Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of facilitating “It’s amazing we don’t have more fights,” a workshop version of my ongoing project The Book of Everyday Instruction. The Book of Everyday Instruction is an eight-chapter project (continuing through the end of 2017) investigating one-on-one social interaction. Each chapter focuses on a different central question. For chapter four, “It’s amazing we don’t have more fights,” I want to know how we shape stories simply through the relationship of two bodies in space.

The [email protected] trailer, created by MoMA teen artists and Mary Mattingly. Photo: Kaitlyn Stubbs

We first worked with Mary Mattingly in the summer of 2013, when she collaborated with us as one of the teaching artists for the Museum’s first ever 3-D printing course for teens, a program that was set up through our involvement with <a href="http://eyebeam.org/" target=_blank>Eyebeam</a>. When she approached us last fall with an idea for a new teen course, I was immediately intrigued

Gene Tierney and Vincent Price in Laura. 1944. USA. Directed by Otto Preminger

I’ve always associated the American actor Vincent Price (1911–1993) with horror films. His work in Gothic features like House of Wax (1953), The Tingler (1959), and Pit and the Pendulum (1961) seem to align perfectly with his creepy voice and slithering screen persona. And I mean slithering as a compliment, because he brought a lot of skill to acting lecherous.

Special guests bring premiere performances, thoughtful conversations, and artistic legacies to the Museum this week. Don’t miss out on these programs.

In 1964, the 40-year-old Marcel Broodthaers entered the world of art with his first solo exhibition. Until the early 1960s, he was a poet and photographer with ventures in filmmaking, journalism, and dealing books—but he had not yet exhibited visual art. He heralded his arrival on the art scene with an invitation printed in block lettering that declared: “I, too, wondered whether I could not sell something and succeed in life.” In this sideways shift, Broodthaers launched his own career with the same wit and skepticism that would characterize his approach to art.

Title wall of Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty at The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Vanessa Lam

Looking at the exhibition Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty, one can immediately sense how strikingly modern the artworks feel, even after 120 years. Organized by senior curator Jodi Hauptman and curatorial assistant Heidi Hirschl, the show features the artist’s experimental and radical works that have rarely been attached to the widely conceived notion of “Degas” (two words: pink tutus).

We offer diverse programs all year long, but this week is packed with unique events for a particularly wide range of audiences. Take a look.

Making the Moving Image: Past to Present workshop, April 2, 2016, The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Manuel Martagon. © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Earlier this month, I worked with artist and educator Mark Joshua Epstein to bring a group of workshop participants to view objects in the MoMA Library that are not typically associated with modern art: artist-made flip books. This visit was part of Making the Moving Image: Past to Present, a studio workshop about experimentation with animation techniques that predate the invention of cinema. I watched participants hold and manipulate the books and was struck by how the direct physical contact with an artist’s work makes visiting the library’s collection of artist books so unique.

A visitor to MoMA’s current Marcel Broodthaers: A Retrospective exhibition must traverse a sea of potted palms to enter the galleries. The palms, along with a series of prints hanging on the surrounding walls, comprise a work entitled L’entrée de l’exposition (The entry to the exhibition).

Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine. Koolhaas Houselife. 2008. Video (color, sound), 58 min. Gift of Andrea Woodner. © 2016 Bêka & Lemoine

We are proud to announce the acquisition of Living Architectures, a suite of films by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine. These films imaginatively (and often hilariously) explore the daily life of contemporary architecture as it is inhabited and experienced. This acquisition represents the first inroads for the Department of Architecture and Design into the medium of film.