Constructivist theories of learning and recent research into aesthetic experience suggest that most people actually benefit by instruction in various means of engagement with art, and that engagement is most fulfilling when it actively challenges, builds on, and extends the knowledge, aptitudes, and abilities of the museum visitor. This in turn suggests that a new level of importance be accorded art museum educators who serve on the front lines of public engagement with the museum's collections. It is no easy task, however, to educate and guide the public within an institution caught up in a whirlwind of change, contradictions, and uncertainty. This essay discusses how aesthetic education can focus itself, and at the same time help to provide a means by which to anchor many of the art museum's aims and efforts. Drawing on Ralph Smith's presentation of aesthetic experience and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's broader conception of optimal experience, the author describes five interrelated conclusions that may be formed pertaining to the relationship of aesthetic experience, aesthetic education, and art museums: (1) aesthetic experience is both intrinsically worthwhile and instrumentally beneficial; (2) aesthetic experience of a work of art is not automatic or inherent, but requires prior knowledge, critical skill, perceptual acuity, and sensitivity and insight with regard to emotions; (3) conceptions of aesthetic experience are consistent with theories of constructivist museums; (4) providing for aesthetic experience is or should be central to the mission of any art museum that intends for its visitors to have meaningful experiences; and (5) aesthetic education can provide an invaluable service to the mission of art museums by providing programs and creating contexts to encourage and facilitate visitors having aesthetic experiences. (Contains 18 notes.)