Thursday, August 16, 2012

Linking Our Summer at Joan Mitchell Foundation

                      Soaring buildings. Sailing cruise ship. Glazing skies.



Museum Teen Summit stood, both dazed and awestruck, at the heart stopping view emitting from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. In their offices overlooking Chelsea, the Foundation strives to fulfill the dream of Joan Mitchell: "to aid and assist contemporary artists and to demonstrate that painting and sculpture are significant cultural necessities." Through a series of studio art programs stationed throughout the five boroughs, the Foundation allows visual artists to create an extensive portfolio of works, thus leading to impressive college and profession careers in the arts.


As our team circled around the delicious bag of apricots and corked open the gleaming bottle of sparkling water, Museum Teen Summit looked back on our summer, beginning with our research projects. After weeks of grappling with the question 'Why aren't teens in museums?', narrowing slimmer into individual and/or group topics (such marketing, teen programs and events, education, etc.), and formulating surveys and interview styled questions for a teenage and programmer audience, we are now in the process of analyzing common patterns from our results. With time and buzz, all of our different research projects will eventually have answers leading up to our one whole, golden conundrum: "What aren't teens in museums?"

Concluding our productive roundabout, we traveled back, beginning weeks and weeks ago on a mid-July's afternoon at El Museo del Barrio. And as we moved further to MAD, Whitney Museum, Children's Museum of Art, Frick Collection, Brooklyn Museum, New Museum, Bronx Museum, High 5, New York Historical Society, and finally, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, we reminisced on three highlights, two favorite phrases/quotes, and two goals for the future of Museum Teen Summit. And on colorful pieces of construction paper (except for yellow; a color thief wanted to construct suns?), we jotted down these memorable experiences and aspirations, and chained them onto their corresponding museum and institution. In a muffled, rainbow-coated 'scarf', we passed and wore the MTS summer chain, and one by one, we all smiled and giggled at our fun and productive summer we shared together.  

Through all the travels and explorations into various museums and institutions, this summer with Museum Teen Summit was indeed a unique, monumental experience never to be forgotten. But we must never forget: we are not finished! Our growing research projects, exciting social media endeavors, and upcoming teen nights are in our midst. With this hot, sizzling summer page turned, there comes a new, fall breeze signaling a beginning.

Enjoy these last few beautiful days of summer everybody!  

-- Ramona Venturanza

P.S. Check our more of our Joan Mitchell Foundation photos on our Facebook Page!



Tuesday, August 14, 2012

"Art is about understanding, not just looking." with NYHS

“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move... Nobody’d be different.  The only thing that would be different would be you.” – Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye)
With all history museums, you can always learn something new every time you visit them.  MTS was lucky enough to have our very own Hammie Park take us on an engaging and enlightening tour of the New York Historical Society on the Upper West  Side.  She immersed us into the pure essence of New York City history by bringing us to many inspiring exhibitions including Stories in Sterling, Making American Taste, and the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture.  We saw everything from the Civil War to even Hitler's utensils!

MTS looking presidential
MTS then met up with New York Historical Society’s teens.  Their task for the summer was to find a piece of art that inspired them in the museum, to historically interpret this piece of art by writing a paper, and to work in small groups to present their projects to an audience.  The goal of this project is to engage the public with their piece and tell the history of New York City in 30 objects.  MTS was thoroughly impressed by the ways the NYHS students were working on engaging museum visitors in NYC history:

·         Military expressed in a documentary
·         Business summarized in a witty catch phrase
·         Art and literature showcased in a video
·         Political figures displayed in political cards and poems
·        World War I and II presented in a matching game
·         Innovation cleverly shown in a pop-up book
·         Disaster represented in posters with subtopics
·         Gilded Age reveled in a crossword
·         And political corruption coming to life through a life size monopoly game

After Billy sparked up some questions for the NYHS students, MTS learned that they loved the history of a work of art the most and that the purpose of art is to connect with people.  Art is about understanding, not just looking.  It helps to view a piece of artwork without the facts first and interpret it yourself, and then it’s time to learn the history and discover what the piece is really about!
And MTS is busier than ever with our research projects and launching our website very soon.
Also, don’t forget about the teen nights coming up: The Museum of Arts and Design (September 21st) and the Frick (September 27th)

-Nicole Marino

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Rolling Out the Beans at High 5 Tickets To the Arts

Through the vibrant studios of Arts Connection, Museum Teen Summit breathed an air of productivity as we turned our attention to the offices of High 5 Tickets to the Arts. Tucked away in Midtown Manhattan, High 5 opens doors to New York's trending events and programs, including dance, music, and visual arts, at the unbeatable price of $5 (I know - seems too good to be true!). How are we connected? Both Museum Teen Summit and High 5 walk on a common, silver line: generate teen participation in museums.

