Weaving Trauma Awareness into Museum Education

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global, collective, traumatic experience. Trauma-aware museum educators can play a therapeutic role in helping visitors reengage with life as the world reopens. This article explores the dynamics of what a trauma-aware approach to engaging with art may be, specifically detailing methods that can create new cognitive, emotional, and sensory experiences that contradict the experiences of trauma by replacing them with sensations rooted in agency and connection. Through their experiences working at different museums, the authors outline the main principles of trauma-aware art museum education (T-AAME) as it relates to visitors: orientation (setting a supportive tone); being with one another (regulation, attunement, and responsive pacing); choice and voice; and connection. The article also discusses museum-based art therapy as it compares to art museum education to highlight the overlaps and distinctions between the two and to show that museum experiences can be therapeutic without being therapy.