I attended the Teacher's Salon at the MCA yesterday and had the sincere privledge of hearing Theaster Gates and Kerry James Marshall in coversatoin wiht each other. I was especially exciting to hear directly from contemporary artists on how they view education and how they view our role as educators. I was really impressed with how candidly both artists spoke. They were interesting, engaging, and most of all honest. I am still digesting all the thoughts that they shared, but I need to emphasize again how exciting it was to hear them speak. I specifically was drawn to their emphasis on educational theory. Marshall spoke so much about complex issues in art education. I appreciated that he took this venue to get those topics out, now it is our responsibility to work through them and identify how to apply these theories in practice. In particular he spoke about repositioning our definition of passive learners, specifically that we don't think about people as passive because they only listen to conversations. Instead he encouraged us to consider that the act of listening can be a very active education. The listening can make a student hungry and "hunger moves one quickly from mimicry to internalization." With my own research being so focused on talk- I was particularly excited to be reminded of the other learning ways that are embedded in talk. Talk is not only about verbalizing but rather is half speaking and half listening. Also the educators expressed on and on how much we love Marshall's paintings. LOVE THEM.

Volunteer vs. Service Learning

So I have lately been very interested in the trendy nature of volunteering and the connection between helping others and feeling good ourselves. However I crack up at some of the safe ways that we choose to volunteer and how we might sign up to volunteer for 2 hours on a saturday and something always seems to comes up to make us cancel. Anyways I have been writing about how teenagers know that college admissions counselors look for volunteer work and i think about how much I volunteered in high school pretty much so that i would have lots to talk about for my college essay...lame i know. But all of this started to be better understood, or at least i started to think in new ways about why people do flake on volunteer work, why people choose to play it safe, etc. Last night, in a stellar presentation by another art ed student she distinguished volunteering from service learning in a really comprehensive way. I now realize that when I am throwing every kind of service project under the umbrella term volunteer work, I get comfused. She spoke about how volunteering is usually driven by motives of the volunteer not the recipient of the work, its an isolated event, it implies the volunteer is bringing some of their world/agenda to the world/agenda of the recipient. Versus service learning which incorporates a learning component, there is initial research done on the project, it is rooted in educational progress, there are specific aspects of the project identified, there is a community-based approach, and there is a long term commitment. This is such a different act than volunteering! Now I am not at all saying that volunteering is bad, it is extremely wonderful and necessary but I am so excited to see the educational potential of service being defined as whole other term. I love when things get more complex but because of the complexities suddenly things start to make sense!

This has nothing to do with what i usually blog about but this is really interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/17/world/20091118-INDIA_index.html

FALL-IN-TO-THE-GAP

I would like to share a quote from a fascinating book I have been reading- Buddhist Mind in Contemporary Art (Baas and Jacob, 2004). They are writing in reference tp Duchamp’s definition of art making having two components.

“In the creative act,” he said, “the artists goes from intention to realization.” Duchamp spoke of a “gap” that “represents the inability of the artist to express fully his intention,” a gap that is filled by the participation of the spectator, whose own realization is a “phenomenon of transmutation”: an act of “transubstantiation” in which inert matter is experience as a work of art.

I was really excited when I came to this quote and I want to discuss it here relation to working in a museum. I constantly think about how artists leave their work in a museum. By leave I want to propose that its kind of like letting go of something or someone, all of a sudden that person is not there to talk anymore. I approach my visits to museums as a situation where I am charged with trying to make meaning about the work. I often make a mental list of the questions I would ask the artist if they were there and yet often I'm glad I don't get the questions answered whereas other times I know I really need to speak with that artist (although that is usually always impossible). I wonder why I don't always want to speak with them, I feel like sometimes I get so emotionally connected to a piece and I take my role as viewer too personally that I am afraid the work might fall short if I heard the artists view. I don't like that I think like that because I LOVE hearing artists speak about their work and I think it is so important to be able to hear someones view and still make your own meanings.

Either way, I liked how this text phrased t this experience as a gap. I also like that to be excited by the presence of that gap.

"We haven’t had recess since like fourth grade…[one day] we just got to have a free day…just a moment to get all the extra energy out and then be able to really look at the art a little more."