Circled around their conference table, High 5's Program Manager, Colin P. Delaney, and Communications Manager, Clair Coveney, lent us a helpful hand on our next big project: creating an easy-to-use rating site where teens comment and review on museum programs and events around New York City. Like Yelp, this widespread database would be the pinnacle of an 'information interchange' between the teen and educator; youths would voice the pros and cons of a program, while museum educators, looking to advance and better their programs, would consider and apply these critiques.

But most of all, our teenage-dreamlike-museum program database would satiate one of Museum Teen Summit's climactic goals: creating the youth community.
Like how Urbanspoon draws both restaurant connoisseurs and hungry go-getters, MTS's rating site would entice both the teenage artist and non-artist, the museum goer and the museum stranger. And together, with teens actively participating in this auspicious site and varying museum programs, MTS would establish a community of teens sharing and embracing the arts.

Stay tuned on our progress; there is much more to come!

By the way, Museum of Art and Design is hosting a teen night (!!!!!)
So really, STAY TUNED!

-- Ramona Venturanza
      


   

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

MTS Revolution at the Bronx Museum

If you could start a revolution, what would be your cause?


MTS, a museum revolution (if we may say so ourselves), ventured into the Bronx Museum to get a taste of its bold, worldly artwork.  Glendalys Medina welcomed MTS into the museum by inviting us to make tags with our names and artwork on them.  By hanging up our artsy tags in the lobby, we made our mark and added our own history to this daring museum, which already has a variety of awesome culture and evolution in it already.
The Revolution NotTelevised exhibit featuring Cuban Revolution artwork and the Style Wars exhibit which emphasizes the impact of words in art really got MTS’s creative juices to flow.  We then created our own revolution. 

Each of our revolutions consisted of:
·         A cause

·         An element (water, wind, fire, and earth)

·         A statement

·         A symbol

·         And a number

Hannie Chia spoke to MTS about the Bronx Museum of the Art’s Teen Council.  This inspiring program is made up of qualified teens who share their creative ideas to make zines, learn digital art skills, exchange ideas with other museums, and help improve the Bronx Museum with their artistic mindsets.
Say “yes” to life and check out the Bronx Museum! It’s free admission, so why not?

-Nicole Marino

Thursday, August 2, 2012

MTS Gets 'Technosavvy' with Milwaukee Teens (Part 2)


After our tour at the New Museum, MTS went back to our long white table and tree stumps for a skype chat with the Teens from Milwaukee Museum. Even though the cafe was loud and noisy we still managed to hear what the Milwaukee teens had to say about their program and . . . well also the relationship between teens and museums in Milwaukee. They gave us a glimpse of the teen night that they're planning and it lasts until midnight! So teens in Milwaukee keep your eyes out for this exciting event.

Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin, yet the teens from The Milwaukee museum say that there are only a few museums there and they are not even free for students! The museum admission ticket is almost equal to a movie ticket and we asked teens whether they would go watch a movie or visit a museum, almost everyone replied with movies.

Before we know it, it was time to go for the Milwaukee Teens, we bid goodbye with a little icebreaker and showed them our famously known NYC streets, even though it wasn't 42nd street or anything, it was still very New York since someone came and photographed us through the New Museum's Glass window.




