Grand Finale

Actually, the Finale for my internship will not happen until the end of August, so my reflections on it are based on the experience so far and the projected finish.

My expectations so far have been met in the part of the projected workshops. I collaborated with an array of several museum educators to meet in the middle between my artistic process and the needs and best practices of their program. I am pleased to know, from their unsolicited comments, that they were planning to incorporate some of these activities in the future, with regards to the cyanotypes, for example.

Some questions on which I ruminated during the internship and will remain unsolved were keeping a watch on the line between the museum as an art center and the museum as a place that collects, shows and interprets art. There were several workshops that I worked on in collaboration with the Teen program, for example, that either went out of the museum or, even when they were at the museum, they still were very loosely related to the collection. After reflection, now I think that this it not a problem and the museum needs to be allowed to branch out, both physically and as a connection to the objects displayed in it. It is fantastic that teens from the Teen Council, for example, see the DMA as their point of deep relationship with the city and art in general, more like a forum, as opposed to a traditional concept of a museum as a temple. However, at some point we may have to grapple with the issue of our presence at that specific building  not being even needed. This is something that I am still not ready to give up on.

Finally, I am especially glad for the opportunity to connect with a large array of professionals in a variety of positions at the Dallas Museum of Art and learn about the perspectives of their individual programs. I had the same proposal, the same concept yet for each department it had a different application. This allowed me to learn, in the most concentrated form, the philosophy behind each program. I am grateful for the relationships I developed during my work with them, as much as the visibility I was given for my own work as an artist during my time. I would like to recommend applying to this program to artists in the DFW area - the application is now live at https://www.dma.org/visit-center-creative-connections/c3-visiting-artists and the deadline is September 14, 2018.

Finally, I wanted to invite you at the final reception at the Dallas Museum of Art - it will take place on August 30, at the Center for Creative Connection, 6PM-9PM. If you are an artist who indeed is planning to apply to this program, please come - I would love to introduce you to the coordinator and the other educators!