It’s a universal thing: September is a busy month for students and educators of all kinds, as the relaxed pace of summer makes way for the back-to-school rush. We’re no exception here in MoMA’s Department of Education. Just last week, for example, we kicked off our season of arts engagement programming for people with dementia and their caregivers.
It’s particularly gratifying to commence Meet Me at MoMA, our free public program for people with dementia, in September because September is also World Alzheimer’s Month. And today, Friday, September 21, is Alzheimer’s Action Day, a day to advocate for and support people with Alzheimer’s disease.
As such, we’d like to take a moment to share some of the inspiring action we saw last Tuesday at our first Meet Me at MoMA program of the season. We had over 70 people take part in a lively and collaborative art-making program inspired by MoMA’s Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan retrospective. In the spirit of Boetti, participants adhered to a predetermined set of guidelines in order to create collages.
Participants at the Museum’s September Meet Me at MoMA program create collages.
These works were then assembled into a paper “tapestry,” reflecting both the individual personality of each participant and also the group’s collective creativity. Participants came up with a number of different ways to arrange the individual pieces. At times the arrangement adhered to the orderly grid system Boetti employed in his series of kilims.
Participants first arranged their individual works into a collective grid.
Another arrangement, inspired by the occasional randomness of Boetti’s “word squares,” abandoned the grid altogether in favor of a more chaotic approach.
A more random arrangement of participant artwork
If you were unable to attend our September program, we welcome you to join us for our October 2 Meet Me at MoMA program, wherein specially trained educators will facilitate discussion in the Museum’s galleries. The program is free of charge but preregistration is required. Register online today!