That was a quote from high school girl at my thesis focus group last week. Well did this make me think or what! First of all, I was already thinking about he recess issues because my little 4th grade cousin (who I pick up from school sometimes) was complaining last week because the teacher's punishment for not doing homework is that you "get the wall". This means that you have to stand against the wall of the school and watch everyone run around at recess. Ok, now I think homework is super important and believe kids should be punished if they do not do it but COME ON. "The wall" sounds horrible for everyone. First of all 4th grade kids NEED recess, taking it away only makes kids more rambunctious in class.

Anyways relating this to what this high school girl said i was thinking about how we are not allowing this free time anymore. With high school programs becoming more and more specialized coupled with the general societal push to grow up faster, are depriving this kids of the development that occurs when kids just chill. Even some of the best out of school programs in this city may border on being too rigid for kids who haven't had an ounce of free time all day. However free time means danger far too often. So what do we do?

Multicultural Arts School

Ok so I went to the Multicultural Arts School yesterday and am still excited from being in that space. The halls are lively with framed prints lining the lockers, the classrooms are beautiful with paintings on the walls and awesome posters and more prints, the teachers seem to be totally committed and all there. AWESOME. However the one thing that I haven't been able to get over--- the book shelves. I was in a social studies classroom and they had many of their class books on the shelves- you know how the teacher has like 25 copies of a book and keeps them in the class until you read them and then you get to have one copy and then return it. Ok so that was the setup and there were some of the titles:

Yes, Yes, Y'all- Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade
World Changing- A Users Guide for the 21st Century
Crossing the Blvd.
Malcolm X, A Graphic Novel
Beginners Guide to Community Based Arts
The Big Book of Racism
Nat Turner, A Graphic Novel
Our America- Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago
What is the What (Dave Eggers)

These are some cool books! I have ordered all of them through the library so I'll have more to say on that soon. The one thing I keep stumbling on is the idea of reading about important historical figures (Malcolm X and Nat Turner) through a graphic novel. Now I want to preface this by saying again how cool I think this is, but I then get caught on the traditional side of me- I mean what about reading the original writings of these famous people? What about the traditional biographies or autobiographies- shouldn't those be read? Will a graphic novel convey all that we get when we read thoroughly the academic writing on the great people of our nations history? I want to know more! I want to see these teens respond to reading a graphic novel- I'm sure its an amazing learning experience, I'm sure they must love it. But perhaps more so I want to know if the lasting lesson is: wow reading about Nat Turner in this graphic novel made me see how interesting his story is, I should read more (insert traditional biography here).

Copycat?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/arts/design/17frieze.html?ref=arts

So I was reading this article in the New York Times today and along with the review of this art fair there was a particular bit on this one artist who is re-creating mini versions of Jeff Koons' balloon dogs. I believe the direct quote is, "I’m making a copy of a copy”. Now that is funny to me, I think that it is in interesting idea and I am totally on board. Koons' balloon dogs were hands down my favorite pieces in his Chicago exhibition last year and further I saw a photograph of one of his balloon dogs being shown in Versailles which was one of my favorite images of contemporary art. People get so mad sometimes that Koons' pieces can be reproduced, that the same pieces can be showing in exhibitions across the country or world at the same time. I think its interesting- he really puts it in our face to consider why we crave the special nature of an original when we live our lives surrounded by reproductions, embracing reproductions. I find that the reason Koons' work is so strong is because his pieces are impeccably made- I spent many a day trying to find a flaw on his balloon dog and let me tell you I came up with nothing. Now I know that he has a whole team of studio assistants and lets be honest he probably has little to do with production but I like to think that he is the one who demands , the stunning perfection of his pieces are absolutely part of his work. Therefore I was all excited that this artist in this NY Times article was throwing all of this back in his face, in our face as consumers, etc., even talking about how these mini versions of other famous works are a popular item to buy- just like our obsession with souvenir ships. All of this was incredibly funny to me until I saw the image of these balloon dog reproductions!
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/16/arts/20091017-frieze-slideshow_7.html

Ok so those are the molds and then they are dipped to make the final piece but those aren't perfect, those don't have the same sensibility of Koons' work- if you are making "a copy of a copy" you have to really copy it otherwise it completely falls short. The way that we look at copying is so widespread these days with plagiarism in academia, the music industry download situation, bootleg movies, etc. This article makes me want to look closer at what it means to copy because this artists work is so not copying but it is claiming to be. What does it really mean 'to copy'?

