First Day of Summer
Jun 29, 2011

Tuesday, June 28 was the start of the Youth Insights Summer Intensive at the Whitney Museum. After an exciting year of fall and spring programs, we're moving right into summer with daily blog posts by program participants.

Bodies buzzing with nerves tend to fold into themselves; but in this group of YI teens, the only physical manifestation of these unbearable nerves were folded fingers fiddling anxiously. The tension eased into a state of comfort when Carda introduced one of the infamous ice breaker games. As we all started to talk about topics such as True Blood and the Twilight series (are you sensing a pattern?) the atmosphere of nerves dissipated.

As we went over formalities and reviewed which forms we would return FILLED OUT the next day, it seemed as if the whole room sighed in relief, already looking forward to that next day.

We were let loose in Cory Arcangel’s current exhibition, Pro Tools, to explore our personal perspectives on the artwork. As we all gathered back into a lopsided circle on the floor, ideas began to accumulate. Fragmented thoughts, such as “it’s all the same” and “time changes nothing,” served as catalysts for the discovery of a “meaning” we were all so desperately trying to summarize. Cory Arcangel’s work evoked many emotions at once, leaving me speechless.

By Elleni