Senior Open Access Day
Apr 1, 2011
Seniors from Hamilton-Madison House take advantage of a bi-lingual tour, as well as seating placed in the galleries, on Open Access Day, March 2011. Photograph by Tiffany Oelfke
On March 22, as part of Senior Open Access Day, nearly 200 senior citizens visited the Museum when the galleries were closed to the public. With extra seating throughout the exhibitions and Assisted Listening Devices at hand, the seniors were invited to see works of art without the distractions or discomforts of crowded galleries. Seniors from participating senior centers toured Glenn Ligon: AMERICA or Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection, then ended the visit to reflect and re-fuel with tea and cookies.
Open Access Day visitors look closely at Glenn Ligon’s Notes on the Margin of the Black Book, March 2011. Photograph by Tiffany Oelfke
“Now we’re talking!” exclaimed one visitor as he confronted the eroticized photographs of black men as part of Glenn Ligon’s Notes on the Margin of the Black Book. Yet for some, the experience of looking closely at Notes on the Margin—a work that includes ninety-one pages of Robert Mapplethorpe’s notorious Black Book—may have been a bit too intimate. Many approached the piece hesitantly, while others averted their eyes completely. These reactions, as varied as the controversial text panels accompanying Mapplethorpe’s photographs, provoked lively discussions and challenging questions about this and other works on view.
Whether museum regulars (like a woman who remembered Ligon’s work from the 1993 Biennial) or first-time visitors, these seniors were grateful for the exposure to new art and stimulating inquiries. When asked if she enjoyed the Ligon exhibition, one senior summed up her experience at Open Access Day when she said, “I may be old, but my mind’s not completely made up yet.”
By Emily Arensman, Coordinator of Public Programs