VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES WITH ROBYN MUSCARDINI

The basic tenet of Visual Thinking Strategies is that finding meaning in imagery calls upon many aspects of cognition—personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorizing—and that looking at art, going through a process of aesthetic development, brings us forward in our cognitive development as a whole. After a brief introduction to the origins and ongoing theoretical underpinnings behind the development of Visual Thinking Strategies, we will spend time looking together at one of the works of art in the gallery, with an eye to the range of skills we draw on, from simple identification (naming what one sees) to complex interpretation on contextual, metaphoric and philosophical levels.

Robyn Muscardini came to direct Visual Thinking Strategies after stints at the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in Oakland, California and the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Her Oakland-based contracting firm, Creative Spaces, led the charge in creating a network of generous resources to aid the East Bay community in the rebuilding efforts after the 1991 fires. She received a BFA with distinction from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, pursued post graduate studies at Osaka University of the Arts in Japan and an MA in Education from Sonoma State University.