-Khachoe Ronge

MTS Gets 'Technosavvy' at the New Museum (Part 1)

The Team embracin' the sun
On a gloriously sunny Thursday afternoon, Museum Teen Summit beamed through the glass window panels of the New Museum. Sitting at the cafe's long, white table and tree stumps (literally!), our team flashed out the notebooks and laptops, and hopped onto our research projects. Here is a list of our individual/group investigations:

  • Marketing: outreach strategies through various platforms 
  • Art Education: transferring teaching from the classroom over to a museum
  • Barrier Between Museum and Teens: the common excuses for not visiting a museum
  • Drawing the 'Non-Artist' Teen into Museums: uncovering and inspiring the artist inside of them
  • Teen Programs: inquiring enjoyable aspects of a museum teen program through the eyes of a teen
  • Teen Events/Nights: the key strategies to hosting a hallmark teen night 
Through a wide array of surveys and personal interviews, MTS will question fellow teens and educators to lead into our common, most perplexing question: Why aren't teens in museums? 

Han Haacke, Blue Sail
And as always, we never leave a museum untouched. From the neon green elevator MTS walked into the New Museum's master exhibition of contemporary art: Ghosts in the Machine. Contemporary works of Han Haacke, Robert Breer, and Otto Piene reel museum goers into a dystopia where modern technology is seen as both ruinous and beneficial to society. Through means of everyday science, such as kinetic and potential energy, the showcase transforms conventional technology into objects of fluidity. There is, indeed, a connection between technology and art. 

Like the many artists shown Ghosts in the Machine, Museum Teen Summit uses technology to connect to a wider audience... In Milwaukee!

To be continued...

-- Ramona Venturanza      

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Raw/Cooked at the Brooklyn Museum


It’s easy to fall in love with the Brooklyn Museum as soon as you peak your head out from the subway.  The architecture of the Brooklyn Museum combines traditional columns and intricate stonework with a modern open glass entryway to really give the museum a fresh transitional attitude.  As soon as MTS met up with Matt, he assured us that diversity is key for both the visitors and exhibitions of the museum.  He showed us an awesome gallery that connected places, people, and things and drew common threads throughout a wide time frame. 

MTS asked Matt, “Why have teens in museums?” Matt stressed that teens are “hip and knowledgeable” and if museums are cool enough for teens, then they must be doing their job right.  Teens are the future of museums and the more they’re involved with museums now, the better museum events and programs will be in the future.  We were then led to check out Ulrike Müller’s Raw/Cooked exhibit.  Our task was to use the artwork descriptions to come up with our own drawings that displayed an issue we felt strongly about. 

The Brooklyn Museum is famous for its Target First Saturdays, which are FREE events held at the Brooklyn Museum on the first Saturday of every month.  Guests can enjoy free art and entertainment.  MTS invites you to check out these sweet free events!
-Nicole Marino

Thursday, July 26, 2012

MTS is Excited for the Frick's first Teen Night

MTS explored the elegant Frick Collection this past Thursday with great anticipation for the museum’s first free museum event for teens this September.  We were greeted by Rika Burnham, Head of Education, who introduced us to the classic beauty of the Frick’s European art.  We admired the peacefulness and mature atmosphere of the Frick as well as the breathtaking art.  Rika encouraged us to admire Giovanni Bellini’s famous painting of St. Francis and let us discover the painting’s symbolism and mystery on our own.  From the symbolism of the donkey and sheep in the painting to the shadows under St. Francis’ feet that suggest he is hovering ever so slightly above the ground, this painting will continue to amaze us as we discover even more about it on our next visits to the Frick.

Although MTS loves how the Frick is one of New York City’s best kept secrets, we couldn’t be more excited to share this museum with other teens at the museum’s first ever free event for teensOn September 27th, the Frick will be opening up its Gilded Age mansion for teens to sketch in the Garden Court, to enjoy music by members of the Praxis Youth Leadership Orchestra, to be inspired by gallery talks, and to enjoy the wisdom of the Frick’s Chief Curator.  MTS spoke with Anna Finley, Education Assistant, Claire Coveney, Communications Manager, Adrienne Lei, Education Programs Coordinator, and Eduardo, Intern, about this exciting new teen night. 



So come join MTS at the Frick Collection on September 27th for this enchantingly awesome teen night!

