Art Anyone?

As many of my colleagues have so eloquently written, our first two weeks have been a “whirlwind” of training, mock tours, and meetings that came to a crescendo with today’s trial-by-fire first round of tours.  I am relieved to report that the Museum’s regularly scheduled programming – our student tours – was uneventful and quite successful.  Personally, I’ve managed to semi-adjust to having to get up and go to work each day, after six years of a graduate student lifestyle: writing all day, without human contact, and for the most part in pajamas.  I’m enthusiastic to be dressed these days and, although battling a bought of extreme over stimulation, have enjoyed talking and thinking about art from a totally new perspective.

“Accessibility” seems to be the buzz word around the museum, which made me think of writings by American artist Clause Oldernburg. In 1961 Oldenburg wrote the following affirmation: “I am for an art…that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum…I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.”  – The Store, 1961.

"Pastry Case, I" Claes Oldenburg (American, born Sweden, 1929)

For a number of years now I’ve chased Oldenburg’s vision of art.  I’ve looked for it in textbooks, in literary and psychoanalytic theories on perception and art, and in digital archives, curatorial files, even exhibition catalogs.  And although I may have caught the remnants of a drip, or the shadow of something that attempted to mimic the “lines of life” I’m not certain I’ve actually been successful at trapping the kind of art that Oldenburg described.  My anticipation is that my experience at the AIC may shed light on the whereabouts of Oldenburg’s art, an art that is accessible for everyone from pediatrics to geriatrics.

– Monica H.

Taste of Chicago! by Liz

Week 3 / June 29, 2009

Today we got to experience Taste of Chicago in the Family Village. Our tagline was “Get a Taste of Modern Art with the Art Institute of Chicago,” perfect for the festival and to promote the new Modern Wing. Everyone loved our activity, which was  decorating hats with a food theme, inspired by the event, but also by art at the museum (see below). It’s really amazing to watch kids get so excited about creating something that is completely their own.

– Liz
6/29/09

Roe Ethridge, Canada (Watermelon), 2004

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Fruits of the Midi, 1881

Fast talking and lots of walking by Kimberly

week 2 / June 26

“If everything is under control, you are going too slow.” – Mario Andretti

I’ve always muttered this quote to myself when I feel overwhelmed by the mundane tasks that must be done because I’m adult and have responsibilities. This week we gave mock tours for student groups, family groups, and an adult audience. This quote, that I have always used to make myself laugh when life is moving faster than I’d like, has taken on a new meaning. Productive discussions often happen at a pace that requires one to forfeit a little control. This week I’ve learn that part of my job is to punctuate the conversation with purposeful questions and ride the conversation where it needs to go.

On another note…I’m have become completely obsessed with figuring out a good way to use the Joseph Cornell boxes. They are located in a difficult space (up two long flights of stairs and tucked away in a dark room). There are so many that is difficult to focus on one (I’m pretty sure there are 30 boxes in one case just as you enter the gallery). They are also completely beautiful and inspirational. I think it would be a tragedy for visitors to leave the museum without seeing them.

Dancing Lords and Dwarfs by Lauren

Week 2 / June 28, 2009

After a whirlwind two weeks of training, I am exhausted but also very excited to start tours next week. This past week, we have been giving mock tours for each of the three audiences we will be working with this summer – students, families, and adults.

I chose Shiva as Lord of the Dance for both my student and family mock tours and three painted Maya vessels for my adult programs mock tour. Unintentionally, I selected two works of art that happen to feature dancing lords/deities and dwarf figures…which made for some challenging questions and interesting conversation with the pretend visitors on my mock tours. One young “visitor” (aka Rachel Harper, Coordinator of Family Programs) was very bothered by the fact that Shiva is stepping on what appears to be a baby.  Somehow her response to this aspect of the artwork threw me for a loop and I blanked on how to respond.  I didn’t want to ramble off the art historical information in my head because that was not necessarily going to help a 4-year-old understand the significance of this aspect of the work.  Ultimately, I went back to close looking and had little Rachel come up to view the “baby” figure and we worked together to discover that, in fact, it is not a baby.  In the end, my pretend families enjoyed the artwork – in particular, figuring out how to pose like Shiva with four arms – and I was reminded that as a museum educator I need to be prepared to answer questions with language that is appropriate to the particular audience I am working with at the moment.

And, just in case my Music and Dance tour theme doesn’t work out so well, I am only one artwork short of a great gallery walk on Dancing Lords & Dwarfs…

Shiva as Lord of the Dance

Becca: Cheers!

Week 2: June 28 2009
This weekend marks an an exciting turning point for all of us museum education interns at the Art Institute. We are officially done with “training” and will now embark upon our actual internship responsibilities on Monday. I think that everyone is ready, whether they know it or not. I continue to be impressed by everyone’s creativity, composure, and knowledge. I really feel lucky to be part of such a qualified team. This weekend I finally feel as though I can relax. Although I have to prepare for my tours next week (2 Art From Many Places and 1 ABC tour), I don’t feel as much pressure, because I feel much more comfortable giving my tours to real kids, than to my peers and superiors. Giving mock tours was very nerve-wracking because none of us really knew what to expect, or how it would feel to actually give a tour. I felt that the first mock tour I gave for 6th graders went the best, but I wasn’t pleased with my ABC tour or my adult tour. It wasn’t necessarily the content, but the execution that was the problem . It also had a lot to do with which department I felt most comfortable with.

Anyways, that’s all for now. With all of the other blog posts, other comments would be redundant. Cheers to everyone! Good job!

