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. ☺

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. 

MTS on Tumblr

Thanks to the database/web team, we have a new tumblr site! nycmuseumteensummit.tumblr.com Keeping checking this blog for updates on our process but keep an eye on the tumblr for news, research, and program profiles about Teen Programs across NYC.

Brainstorming and Action Plans

The latest re-cap from Billy: For the past several weeks, MTS has been moving all around town. Our first stop was El Museo in Harlem. After the programmer's meeting, we went straight to work, reviewing all the questions given to us. We established a structure to divide up the work: a communications team, database/research team, and events team. One or two people established themselves as team leaders, making sure all tasks were being accomplished, and several "floaters" freelanced projects from two or more of the teams. Our method of finalizing a decision? Quick discussion then vote!

Next week, we headed over to International Center of Photography in midtown, where we were given a quick walk-through of ICP's school, filled with fancy darkroom equipment and printing centers. We even had a surprise visit from a curator! After we immediately jumped back onto our projects and started brainstorming. Each team started to develop a list of tasks and goals to be done within the next week or so. Communications worked on a facebook group/page, twitter account, google site, and outreach to school coordinators. Events began planning the ins and outs of a community event. Research produced a criteria for teen events, listed events to attend, and planned a tumblr and google docs to convey finds. 

 The past Wednesday, MTS gathered at the new Children's Museum of Art over in West Village where we were given a tour of their awesome new space. We ran through a thorough check-in with the progress we've made over the past week. Events planned Saturday community days, which latched onto already planned teen events: Brooklyn Museum on December 3rd in conjunction with Free First Saturday and Whitney Museum of American Art on December 10th on an artist drop-in event. We established a structure for these meetings: socialize, special learning, activity, announce teen programs, and chat with programmers. Communications began on their social networking pages where they will post event updates and share info. Finally, we wrapped up this intense meeting with a list of ideas for the programmers at CMA to help launch their new programs. Go team!

Meeting with the Teen Programmers

Suzanna's report on our meeting with the NYC Museum Teen Programmers: Two weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to be invited to present at the Museum Teen Programmer’s meeting at the Rubin Museum. This was the first time teens were asked to come to the meeting that affects and determines the programs we participate in.

After all the programmers and Museum Teen Summit members got situated in the conference room, MTS got to right to work. First some remaining alums of the summer MTS session gave a brief summary of what we did this summer- the museums we visited, the questions we discussed, the research we conducted- which led to the continuation of MTS into the fall. Then three of our new members described what we did in first meeting of the fall session and some of the goals we set: outreach, community, inform. Next three more new members talked about how we plan to approach these plans for the future. To end the presentation we opened the floor to questions. Silence… It was clear that the Museum Teen Summit meant business.

Finally the programmers began asking questions and an incredible discussion began. Some of the comments and ideas that stood out were:

• WORKING TOGETHER- That this meeting between the Teen programmers and MTS not be a onetime event; that there be constant communication and interaction between the two sides. 
• ONE CENTRAL LOCATION FOR MUSEUM PROGRAM INFO- The programmers seemed to universally want a database on which the MTS review and give feedback on the different programs. What works? What doesn’t? 
• ATTRACTING MORE TEENS- Specifically getting more non-art loving teens involved. How do we do that? Through advertising on social media sites, ex. Facebook? Using MTS members as advocates to outreach more teens? 
• DIFFERENT MUSEUM=DIFFERENT ISSUES- Not all the institutions are the same, therefore they have different problems and different ways for MTS to help fix those problems and improve the museum’s situation.

After the great meeting with the Teen programmers, MTS came together and discussed what we do now. We realized how much the museum Teen programmers need us and how much work ahead we must do to help the programmers and also accomplish our goals for this session. It’s time to get to work Justice League!!

The first few Fall sessions of MTS... according to Adora!

Do you want to know what we’ve been up to this fall, here at the NYC Teen Summit? In the past two weeks, after getting to know each other and what our mission is, we’ve done some major brainstorming! Ultimately, we’ve discussed how to improve teen programs in our museums and others across NYC. We’ve discussed how to attract more teens like us, teens that are our complete opposite, and teens that are simply just in between. In between laughs and attending a teen programmer’s conference we’re getting some pretty solid ideas. We know many of you are dying to know what our strategies are to increase the success in our teen programs, so talk to us to us if you want to know more. Like MTS on Facebook for more updates!

...and we're back!

After a mini-break for some beach time, college move-in dates, and the start of school, the Museum Teen Summit is back in full effect.  And we're growing! Members of this summer's program have decided to extend the program into the fall AND to expand our team.  So we're looking for new members. We'll be planning some monthly teen-museum-meet-ups, leading workshops at local and national conferences, and helping museums connect with a wider audience. Interested? Apply now.

Check this box

Last week at Eyebeam, we took over their computers to create several online surveys so we can learn more about the relationship between teens and museums.  Help us figure it all out by filling out the surveys that relate to you:

1. Suzanna and Billy are curious to learn about Teen Councils at museums, so this survey is for anyone who works as a teen programmer in a museum. 
2.  Jannath is on the prowl for information about outreach strategies, so if you're a teen programmer, do this one too.
3. Abiel wants to learn more about how educators/tour leaders decide what to show teens, so this is for anyone who gives tours/teaches teens directly. 
4. Jack wants to know about what teens want.  Are you a teenager?  Fill this one out. 
5.  Jonah is curious about who goes to which museums.  Anyone can fill this out AND share with friends!              

Help us spread the word...the more responses we get, the better our results will be.

Thinking, Making, & Sharing @ Eyebeam

Walking into Eyebeam, we were greeted with a digital banner: THINK. MAKE. SHARE.  It couldn't have been a more perfect tagline for our day. After a behind-the-scenes tour with Stephanie, inspiring chats with artists Taeyoon Choi and Andrew Demirjian, and a detailed discussion of the logistics of documenting the digestive process, we took over Eyebeam's open studio space to turn our projects into reality. Here's a snapshot of some of the questions we're exploring:

• Abiel is curious about how educators decide what artwork teens like and if the time period or culture of the artwork matters.
• Daniel wonders if people really get the point of a museum.
• Suzanna and Billy are eager to figure out if teen councils are useful AND how non-education museum staff feel about working with young people.
• Joygil wants to know what the obstacles are to letting young people curate exhibits.
• Jannath is going to solve the outreach dilemma by figuring out how best to communicate with teens.
• Chloe and Jack are taking two different angles to figure out what teens are really looking for in museum programs.
• Jonah is analyzing demographic connections between age, interest, education, and location and museum preferences.
• Isabela is trying to pinpoint the assumptions people have about museums.
• Joe is working on a mini-documentary about teens in museums.

We've had three weeks of thinking about these topics, several hours of making mini-surveys and interview plans, so it's about time we shared.  Stay tuned for survey links both here and on our facebook page.

Jannath Gets It Done

Today we visited the Brooklyn Museum. After being given a short viewing of the museum, specifically at a mummy we got to work. We headed up to the boardroom to get started on our project. We came up with questions we'd like to explore that concern museums.
 It is still very broad but this brainstorming and planning will get us ready for the next steps of interviews and coming up with solutions for our big puzzles. I think the Justice League has a lot of work to do but we are the best of the best so we can totally get it all done!

 By Jannath Ahmed