-Nicole Marino

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A Museum's 'Disney World' @ Children's Museum of the Arts

On Charlton Street, Museum Teen Summit uncovered a museum's euphoric version of Disney World at the Children's Museum of the Arts. But unlike the princesses and mouse eared characters lining the streets of Florida, New York's 10,000 square foot space in SoHo inspires artistic creativity as showcased in the current exhibition, Art Forms: 75 Years of Art Education.
Looking through the artwork of student and educator 
From June 21 to September 15, "Art Forms examines the relationship between art educator and art student by showcasing three intertwined elements that reveal the lifeblood of CMA's mission and philosophy: current children's artwork by CMA's 2011-2012 public school partnerships, artwork by Teaching Artists, and antique children's artwork from CMA's permanent collection..." Ranging from flying sculptures to intricate drawings, the exhibition exemplifies how students and teachers inspire each other.


Brainstorming!

Invigorated by Art Forms, Museum Teen Summit took our energy to the art studios where we fleshed out ideas, comments, and concerns leading to the big question surrounding our research projects: Why aren't teens in museums?
And once establishing our 'jumping off point', we devised methods that may answer this ambiguous question, which includes concocting a timeline, creating samples, collecting data, and interpreting insights. 



Little by little, we grappled and discovered our various interest points answering the big 'why'; pros and cons surrounding marketing, teen programs and events, education, and visitations factor into teen participation in museums. Individually, we broke down our topics even further as we colorfully devised diagrams.



Now, with our topics firmly set in stone, Museum Teen Summit is ready to commence research! Keep posted on our progress; our results may surprise you!

-- Ramona Venturanza

Thursday, July 19, 2012

A Jackpot of 'Impact' at The Whitney Museum of Art

Yayoi Kusama in Yellow Tree furniture room at Aich triennale, Nagoya, Japan, 2010 (detail). http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/YayoiKusama
The rainy streets of the Upper East Side did not dishearten the motivated mood of Museum Teen Summit as we gathered into the lobby of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Greeted by the education department's Berry Stein, we walked into the wide elevator shafts and rode up into the exhibition, Yayoi Kusama. Toured by our very own, Billy Zhao, Museum Teen Summit explored Kusama's intense retrospective of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and films through the bustling jungles of Japan and New York City.
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929), Accumulation, c. 1963. Sewn and stuffed fabric, wood chair frame, paint, 35 1/2 × 38 1/2 × 35 in. (90.2 × 97.8 × 88.9 cm).http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/YayoiKusama
Concluding the tour, our team shuffled the architectural staircase into the conference room where we consulted with members of the Whitney staff on their own research project: the overall, poignant impact of teen participation in museums. Many of us curious teens, gazing at artwork or sketching in an art program, take for granted what a museum serve for us, both as individuals and leaders. In a nut shell, here are the five short and long term qualities museums can give us:

  1. Personal Growth
  2. Leadership
  3. Social Capital
  4. Arts Participation
  5. Artistic & Cultural literacy
From Museum Teen Summit over to you: museum programs affect our character and future.
Go ahead, visit, and try one; trust me, you will not regret it!

-- Ramona Venturanza

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

MTS @ Museum of Art and Design

It is the second session of MTS Summer ’12. And most of us (new members) do not know exactly what we are going to be working on this summer yet. But we are sitting with Cathleen Lewis, the director of School, Youth and Family Programs at the Museum of Art and Design. After giving us an intro about the museum, her work, and most importantly (to us,) insight into the various programs at the museum, Cathleen stresses how important she thinks it’s for us to explore topics that could help shape the museum teen programs in NYC and beyond by asking questions such as “what are teens interested in nowadays?” Do people who are responsible for teen programs at museums know what teens are interested in? What they want? Or, maybe like Cathleen, they know but they occasionally have doubts. By the end of the meeting, we definitely started thinking about our mini investigation projects and the specific questions we want to answer. 

Being in a museum, we didn’t want to leave without touring it. So Kiana, a former Artslife member and current MTS member showed us around the museum she represents, specifically through an exhibition called Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation, featuring contemporary Native art. Noteworthy things are that it’s the only one in the city with open artist studios and that its collections are in every imaginable material. So imagine how much we gazed at them! After over bonding over favorite wine glass designs, we met with the current Artslife interns and did an exercise to understand how various age groups view art differently.
 
All of what had happened that afternoon though, led us back to our continuing discussion. Why are there museums? What is their purpose? But before the imminent serious discussion, Marit showed us a lighthearted cartoon about the topic called “We Love Museums... Do Museums Love Us Back?” The day ended with a discussion that was what any good discussion should be…..full of critiquing, provocative questions, theories, ideas. 

