MoMA | Author: Beth Harris

Posts by Beth Harris

March 9, 2011 | Collection & Exhibitions, Tech

The Real and the Virtual Art Museum

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education

Screenshot of Google Art Project featuring Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night

So much of the press and discussion around the Google Art Project has focused on comparing the experience of the virtual gallery with the real, in-person experience. The question seems to be, will the Google Art Project replace or somehow despoil the experience of the museum visit? But I think this commentary overlooks an important part of the Google Art Project: the way it allows users to—in a way—remix and share their experience of so many great works of art.

January 5, 2011 | Collection & Exhibitions, Tech, Videos

Just a Bunch of Paintings with Lines?

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education

Still from The Painting Techniques of Mark Rothko: No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black)

Still from MoMA's video The Painting Techniques of Mark Rothko: No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black)

At the beginning of the video on the painting techniques of Barnett Newman that we produced for MoMA’s Abstract Expressionist New York iPad app (and the exhibition’s website), Corey D’Augustine, a conservator and instructor of the on-site and online course Materials and Techniques of Postwar Abstract Painting tells this story:

November 8, 2010 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Videos

Jackson Pollock Asks: “Is This a Painting?”

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education

Jackson Pollock. One: Number 31, 1950. 1950. Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 8' 10" x 17' 5 5/8" (269.5 x 530.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art. Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection Fund (by exchange). © 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Pollock at MoMA, uploaded to Flickr on Feburary 11, 2009: http://www.flickr.com/photos/plathfan/3271119503/

In one of the videos we produced for the current Abstract Expressionist New York exhibition, Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of MoMA’s Department of Painting and Sculpture and the organizer of the exhibition, tells this story about Jackson Pollock:

September 23, 2010 | Collection & Exhibitions, Events & Programs, Tech

Learning Online: MoMA’s Courses Go Digital

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education Amy Horschak, Assistant Director, Academic Programs

Independent Conservator and Instructor Corey D’Augustine demonstrates Jackson Pollock’s painting techniques in the online course Materials and Techniques of Postwar Abstract Painting.

MoMA’s Education Department prides itself on crafting personal experiences with works of art for our visitors. In exploring new ways to enhance these experiences, we were surprised to find that video has a remarkable ability to help us focus our gaze in a way that is often very difficult to do in the galleries. It might seem like a strange concept—that looking at a work of art on your computer screen would help you to look and think about art more deeply—but this is precisely what we discovered as we developed two online courses over the last year.

July 8, 2010 | Modern Women, Publications

Leap into the Unknown: Women Artists, Past and Present

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education

Linda Nochlin’s groundbreaking essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” was published in 1971, but more than fifteen years later, when I attended graduate school at the Graduate Center, CUNY, a second wave of important feminist contributions to the discipline appeared.

March 5, 2010 | Collection & Exhibitions, Events & Programs

Can Art Change the World?

Posted by Beth Harris, Director of Digital Learning, Education

As Director of Digital Learning, I might just have the best job in the world. Take today as an example. At 10:00 a.m., I reviewed video for an online studio course about the materials and techniques of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Barnett Newman (among others) that my coworker Amy Horschak and I hope to run this summer (it is being developed by Corey d’Augustine). At 2:00, I brainstormed with colleagues about new content for the blog. At 5:00, I attended an exhibition opening for the Education department’s CreateAbility class, a monthly program for individuals with learning and developmental disabilities and their families. I brought in the camera just in time to hear parents talk about how meaningful the class was for their children. (We’ll be adding the video to the Learn section of the site, which is being updated later this spring.) By 7:00 I was watching a program organized by my colleagues Laura Beiles and Pablo Helguera: the artist William Kentridge on stage in Theater 1, performing I am not me, the horse is not mine.