The Museum of Modern Art and The Buell Center invited a series of team participants and observers who attended workshops for MoMA’s exhibition Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream to reflect on the project. Here are thoughts from Nadine Maleh, a member of Visible Weather’s team.

In 1932, MoMA established the world’s first curatorial department devoted to architecture and design. Since then, the MoMA Design Store has collaborated with a number of established and emerging architects, inviting them to develop thoughtful, engaging home products that encourage exploration of the discipline’s key themes including structure, spatial organization, and materials.

Some of Cindy Sherman’s characters bring an immediate context to mind. You gaze at the picture, and there’s the flood of a specific time and place. A scene forms and the figure becomes the protagonist of a narrative. Others are, at first take, more obscure or bizarre.

This week’s Ten-Minute Talk features Scott Gerson, Associate Conservator in MoMA’s Department of Conservation who discusses the materials and processes explored in Ellen Gallagher’s featured work Deluxe on display in the Printin’ exhibition.

Hard to believe that five great weeks have flown by at Print Studio and that this is the final week of the project!

Next week, staff from MoMA’s Department of Education will attend a workshop organized by the Museum Access Consortium that will focus on museum programs for visitors who are on the autism spectrum.

Have you ever wondered about the art of handmade paper? Join us Friday, March 2, at 12:00 or 2:30 p.m. for a workshop

From day one, Print Studio has been a site for finding new ways to use old books, as visitors have copied and pasted images from the illustrious Reanimation Library‘s collection of previously discarded books.

This week’s Ten-Minute Talk features Phil Sanders, director and master printer at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, a program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.

“It is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people.”—Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Last December, MoMA’s School Visits Program partnered with Quest to Learn School to design a weeklong Museum engagement for 16 of Q2L’s eighth-grade students. I collaborated with math teacher Kate Selkirk to plan an exciting week at MoMA as the students’ end-of-term project. Quest to Learn students are familiar with analyzing structures and systems, as their school’s pedagogy is built upon game theory and systems design. In my own social practice work, I explore ideas of generosity, empathy, and exchange. Connecting these ideas, the students spent a week at MoMA analyzing and creating art projects focused on performance and audience interaction, rather than traditional works that hang on walls.

At the beginning of the week, students lined up for green curry as part of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s piece, Untitled (Free/Still), in the Contemporary Galleries and asked, “How is this food art? Why does it look like a soup kitchen? Is this shelter supposed to be temporary and unfinished?” As they viewed more works, some expressed outright frustration at Duchamp’s alteration of everyday objects and Lawrence Weiner’s exposed wall lathing, which seemed like a practical joke to them. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Untitled (Placebo), however, seemed to placate one student’s query as she made a connection between her role in the meaning of the artist’s work, and how related it to the way a feedback loop informs successful game design. Their creative responses to the works varied widely from intrigue (as they explored the idea of “collaborative authorship” through exquisite corpse drawing exercises) to delight (as they interpreted Benjamin Patterson’s Paper Piece in the recent Fluxus exhibition Thing/Thought).

Fluxus Paper Piece from Grace Hwang on Vimeo.

We asked the students to ponder these questions, then apply their ideas to creating experiential works of art to share with MoMA staff in an interactive exhibition. They decided to explore the notion of “comfort,” and asked: “How can we give and take comfort to/from each other? And how can this be applied through interactions with visitors?” Students were given a short time to create their works and organize them in a self-curated exhibition in MoMA’s Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education & Research Building. Giving Tree, created by an introverted student, involved offering help—such as giving directions or offering restaurant suggestions—to passersby on Fifth Avenue. One group chose to give away hot chocolate, hugs, and compliments, while another placed participants in a vulnerable position by asking them to profess their moods or insecurities. They documented their process and presented their projects to their school at the end of the week. I, along with their peers and principal, was surprised at how students approached their work in a way that was playful, risky, cheeky, vulnerable, and critical. It was clear that over the week, students really expanded their ideas around what makes something art, and the unexpected ways artworks can be created.

Q2L- Gifts from School Programs on Vimeo.

Last month, I met Kate at a Thai restaurant in Jackson Heights to talk about the experience. Over dinner, she mentioned a noticeable change in her relationship with the students who had participated in the project. She said, “it seemed as if an invisible social glue has brought about a shared understanding between them as they pass the halls.” As a teacher, she saw how art can initiate excitement and involvement for students, while expanding their awareness of the world around them and each other. She confessed that this experience inspired her to apply for a teaching grant to visit Thailand this summer where she hopes to visit Tiravanija’s The Land Project.

Perhaps it’s not what specifically happens at the Museum that is remembered, but the memory of having experienced something meaningful and how we live in the days following.

This partnership was conducted and documented by Grace Hwang, School Visits Educator.