Jamen, hvad skal vi kigge efter? En undersøgelse af hvordan kunstmuseer muliggør børns medborgerskab

The overall ambition with this research project is to show the connections between art education, children's citizenship and art museums democratic role, in order to contribute with new perspectives on the art museum's democratic role and democratic art education. This research project thereby positions itself in an interdisciplinary field between art education and social sciences. The dissertation's particular contribution is to show how situations that break with (cracks) or are beyond (gaps) the qualifying and socializing education have a special democratic potential.
The research is informed by performative understandings of democracy and subjects. With this in mind, I examine how gallery education enable children's citizenship and contribute to the ongoing establishment of art museums democratic role.
The research project originates from a separate development project with 10 Danish museums and cultural institutions ‘Museums and Cultural institutions as spaces for citizenship’ and is based on a close cooperation with the development project, through my dual role as researcher and project manager and through the involvement of museum professionals in data production. Methodologically, the research project is developed in an abductive process between theory and empirical data, where my produced empirical data is seen as a critical dialogue partner in the development of new theoretical perspectives on art museums democratic role and democratic art pedagogy.
The dissertation “But what should we look for?” (Jamen, hvad skal vi kigge efter?) is structured in four parts; 1) Theoretical perspectives, 2) Methodolo-gy, methods and data, 3) Analysis and 4) Conclusions and perspectives.
Part 1 - Theoretical Perspectives
In this theoretical part, I combine different theoretical perspectives, so as to draw the interdisciplinary field where the dissertation positions itself. In particular, it is informed by the American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler's understanding of subject and the French philosopher Jacques Rancière's concept of democracy, whose perspectives I combine through the Dutch educational philosopher Gert Biestas and the British sociologist Gerard Delantys understanding of citizenship as a learning process. Through these theoretical inspirations, the dissertation present a performative perspective on art museums democratic role and democratic art education that challenges the dominant understanding and practice which are based on representative democracy and consider socialization as a democratic process.

The second part - Methodology, methods and data
My performative perspective on art museums democratic role and democratic art pedagogy is not only developed through theoretical combinations but also informed by my produced empirical data, which I describe through my abductive research process.
This part shows how the research project has developed in close cooperation with art museum practice because of my dual role as project manager and researcher and through the involvement of museum professionals in data production. I also describe how I have been inspired by childhood researcher Hanne Warming in conducting participant observations from a position as a least-possible adult and how this method made it possible for me to notice the unexpected, but also how the method is particularly suitable for studies of art educational encounters. Finally, I construct a critical case based on democratic education, which has particular potential to show correlation between art educational encounters and children's citizenship, and to unfold the research project’s reach.
Part Three – Analysis
Through the analysis I develop three empirically generated concepts: stops, gaps and cracks to show how art educational encounters allow children’s citi-zenship as learning process and democratic events. I then show how stops allow children's citizenship as disciplinary learning process by limiting chil-dren’s participation to particular ways to experience, see, interact and talk about art. But also indicate that in cracks occur opportunities to break with the discipline on how to experience, so new perspectives and ways of doing can occur. Finally, I point to how gaps makes it possible for children to participate, without first having learned how to participate.
Through the analysis I show how different situations in these specific exemplary educational encounters enable and obstruct children's citizenship as learning processes and democratic events. Here. I stress the democratic potential that occurs in situations, which are often not considered importance - namely gaps and cracks.
Part Four - conclusion and perspectives
This part summarizes the empirical and theoretical arguments from the re-search project. In light of these arguments, I suggest to rethink the way we understand and practice art museums democratic role and democratic art education, a rethinking that will enable the democratic potential that occurs in cracks and gaps.
Hereby the research project contributes with new perspectives on how the democratic role of art museums can be understood and practiced in art educational encounters. I present ‘technologies of thinking’ that intend to act as a kind of translation into the practice of art museums. With technologies of thinking, I suggest to direct attention to gaps and cracks, but also to shift the perspective from what art is to what art does, and finally to develop an art museum practice, which is based on everyone’s capacity to participate and not the role of museums to teach anyone to participate.
The research project points to the art educational encounters particular po-tential in relation to a school practice that is increasingly subject to reductions of democracy. It also point to new ways of understanding effect measurements in the cultural policy field.
The research project contributes by pointing to the democratic potential of gaps and cracks and raises a number of questions to this perspective. Gaps and cracks are situations, which some forces in society, with the dominant focus on efficiency and measurable objectives, are trying to wipe out today, not only in art museums but in general and is it desirable? – At least not with democracy as the goal.