Whitney Museum of American Art: Recent pages: Education/EducationBlog

Art School: Interpreting Sculpture

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:14:20 -0500

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In January, Art School participants explored the exhibitions David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy and SHERRIE LEVINE: MAYHEM over three sessions. Art School is a studio-based course that aims to introduce kids ages 8 to 12 to trends in contemporary art, and to expand their ideas about what art can be. This month’s program introduced the participants to the complex issues of authorship and originality in Sherrie Levine’s work. During the three-week program, they discussed the works on view in the galleries, experimented with materials, and learned new techniques.

Teacher Exchange: Singular Visions And New Horizons

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:58:52 -0500

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We began a fascinating Teacher Exchange meeting in January 2012 with a guided tour of the exhibition, Singular Visions. The twelve works on view, drawn from the Whitney’s collection, are each installed in their own space, creating intimate and compelling encounters with single works of art.

Artist, Critic, Canon: Art History, After Levine

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:42:24 -0500

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On December 15, 2011, in conjunction with the exhibition SHERRIE LEVINE: MAYHEM, art historian David Joselit and artist Zoe Leonard joined curator Elisabeth Sussman to discuss how Levine and other artists of her generation altered the way images are distributed, studied, and understood. From theoretical shifts to fundamental changes in the way artists borrow, reframe, and reproduce imagery, the panelists investigated Levine’s work and its influence on the practice and theory of contemporary art.

Both Joselit and Leonard recalled how Levine’s radical approach to image-making profoundly affected and challenged them in the 1980s, when she first began to re-photograph and re-purpose artwork, and to question accepted notions of authorship, originality, and ownership. Her provocation, they agree, still resonates today, as she produces objects that are, in Joselit’s words, “extremely ahead of their moment.”

The exhibition inspired Leonard to consider the relationship of her own work to Levine’s. She believes they share common interest in the relationship between image and object. Stating she wants her work to: “reconcile or sort of dig into the space between the [three] dimensions and the relationship between photography and sculpture and show how a print is an object in space,” Leonard sees a similar blurring of the distinction between the second and third dimensions in a work like After Courbet 1-18 (2009). Here Levine frames and assembles eighteen reproductions of Courbet’s famous painting, The Origin of the World (1866). The simple plywood frames that surround each image reinforce the physicality of each component, yet they exist simultaneously as images in a two-dimensional form. Leonard also employs a parallel use of repetition in works such as You see I am here after all (2008), an installation consisting of approximately 4,000 postcards that all depict Niagara Falls.

Teacher Exchange: A Meeting In Real/Surreal

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:58:42 -0500

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Our Teacher Exchange meeting in early December focused on the exhibition, Real/Surreal. Through paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints drawn entirely from the Whitney’s collection, the exhibition revealed the fascinating tension and overlap between the real observable world, and that of the imaginary and subconscious. During the meeting, we explored how various gallery-based activities can encourage students to look more closely at a work and dig deeper into the artists’ ideas, materials, and processes. We also discussed the ways that these non-discursive strategies support differentiated learning among students with diverse needs.

Teacher Exchange: A Discussion About The Role Of Information In Inquiry Based Learning

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:10:02 -0500

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Can we know too much about a work of art? Do biographical details and historical information get in the way of our personal and imaginative responses to an artist’s creation? The focus of our second meeting for Teacher Exchange in early November was to consider the role that information plays in inquiry-based learning. Teacher Exchange is a year-long professional development workshop for K-12 teachers to learn from one another and exchange ideas about art and teaching.

The Vlog Project Wins 2011 International Jodi Commendation

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:48:14 -0500

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The Whitney’s ASL Vlog Project was the recipient of a Commendation for Sustainable Growth in the International Jodi Awards for Accessible Digital Culture. Each year, the Jodi Mattes Trust reviews nominated projects from around the globe to celebrate museums, galleries, libraries, and other heritage institutions that use digital technology to provide improved access to information, collections, learning, and creativity for people with disabilities. The Whitney is thrilled to be recognized this year with a commendation.

The award was presented on December 8, 2011 at the Digital Strategies for Heritage Conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. I traveled to accept the award in front of an audience of nearly 500 museum and heritage specialists, and had the pleasure of seeing one of our videos screened for the entire assembly. In addition, I was invited to present information about the project as part of a panel presentation on Inclusive Digital Heritage in the Twenty-first Century. It was an excellent opportunity to share our work and learn from colleagues abroad who are also working to expand access in the digital realm.

Walter Annenberg Annual Lecture: Claes Oldenburg

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:32:36 -0500

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On November 1, 2011, at the seventh Walter Annenberg Annual Lecture, the Whitney honored Claes Oldenburg for his achievements and contributions to the field of American art and culture. In his public conversation with Museum Director Adam Weinberg, Oldenburg reflected on his career, revealing a sensibility that—much like his monumental sculptures—combines humor and earnestness.

