Gallery and Museum Education: Purpose, Pedagogy and Practice

Purnima Ruanglertbutr is an independent curator, writer, educator, arts manager and researcher into art and museum education. In particular, her research focuses on her interests in museum education pedagogy, teacher- artist issues, inclusive art education, contemporary curatorial models, and the relationship between visual art and literacy. At the time of editing this special edition, Purnima is co-researcher and lecturer within Melbourne Graduate School of Education’s Department of Artistic and Creative Education, where she administers the ‘Teacher as Artmaker Project’ and lectures the Master of Education subject ‘Teaching and Artistic Practice’. Ms Ruanglertbutr has taught at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and has co-conducted Profes- sional Development programs for English and Art teachers and educa- tion programs at the NGV. She was Education Officer at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne for the Basil Sellers Art Prize (2012), where she published a variety of education resources for students of English, English as a Second Language (ESL), Art, and delivered inter-disciplinary programs for primary school to tertiary students, including refugees, newly arrived migrants and international students. Through her museum programs, she advocated accessible arts education, social inclusion and cul- tural diversity in learning. She has also produced inter-disciplinary educa- tion resources to support University students’ museum learning, for the Potter’s Academic Programs unit. Ms Ruanglertbutr was manager of the 2013 Art Association of Australia and New Zealand conference, Inter-discipline, during which she convened a panel on ‘Inter-disciplinarity in Art Museums’, which featured various presentations by museum professionals across Australia and New Zealand. She has represented many emerging and established artists and arts practitioners through her projects and has managed arts events in Australia and internationally. Ms Ruanglertbutr’s arts related writing and research have been published in numerous jour- nals and magazines in Australia, Canada and Thailand. Ms Ruanglertbutr holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Teaching (Secondary - Art, Eng- lish, ESL) from that same university. She also completed a Master of Art Administration from the University of New South Wales, Australia.