Agora: What makes something art?, facilitated by Petra Pankow. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, July 9, 2013
“What do we want from museums?” As the topic for the final meeting of this summer’s educator-facilitated, public discussion series, Agora, this question fittingly articulated the line of thinking that motivated the program’s unique format and approach. While Agora (named after the ancient Greek tradition of philosophical inquiry)
Teens.MoMA.org, the new site for everything MoMA Teens-related
Every year, we bring hundreds of NYC teens through our studio doors to take part in dozens of free hands-on art-making programs. From In the Making to the MoMA + MoMA PS1 Cross-Museum Collective to our recently created Digital Advisory Board, we are constantly looking to find new ways of engaging young audiences
A Guerrila Reading by Vito Acconci and Maria Mirabal in the exhibition Hand Signals: Digits, Fists, and Talons, June 26, 2013. Part of Uncontested Spaces: Guerrilla Readings in MoMA Galleries
It’s been a remarkable year for poetry at MoMA. I threatened to slather the Museum with poetry, and I did. By the time it was finished, I brought over 125 poets, novelists, essayists, artists, and musicians into MoMA to do public interventions.
An Archive as Impetus (Not on View) performance in MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Photograph by Martin Seck
Plenty of people think of museums, libraries, and archives as stagnant and apolitical places; sites where histories are not created, but simply preserved. In her performance Archive as Impetus (Not on View)—presented several times per week during the month of June as part of MoMA’s Artists Experiment initiative—artist Xaviera Simmons asked viewers to reconsider the role of the museum.
MoMA Studio: Exchange Café furniture by Caroline Woolard. Photo by Ryan Tempro
When I was asked to propose a new learning format to MoMA, I suggested a café because I wanted to create a social space where meaning is made in dialogue, where objects can be touched, and where visceral knowledge is honored. MoMA Studio: Exchange Café is a social space dedicated to exchange, from unconventional encounters to barter and reciprocal economies.
An Archive as Impetus performance in MoMA’s Agnes Gund Garden Lobby. Photograph courtesy of Xaviera Simmons
What do women artists want?
This question is announced through a microphone, repeated—carrying out into MoMA’s Garden Lobby and on to the second-floor Marron Atrium as visitors stop, turn, and listen.
MoMA Studio: Exchange Café furniture by Caroline Woolard. Photo by Ryan Tempro
When I was asked to propose a new learning format to MoMA, I suggested a café because I wanted to create a social space where meaning is made in dialogue, where objects can be touched, and where visceral knowledge is honored.
Alya Albert and Ryan McNamara holding hands as part of her performance
Alya Albert, 19, is an alumnus of our In the Making teen arts program and a second-year Cross-Museum Collective member. On Sunday May 19, she and the other CMC teens, under the guidance of artist Ryan McNamara, created a series of in-gallery performances and provocations at MoMA PS1.
MoMA Studio: Exchange Café honors the power of reciprocity. From everyday barter practices to artistic exchange systems, I aim to make legible a relationship between works in MoMA’s collection and contemporary movements to reclaim the commons.
Put a group of student artists in a room with five hours to complete three days’ worth of work—and then tell them they have to exhibit their work to the public at MoMA the following day.
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