Arts After School

Part Three: The Continuation 

This is the time where I get to show what I learned in my studies and experience with this specific patron group. My supervisor and I created an after school program for children ages 5 to 10. This class would be once a week on Wednesdays and go from 3p to 5:30p. This class would mainly focus on curriculum centered around methodology, art movements, and artists that have made a major impact in the world of art. 

The first semester was all about methodologies and art movements. I believe this is a good way to introduce art and its relation to society. I taught them about space versus place, transforming 2D to 3D, line exploration, color theory, and the experimental ways of going about art composition. I wanted to broaden understanding of the terminology and methods that artists come across while interacting with the art world. I also wanted a basic knowledge of design elements and important principles and interpreting these skills into their own daily lives. The second semester (my favorite) was concentrated on artists from different parts of the world and time period throughout history. It was interesting and impressive that some of my students were actually familiar with some of these artists. Most of them were acquainted with specific works and have heard certain artists names, even the younger children. I was pleased to find this out and willing to explore what they know on top of my interpretation and knowledge on the subject. We learned critique and introduction to constructive ways to describe and interpret our classmates' work, especially in comparison to the artists we were learning about. For example, we learned about fauvism, suprematism, dadaism, and futurism. I think these movements are not mainly focused on in traditional education of art history. I would give the students "a upper hand", so to speak, on the spectrum of viable movements that correspond with society and its history. We discussed (yes, back to Dadaism) Tristan Tzara, Hannah Höch, and Hugo Ball's self-discovery at a time where censorship and government were at the height of history. I explained how anti-art made a huge impact in the art world and in the eyes of leaders and the academics of the time. We experimented with collage, sound poems, and fashion. I had a lot of fun teaching these topics and I think my students did too. 

Color Theory lesson

Fauvism at its finest

Abstract Expressionism

Hugo Ball's Karawane (I found this in Special Collections)

Of course I am going to collaborate
(that is Emily, my assistant) 

My favorite interpretation

This is Noah and his Hugo Ball inspired sound poem

    This is the second to last week at the Meadows Museum.  This week is a full one and I'm glad to say that we've had good response to our drop-in art.  Tomorrow is story-telling and I think we will be busier and will have to work efficiently to allow everyone to have a chance to participate in the very popular print-making aspect of the project.  Of course, we've had mostly children participate, but it has been great to see some adults get enthusiastically involved!  Adults are hesitant to participate.  They either lack self-confidence, believing they are not artistic, or are out of practice (something I've felt myself) or believe that the art making is for kids only.  The transformation in confidence and attitude is great to see.  Importantly, parents/guardians/grandparents who get involved learn or renew skills and go home and create an environment that encourages children to create art--a good thing for everyone involved!  Friday we will be able to see how the re-connections participants react and interact to story-telling in the gallery.  Hopefully they not only enjoy it but also are opened up to the idea of looking at and appreciating Cubist artworks.  I hope to continue contact with the Meadows and hopefully with the wonderful people I've met there.  I'm extremely grateful for having had this opportunity.

Final Post!

Hard to believe how fast this Summer flew by! This is my last posting, but I still have a few more weeks at the Amon Carter to finish cataloging the Artist's Materials Collection. I was given the exciting task to choose objects, create labels, and design the layout of a display case that will be shown at the Amon Carter's reading room! As a theme for the case I picked travel watercolor sets from the 19th century that I had worked with and cataloged. Its so exciting that I have the opportunity to create this display to show what I've been working on to others who may not be aware that this collection exists in the Amon Carter. Below is my rough design of the case with the objects included:

The top left sets include flasks for storing water for easy access designed by Winsor & Newton. The bottom is a G. Rowney & Co. sketchbook that is filled with watercolors we will include reproductions of. The top right has a set by G. Rowney & Co. and a tiny watercolor set made by Winsor & Newton.

If you're planning on visiting the Amon Carter, drop by the reading room to see the case and all the other great cases and books the Amon Carter's library has! I'm submitting labels this week, so it should be up later this month.

This opportunity was my first in an art museum, nearly all my previous experience was in within various roles at an academic library. It didn't take long for me to realize that it felt right to be in an art museum and working with objects and tasks related to art and history. Additionally, it showed me that I really enjoy cataloging and creating order out of disorder so that things may be easily found and used. Its definitely a behind the scenes job, which is something I enjoy about it. I'm hoping that I can continue to gain experience in cataloging and find more opportunities related to this in the future.

Final Week at The Madi!