Stupid people shouldn't breed

So Holzer is back at the MCA! There is a small exhibition of 4 artists and Holzer is one of them. Now I personally LOVE her work and am so thrilled that she has a presence in the institution once again. The striking thing though is that after her work was so dramatically presented in darkened galleries last year in her solo exhibition I was struck today when I saw two of her LED pieces in starkly lit rooms. This made me think about our reliance on predicable built environments which I know Gillick and Deller are exploring in very different yet intentional ways.* But this moment of first encountering Holzer after last seeing her work for months in the dim galleries of yesteryear the concept of environmental impact was stronger than ever. The LED lights scrolling her startling and ever-interesting truisms felt less magical and more real. There was less beauty in the honesty and/or boldness of her truisms- and instead of feeling of "well shit, she's kinda right about that one too". I am still in complete awe of her work after seeing her Protect, protect exhibition last year but why am I so distressed without the dark environment that felt like it offered me a safe zone, a cradle, holding me while I explored her work...I thought I was stronger than this.

Politics/art/thinking= lots to think about

I attended the Columbia College Teaching Artist Conference last week and during a panel discussion one of the questions was, “Do you see your work as a teaching artist as inherently political?” Now wait a moment, maybe consider your thoughts……… ok so the first answer to this question by one of the panel speakers was: “Everything you do in this field has political implications.” Interesting response, loaded response. This was then elaborated on, “politics want the status quo, art disrupts that”. I share that thought because how amazing and eloquent is that!! A solid yet expanding definintion of what it is that we do as teaching artists, as artists. What I was thinking about in relation to this was in connection with some of the challenges that President Obama encountered when he was our democratic candidate last year. The whole Ayers situation raised so many interesting realities of our now hyper connected society that we live in. Now that everything that we do is recorded, noted, catalogued young people growing up have a hightened awareness of how their choices have implications that could be held against them in the future. I recall last year a conversation in another class when someone was working to get signatures for planned parenthood support and a high school student said they do support pro-choice organizations but that they cannot put their name down on a paper because they are interested in a career in politics and they know that a signature like that would marry them to this cause. Wow! Now I think that we do need to work on fostering a greater sense of accountability for our actions from youth straight into adulthood, but I find that there is also a sadness to the thought process of this high school student in the planned parenthood situation. If youth cannot feel like they can explore and support, change and amend their values and beliefs as they grow as people then geez that’s a whole lot of pressure! Now getting back to this idea that “politics want status quo and art distrupts that”- I know there is a connection here but I’m struggling to make it. Perhaps what I’m trying to get at is: if one identifies as an artist, people seem to have a more understanding view of why someone might explore their political views in their work. Why are we looking at artists differently than this high school student- why can’t he explore his political views by signing that petition or other petitions that he believes in at this point in his life, its where he is right now...

Interesting

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=1

5th grade boys are funny

Funny line today at work
I was about to take a group of 5th grade boys into the painting exhibition and one of the boys said:


"Painting! Boring! I mean you dip a paintbrush in some paint, paint a donkey on some paper, and done. Whats the big deal?!??"


Hahahahaha. He actually ended up really liking the exhibition. And I still can't figure out where the donkey part came from.

So as my thesis work progresses I am beginning to feel like I am studying this one topic and this one topic only. Now I'm not saying that this is a boring practice- rather that I LOVE being this invested in one specific area but I am feeling a bit selfish almost. It seems that I have always found great value in not being too focused on one area, always valuing the open minded approach to learning- that you can learn about a million topics in any given day and that is so exciting. However here with this thesis study I really am looking with a microscopic lense at my ONE topic. It literally is painful for me, and almost feels wrong, that I print off articles to read and then I notice its not on my topic so I don't read them. What is going on! I know that I get to be this specialized in my interests this year because that is how to write a comprehensive study of this topic- it is my job and my privilege to slow down from the fanatic pace of education and study in depth this topic. I feel that this is an appropriate time to be learning in such a specialized way but I feel fortunate that I didn't get too specialized earlier in my education. I was always glad that I wasn't a kid who picked one activity and only did that activity- or in college going to a liberal arts school allowed me to not have to pick one discipline until well into my 2nd year. That model worked well for me. But now with this thesis project I am starting to see great value in a specified study and I'm going to attempt to relate that thinking to other areas of life:
Is there immense value in buckling down to one activity or discipline and excelling there versus learning through doing many?
Was my experience "just exploring and doing whichever activity seemed interesting that day/year" a kind of hodge-podge approach to finding my interests?

