The Senses

Hi everyone!

First of all, yes! I will share a picture of the community tables next week. I am excited to see what they will come up with. The process is wonderful. The students are creating sketches and once those are complete, the artist will take the sketches and use them as inspiration for the final work of art! On Thursday. the artist will be transferring the final sketch onto the tables. Then, next week, we will bring the tables to the centers and during their time with us, one of the stations will be a painting station for the students to paint the sketch! I think it has been an awesome process. We just got back from priming the tables and even though I have paint everywhere, I couldn't be more excited.

Today, at the community center, I was with a group of 10-13 year old's. It was a group of about 30 students, so, we had three groups. I lead a pictionary group. But, we put a twist on the activity. We brought some fragrances for the students to smell and from there, the students drew what the scent was. It was a lot of fun. I sometimes forget how competitive students can be. But, it was fun to see them fully engaged!
I did this activity with a younger group, 8-10 year old's, and it was a little more chaotic, but the students were still heavily engaged. I suggest the activity! It was a lot of fun and it also broke the ice and made it more fun. (Although I suggest thinking of a prize. The kids liked the idea of working towards something. I am thinking something museum related....maybe a bookmark from the museum store? I am not sure..).
Tomorrow, I have a group of 6-8 year old's. I am thinking I will modify the activity. I think I will have the students hand around the scent in a group and from there, we can talk about associations with the scent. Example: One of the scents is condensed milk, we could talk about what recipes use condensed milk or if they remember cooking with a parents using that ingredient. This age is a little trickier for me to visualize the activities. But, I hope we can build off their memories, after all, smell is the strongest sense! I'll update or edit with whatever activity I decide to do...Let me know if you guys have any suggestions!


Thanks! 

USSEA/InSEA After Conference ...

I'm back from the conference and have had time to reflect on my experience. 

The conference theme this year was Building a Civil Society through Art. We got to enjoy a couple of sessions before we presented our own. The first one was over social art with Marie Watt. The guest speaker talked about quilting and communal quilting as a way to get society to interact that may not think they have things in common. She used an example from her class of a grandmother figure that enjoyed sewing setting right next to a goth young gentleman. The two who may not normally have anything in common set 6 hours together to enjoy and share their joint passion for quilting and sewing. I have attached a link below if you are interested in seeing some of the social and cultural artwork of Marie Watt. 
http://www.mariewattstudio.com


When it was time for Danielle and me to give our workshop we went early to set up shop. Of course like at all conferences we had technical difficulties. Thankfully we had almost 45minutes to figure out the problem and come up with a way to fix it. When we finally had people coming into our session we realized that attending our session was the current USSEA/InSEA National President and former USSEA/InSEA International Vice-President. We presented for about 35 minutes introducing The Museum of Street Culture and then the Big Idea/Question of, What is the social role of the museum. The rest of the session we lead a think tank style discussion over this question and some possible situation and outcomes that may arise in answering this Big Question. The group discussion never once lacked or felt awkward and I was glad for my partner to help facilitate the conversation.

After the session, both the president and former vice president came up to us and told us what a great job we had done in leading the session and our presentation. I feel very lucky that I got this experience and that it went so well! We needed the validation for all our hard work and our presentation couldn't have been more aligned with their theme of Building a Civil Society through Art.

And the next step is...

As my internship comes to an end at the Museum of Biblical Art today I am please to say that I have been offered a part time job.  I won't be working too much and I'm not sure for how long but I have the opportunity to find some ways to work with schools and get them to the museum.  The focus of course will not be on the bible part (taboo with public education) but the focus will be on he Holocaust part of the msuuem.  I'm am grateful for the chance to get even more experience as that is way more important to me at this point.  In my conversation with the director there is also a chance to do some registration with the museum as well. So here is to next steps!

Made it to USSEA

Made it to Wichita State University this afternoon for the USSEA/InSEA regional conference. This year's theme is Building a Civil Society through art. The theme was the first thing that interested me, to submit a proposal for being a breakout session for this conference.

The last couple of months Danielle and I have been preparing for this event. We are facilitating a 70-minute workshop in which we will be bringing up the structure and design of The Museum of Street Culture to lead into a conversation about the "Big Question" what is a Museum and what is its civic and social role.

