Monday, September 24, 2018
Just pushing through
I have finally had the opportunity to teach a few of the Art After School classes. I must say that I love my group of students. They are very intelligent and make for great class discussion. I was a little afraid starting out that I would not be able to create programming that works for various age groups as the students are all between the ages of six and ten, but no issues have emerged so far. Thankfully, the younger and older students seem to be able to communicate with each other well and understand the topics discussed. I am still conscious of the fact that there is such a significant age gap between the students and I try to always have an advanced activity for the older students just in case they become bored by the activity I give to the younger students.
On another note, I found that this internship has really forced me to pay attention to how I speak. I have noticed that students are more likely to answer questions in class and do the things I ask if I phrase it in a particular way. When I try to connect the class discussion to their personal experiences, they are more likely to participate. My phrasing has also been especially important when it comes to getting one of the students to do the things she is suppose to do each class like pay attention or clean up her work space. She is six and extremely opinionated for her age. Which I admit is great. It is always wonderful when she contributes because she is very well spoken and feels very strongly about things. To give an example she spent a good portion of one day convincing the entire class that unicorn foxes are not a myth, but very much real. We all had to admit that they are real. She is that determined. All that determination, however, has its down sides. She will not clean up if I just ask her. I have to phrase it in a particular way. If I want her to clean, I have to impart how much of a help to me it will be if she cleaned because she is so organized or fast at cleaning up. I feel each class is a lesson in just psychology and speaking to children for me.
Besides this constant awareness and rephrasing of what I say, the first part of class which consists of the students looking at and discussing art goes very well. My main goal each day is for the students to express their ideas and learn the importance of objects to various cultures. Since this part of class is just about discussing art, I am comfortable. In contrast, the second part of class is really difficult, because it consists of the students making art and I am very much not an artist. I have a very poor grasp about how to teach students about making things. I am an art history person through and through. Luckily, elementary art teachers post plenty of how to videos on YouTube. These have been great and I end up watching every week so I can try to explain to do things. I have probably watched too many making pinch pots with first graders for a twently-one year old graduate student, but I now know how to make a simple pinch pot. Hopefully, I improve over the course of the semester and the students can leave the next class with some nice ceramics.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
An internship at the ready: the prequel
An year and a half ago, I had the chance to visit the Museum of geometric and MADI art in Dallas as part of our Museum Studies seminar. What an interesting, unusual space and a peculiar story of its founding - around a concept of art rather than a geographic area, time period or medium. While geometric art is a well known concept, MADI is an abbreviation referring to art "off the wall and out of the frame" - a non-representational artistic movement that started in the 1940s in Uruguay and spread around the world afterwards. Many artists have been based in France and Italy, where the movement founder eventually lived.
Because of that connection and through the museum director, I learned that the museum in my "hometown" in Italy has an extensive collection of MADI art and even a significant part of the archive of the movement is located in its library. She also connected me with an artist who lived in the area and who would have a solo exhibition at the MADI museum in Dallas. I volunteered to curate that exhibition and - long story short - it is happening in a month, in October! So, my internship will consist of a project at the Museum this semester around that exhibition.
My expectations for the internship are really colored by my previous experience with both the museum and the artists. It is very difficult to create a program around a medium that has purely aesthetic principles and rejects any national and cultural grounding, is not representational and rejects emotional goals. However, through my relationship with the two Italian artists who will be part of the exhibition and many meetings and catalogues from previous exhibitions, I am taking the challenge to devise an educational program based on it.
Work by Reale Franco Frangi, 2017, which will be part of the two-person exhibition at the MADI museum in October 2018
There are several possibilities for this project, besides the curatorial work (which, if you are curious, is very nitty-gritty! Nothing fancy, but a lot of email writing, art courier shipping calling, catalogues reading, press release writing, gallerist meeting and other that I would rather spare you hearing.) The most exciting part of it is the selection of the works to be exhibited and the work with the artists in this respect, but this is another topic.
