The role of education in gaining democratic access to culture and arts: Agreements and disagreements between the school and the museum

The starting point of this paper is a classroom situation arisen in the training of teachers on early childhood education. As a result of a discussion on the role of art mu seums in the educational process of my own students as well as on its impact on their current relationship with the arts world, I considered running an inquest which could allow us to make a diagnosis based on data, rather than on mere assumptions, in order to shed light on the current links between schools and art venues. The outcome of this investigation revealed without doubt that the traditional rapport between schools and mu seums, supported on guided tours for the students, fails to achieve the educational and sensibilizing purpose it claims to have. So, this paper argues that, provided a more collaborative and steady relationship between these two educational areas, this situation could be improved, and at the same time reoriented towards the inner experience of art rather than towards providing information about artists, works of art, styles and so forth