The workshop portion is set up like a think tank in where small groups will be given scenarios of city or town populations and what crisis that population is facing. Some of the crisis scenarios include drugs, high crime, illiteracy, racism or bigotry, to name a few. The objective is to explore what the museums can do to help advocate and bring to the attention of the population of this crisis in hopes that change will occur.

Below is the pdf of the poster we created for this event.

I will write again later this weekend to let you all know how the session went.

A summary of everything...I'm not good at coming up with titles

Hi there guys!

I am jealous to hear how many of you were involved with Girl Scouts! It was something I was always interested in and never got the opportunity to be a member of. But, I am glad to be working with them in this way!
I have mentioned that I am working with three community centers in Fort Worth. That work is still continuing and getting more and more exciting. Within the next couple of weeks, we will be working with an artist, as well as the community centers, to paint a community picnic table. The community centers (and the Girl Scouts!) will get to house the tables permanently, with the exception of making a guest appearance at Party on the Porch at the Amon Carter. Super exciting.
I am excited that part of this experience will always be a part of the community! 
As for the actual time in the community centers. There are good days and not so great days. I took the advice given for how to correct behavior in this setting. I am happy to say that it has gotten better! I find that sometimes I turn on my "kid" voice for the students and they do not seem to respond to that. So, that has quickly stopped. I found that being more real with the students, keeps them paying more attention and also, they act more respectful. Today I struggled a little bit again, but each day I learn more. The most important thing I have learned is to learn from my mistakes and to learn how to read the students.
I am lucky because every other week I get to go to the community centers and when I don't, I have the opportunity to worth with the Education in Action group. I am getting exposed to all avenues, and I love it!

I am currently finishing my final research on the artists for the Hispanic Heritage month lesson plan.I could not be any more excited, we will be tackling stereotypes, El Dia de Los Muertos, current political climate, the culture, food, and much more! I am so excited to have the opportunity to represent my culture.

Teamwork Part 2

A few people asked about the difference between volunteering and an internship, in my position. At first, that is what my intention was to volunteer but transformed into an internship. The difference I believe is mentoring.
I am working with two individuals that are adding to my museum education by giving me guidance about the profession. If I was just volunteering this would not be the case. I would do my part and then leave and not get anything in return except maybe to feel good about my deeds.  I am getting guidance on curating, funding, advertising, and bringing proposals to conferences to name a few. Yes, this is an unfunded position and no I did not have to sign anything stating how to handle sensitive information that is why I send everything I propose to Danielle and the curator for approval and guidance.
I would be interested in hearing your opinions on this subject.

Elders and their willingness to embrace what perplexed them

I have to say that the group of elders who produced this were very good sports at overcoming initial apprehensions about this project.  Bouncing off of the work of Louise Nevelson, presented via power point on a very large screen television, we began by looking at her piece in the Amon Carter's collection.  We then moved on to looking at other works in the artist's oeuvre. We discussed the fact that the artist found fame later in her life and talked about her use of found and recycled objects, relief sculpture, collage, rhythm and much more.

The idea was to engage participants in a project that could be done by feel, rather than just sight, and would allow the use of fine motor skills, encourage not only an intellectual conversation about art but stimulate mental processes required for manipulating disparate 3-D objects into a more unified whole, provide opportunity for problem solving and control of an outcome and create an atmosphere of sharing (everyone openly talked about what they were doing, sharing pieces and helping each other locate shapes) and community.  We used pieces of wood found at Scrap and provided by a cabinet shop, the tops of shoe boxes, Elmer's glue, and acrylic paint.

What I found interesting was that once participants, ages ranging from mid-seventies to late nineties, overcame the perceived oddness of the project, they became very intent and absorbed in the process of creating and assembling their own creation.  One person, who had the most difficult time with the abstract aspect of the project, nevertheless, was the most creative in weaving a story about what all the pieces in her box meant.  Another person thought entirely outside of the box and meticulously built a balanced tower which I did put inside a box with her permission so that it could be added to the group's collaborative artwork.  What has also been interesting is the buzz that has rippled out of the activity room and into the rest of the facility.  Staff stops in to see what is going on, they are always invited to participate as well, and as we have started a second project the group has doubled in size.