So:
It would be interesting to take the opportunity of the visit of these Italian artists and create a series of activities for the Italian language programs in area universities.
Also, since I have been interested in self-guided activities that include the sense of touch, I would like to design one around it. However, it may be a challenge, since independent visitors to the museum are very few and they don't get much to explore it on their own.
Lastly, it would be great to design a children's book based on either the exhibition or the permanent collection, which could be actually published through one of the on-demand printing platforms.
Really, really lastly: I am not the first UNT intern at the MADI museum. If you look back through this blog, you will see two previous MA students who worked there last summer (2017). I remember that they couldn't finish the project that they started - which was research on the labels - and were sad because of that. I may try to reprise their work and finish it.
Since I have previously talked about the curatorial/educational gap that exists today in museums, you may ask how I reconcile the two. In fact, one of the interesting challenges in this is to walk the walk based on the talk that I have been previously talked. I have the unique opportunity to be both a curator and educator for this project. Let's see how it will work out!
Because of that connection and through the museum director, I learned that the museum in my "hometown" in Italy has an extensive collection of MADI art and even a significant part of the archive of the movement is located in its library. She also connected me with an artist who lived in the area and who would have a solo exhibition at the MADI museum in Dallas. I volunteered to curate that exhibition and - long story short - it is happening in a month, in October! So, my internship will consist of a project at the Museum this semester around that exhibition.
My expectations for the internship are really colored by my previous experience with both the museum and the artists. It is very difficult to create a program around a medium that has purely aesthetic principles and rejects any national and cultural grounding, is not representational and rejects emotional goals. However, through my relationship with the two Italian artists who will be part of the exhibition and many meetings and catalogues from previous exhibitions, I am taking the challenge to devise an educational program based on it.
There are several possibilities for this project, besides the curatorial work (which, if you are curious, is very nitty-gritty! Nothing fancy, but a lot of email writing, art courier shipping calling, catalogues reading, press release writing, gallerist meeting and other that I would rather spare you hearing.) The most exciting part of it is the selection of the works to be exhibited and the work with the artists in this respect, but this is another topic.
So:
It would be interesting to take the opportunity of the visit of these Italian artists and create a series of activities for the Italian language programs in area universities.
Also, since I have been interested in self-guided activities that include the sense of touch, I would like to design one around it. However, it may be a challenge, since independent visitors to the museum are very few and they don't get much to explore it on their own.
Lastly, it would be great to design a children's book based on either the exhibition or the permanent collection, which could be actually published through one of the on-demand printing platforms.
Really, really lastly: I am not the first UNT intern at the MADI museum. If you look back through this blog, you will see two previous MA students who worked there last summer (2017). I remember that they couldn't finish the project that they started - which was research on the labels - and were sad because of that. I may try to reprise their work and finish it.
Since I have previously talked about the curatorial/educational gap that exists today in museums, you may ask how I reconcile the two. In fact, one of the interesting challenges in this is to walk the walk based on the talk that I have been previously talked. I have the unique opportunity to be both a curator and educator for this project. Let's see how it will work out!
Monday, September 10, 2018
Getting Prepared
Every Wednesday for the next nine months, I will be teaching a rumbustious class of elementary school aged students about visual art for the Greater Denton Arts Council's Art After School Program. I am excited to have the opportunity to lead a class for students interested in visual arts and look forward to working with my students. Through this internship, I hope to gain practical experience designing and implementing engaging programming that will appeal to a younger audience. While I have previously worked with elementary classes, I have never been able to lead a class and utilize my own lesson plans which makes this internship particularly appealing me.
The internship has also given me considerable freedom in determining the course of the program. I have even been allowed to choose the theme of the fall course (mythical creatures) and the topic of each class. I find myself a little worried that I will not choose topics that interest the students. I want them enjoy coming to the class and leave each day excited by the objects they saw.
This week the students will be looking at Japanese prints depicting the Legend of Princess of Tamatori. I hoping these prints spark a great class discussion and appeal to children love of tales of adventures.
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