From left: Cards displayed in the lobby during phase 1. Photo by Martin Seck. Card scanner during phase 2. Photo by Tammy Shell
Last week, we launched version 2.0 of “I went to MoMA and…”, which began life as an impromptu experiment to see what would happen if we gave visitors an opportunity to share their experiences at the Museum—whatever those might be.
Many people respond to our “I went to MoMA and…” prompt with words, whether they’re deep thoughts about the meaning of life or stories about time spent with family. But it’s only fitting that at an art museum, visitors would also react with images!
A few weeks ago we posted a series of notes that visitors had left telling us about dates, kisses, and even marriage proposals taking place at MoMA, as you can see here. But museums aren’t just good for romance; they’re great places to go with family, whether you’re a parent bringing children or a teen escorting a grandparent.
May 25 is a big day! On this day in 1935, Jesse Owens broke three track and field records; in 1977, Star Wars was released; plus it’s National Tap Dance Day—happy birthday Bill “Bojangles” Robinson! And for a few (or a lot) of our visitors of all ages, May 25 is your birthday and you’re spending it here. From the celebratory “I went to MoMA and…” responses we pulled from the pile this week, we know you’re out there—turning 9, 21, 30, 50, 65, 80, and everything in between.
Many of the “I went to MoMA and…” responses are attempts to fit very big thoughts and feelings onto 3×6-inch cards. Here on a midtown block in an often cynical city, deeply felt sentiments and words like floating, dreaming, beauty, connection, and soul seem to be on people’s minds.
Reading the “I went to MoMA and…” notecards, we’ve started to notice the guitars… a lot of guitars. People draw guitars of all shapes and sizes; realistic guitars, Cubist guitars, abstract guitars; guitars by kids, guitars by grownups, guitars by people from many different countries. The inspiration, of course, for this outpouring of guitar drawings is our current exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914.
Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion. Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.
The "I went to MoMA and..." project in action in the MoMA lobby
</div>Flights of fancy, lively drawings, dreams of piloting the Bell helicopter, disdain for a museum with no dinosaurs… many of our absolute favorite “MoMA stories” were left by kids, from toddlers to teenagers. So for our second post about the “I went to MoMA and…” project, it wasn’t hard to pick a theme.
The "I went to MoMA and..." project in action in the MoMA lobby
“It is the spectators who make the pictures.”—Marcel Duchamp
What would our museum be with no visitors? Well…not much of a museum. MoMA isn’t just galleries filled with art, after all. It’s also the experience of art, the diverse and intensely personal experiences people have when they visit.
If you are interested in reproducing images from The Museum of Modern Art web site, please visit the Image Permissions page (www.moma.org/permissions). For additional information about using content from MoMA.org, please visit About this Site (www.moma.org/site).
© Copyright 2016 The Museum of Modern Art