One of the most profound single things that happened was when I found a person in a common area who was obviously distressed, shaking and crying.  This person did not participate in this project and had never given more than small smile when greeted with a hello.  I asked if they'd like to go into the activity room to which they nodded yes.  I pushed the wheelchair into the room and in front of the artwork pictured above.  It only took thirty seconds for the person to start to settle down and become entirely engrossed in looking at the assemblage.  The longer they sat the more calm and peaceful they became.  Then they smiled and reached out to touch me and started talking.  This person became animated and haltingly explained that this, art, was something they knew about and that they used to paint pictures.  I had not known until that point, after almost two months of seeing this person four days a week, that they could talk.  This person is involved in our current project and is an avid, curious, intelligent contributor to the conversation.

Education

Hi everyone! 

So I had the chance to spend some time with the education team at the Bush Museum and its amazing the things that they create and can do with the resources they have and the opportunities they have created for kids.  However.....the team is a team of one and relies on volunteers!  Has this been true of any of you working with the education team at your internships?  I bring this up because I  spent 15 years in education I am always in awe of what education people do. In the museum world I feel its a chance to teach kids/young adults without them really thinking they are learning like they do in a classroom.  After our conversation, the education part of a museum is even more important than I thought.  I knew it was key but the opportunities they offer to kids and the public is awesome!  This conversation was important to me because I stepped out of the education world but maybe education in a museum is worth exploring.  I didn't want anyone to pigeon hole me to education because of my background but its worth exploring.  I mentioned I apparently am an extrovert so maybe this is a way to talk and design lessons/ideas about art.  Who knows! 

No doubt I have been struggling a little the past couple of weeks trying to find my place, trying to figure out who I am outside of my past career, and really trying to determine what I want to do.  I share this as your experiences and stories are inspiring!  Got to keep trying things and getting out there....I don't want to look back and regret any choices!

Museum experience and planning for the future

Art Cart activity for Gabriel Dawe's site-specific installation Plexus No. 34. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas,

Hi everyone,

I have been a little on the quiet side these last few weeks. Reading everyone's posts really helps not just in sharing our unique experiences, but also know that we are going through challenges and triumphs together.

Alexander Calder, Untitled, ca. 1942
Painted aluminum sheet,
steel sheet, steel wire
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas 

In my Public Programs part of the internship I created content for my first story time to families with young children for their weekly program on Wednesdays. I read "Slowly, slowly, slowly, said the sloth" in front of Alexander Calder's Untitled mobile sculpture currently on display. I was nervous, but by the last slot of reading I felt comfortable and inspired. Although the kids and parents thanked me for a wonderful story, I feel like I should have practiced a little bit more. I went through the reading a few times on my own, but I think I need to do it in front of someone a few times so that when I read to kids it feels more natural from the beginning.

With that said, I feel great that the kids mentioned that they loved listening to my story. It was a good feeling. I am loving this work, not only teaching kids, but also the exploration and connection with people that happens at the art cart. The investigation of how to get through important facts about the work that the children can relate to and understand is another favorite part of my work.

I have one more Story Time this coming Wednesday, and I'll be reading and teaching in front of the Louise Nevelson's Lunar Landscape sculpture, which is one of my favorite pieces in the museum. I have already ran the series of questions and talking points to Emily, and with a little practice I am set to go.

Visitors at the Amon Carter Museum explore the activity as a group.

Art Cart set up.

For my Interpretation part of the internship, I developed content for a new Art Cart activity. My supervisor created a wonderful idea to  change the Art Cart to a more hands-on experience for the visitors. The content I put together includes talking points about the artist Gabriel Dawe, his piece Plexus No. 34, and a guide to the activity. After a couple of versions of the content, it finally got approved and now it's part of the cart! I am a little proud of how I am setting up. Most people feel drawn to what I have set out and ask me questions. The Dawe activity allows visitors to sit for a while exploring Dawe's process of using sewing thread to explore line, light, and space. The average has been about 30-45 minutes with a few hour long sittings where the visitors just sit quietly and find the experience relaxing. I spark a little bit of conversation as they are working so they leave knowing more about the artist and the artwork. When they finish up, they get to keep the thread as a "relic" which was a wonderful idea by my supervisor. Basically, once a site-specific installation comes down, the material gets stored in the museum and it is called a relic. In the same way, the visitors undo their work, and take the thread home.

