Hello everyone, my name is Jennifer Webster, and I am a Visitor Experience Assistant (VEA) working front of house at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow.

In 2024, The Hunterian worked in partnership with the Imperial War Museum 14–18 Now Legacy Fund to commission the artist Cathy Wilkes. The body of work, and exhibition, shed light on experiences of violence in conflict sometimes excluded from major narratives, and was influenced by Wilkes’ childhood in Northern Ireland. 

As part of our team training for the project we were introduced to ‘Visual Thinking Strategies’, a way of inviting visitors to contemplate and critique artworks regardless of any previous knowledge. ‘Visual Thinking Strategies’ (VTS) is a teaching method that focuses on a student’s ability to critically analyse artwork through inquiry-based techniques. In practice, it draws upon various theoretical concepts such as Social Constructivism (the idea that people develop their knowledge through interacting with others around them and through the lens of their own culture) and Aesthetic Development (wherein people hold different levels of artistic interpretation, appreciation and understanding). 

In May 2024, my colleagues and I undertook the Visual Thinking Strategies training with the intent to incorporate it into our work practice. We were walked through an initial VTS session with several images and were asked to note how the conversation had flowed according to the session leader’s direction. 

After participating in a session, we were asked to practice leading sessions ourselves, asking just three questions to keep the conversation going: 

1. What is going on?
2. What do you see that makes you say that?
3. What more can we find? 

The training gave us the tools to support our visitors in exploring Cathy Wilkes’ work, as well as developing our own relationship to the exhibition. The VTS techniques were particularly powerful in this context as Wilkes often seeks to convey themes of universal relevance: attachment, care, loss, separation. By guiding visitors to share their responses, the VEA team and I were able to explore these powerful emotions with our visitors, and to encourage them to share with others, sparking up conversations in the gallery.  

Since the training, the Hunterian Art Gallery has developed an ongoing programme of VTS sessions under the name ‘Look Club’. These sessions are now held monthly and we’ve even developed a ‘Little Look Club’ for younger visitors. The sessions last for around an hour and cover three to four different artworks in the gallery. 

As a VEA, I feel that VTS has helped me to develop my own critical analysis skills and knowledge of artistic motifs and techniques through its use of Social Constructivist methodology. This deeper understanding of critical thinking has been very helpful in my everyday work as a VEA, as it has helped me to engage in deep and meaningful discussions with other visitors about other aspects of the art gallery/art in general. This ability to meet visitor needs through the sharing of knowledge is a vital component of the visitor experience, and something that I believe this training exemplifies.