Abigail housen biography

Very sadly, Abigail Housen passed away this week of a long illness. This is a loss for many of us personally but for all of us collectively. We are deeply pained.

As many know, VTS originated when I was director of education at MOMA and, prodded by trustees, needed to find out whether or not our visitors benefited from our many programs: did people learn what we taught them?

After many less-than-satisfying attempts to answer that question, I was introduced to Abigail Housen who patiently explained how she studied people thinking as they looked at works of art.

Abigail housen biography

I suspect it was during our first conversation that the earth began to move under my feet. Abigail introduced me to her empirical research method and what she learned from it, and for me there was no going back.

After interviewing people who participated in MOMA programs and analyzing the findings, Housen determined that the skills we hoped to nurture weren’t present.

It wasn’t that there was no impact; it just wasn’t what w