Installation view of A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio, The Museum of Modern Art, February 8–October 5, 2014

“Coming into Brancusi’s studio was like entering another world.” – Man Ray, 1963

Man Ray. Laboratory of the Future. 1935. Gelatin silver print, 9 1/16 x 7″ (23.1 x 17.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of James Johnson Sweeney. © 2014 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde. 1967. USA. Directed by Arthur Penn

These notes accompany screenings of Arthur Penn’s </em>Bonnie and Clyde</a> on April 9, 10, and 11 in Theater 2.</p>

In some ways Bonnie and Clyde was a startling revelation that might be considered the beginning of modern American cinema. Its graphic violence (and a certain candor about sex) was the immediate sensation, but it also led to a cinema that fundamentally questions basic American conservative values and capitalism itself.

One of the many Contexts vitrines in Once Upon a Time…the Collection Now at the Van Abbemuseum

What kind of stories do a museum’s archives tell when read in tandem with masterpieces in their permanent collections? After allowing me to explore innovative exhibition strategies for archival material last summer, this year, MoMA’s intern travel grant gave me the opportunity to visit a Dutch museum that is contending with that exact question.

Now that spring is officially here, MoMA’s beloved Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden is once again (weather permitting) a sanctuary for midtown regulars and tourists alike.

Nyssa Frank, founder of The Living Gallery

Coming from the Bronx and living a regular public school kid’s life, I didn’t realize the opportunities around me. I had witnessed my brother for years get cool things off Craigslist. I mean, he even bought a car. I was hungry to enter the art world. I wanted to dip my feet into anything I could.

Portrait of Ringo Starr, by Karni Krikoryan

Karni Krikoryan is an artist born in Istanbul and currently living in the United Kingdom. She is also my aunt. Starting only at age five, she began creating art. “I had something to say about everything around me. So my eyes became my words,” is how she explains her early interest.

Growing up in New York City has taught me to always pay attention to my surroundings, as well as to be an open-minded individual. It is a cultural melting pot and an artistic wonderland with an abundance of galleries, museums, graffiti, posters, and people.

The crowds surrounding the Mona Lisa, Louvre Museum, Paris. Photo by Ana Inciardi

People shuffle around the gallery next to priceless pieces of art. Why are they here? Phones brought them here. The motive in going to a museum nowadays has evolved. The camera not only captures the piece of art, but also the wandering aesthete who clutches the camera at an arm’s length away from his or her face.

The inspiration for at least three poems: Jackson Pollock. Number 1A, 1948. 1948. Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 68″ x 8′ 8″ (172.7 x 264.2 cm). Purchase. © 2014 Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“Hi! So we’re from a program at MoMA called the Cross-Museum Collective and we’ve been asking people to write spontaneous poems about the piece of artwork that they’re currently looking at for the MoMA blog. Would you want to write one for us?”

Every family has its quirks, and you could say that my family wears theirs on their sleeves. I grew up surrounded by tattooed arms—skeletons, hearts, daggers, and snakes.