Penny McKeon is head of the School of Art Education, College of Fine Arts, at the University of New South Wales. For more than thirty years, Penny has worked in secondary and tertiary settings, contributing to policy development and implementation for the NSW Department of Education and Training and the Board of Studies. Her research interests include the application of art history and criticism in educational settings, the museum as a manifestation of the public sphere and the history of art education in New South Wales. Penny's doctoral studies undertaken in the United States, investigate the nexus of art historical practice within the school years.

ABSTRACT

Great expectations: romancing the spectator in the museum

The author contends that exhibitions and public programming in museums work together to persuade the viewer to anticipate the unexpected. Deploying John Dewey's notion of an experience, curators present a point of view, which may begin with the familiar only to emplot a series of encounters which recontextualise, surprise, astound, delight and finally consummate the relationship between the public and the displayed works.