Oldenburg offered fascinating stories about his own development as an artist, beginning with his days as a graduate student at the Art Institute of Chicago. He explained that, after “copying” the masters from Pablo Picasso to Willem de Kooning, he felt ready to move to New York and create his own art work based “on intuition” rather than imitation.

In his studio on the Lower East Side, Oldenburg found inspiration in the stores, objects, and consumer goods that surrounded him. He created one of his first major installations, The Store, by sculpting everyday objects and installing them in his studio as if for sale. He explained that he sought to “convert [his] studio into a situation that fit into the surroundings.” This consideration of place turned out to be the driving force behind much of Oldenburg’s career, from his performance pieces, to soft vinyl sculpture and large-scale, public projects.

Desert Island Comic Zine Party

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:36:41 -0500

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At the Desert Island Comic Zine Party on October 15, 2011, kids and adults delved into comics old and new. To celebrate the end of the exhibition Lyonel Feininger: City at the Edge of the World, Whitney Family Programs partnered with Desert Island, an independent comic shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After discovering Feininger’s pioneering comic strips in the galleries, families had a chance to meet contemporary illustrators and comic book artists.

Whitney Docents Visit Storm King Art Center

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:58:18 -0500

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Inspired by the works in the exhibition David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy, now on view at the Museum, the Whitney docents decided to take a trip to see some Smith sculptures in another light—literally! About an hour and a half north of the city at the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, NY, we had the opportunity to see Smith’s sculptures in the outdoor landscape setting that the artist cherished. Even with Storm King’s prized Cubi XXI (1964) presently on loan to the Whitney for the show, the works on view provided another perspective on thinking about Smith’s range of work.

Teacher Exchange 2011 2012: First Meeting

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:36:49 -0500

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One of the perks associated with teaching K-12 students in New York City is the endless array of creative resources available for both personal and professional inspiration. Conversely, one of the challenges K-12 teachers confront is finding the right times and the most amenable places to nurture our imagination. This is why the Whitney’s Teacher Exchange, a year-long professional development program for K-12 teachers, is such an exciting opportunity for those of us who want to explore new ways of teaching and sharing ideas.

For our first meeting in early October, eleven of us gathered in the Whitney’s lobby to begin our monthly exploration of the Museum’s collection and to collaborate as educators, artists, and explorers. Over a cup of warm coffee and healthy snacks, we learned about one another’s backgrounds, subject areas, and the schools where we teach. With the help of the Whitney’s eager team of educators, it took very little time for us to feel a sense of connection to the whole group.

Youth Insights Looks To The Future With A Long Term Research Project

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:17:31 -0400

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The Whitney’s Education Department is thrilled to announce a new national research initiative to explore the long-term impact of teen programs in modern and contemporary art museums, including its award-winning Youth Insights program. With a generous National Leadership Grant awarded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Whitney will lead a three-year project in collaboration with the Walker Art Center, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston (CAMH), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (LA MOCA). All four institutions offer teen programs that have been in existence for more than a decade and provide a diverse group of participants the opportunity to learn about art, go behind the scenes at each institution, and take on leadership roles within the museum and in their community.

Pro Tools With Cory Arcangel

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:44:42 -0400

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Brooklyn-based artist Cory Arcangel explores the intersection of technology, Internet culture, and art. His work ranges from drawings and photographs to sculpture and video. On September 10, 2011, families engaged with the artist and his exhibition, Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools, through gallery activities, art projects, and digital technology.

Museum educators led activities that took both digital and analog approaches to Arcangel’s recent work. Upon entering one gallery, kids marveled at the large, high-quality prints that comprise his Photoshop Gradient Demonstration series, and were even more surprised when they found out how they were made. Using the image processing software Photoshop, the artist selected stock color gradients and randomly clicked across the computer screen. The titles of the resulting brilliantly-colored images function almost like instructions for how Arcangel made each photograph, listing the document size, type of gradient, and coordinate points of the mouse clicks. Families used laptop computers and Photoshop to follow these instructions and replicate Arcangel’s gradients. Afterwards, families tried their hand at making gradients with more traditional art materials—paper and colored pencil.

Title Tk Meets Danny Goldberg

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:59:13 -0400

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On August 10, as part of the My Turn public program series, artist Cory Arcangel along with his Title TK band mates Alan Licht and Howie Chen, chatted with record exec and music industry mainstay Danny Goldberg about working with some of the best known bands in the business. Title TK is a self-proclaimed “banter-prone” band that produces more humorous musings than music, while Danny Goldberg is known for his work as record company president, public relations man, journalist, and band manager. Although Title TK rarely plays their instruments in public, and Goldberg proclaims that he has never been a musician, the speakers all share considerable knowledge of—and reverence for—Rock and Roll’s musical geniuses.

The Fine Art Of Comics

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:38:52 -0400

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Comic fans flocked to the Whitney on July 20 for a panel discussion featuring graphic artists Gary Panter, Art Spiegelman, and Chris Ware. “The Fine Art of Comics,” a discussion about the intersections of comics and fine art, was moderated by John Carlin. This program was held in conjunction with the exhibition Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World, on view through October 16, 2011. Feininger began his career as an artist by drawing comic strips for the Chicago Sunday Tribune and some of his comics, including “The Kin-der-Kids” and “Wee Willie Winkie’s World,” appear in the exhibition. The topic proved to be particularly relevant as Panter, Spiegelman, and Ware discussed how art school, museums, and criticism shaped their careers.

Whitney On Site: Ascension

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:29:40 -0400

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On July 7, 8, and 9, noted choreographer, Elizabeth Streb transformed a quiet plaza in the Meatpacking District into a fantastic exploration of acrobatics, dance, and performance. The work, titled Ascension, involved nine dancers from the Streb Extreme Action Company, interacting with a twenty-one foot spinning ladder. Ascension was commissioned as part of the ongoing series Whitney on Site: New Commissions Downtown. This series activates the urban space near the future museum site with unique cultural and artistic endeavors. It continues the Whitney Museum’s long tradition of supporting artists and their audiences.

Streb’s piece showcased both the physical and mental strength of the dancers who jumped on and flipped off the ladder in singles, pairs, and groups. Though the audience could feel their exertion, the dancers worked in perfect harmony, gliding past each other in this vertical performance. Notions of up, down, forwards, and backwards quickly became blurred and for a few minutes, New York seemed mesmerized by this precarious dance. A dramatic musical score by composer David Van Tieghem heightened the atmosphere pervading the streets.

Connecting Collections: Integrating Modern And Contemporary Art Into The Classroom

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:24:41 -0400

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During the week of July 11-15, thirty-nine teachers from around the world gathered together to collaborate and learn about integrating art into the classroom. Since 2003, the Whitney has been part of Connecting Collections, a week-long summer institute in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The goals of this professional development seminar are to deepen teachers’ understanding of contemporary and modern art, introduce object- and inquiry-based teaching strategies, and develop engaging approaches for using works of art in the classroom. The 3rd to 12th grade teachers spent a day at each of the four museums where they participated in guided gallery talks, discussions, and hands-on activities. They also attended seminars in which participants worked together in small groups to create a lesson plan for their classrooms.

Field Trip: The Education Department Visits Governors Island

Whitney Museum of American Art — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:32:45 -0400

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A Friday morning trip to Governor’s Island gave the Whitney’s Education Department a firsthand glimpse into some unique aspects of the New York contemporary art scene. A place seeped in American history, the island passed from Dutch to British to American control, serving as a base for both the army and the coast guard. Now protected as a historic monument, Governors Island nonetheless retains traces of its diverse past and former functions, many of which now serve as the inspiration for artists and arts programs.

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) is one organization taking advantage of the unconventional setting the island offers. Through its program Swing Space, LMCC has helped to create a thriving community of visual and performing artists just a short ferry ride away from Manhattan. The residency program on the island provides studio, rehearsal, and exhibition space for a period of five months, seeking to encourage experimental and collaborative approaches to artistic practice. Housed in a former munitions warehouse, selected artists can use their residencies in markedly different ways, whether it’s to create original work, or to hone an existing project.

Art Is For Everyone: Verbal Description And Touch Tours At The Whitney

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:15:50 -0400

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Each month, the Whitney offers Verbal Description and Touch tours to people who are blind or partially sighted. These tours take place when the Museum is closed to the public, allowing each tour group to move at its own pace through the galleries as they listen to a verbal description of selected works in the exhibition. The tours are provided by trained docents who give in-depth descriptions of selected works. They focus on visual details that are sometimes taken for granted, such as color, scale, and texture.

My Turn: Weekend At Bernie’s

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:40:23 -0400

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A screening of Weekend at Bernie’s (1989) turned into a conversation about conceptual art when artist Cory Arcangel presented the film on June 30 in conjunction with his exhibition, Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools, and as part of the My Turn public programs series. My Turn invites artists to create events for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their practice. The exhibition, on view until September 11, 2011, features new work by Arcangel which revolves around the concept of “product demonstrations.” All of the works—ranging from video games, single channel video, kinetic sculpture, and prints, to pen plotter drawings—have been created by means of technological tools with an emphasis on the mixing and matching of both professional and amateur technologies, as well as the vernaculars these technologies encourage within culture at large.