Modern Wing

I am a big fan of the Modern Wing because with all the technology and the politics of museums aside it is simply gorgeous. I love how it feel like if you were to put the Modern Wing on a scale it would only weight maybe 5 pounds, it seems so airy and light- literally. I also am in love with the garden seating area just south of the Education Center and north of the photography galleries. I think that the green chairs that are out there are lovely and hope that area becomes more widely used as a quiet seating place within the bustling museum- like a library without book, just with your thoughts in it. I spent some time there this summer with two teenagers that I worked with and we used that space as a think tank. We would go in the galleries, get all riled up by the hot topics of the artwork and then go to those pale green chairs and sit and think and talk. It was wonderful.
Now on a different note- technology. So I love the touch screen maps but it feels too open- like I think its awesome that you can map out where the next artwork is but what then... Therefore I propose that there are some selected groupings available that are chosen by different groups of people. At the MOMA they have audio tours by teens, children, adults, impressionist themed ones, animal themed ones, etc.
http://www.moma.org/visit/plan/atthemuseum/momaaudio
That's what I think those touch screens could be. Groups that already work in some ways with the museum- partner schools, teen interns, regular family programs, the board- would each be invited to come up with a theme and then select 10 pieces that explore that theme from multiple angles. Then you could choose a theme depending on who you are, your interest, whatever and then you would have some pieces that were linked thematically. That would be a good way to explore the museum without feeling like you were just on a random trek to the next piece. Once you selected your theme the tour list would print out. In a different manner but going off of the same idea the Brooklyn Museum of Art has a pre printed tour written by teens, for teens.
www.brooklynmuseum.org/education/.../Teen_Guide_to_Art.pdf
My proposed program would have this for many different groups and you could choose which group you most identify with.

Not sure what to title this, and thats ok

I spoke with a doctor recently who had hired a candidate with an art degree over a candidate with a medical background for a job because they had felt that an art student has skills of looking were more developed and would be extremely beneficial in this position. I shared this story with a friend who is also and artist and she summed her art educaiton in the following way: "I learned to be comfortable with ambiguity". I just fell in love with this phrase- it is so complex and begs to be unpacked. I was thinking about how sometimes we can let this comfort with ambiguity be an excuse for not fully investing ourselves in a study- not working hard enough to entertain whether a concrete outcome is a possibility. But other times, the beauty of resting with ambiguity is just stunning.

the cool factor in being a teen

So i don't know about you but I really liked being a teenager. Sure I was as awkward as the kid I sat next to, but I really loved it.

I had a conversation with someone today about whether being a teenager is cool and we had an interesting dialogue on this, i share it here with you. So it came up that a teen might not like to be labeled as a teen because its just not that cool to be a teen. I replied that I just don't know if that's the case, I actually disagree. I think that this message of the teen not being cool is a huge problem. Far too often it is ingrained in the heads of our teens that this stage will be miserable, you just have to "make it through" high school so you can get to college, someday you'll be an adult, etc. Even the way we talk to teens about college being "the best four years of your life" clearly implies that these teen years are some hurdle you have to charge through in order to move on with your life. This sentiment makes me frustrated- what about reveling in the fact that you aren't in college or starting a career yet, that you are in a confusing and constantly changing stage, that you are smack dab in the middle of figuring out some pretty important things, you get the responsibility of your first job, oh and you see your friends every day from 8-3pm. I loved all of this. I was trying to figure out why someone might not think that being a teen is cool and a certain article came to mind- from the Rethinking Schools website: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_03/six233.shtml
This article "Six going on Sixteen" explores how are K-1st grade students are acting like middle schoolers- dating, going on myspace, caring about brand name styles, etc. Well if this is the case then it makes compete sense why being a teenager isn't cool when you actually are a teenager since you've been trying to be a teenager since kindergarden! Anyways when situating this teen-cool factor in the context of this article my thoughts are both more complex, but also more comprehensive.

