Hi there!

After being off-line for 10 days due to a modem problem, I must say it
feels so good to be back!

Now to my request - I am currently putting together some materials
regarding issues of omission: how reality is constructed and our
perceptions influence by what is chosen to be presented - or not
presented- in art and in museum galleries. I have enough theory to
back up the need for awareness, but these materials are for a new
resource center where teachers will be coming for ideas on how to
introduce their students to the museum's collection.

Does anybody out there have any practical ideas of activities that can
be carried out in the galleries to promote this kind of awareness?

So far, I have mostly found examples of how literary text influences
the construction of meaning.  This could be applied to works of art in
the galleries by having students write newspaper headlines and short
articles about a piece of work, encouraging them to avoid language
that can contain certain assumptions which may be racist, sexist, or
biased in other ways.

If anyone has other ideas or currently uses similar activites in their
galleries, I would love to hear about it!

Thanks in advance,
Deborah Bain
Education Assistant
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco