Teen Event: Collected
Mar 10, 2016
Teens in the Susan and John Hess Theater, February 2016. Photograph by Andrew Kist
On Friday, February 26, Youth Insights Leaders hosted Collected, an event for New York City high school teens in conjunction with Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, an exhibition celebrating American and international work from the 1960s to the present day. Leaders guided interactive gallery activities, performances, and art-making projects, including a collaborative cut-up poetry collage inspired by the exhibiting artists’ use of text and appropriation.
Youth Insights Leaders play a major role in designing and implementing teen events. Leaders visited the exhibition on several occasions to prepare for Collected. Teen Programs staff Sasha Wortzel and Dyeemah Simmons led inquiry based tours with the Leaders, focusing on works in the exhibition that addressed different forms of appropriation. Leaders chose specific objects and worked in small groups to research and brainstorm ways they could engage other teens in learning about the works. They came up with activities, practiced them with each other in the galleries, and exchanged feedback for the projects.
Teens create wire profiles of their faces, February 2016. Photograph by Andrew Kist
One gallery project was based on a self-portrait by artist Alex Israel. Teens were asked to think about branding themselves and what that might look like. Then they were instructed to write down words that described their branded selves, and to create a profile of their face using sculpture wire. They traced their wire profile onto the paper with their written words and erased the words outside of the traced image to produce both a drawing and a sculpture.
A teen reads a written continuous text message, February 2016. Photograph by Andrew Kist
Another project was based on an untitled word painting by Christopher Wool. Teens first tried reading the words in the painting out loud, and then found a recent text message on their phone. They wrote down the text message as a continuous stream of words with no punctuation in the style of the painting, and then asked another teen to read their written message over a microphone. Each person read differently, occasionally mixing and scrambling the unpunctuated words.
Teen Leader Auri reads from selected texts in the galleries, February 2016. Photograph by Andrew Kist
In front of Matias Faldbakken’s Untitled (Locker Sculpture #01), 2010, Teen Leader Auri read selected texts by authors such as French philosopher Michel Foucault and American writer Audre Lorde to investigate how artists can be subversive within an institution.
Here are more images of the event. All photographs by Andrew Kist.
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Teens engaged in a gallery activity.
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Teens write down words that describe their branded selves.
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A teen reads a written continuous text message.
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Teens listen to gallery project instructions.
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Teens in the exhibition Open Plan: Andrea Fraser.
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Cut up poetry project in the Susan and John Hess Theater.
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Detail, cut-up poetry project.
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Teens hand out prizes after a raffle.
Sasha Wortzel, Coordinator of Teen Programs commented about the event: “While many teens participated in the collage activity in the theater, they spent the most time exploring the galleries, starting with the Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner exhibition, and then moving to other spaces in the Museum. We like to envision the Laurie M. Tisch Education Center as a “home base” for the teens, but we also encourage more exploration of the galleries.”
Learn more about teen programs here.
Dina Helal, Manager of Education Resources