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Interdisciplinary Arts As An Agent For Community Building In A U.S. Public School, Ida Pappas

Educational Studies Dissertations

The aim of my dissertation research is to understand the relationship between interdisciplinary arts experiences and the establishment of a community culture in a mainstream public high school in northeast United States. With this research, I hope to provide evidence to support the inclusion of interdisciplinary arts projects in the fabric of students’ high school curricular and extra-curricular experiences. Through engagement in design, art, video, music, dance, theater and the close study of a minority culture, high school participants provided regular responses to planned survey questions and open-ended survey questions (Experience Sampling), as well as through interviews, written prompts and …

A Case Study In Museum Change: Power, Authority And Community Connected Exhibitions, Marilyn Cathy Solvay, Ph.D.

Educational Studies Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation is a study of museum change and examines the power of objects along with the authority of traditional exhibitions and the development of community-connected exhibitions. Community-connected exhibitions are explored to provide insight into reshaping the museum organization into a multicultural institution.

Method: A case study of a community-connected exhibition, "Becoming Americans: The Shapiro Story: 1898-1928," was conducted at Strawberry Banke, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an outdoor history museum. Interviews were held with 25+ project participants: museum staff project team members, Shapiro family members, community members at large, and representatives from other community cultural institutions. This qualitative research project …