This activity has helped me set up a format for my final project in the Interpretation program. I am developing an Art Cart activity based on a piece that I chose. I am in the middle of it now, so when I get it approved and rolling I will share the final piece.

I also had a meeting with the director of the Education Program, Amanda Blake. She is wonderful and we had a good and honest conversation about what comes after the internship. It put a lot of things in perspective and I have a lot of work to do to be able to work in a museum full time at some point. I love museum education but I need more experience, attend conferences and do more volunteer work to get my face out there so museums know I am serious. My background in Studio Art is a little bit of a setback for an educator role in museums. This conversation made me a little nervous about the future, but I will be seeking another internship in the Spring. I'm not sure that with my MFA thesis coming up in February I will able to do anything outside of my studio for this Fall semester. With this said, I am so thankful about this summer, I am learning so much, and I am working my butt-off to learn the most that I can and to have a clear vision to plan through graduation and after.

Karla

Breath...Teamwork

I am used to being busy all the time with little to no relaxing time because I feel lazy if I let myself have too much downtime. But during this summer I have sometimes felt like I took on to much and I think I would have failed if it had not been for my teammate at the Museum Danielle. She has been flexible and also many times even a buffer between the museum's curator and myself. I have a very strong personality and I'm very driven and sometimes I feel people find this quality not as a strength but as a threat. In my internship, because I am not being paid they don't have me sign any contracts or agreements. My position is a volunteer one and with that comes with its own issues. 

I was told that I could use verbiage from the museum to work on conference proposals but when I sent the proposal to the curator and Danielle, the curator said I plagiarized them. I thought we had an agreement that I could use their verbiage because I wanted to make sure that I didn't misrepresent the museum and its message. So that is the short story to the situation I was in. 

Danielle came to my resue to explain to the curator that my intentions were not malicious and that I didn't want credit for their work, I only wanted to advocate for them. When Danielle talked to me about the situation I felt I could react two ways; one in which I was offended and angry, and the other to put myself in the curator's shoes and try to see things from his point of view. I did the latter. I am so glad that I did or I doubt I would have been able to nurture this relationship and continue my internship. Sometimes in our careers, we really must take a set back and take a picture of the situation so later when we calm down we can make clear and unemotional decisions. 

When you are working with other people you really have to take into account the things going on in their lives and their background to understand where they are coming from and how you can work more efficiently with them. Teamwork can be a challenge sometimes but when it is done people can achieve a great many things. 

Danielle and I will be giving a session in Kansas next weekend over How to Create a Civic Society in the Museum and I will give you more details on the planning of that in a few days. 

Getting better every day

Thanks for the advice for my grand question of Teacher vs. Museum Educator.

I have had two most wonderful experiences, which I feel over the moon about!

First, I taught my first stop in an Education in Action tour. I had one moment where I froze and did not know what to say, but the rest of the stop went great. I had some really great conversations with the students and I felt like they walked away having learned something. The AC's gallery teachers have taught me that the focus is not on the historical information of the painting, but rather on the experience of the conversation about the painting. So, I took one minute of having the students slowly look at the painting and then I had some great conversations about leadership, dogs, the American Revolution, and clothing. We even talked about slavery, which was something I was nervous about, but the students were the ones who approached the topics and the conversation flowed seamlessly. I think the nerves made me doubt my skills but during the one minute of slow looking, it worked for me as a moment to get over my nerves. Next week I will be learning two stops! Still working with Marion Crossing the Peedee but now adding a Georgia O'keeffe!

The second experience was more about event management rather than educating. The AC hosted its first Girl Scout's event. I arrived an hour early and good thing I did! There was some miscommunication between my supervisor and the event staff, so the spaces were not set up as we had idealized. So, that hour was spent running around the museum in an attempt to organize everything before the arrival of the Girl Scouts. We, also, hosted some guests, Mark Dion, the guest artists, a Cherokee expert, and three botanists. (And then the camera crew that came with Mark Dion).