-Lu Yi

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Caliente @ El Museo del Barrio



Through the festive white and orange walls of El Museo del Barrio, an assortments of snacks, a mix of Latin American tunes, and a group of vibrant smiles greeted a batch of 10 new members into the summer season of Museum Teen Summit. 

As with all Museum Teen Summit meetings, new and senior members are introduced or reacquainted with a unique museum; on this first summer excursion, we explored the teen involvement of El Museo del Barrio. Manager of Youth and Opportunities, Mairelys Alberto, and School Programs Assistant, Meghan Lally, led our members into the museum's cultural history, and their successful teen events, such as their open mic night, and promising future filled with upcoming classes and opportunities available to the youth. 

Francisco Oller y Cestero
Platanos Amarillo
elmuseo.org
The team walked through El Museo's permanent collection on view, Voces Y Visiones: Gran Caribe, which portrays the vast diversity and complexity of the Caribbean basin. The exhibition marks a period in history when an influx of people, objects, ideas, and images throughout Latin America influenced artistic development occurring within the Caribbean.

Accompanied by the exhibit, new members also explored an unsettling question: Who is Museum Teen Summit?
Through ice breakers and collages, we found our purpose, our answer: we are collection of fellow youths who 



  1. Spread the word! - Let teens know of the events and programs happening at museums
  2. Share our ideas! - Let educators and coordinators know of what us, teens want in an event/program
  3. Build the community! - Let teens have that special place where all of us can mingle and share our love for the arts

Spend this caliente summer inside the sanctions of a cool museum, like El Museo del Barrio; you never know what shot of inspiration or fellow teen you might come across.

- Ramona, new & excited MTS member

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Guggenheim Teen Night

Thank you to everyone who made it out to the teen night we worked on with the New Museum. We even got a New York Times mention!

We're excited to announce the Teen Night at the Guggenheim. We met with many of the Guggenheim staff back in the end of April to start working on this! This teen night will be slightly different, in that the night will revolve around one artist: Rineke Dijkstra. Dijkstra's works are mainly portrait photography and videos capturing youth (they are absolutely incredible). The artist will be onsite, in conversation with one of the subjects of her portraits, Almerisa, and the curator of the show, Jennifer Blessing.

Here's the rundown:

WHAT:
Guggenheim Teen Night 
in conjunction with Rineke Dijkstra: a retrospective


WHERE:
Guggenheim New York
1071 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10128

WHEN:
Wednesday, July 18th, 2012
5PM-8:30PM

WHY:
  • Photographer Rineke Dijkstra, subject Almerisa, AND curator Jennifer Blessing will be there to talk about the work
  • Chance to hang out in one of the coolest architectural spaces in the WORLD.
  • Music and refreshments
  •  uh....FREE!
SO HOW NOW WHAT?
  1. RSVP! This is required. Space is limited, so register ASAP.
  2. "Attend" on Facebook!
  3. Check out Dijkstra's work below!
Almerisa was captured over spans of her lifetime


Can't wait to see you all there! Let's get summer going.

-MTS Team
 

Friday, June 8, 2012

New Museum Teen Night

It's been a while since we've posted, but we're back! The NYC Museum Teen Summit has had a busy several months. A recent collaboration we have is with the New Museum, developing a Teen Night. We've been meeting with Audrey Hope, who runs gclass and oversees the New Museum's teen programming to plan out the first ever teen night at the New Museum. We're super excited to announce that the featured exhibitions will include Phyllida Barlow, Klara Lidén, and Carlos Motta, music performance by Mykki Blanco and DJ Physical Therapy and many hands on activities. We're at a one week countdown now! Come by, bring all your friends. It'll be a great summer kickoff.

What:
NEW MUSEUM TEEN NIGHT
Free and open to teens aged 14–19 with high school or government ID. No preregistration is required.

