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.