IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Francesca Rosenberg, who is the Director of Community, Access, and School Programs, Department of Education at the Museum of Modern Art, leads an in-gallery program for people with dementia and their caregivers in the galleries of the museum.
CAPTION: I spent five years studying museum education programs for people with dementia, resulting in multiple peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and seminar facilitations. Here’s a picture from Marilynn K. Yee at The New York Times documenting the earliest years of these programs, which formally launched at MoMA in 2009. You can read the full story here.
My social scientific research focuses on informal education and learning, organizational strategy and change, disability and inequality, health and illness, and arts and cultural management. As a qualitative research scientist, I investigate these areas primarily through interviews, participant observation, and archival and textual analysis.
My work asks:
Which ways of knowing and learning about the world are valued over others, and why?
And: With what consequences for promoting equitable learning experiences?
I explored these questions at considerable length as the principal investigator of an ethnographic, multi-site study examining how cultural non-profits develop, assess, and implement educational programs for people with disabilities. As part of this research I scoped and detailed the need for this project as it relates to educator training and gender equity, resulting in $20,000 in fellowship funding from the American Association of University Women. I’ve also published data from this project in numerous refereed journal articles.
Publications include investigations of:
how staff in cultural organizations collaborate with recreational therapists to implement therapeutic programming for people with disabilities
how teachers and learners differently understand the benefits of the museum-going experiences of visitors with dementia and their caregivers
how art museums and botanical gardens design multi-sensory programs and spaces for visitors with disabilities and the organizational challenges they face
For a full list of publications, you can check out my curriculum vita. For more information about how my applied and industry research relates to my academic work and expertise, check out this page on my work as a consultant.
Gemma Mangione 