Where:
New Museum of Contemporary Art
235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002-1218

When:
JUNE 15TH, 2012
6:30PM - 8:30PM

Why:
Art, music, friends = perfect Friday night

Check out some work from exhibiting artists and performers:


Klara Lidén


















Phyllida Barlow
















Carlos Motta

















 

Hope to see you all there! 
 -NYC MUSEUM TEEN SUMMIT

Photos by New Museum
Teen Night at the New Museum is a G:Class program developed in collaboration with the NYC Museum Teen Summit.
*G:Class is the New Museum’s interdisciplinary art education program. G:Class empowers youth to think critically about global cultural issues and develop their own cultural perspectives and provides resources for professional educators to carry this forward. For more information visit gclass.org.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

NAEA Museum Preconference



Thanks again to everyone who attended our workshop session at the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Museum Preconference. Also, special thanks to NAEA, Metropolitan Museum of Art for hosting us, and Marit and Angelina for helping us put together everything! Our workshop dealt with engaging teens through the use of social media. Each of us (teens) will be posting our debriefs here shortly.

In case you missed our presentation today or would like to go back on some things we metnioned, we'd like to put our Powerpoint, notes and our take away sheet to download! Share it with yourself, other educators or anyone interested!
Notes
Powerpoint
Take Away Sheet


If you have any lingering questions, comments or just want to greet us, you can find us at museumteensummit@gmail.com. 

Happy social-networking,
Museum Teen Summit
twitter.com/nyc_mts
facebook.com/nycmuseumteensummit


Sunday, February 26, 2012

MTS Museum Meet Up Debrief

The Super Art Museum was really great at letting us host an event in their space!

First, we went around on a gallery tour with one of the artists exhibiting at the SAM. It was really interesting to hear the inspiration behind his work, as well as take questions and listen to our reactions as we went around the space.

At the end of the gallery tour, we were lead to the SAM Educational Center to make some artwork based on the artist's exhibit. We loved getting to work with a real artist and play around with some materials. We all walked away with a piece of artwork, and couldn't be happier.

After the art-making session, there were some refreshments and the SAM gave us passes to come back again! Then, one of the educators told us that the night wasn't over just yet.

For the last activity, we all created an interpretive dance based on everything we did and saw that day. We've never done anything like that!


Come join MTS at our Museum Meet Up

Thursday March 1st, 2012 from 3-8 pm  at the Super Awesome Museum

Get ready to get your hands dirty as you make some artwork inspired by the upcoming exhibition at the SAM, after getting a gallery tour of the museum. There will be an artist guest speaker who will be leading the gallery tour. Stay for some free food, passes so that you can visit again to see things for yourself, and have a dance off to end the evening!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Museum of Modern Art 2/6

Crumpled paper from Sanja Ivekovic: Sweet Violence
This week, MTS met at the Museum of Modern Art. With many of us recently affiliated with their teen programs (including Marit!), it was an exciting to be back in the beautiful Cullman Education and Research Center. We took a quick look through the atrium space and the recently updated contemporary galleries. The atrium is currently occupied with the Sanja Ivekovic: Sweet Violence show. Centered is a shrine like sculpture topped with a gold piece, and scattered across the grey tiled floors are crumpled pieces of paper.

We strolled through the contemporary galleries in search for the Felix Gonzalez-Torres pieces, which evolved from a corner pile of candies into an entire room of silver wrapped pineapple treats. How could we resist? Toward the end of our exploration we found the Keith Haring piece. Absolutely stunning. We cannot wait to see his show at the Brooklyn Museum. At the smack middle of the room is Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank by Jeff Koon, which we saw in the Hennessy Youngman video How to Make An Art this summer.


Walking through the Keith Haring and Jeff Koon pieces
Unfortunately our adventures were cut short by the museum's 5:30pm close time. We gathered back in the classroom to meet with Calder Zwicky, who conducts the teen and community outreach programs at MoMA. Calder described the teen programs in three tiers:
  1. Art Underground - or simply teen night. These happen every other Friday (next one on 2/17). They are at a first come first serve basis and all you need to attend is a student ID. It is open to all teens in New York City. 
  2. In The Making - Requires an application. Studio based classes which generally are designed to work with a special exhibition or a portion of the museum's permanent collection. 
  3. Museum Studies/Art Conservation/Cross Museum Collective - Required application. Alumni only programs which are much more involved in the behind-the-scenes of museums.
All info on these programs can be found here.