Community Day: Aki Sasamoto

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:07:50 -0400

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Have you ever boxed, thrown water balloons, or discussed your breakfast with a contemporary artist? Kids and parents had the chance to do all of the above at Aki Sasamoto’s artist project, a part of the Community Day celebrating the groundbreaking of the Whitney’s new building project.

As a participant in 2010: Whitney Biennial, artist Sasamoto presented a hybrid installation-and-performance piece titled Strange Attractors. Incorporating sculpture, movement, video, and sound, Sasamoto arranged and altered found objects within the Whitney’s galleries.

For Community Day, we invited Sasamoto back to transform an empty space at 72 Gansevoort Street into an original, zany installation, designed especially for families. Five Whitney staff members and three volunteers worked alongside the artist to assemble a labyrinth of elastic and wire in just a day and a half. On Saturday, May 21, we opened the installation to the public for kids, parents, and Sasamoto herself to interact and stimulate the senses.

Spray Paint Dreams

Whitney Museum of American Art — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:09:39 -0400

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One of the exciting, fun-filled events that took place during Community Day was a collaborative mural project with 2008 Whitney Biennial artist Mario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz called California Dreaming, inspired by their Los Angeles roots and out of this world imaginations. In celebration of the Whitney’s new building project in the Meatpacking District, teens were invited to create a mural on the wall at THE DETAILS GUILD with the artists.

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for teens to collaborate with artists, get their hands dirty, and express themselves, was a hit with not only teens, but their families and youth of all ages as well.

Mario and Karla, of Slanguage Studio, flew in from Los Angeles to facilitate this interactive, hands-on project with participants from the Whitney’s Youth Insights program, which brings NYC teens together with contemporary artists for a unique and collaborative exchange. Teens from all over the city were also invited to participate in the day’s activity. Inspired by the artists’ black-and-white images of characters with boomboxes and cameras for heads, teens grabbed cans of spray paint and took over the wall with memorable messages like “WE ARTISTS ARE PROFESSIONAL DREAMERS!” and “WHITNEY TEENS, WE ARE FUTURE.” Many teens also designed their own stencils and used them for images on the wall while others worked on colorful t-shirts and painter’s caps. The final artwork was truly a vibrant reflection of a group of teens with boundless imaginations and creativity.

Community Day: Family Programs

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:02:11 -0400

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On May 21, the Whitney hosted a Community Day to celebrate groundbreaking for the new building project in the Meatpacking District. We offered a day of free programs and artists’ projects for all ages. Family Programs had an array of exciting activities in store for kids and parents!

In the morning, we collaborated with the Friends of the High Line to provide sketch tours for families in a program titled Now and Then: Whitney Family Programs on the High Line. Whitney educators led kids and parents in exploring the changing landscape of the Museum’s future neighborhood. First open to the public in 2009, the High Line is a park built on the former elevated railroad that ran through the lower west side of Manhattan. The Whitney’s new building, designed by architect Renzo Piano, will be adjacent to the southern entrance to the High Line. After looking at historic photos of the park, both when it operated as a railroad and the many years in which it was abandoned in disrepair, families sketched those same spots as they are today. We then imagined and drew how the skyline might look with the Whitney’s future building.

Trade School At The Whitney: A Coincidence Of Wants

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:43:49 -0400

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On typical Friday evenings, admission to the Whitney is “pay-as-you-wish,” but on March 25, certain visitors presented a more tangible form of payment. For the public program Trade School at the Whitney: A Coincidence of Wants, participants brought objects of their own creation in exchange for enrollment in one of sixteen quirky courses held simultaneously throughout the Museum. The curriculum varied wildly but all of the courses were based on creative and artistic themes.

Letters To Le Dray

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:40:36 -0400

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A school that visits the Whitney all the time, PS 56 in Queens, was able to score a special pen pal for their fifth grade class–Whitney artist Charles LeDray!

Fifth graders from PS 56Q participated in our classroom collaborative program last winter and focused on the exhibition, Charles LeDray: workworkworkworkwork, on view at the Whitney from November 18, 2010 through February 13, 2011. Students visited the LeDray exhibition for a guided tour and worked on projects related to LeDray’s art.

Teacher Exchange: Behind The Scenes At Angel Otero’s Studio

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:32:04 -0400

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Throughout Angel Otero’s otherwise orderly studio, there were piles of spent oil paint tubes and tubs of drying paints, but they were not trash: Otero rarely throws anything away. These objects are sometimes spray-painted to look like tin foil or gold and attached to his paintings as sculptural elements. As we walked around his studio, Otero encouraged us to touch anything and to ask questions; his calm presence encouraged both.