        I can’t believe this is our last week at The Madi! As of today we have made our last wall label so now all we have left to do is hang them before our last day on Saturday. Even though we accomplished a lot, there were a few things Megan and I did not fully finish, mostly dealing with the museum’s archive. Thankfully one of the museum’s board members was very eager to hear about what we accomplished and wanted suggestions on how the museum can finish up these tasks, so I created a report of everything we did (and didn’t get to) over the course of the summer. 
        Reflecting back, I think one of the most difficult things for me was coming from working at the Center for Creative Connections because I was so use to seeing lots of visitors every day and having an array of programming at my fingertips, while visitors to the Madi are mostly first time visitors who just want to see the collection because of the unfamiliarity with the movement. Over the course of the summer we had about 7 or 8 school groups, and I got to implement one new program (the one that focused on John Henry), which the classes really enjoyed. I also went into this internship knowing I would need to be comfortable with working in other departments other than education, so any time Megan and I completed other small projects and tasks, we felt a great deal of accomplishment.
          If it is one thing I learned about this museum over the summer, it is not just the collection that makes it unique, but how this museum is set up and run. This small institution is very clearly run differently from places like the DMA, however the staff’s love and passion for the art is just as big. I look forward to coming back in the future to see how things have transformed and see new art acquisitions.

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

As we come to a close on our internship I feel that I have learned more about myself than anything new in regards to the inner workings of a museum. Previously coming from an internship at the DMA I saw first hand and experienced just exactly how vastly different museums can be. However, I can say that my knowledge of MADI art has grown during my time here, which my inner art historian is extremely delighted about. But again, overall I feel that this Internship pushed me to grow more as a person than anything else. I came to understand my own limits a lot during my time here.

·      From working with Christianna the entire length of our Internship I can say that I can comfortably work well in a pair.

·      To learning how to communicate properly and clearly to a small staff of 5 people who are all from a much older generation that I am not used to interacting with outside of family.

·      Having my computer and technological skills put to the test almost daily to constantly fix their computers (Thank god for Google).

·      Having my organizational skills put to the test daily as well due to the obscene amount of a paper trail just two of the staff members seem to make in one day (No. Seriously. They print everything out, even emails, in multiple copies, daily).

·      Our Art historical backgrounds got to shine the most, as we were quick to doubt anything without a verifiable and credible source. With this our research skills came into play and were key to finding the majority of information that was wrong or missing altogether (Thank you KDW).

Regarding the label project we had been working on, we were able to do a majority of the wall labels, however, we were unable to do as much as we had hoped due to time constraints and other issues. We did not replace any of the labels for pieces in the downstairs women’s bathroom, downstairs offices, gift shop, storage, and upstairs law firm areas. Honestly, this shouldn’t have taken us two months to only partially complete this project, and I’m a little bummed out about it. What was made clear to us through this is that data management, and information management in general, is severely lacking as there was A LOT of miss information on A LOT of the pieces we had to sift through. In the coming last four days, we have at the museum we will be working to tie any loose ends with this project and finally get to printing, laminating, and putting up all of the labels we’ve worked hard to correct and complete.

My one main take away from here is how I was reminded of my preference to working with kids over adults.

The teacher workshop seemed very successful yesterday,  they had been enthusiastic while viewing and discussing the cubist works by Picasso, Rivera and others in the morning half.  They reported that they enjoyed learning more about the context, Paris, war, rivalries and etc., and that the addition of the human factor made the art more interesting to them.   After breaking for lunch, they did one of the art projects that we have planned for drop-in art during the opening of the new Cubist exhibition.  They seemed to get very absorbed in this and I think they thoroughly enjoyed the chance to make a little art!   The discussion afterwards indicated that they were thinking of ways to introduce this project into their curriculum.  All in all, I think the day was successful and enjoyed by all!

    Beginning this internship I hoped that I would start to get re-acclimated to a museum work environment and participate in as many activities as possible with the hopes of learning/observing/participating in aspects of museum work that I had not previously been exposed to as well as re-learning and coming back up to speed with the museum education practices that I was already familiar with.
    Today has been an excellent opportunity to work with a group of 25 art teachers sent by their school districts, a practice that I am new to.   It is not unlike any tour/workshop except that they have a background for lively and interesting discussion. 
     It is interesting to observe the different teachers, their reactions, ideas, insight and the different levels at which they participate.  It is plain that, for a very few, their minds or maybe their hearts are elsewhere.  However, the interim director of education here is so extremely knowledgeable (and animated) about Spanish art that almost everyone gets pulled into the conversation.  And there is conversation, this is not a lecture but directed viewing and discussion among the whole group with everyone's ideas given attention.  It was effective to use four different worksheets, each spotlighting 2-3 works, with questions concerning stylistic similarities and differences and the use of elements and principles of art.  This got everyone going and contemplating, it was an excellent way to help the group engage and focus.  This afternoon they will be practicing the project we will implement next week for drop-in art geared for the public.  This will be an excellent opportunity to fine tune this project through the groups feedback and I look forward to that.