It was a chaotic but wonderful experience. The GS wrote poems about trees, which followed the introduction of Mark Dion, the expert, and the botanists. Following that, the girls went into the Member Lounge where they spoke to the botanists, drew pictures of plants that are native to Texas and also learned how to press flowers.
This was an important experience because I ran around behind the scenes with event management. I was not sure my event planning certification would ever come in handy in the museum setting, but it certainly did!

Why is the summer almost over already?? I am not ready for this experience to end!

Hi everyone, I am enjoying reading about everyone's unique internship experiences.  My summer internship is a hybrid of two internships that both offer valuable experience in facilitating art museum collaborations for Elder facilities.  As anyone in the museum world understands, it takes money to make programs happen, thus one internship is to assist an arts council with a National Endowment for the Arts grant.  This should refresh and renew my knowledge and skills in this area while helping them with the gathering of information/data and writing the necessary narratives.  My second internship is at a local nursing home where I am working for the activities director with her regular schedule of activities while also developing and implementing art activities.  Interacting with the residents and staff will aid me in developing a realistic view of the lives of residents and the internal environment of the institution to better understand the possibilities and limitations of how art museums can aid this audience. 

Teacher VS. Museum Educator

Hi All!

Hope everyone's internship is going great! I love reading about everyone's experience!

I have had a chance to practice my teaching more since my last post. I have returned with two community centers to be a co-facilitator in a program about plants and flowers. Last week, we sought influence from Grant Wood and his artwork of fruits and vegetables. I led a segment about the works of art which transitioned into the students using color pencils to draw their own baskets and then fill it with some of their favorite fruits and vegetables.
Overall, it was much better than my first experience. I felt more relaxed and was not stuttering as badly. But, I came into the issue of students throwing pencils and some minor bullying. So, I faced the issue of, do I correct this behavior? I am not their classroom teacher, so, is it my place? For safety reasons I did tell them to make a better choice rather than throw the color pencils. Their response was to tell me I am not fun. I struggled with this.The program is during the summer, it is a period when the students are to be more relaxed than in the classroom, but I believe these to still be issues that need tackling. What are some thoughts about this?

Besides teaching at the community centers, I have been preparing to teach a stop for a school program that visits over the summer. Today, I present for the first time over Marion Crossing the Peedee.  I have been preparing for the presentation for a couple of weeks now, so, I am hoping it goes well! I am starting the tour with some slow looking techniques and then using VTS. I have also equipped myself with fun facts, so if all else fails, I will have that to fall back on!

I am extremely excited as I start working on my final projects for the summer. I am working with the Manager of Distance Learning on writing a new program for Hispanic Heritage. The museum is starting slowly become more bilingual, so it is an honor to be a part of that process.
I am also working on another final project, this one revolving around community outreach. I am using Marit Dewhurt's strategies for a program for next summer. I am too excited.

Finally, this week marks the beginning of the new Girl Scouts program. We will be working with artist, Mark Dion, and two botanists from BRIT  (Botanical Research Institute of Texas) to help 30 cadets and scouts work towards earning a Girl Scouts badge!

Exciting things are happening!

The Little Things That Excite You...

Each week I really send time reflecting on my 2 internships.  What did I like, what did I not really enjoy, and always what could I do better.  I truly believe every experience is a learning opportunity.  From time to time you get to do things that seem mundane but when you jump in the experience is awesome.  I share this as I have been calling the artists that painted ornaments for the White House Christmas tree in 2007.  I can't think of anything I've enjoyed more than tracking the artist down and getting to talk with them.  This particular experience for them was so memorable that they get excited that someone is calling from the museum about their ornament from 11 years. I'm simply calling to see if they would send us pictures, any articles and stories they might have so that we can place it with the ornament.  And these ornaments will go on display at some point.  How exciting that their art lives on.....and how exciting to hear their stories.  How they were chosen, what they painted, and just the experience they had at the White House.  I was on the phone with one artist for 30 minutes...I felt like I was there with her.  Another artist has had work commissioned by the Vatican! I am starting to look for packages with their memorabilia.  Cant wait to see it all!  How cool is this...some days and tasks are boring but this blocks those days out!  This is what I love about art and museums...things live on!