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
