Conclusion

The core of the activity for this internship is now over, so I wanted to give a recap of it. It was a very different experience compared not only to my previous work in museums but also to others' experiences in Dallas museums; it truly is a different type of museum. Here is what I did and learned in the past few weeks:

1. I communicated with the two artists, translated texts, triaged between the director, galleries who hold artists' works, previous curators and, most importantly, the shipping companies. A portion of this has happened over the past year, not just the last weeks or month(s). The artwork arrived after many adventures, a few pieces were broken and needed restoration, then they were sequenced and installed. Not to speak about accompanying the visiting artist for a significant amount of time in his two-week visit to Dallas. I also tried (in the year before the exhibition even opened) to investigate some fundraising options that would help with the printing of the catalog - for example, the Italian consulate in Houston or the Italian community organization in Dallas - but this didn't pan out.

This experience was very useful for me, not only in trying out in the wild how a museum exhibition would come to be from finish to start, but also to help me connect the curatorial and the education side of museum work. This semester I have been TAing for a class in communication design, in which the concept of user experience as a design concept (UX) has been the focus. You may have come across the abbreviation: it is rather fashionable lately. In brief, it is design derived from the experience of the users and involves significant research in user perceptions and influence. This attention to UX was a link for me and showed the way on how the curation of an exhibition has a direct pedagogical impact on viewers - not only the way artworks are displayed, but also what was selected and why.

2. Catalog and publicity. I wrote bios and introductions for both artists, selected and edited images, and made layout of this 16-page catalog. There were a few glitches in the production and the communication with the graphic designer, but there was also the confirmation how this museum is so different from the others locally. While I was scrambling to figure out who is the facebook page admin and get him to create an event or even post the information on the website, I thought  that all the work of the past year would fall through because the information was posted in the various channels online only the day before the opening. However, I was surprised to see there were at least 50 or perhaps even 100 attendees of the reception, who had received the information via the printed newsletter. So, conclusion: printed materials are important and have impact.

3. Working with an artist. It is ironic that, on the coattails of my internship last summer, when my work was from the standpoint of the visiting artist who participated in education programs, I was now in a position to work with an artist as a curator and educator. In sum, it is not simple and requires the balancing of maintaining the autonomy of the artist while creating one's own program(s) that the artist collaborates with, but does not necessarily know how to navigate. In fact, I wanted to recommend that if you are interested in learning how to work with artists in a museum environment, you should visit the next meeting of the MER in DFW (Museum Education Roundtable) where this topic will be discussed.

https://dfwmer.wordpress.com/

My work with the artist consisted in developing the artist talk and then the workshop with Italian language students. We worked in this together since it was important to maintain the simplicity of the language, an internal logic that built on the practices of foreign language teaching while also keeping the captivating story that he had to tell. We had a disagreement over the art activity portion because the artist's definition of what MADI art is was very stringent, but in the end he was really happy with how it turned out. Students said they understood everything  :)

The most successful event, in my opinion, was the Arcadia Salon, which is an artist talk recurrent event the museum organizes on some Thursdays. Since I was going to translate, I told the artist he could say whatever he wanted and, unlike the students' visit, language barrier was not an issue. But he ended up following the structure of the previous talk. Another success was that he incorporated a couple of questions that followed an artful thinking strategy, which enlivened the dialog. By the way, the October meeting of the MER was community development, which I attended and tried to apply some trick from it to my work with this very tight knit community of museum goers.

4.  I am now planning the creation of a children's book - more specifically, a workbook of activities -  based on MADI art. This is especially appropriate because this art movement emphasizes geometric abstraction and three-dimensionality. The plan is to choose one artwork each by ten artists, write a simple intro to their style and then set aside a page for an activity that can be cut, collaged or colored to emulate the artist's work. I have talked with Sur Won about contributing cartoon characters that would be the connection between the explanation and the actual activity. However, the challenge is securing high resolution images of the work to be included, for ten different artists - which are protected by copyright - as well as figuring out the best way to print it - through the regular printing shop that the museum uses (cheaper but requiring an upfront order of 200 copies) or an online on-demand service like blurb (more expensive per copy but does not require a volume order, so more feasible as a test). I will also continue with some workshops in relation with the exhibition.

In all, this collaboration has been a precious opportunity for me and I am really grateful that I had the chance to pursue it. It brought me some really invaluable contacts, getting to know better an amazingly kind and empathetic person, the museum director, and learning more about the nitty gritty aspect of museums in which fewer people work on more aspects of it. The exhibition ends on January 20 and if you happen to visit the museum, please let me know!