Chair: Dianne Montgomery

The richness of museum and gallery artworks, artefacts and ideas are ideal stimuli for gifted and talented children in an immense range of subjects and genres. The detail available about the objects on display also allows for depth of study enjoyed by many gifted students. Modes of display and labelling in themselves provide additional opportunities for challenge and for exploring curatorial controversies and complexities. Just as schools and universities are having to rethink pedagogies and practice to make best use of technological advances, so are museums and galleries being forced to acknowledge and embrace the digital era. Obscure archives are being made openly accessible and helping audiences interpret materials is a stimulating task with which to engage highly able learners. Many museums have excellent websites and are making their displays increasingly interactive through the use of handheld devices and connectivity. These developments allow access to incredible collections for visitors who are physically remote, providing however, they have reliable and up-to-date tools. Children who benefit from the kinds of stimuli in museums and galleries need support in making use of what is available;  museum educators creating the interfaces, as well as those working in the buildings, with actual objects, also need to understand how to harness their collections for all types of learners. We need to find ways of cross-fertilising our work in gifted education with museum educators in order to harness this exciting era in both fields.