Calder also runs community programs which work with organizations around the city, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, to provide an internship style opportunity to help these specific teens learn about the job opportunities in the art world.

The last portion of our session was all about the National Art Education Association Conference on February 29th. We will be giving a presentation on what we do, what we've found, and how to use technology to promote outreach to teens. Our target goals to are present:
  • What are the miconceptions of teens and museums?
  • What social networking means to teens? How is it used?
  • How to take a goal oriented approach to social networking with a teen audience?
  • Tutorials on setting up/expanded social network footprint. 
We are extremely excited to be presenting at these conference in front of art educators from around the nation. We hope that the information culminated since our summer sessions will be able to help some programs expand through media use.

Follow our Twitter, like our Facebook for #teensinmuseums, updates on teen programs and art!

-MTS Team

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Tuesday we visited the Jewish Museum and had a personal tour by the Teen programs coordinator Jamie Auriemma exploring the galleries that hosed the most impressive Hanukkah lamp collection one could ever imagine. Like many art and cultural institutions the Jewish museum reminds one how beautiful religion, history and culture really is. Museum summit teens where even invited to explore their newest exhibition “Composed: Identity, Politics, Sex” a small gallery space featuring photographs that focuses on the constant battle we all encounter of self identity. In the sense of where are place is in history, present day society and the connections between the two. Noted as Jamie’s favorite pieces Debbie Grossman (American, b. 1977) series of Photoshopped photographs from Russell Lee in 1940 in Pie Town, New Mexico, where Debbie re-wrote history to be an ideal place for herself. After some time to digest this topic I feel this is a lot of what teens in museum education do. We set out to re-write preconceptions about adolescents. To some professionals teenager is viewed as a dirty word, same way as almost all minorities where at one point. By having this opportunity to be involved with museum in any way there is always a space where your opinion is valued, in my experiences this is one of the most rewording parts about being part of MTS. ☺

Monday, January 23, 2012

MTS Visits the Guggenheim

This week, the Museum Teen Summit was at the Guggenheim to work on our three main goals of Outreach, Community, and Research.

Before we settled down to take care of business, we took a quick tour through the museum led by Sharon Vatsky, the director of education, school and family programs. The museum is currently going through some renovations to uninstall Maurizio Cattelan's All, a retrospective of his often political and provocative works, individually hanging from the ceiling of the rotunda. 

If you were to watch the above video in reverse, you'd get a good feel as to what's going on at the Guggenheim for the next few weeks. 

We were able to view some of the long-standing galleries, and found out a lot about the architecture and history of the museum itself. Sharon pointed out the geometric shapes and changing ceiling heights throughout the museum that makes it so unique. Did you know that in all of the Guggenheim that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, there are no right angles? 

After our brief and informative tour of the museum, we got down to business to discuss our three main goals, and set some deadlines. 

Outreach

MTS is always looking for new and better ways to spread the word about teen programs and events, as well as reach a wide audience of teens and teen programmers. 

We focused on the social networking portion of outreach for this week. We are working on using different platforms to fit our needs, and relay information more efficiently. We spent some time discussing options for blogs and social networking such as event sharing on Facebook, creating a more permanent site such as the blog you are currently reading, and compiling a database of teen programs throughout the museums we all represent. 

One of our goals in Outreach is to get 100 likes on our Facebook page by Valentines Day, so help us reach our goal by visiting our page and clicking like. Feel free to browse all the events we have shared, comment on our pictures, and write on our wall! 

Community 

During the fall term, MTS hosted it's first meet-up at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. 

One of our community goals is to continue to sponsor teen "meet-ups" at various museums to create a fun atmosphere for like minded teens to hang out and learn something new. These "meet-ups" are events run by the teens at MTS and give you a chance to explore the museum with your friends and discuss artwork with other like minded teens. We want these events to be as interesting to museum-going teens, as to those who rarely are involved in the arts. 

We are planning out our next MTS Museum Meet-Up, so stay tuned for more information.

Research 

MTS is currently working on combining all of our knowledge of the various teen programs at our respective museums as well as those we are in contact with to create a database of these programs. Updated by MTS, this list will give you a view as to what programs are going on in museums around the five boroughs in one place, as well as a description of each program and eventually testimonials and reviews.