Over the last week and a half, I have experienced some of the best moments of my internship thus far. As always, here is a laundry list of all the things I’ve been up to:
1) Every once in a while, I get a strange, somewhat random, task that really has nothing to do with any of the other projects I have been working on. I’ve had a couple of those in the last week or so.
a. Untitled Blog Business: For every Untitled, my supervisor writes a blog post that centers on the topic for that evening’s festivities. The next Untitled’s theme is “Old School,” a commentary on the various historical periods/schools of art as well as those trends that have followed us throughout the 80s and 90s—think spandex, neon, snap bracelets, Walkmans, PAC Man, etc. What came up during a couple of brainstorming meetings about the marketing plan for “Old School” was that our Modern and Contemporary collection consists of many works that appropriate historical images and infuse them with contemporary meaning. Artists such as Wiley and Colescott come to mind. One of my assignments for this last week was to go to a Wiley painting we have displayed, and from there pull some information from a visitor response piece situated in front of the work. In this activity, visitors are asked to write a 6 word bio of the painting. My task was to choose the top 5 or so in order that Sonnet could pick and choose what she wanted to discuss in her blog. Images were scanned and text was delivered. Here is an image of the painting and some of my favorite bios:
1) You be Mary, I’ll be Joseph.
2) Here’s where bling bling meets Baroque.
3) We’re not your typical portrait sitters.
4) The hip hop guys are canonized.
5) Basketball wannabes divinized through faux marriage.
6) Induction into a life of captivity.
7) Forget what you think you know.
We have some creative visitors, don’t we?!
Another Untitled related assignment I was asked to take care of was the transcription of Sonnet's (my supervisor) interview with the Curator of Photography, Eric Paddock. The point of this interview was to generate information on the oldest photograph in the collection. This would serve as information for another blog post Sonnet is writing about “Old School.” Very, very interesting interview, but I would not recommend transcribing on a daily basis…it is exhausting! In addition to this transcription, I took photographs of some daguerreotypes we have displayed in the Discovery Library within the Western Art galleries for some visual reference.
b) Side Trip Gallery Facilitation: I worked another afternoon in the Side Trip helping visitors make their own rock posters (see previous posts).
c) Field Trip to the Denver Firefighters Museum: Last Thursday, a group of education staff and interns went across the street to the Denver Firefighters Museum to talk to their director a little bit about what they do there as well as the educational activities that they provide for their audience. It was a wonderful afternoon of experiencing how much gallery interpretation can be done on a very small budget. As it turns out, the DAM and the Denver Firefighters Museum have a very close relationship. They even share a large number of their volunteers with one another. Especially interesting is the fact that many supplies are given to the DFM after the art museum has deemed these items to be passed their “usefulness” for the institution.
What really grabbed me was how well the DFM was able to adapt learning models from other institutions. Perhaps, it isn’t all about innovation, but creative and strategic adaptation.
d) Denver CAMP HotSpot Facilitator: Last Friday, I was able to facilitate a gallery activity with six groups of underprivileged children. For various objects within the permanent gallery, the education staff has created what they call HotSpots, or activities the center on a object's visual qualities. For the camp last week, we took the kids up to the 6th floor, which houses the European collection among other things. Within the Discovery Library on this floor, I facilitated a HotSpot that focused on an Egyptian sarcophagus. First, I gave an overview of what a sarcophagus was, we talked about where Egypt is located, and spent some time looking over the object. A flower collar is prominently depicted on the chest of the sarcophagus, which served as our point of departure for the gallery activity. The children were assisted in creating their own Egyptian collars using pillows, pins, and silk flowers. The finished product was then color photo copied.
This is one of my favorite things I have done so far in my internship. I had forgotten how much I love talking to people, especially about topics that I am passionate about. I was able to tap into my art history expertise, as well as use what I know about museum education to give all of that content context. I certainly learned a lot about myself as a facilitator!
e) I have finished a Talking with Visitors paper (see previous posts), and am waiting for my meeting with Sonnet so that we can edit my document.
2) Embrace! Related Projects:
a. As I have mentioned before, part of the Embrace! lounge has come under my wing of responsibility. The visitor response portion of the interpretive area, or the 3D renderings of various architectural spaces of the Hamilton building, has been a source of concern/contention for a while in our bi-monthly meetings. By some twist of fate, I happened to be the one who was delegated to see this project through.
Without drawing this out too much, let’s just say that I met with the Coordinator of Family and School Programs to discuss the feasibility of creating 3D renderings of certain areas of the Hamilton building. I locked in a few commitments from her, and proceeded to call a Lounge team meeting to discuss my findings and articulate the next phase of our game plan. This week I should be able to start prototyping some of the die cuts that we have created; this will ensure that we have an intuitive gallery activity…More to come on this later!
b. As always, I have continued working on the artists’ files for Embrace! Zhong Biao’s file has been completed, and Charles Sandison’s should be finished by the end of this week. I also meet with the other intern helping me with these files. I briefed her on the process, and I have served as her resource for effectively and efficiently getting Hahn and Baker’s files done.
c. By far the most exciting thing that happened over the last 14 days here at the DAM has been giving a tour of the museum to a group of recent refugees and students from the Emily Griffith Opportunity School (See previous posts for more information on Rupprecht Matthies community project). Emilie (Matthies's installation team member) and I met to design a tour for these individuals, knowing that most of them have just arrived in the states, have probably never been to a museum, and have low to moderate English-speaking skills. We decided to take them to 3 areas of the museum: the Western Art gallery (to talk about art here in the West), a installation created from the process of community collaboration (what these individuals will be doing), and the area which Rupprecht Matthies will install his work.
The entire tour was a delight! I had individuals from all across Africa, as well as from Thailand and Iran. It certainly wasn’t the easiest tour to give; explaining harder concepts proved to be difficult. However, I did feel as though they were getting excited about the project. What really makes me smile is knowing that for many of these individuals I acted as their gateway into the world of museums. What more could I have asked for?!
Later in the week I delivered family passes to Emily Griffith so that the individuals that made it to the art museum could bring their families back for free! What a great way to build professional relationships.
d. Logan Lecture Transcripts: For two of the Embrace! artists, Katharina Grosse and Jessica Stockholder, the museum had copies of lectures that they have given the previous year at part of the Logan Lecture Series. My job was to transcribe portions of these lectures (1 ½ hrs. long each) that I thought would be interesting for the docents to be exposed to. In this way, docents can either read my transcript or watch the DVD at the points I have indicated in order to learn information they will inform how they present their works to the DAM’s audience.
e. I have scheduled time to learn how to use Apple’s GarageBand in order that I will be able to edit interview footage of Embrace! artists for our cell phone audio content.
f. Attended various meetings, including an all-staff meeting (with our new interim director), Embrace! lounge meetings, weekly meetings with Sonnet, curator meeting for Rupprecht’s installation, and a walk-through with the buildings and design staff on Rupprecht’s installation. So much gets done in an intangible form here at the museum.
We’ll that seems like it all for now…oh, and I’m staying here until November!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment