Catalogue cover from 1969 Stockholm Moderna Musset’s exhibition Poetry must be made by all! Transform the world!
“I’ve come to free the words.” — Brion Gysin, 1960
Poetry is like a perfume—or body odor—slithering between cracks in the wall, wafting under shut doorways, stealthily sneaking in the back door unnoticed.
What treasures do think you’d find if you spent months digging through MoMA’s Library collection? Just ask artist Xaviera Simmons! Xaviera is mining MoMA to trace the Museum’s history with political action through gesture. What does this mean?
Back in the fall of 2012, I wrote a post highlighting the Roving Gallery Guide initiative piloted by the Department of Education staff last summer. Recently, MoMA’s freelance educators completed their own interventions.
All images: Kelly Nipper with Japanther. Tessa Pattern Takes a Picture. 2013. Photograph © The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Paula Court
On January 30, Kelly Nipper debuted her piece, Tessa Pattern Takes A Picture, in MoMA’s Titus 2 Theater. The performance featured Japanther (Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly), and Marissa Ruazol (dancing in characteristic Nipper attire [pictured]).
Leora: I want to tell you how much has stayed with me since last week’s performances. It feels like I can access the entire duration in my memory, which is not altogether typical of my experience of either rock shows or dance performance. Since our space is limited, I’d like to jump in, describe what I saw, and ask you a related question.
View of MoMA Studio: Common Sense from above
If you came through the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building at MoMA this fall, you probably noticed MoMA Studio: Common Senses. You may have taken a closer look, perhaps intrigued by one of the installations or by one of the activities. The design of this MoMA Studio was particularly engaging and full of opportunities to interact with the installations.
Photo: Michael Nagle
For the past three years, Community & Access Programs teaching artist Kerry Downey has been teaming up with Housing Works (one of MoMA’s longest running Community Partnerships) to collaborate on nearly a dozen hands-on art projects. Traveling between three sites—the Keith D. Cylar House Health Center, the Transgender Transitional Housing Project (TTHP), and the West Village Health Center—Downey has been organizing video shoots, performances, murals, and a host of other artistic ventures.
You may see a bearded man in an impeccable, salmon-colored suit sitting at the information desk of the Museum—you can ask him anything about the meaning of poetry.
The Department of Education continuously seeks new ways to increase visitor engagement with art. It’s exciting to brainstorm ideas with colleagues, test them out, and see the most promising ideas put into practice.
Tottenville High School Marching Band leading the audience out of the Child in the City of Play symposium through MoMA Studio: Common Senses. Photo by Sarah Kennedy
It’s not often that you leave a symposium feeling more awake than when you started, but that was certainly the case for every attendee and participant of last week’s The Child in the City of Play: Growing by Design
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