Walking the Art Institute by Kristin

Week 2– June 28, 2009

As everyone will agree (and probably write about) our first two weeks have been a whirlwind! But, now that we finally got our prox cards and have spent three days doing nothing but giving practice tours, getting feedback, and improving said tours, I think we’re all settling in a little bit to our summer home.

And what a summer home it is. With the addition of the Modern Wing, which opened only one month before our first day, the museum tops out at a MILLION square feet aka nearly 190 miles aka the distance between chicago and green bay (well, almost). Quite the walking feat, even for the most fit, let alone the many preschoolers, seniors, and families with strollers who visit the museum everyday.

The size of the museum is not only impressive and important for holding what the website deems “the encylopedic collection”, but its extremely important to consider for tour planning, something that we have all had to seriously think about in the last couple of days. Preparing one object for a tour is fairly nerve-wracking in itself, but creating a tour plan is a whole different monster.

Our real-life, visitor in the museum tours start on Monday, and hopefully  the time spent on Friday timing exactly how long it takes to walk between each work will pay off!

-Kristin

Hitting the Ground Running by Liz

Week 2 / June 27, 2009

WE DID IT! After hours of training on everything from the nuts and bolts of how to give a successful tour (and not surprisingly 3-year-olds are a different can of worms than cantankerous old ladies) to how to fill out timesheets to the latest in museum education pedagogy, I think I can say with far more confidence than I ever expected that we’re ready!  It’s been a rigorous, but incredibly helpful and interesting two weeks, full of great exercises, discussions, and hands-on training.

Our marathon three days of mock tours – Art From Many Places for school groups, The ABCs of Art for really young children, Family Programs tours, and Adult Programs public lecture tours – left me with much the same exhausted satisfaction of running an actual marathon. “How did I do that?!” is the question that comes to mind, asked with a huge sigh of relief. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a training session and felt as prepared or as glad that I had each part of the training as I have here at the Art Institute (AIC). Each session offered something useful, whether it was an approach to teaching or handling a difficult question, constructive comments on something I’d presented, or just learning how something is done at AIC. It is clear that the museum staff is not only glad to have us here as interns, but that they would also like us to leave with new skills and knowledge. Science at work – the perfect symbiotic relationship!

But there’s far more to the experience than the training and work.  We have full access to the museum and the employee benefits, which include free admission to AIC and other cultural institutions, staff discounts, and just the cool feeling that we have at our fingertips one of the most incredible art collections in the world. Nearly every day I’ve gone across the street to Millennium Park for lunch and either listened to great live music in Jay Pritzker Pavilion while staring at the Gehry bandshell, watched kids splash around in the water at The Crown Fountain under the faces on the towers, or sat quietly in Lurie Garden.

I live in an area of town referred to as the Gold Coast, with good reason – it’s amazing! I am a stone’s throw away from the lakefront path, which offers me the perfect place to run, take evening walks, or sit and read. My neighborhood is full of cute coffee shops, bars, and restaurants (most of which I have yet to explore, but create great people watching as I’m huffing along to the grocery store). And this morning I found a really small, but great farmers market on my block! Thank goodness for some fresh lettuce (Jewel Osco is fine for most things, but the lettuce leaves a little something to be desired).

So off I go! I have lots of reading to do for next week, but being that studying art is my passion I really can’t complain. I think I’m starting to understand a little something about the incredible satisfaction of being paid to do something you love…

– Liz
6/27/09

Our first blog post! by Monica and Mari

We finally get our “prox” cards!

Week 2 / June 26, 2009

It’s friday afternoon, the end of our second work week at the Art Institute.  We’ve just completed our two week training and are excited to actually start “working”–actually giving tours to people other than ourselves and other museum educators.  It’s been an intense introduction with several notable milestones:

List -o- milestones

1. First espresso break at the balcony cafe (yay for staff discounts!)

2. Listening to lunchtime concert rehearsals at Millennium Park

3. First mock tours under our belts with student programs

4. First afterwork drinks with colleagues

5. Finally got our prox cards after a week and a half of vigorous door knocking and loitering in hallways (see picture above)

6. First time giving directions to lost museum visitors (and getting ourselves turned around)

7. First time giving ACCURATE directions to lost museum visitors (Success!)

We’ll be posting biweekly blog entries from here on out about our experiences and thoughts along the way. Stay tuned!

Mari in the American Wing!

About us:

Mari (Marijana) Rayl is a recent graduate from Centre College with her Bachelor’s in History and Art History. She’s from Wichita, Kansas, and currently has a big crush on Gerhard Richter

Monica Bravo is a recent M.A. graduate from Stony Brook University’s Art History and Criticism program. She’s from a small town in Ohio and wishes the historic photography gallery wasn’t so gosh darned far from the Modern Wing

Becca: First Try

Week 2, June 23

Today was the final day of mock tours. This week has been pretty stressful and I’m very glad it’s over. Last week was spent doing welcome/orientation tours and introductions, so we barely had time to prepare and research our objects… As a result, this week felt like being thrown into the lion’s pit–so to speak. Whether we felt ready or not, our time was up. I think the most nerve wracking part was speaking without anything in front of us, (no notes allowed). Even for the most formal presentations I had to make  in college, I was allowed to have something to reference, so the idea of performing “naked” was a bit terrifying. Most of us did not know what to expect, or how it would feel to actually give a tour, and the truth is, one can’t know until the moment arrives. Overall, I was really impressed by the quality of everyone’s presentations. The bar is certainly set high and I guess I’m not surprised. I knew that this internship was competitive before I arrived in Chicago, but I did not know that 4  out of the 8 people in the group would have masters degrees in Museum Ed or Art History, and one person would have a Phd. I have never done anything like this in my life, and it is certainly a great experience. I hope that I will be standing in the end. 2 weeks down, 6 to go!