arts)