So with all this preaching on my thoughts on teens and the cool factor, I pose a lasting charge: Lets slow down, I want us to acknowledge the uncertain yet thrilling experience of being a teenager, and I want that so much for the teens that I work with.

I say "I'm an artist"

So the driving question of last night was "what does that mean?"-- I'll tell you more. So I was at the Department of Art Education dinner last night and we had a guest attendee by the name of Jerome Hausman. This amazing man was the first editor of the wonderful scholarly journal "Studies in Art Education". He spoke briefly to the whole group about how the future of art education is in our hands- (he was very inspiring and I felt like running home to make a valient attempt to save the world). However at the end of the dinner I approached him to share what an honor it was to hear him speak and how essays from that journal are referenced all throughout my thesis. I asked him if he had any advice on my research topic-- and he said something that I need to keep in mind as I develop my research is that the most remarkable thing during his career in art education is that he witnessed such a change in what it means to be an artist. I feel that I have this discussion often when I am at work and we discuss it in certain classes, but to hear him point this out as one of the paramount changes in the field of art education was really exciting. We then went on to discuss that although being an artist is now rooted in many definitions, disciplines, outcomes, etc., however it is so important to remember what being an artist meant in the past. I seem to be concluding that weaving this historical lesson into the contemporary practice of art education in creative and engaging ways is of paramount necessity.

Oh and the house where this wonderful conversation took place was amazing- built entirely through the use of green technology. It was featured in the New York Times so take a look:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/03/12/garden/0313-CHICAGO_index.html

Love her, Love their music

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/arts/music/17travers.html?_r=1&ref=arts

I remember playing records of Peter, Paul and Mary in my parents house when I was little- our family record collection consisted of a variety of Peter, Paul and Mary albums, Raffi or 'Peter and the Wolf' . On one of the album cover Mary was wearing the coolest red shoes.

Hub hub hub

So I am still hung up on this idea of a hub and therefore am going to explore it further now. Today I was thinking about how the museum serves as a hub in many ways- as a place to exhibit work, as a social space, as an educational center, I could go on and on-- but the one aspect of all of this that I don't have a satisfying answer for stems from a conversation that I observed as part of my thesis fieldwork where someone was addressing the idea of authenticity. While this particular conversation was in reference to teen programming, I think it applies here as well- if the museum can serve as a hub, defined by The New Museum as, "what it means to displace conversations and activity from elsewhere to New York", is it an authentic one? What contributes to its authenticity or lack of authenticity? Is The New Museum an authentic hub because someone decided to call it one or is it inherently so? I can't get off of this hub concept-- can't you tell...

The link you are probably looking for

http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/419/museum_as_hub_in_and_out_of_context

New Museum visit = lots to think about

So I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in New York City, perhaps the center of the universe for curiosity- everywhere you look there are interesting people, buildings, artwork, noises, etc. I was really excited to go the the New Museum and something that struck me there was this exhibition that they had called, "Museum as Hub: In and Out of Context". The exhibition was in the education center and introduced the concept of a hub as: "It reveals a partnership of arts organizations looking to pursue experimental methods of exhibition, communication, and collaboration, and considers the consequences of being part of a “hub”—what it means to displace conversations and activity from elsewhere to New York." So I am really excited by this idea- and want to investigate this exhibition and the ideas behind it in more depth. New York makes sense as a hub, and so does the museum- this exhibition includes both- a museum that is in New York. But I want to reflect on ways that we already work to make the museum a hub and also consider ways that we can further cultivate the museum as hub? To take this even further I was struck by the second part of the exhibition title, "In and Out of Context"- to try to understand all the different ways to interpret context I wrote down the many different ways to interpret context- geographic, thematic, chronological, personal, etc. It seemed that in this exhibition the context they were referring to was largely geographic- and that this exhibition brings the artwork out of the original geographic context and into a context that is the museum. I left the museum that day thinking about how lucky it is that the museum can offer an additional context for this work- this allows for the work to be seen by people and fosters intense thinking like that which I am currently doing. All of these ideas were further complicated by my next museum visit where I visited The Met and viewed a traveling exhibition of work from the Afghanistan National Museum- I viewed this exhibition with the concepts of context and hub fresh in my mind. I haven't come to concrete conclusions on this thinking yet, but am firmly in the stage of considering all the interesting angles of these ideas.