Education and Community Programs

Saturday, November 4 promises to be a great day for families at the Walker. November’s Free First Saturday, Light’s Out! will feature an artmaking project designed around creating glow-in-the-dark wearable art, a kids’ disco party, cool films, and a performance by Circus Minimus. Families should also make sure to take a trip into the galleries where tour guides will be stationed by artworks that incorporate “mysterious shapes and spaces.”

One such work is Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale-Attesa (Spatial Concept- Expectation) from 1964-65. The work is a painted canvas with a dramatic slash down the center. As the artist said, “Space is behind and around the painting.” He changed the flat smooth surface of the canvas, helping us to look through the painting and wonder about the space behind and around it.

As you look at this artwork, think about how this work is like both a painting and a sculpture. How do you think making this artwork was like making a performance? Do you think Fontana made his slash slowly or quickly?

Have your child make an artwork and then have him or her cut or tear a slash into an area of the artwork. How does this change the space of the artwork? How did they decide where to make the slash, how long and what shape it should be? What would they want to put behind their opening?

Don’t foget to come to the Walker on Saturday, November 4 to learn more about how artists use shape and space in unusual ways, or to see more works by Lucio Fontana.

Even if you can’t actually get to a museum with your kids (yes, sometimes life gets in the way of those wonderful enrichment opportunities!), there are some ways you can get them excited about art and build their enthusiasm for their next trip to the local art galleries. One great way to do this is by exploring the online kids’ sections of art museum websites. Many art museums have an online section devoted to kids and families, but I thought I’d share 3 really exceptional ones that I’ve come across lately.

The Tate Museum has an extensive area devoted to encouraging kids to explore their collection. One thing I like about this site is that its both high tech and low tech. A couple of highlights are the Art Detective: Case of the Mysterious Object feature which lets users explore a sculpture by Henry Moore and using a fun detective analogy, try and figure out some things about what the artist was trying to achieve. A nice low-tech sort of arts and crafts option is to create a mask using one of their templates. Each mask is connected to a work in the collection.

Artsconnected’s Toolkit site features short videos demonstrating various art elements, such as line, shape, color and texture, and then let’s users either find specific types of elements in artworks, or create an online work of art using the various drawing tools. This site is a great one for introducing little ones to the basic art elements. This can be brought into the museum as well by having them look for the elements in “real” works of art.

Finally, check out the Museum of Modern Art’s Destination Modern Art. The site has great graphics- an adorable alien who leads kids on an exploration of a few keys pieces in MOMA’s collection, including a work by Picasso, Three Musicians and a chair designed by Marcel Breuer. Each work features several options, including games, puzzles, and some lower-tech crafts projects that can be printed out.

A couple of tips for using these sites:

• Explore a museum website before visiting a real museum with your child. Try to connect some of the ideas and concepts raised in the online site to the works of art on view in the galleries.
• Visit the website for the museum you plan to attend with your child. Most museums have much of their collection online. Find a few pieces that you think your child would be interested in, and go on a “detective” hunt for those artworks once you arrive.
• Rather than just coloring with your child, take a look at some online works of art and see if you can use those for inspiration. Have your child make their own version of a work of art, or use some of the same colors or shapes.
• Museum websites can be a great way to open up a discussion about art with your child, get them excited about a visit to a museum, or encourage new ways of creativity at home. Finally, don’t forget to visit the Walker’s own website for some more online fun!

During the August Free First Saturday program (August 5), Yoga instructor Jessica Rosenberg will lead an interactive movement tour through the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Its not only visitors bodies that move in the garden, look closely and you’ll find some sculptures that are pretty active themselves.

A favorite for kids is Mark di Suvero’s massive Arikidea. For more than three decades di Suvero has been creating large-scale metal sculptures, often with moving parts made from balanced steel girders. Many of his sculptures invite viewers to swing on a suspended seat, flatbed, or tire. Arikidea is a sculpture you can stand under, sit on, or walk around. When you sit and swing on the wooden seat, three tons of balanced steel gently sways on cables.

Di Suvero admires a spider’s ability to build a web in space. The name of this sculpture is closely related to the Greek word for spider, arachnid. Next time you’re in the garden with a young friend, ask them:

How is this sculpture like a spider?

How are the wood swing and steel girders connected?

Which parts move?

How do you think this sculpture would look different in the winter?

On Tuesday evening Walker’s family programs manager, Ashley Duffalo, and I taught the first session of a 4-part history of photography class at the new downtown central library- titled “Framing the World: Photography As Art” the class will delve into the early developments in photography and lead up through contemporary work. The focus of the class is not on the technical aspects of photography, but rather on the idea of photography as an art form, and what makes one picture a work of art, while another might be considered only documentation.

The class came about in large part due to the current Walker exhibition Diane Arbus Revelations. In giving tours of a show like this, its possible to provide a good overview of one particular artist, but often not enough time to talk about the medium in general and how others have used it. This class will provide us with an opportunity to address larger issues, which hopefully will all come together during a guided tour of the show during the last session.

Photography can be a pretty sticky issue for people- we had some interesting discussions about the nature of images and how viewers thinks about and analyze them. In training Walker tour guides to give tours of the show, we talked about some ways to interpret images.

For example, some of the questions a viewer might ask include:

o What is the subject?

o Are there multiple subjects? If so, what is their relationship?

o Was the photograph posed/arranged, or candid?

o How is the subject framed? Is there space around the subject? Is it evenly spaced, what is the angle, distance?

o How do you think the photographer felt about the subject? How can you tell?

o What is the lighting like? Is it dark, bright, moody? What effect does the lighting have on your perception of the subject?

o How would describe the photograph? Blurry, sharp, dim, bright, shadowy, clear? What details seem to be emphasized?

o Can you tell when the photograph was taken? How? Do you think the time and place is important to your understanding of the image?

Obviously this doesn’t address everything, but its a start. I know in the coming sessions we will have some lively debates-we already heard from a few people with strong opinions about both Arbus’ work, as well as the work of contemporary photographers such as Jeff Wall.

As an aside, the Peoples’ University is a great program, run by the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library, offering a wide variety of free courses for adults.

Last night my son and I participated in the Summers Cool class Once Upon a Garden, taught by Walker Art Lab Coordinator Ilene Krug Mojsilov.

Ilene had the kids start thinking about curves right away by passing out pipe cleaners and having us bend them into different kinds of curves, we also used our fingers to trace the lines around different buildings and shapes- some curvy and some straight and geometric.

The 3, 4, and 5 year old kids were treated to a story about skyscrapers, Into the Sky by Ryan Ann Hunter, while ogling all of the various lines and shapes in the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge, designed by St. Paul-based artist Siah Armajani. They also gaped in awe as they looked up at the overwhelming curves of Ellsworth Kelly’s Double Curve.

All of this looking and learning came to fruition when we headed back into the Walker on Wheels for a serious bout of building. Using really cool papers, small boxes, pipe cleaners, hot glue, foam bases, small pieces of wood and cardboard, the kids were charged with making a building with a door, a curve, a roof, and a purpose- some of my favorites- chicken factories, chocolate factories, a princess house, and a family’s house with a little house in the back for the pet dolphin- of course!

They’re even willing to fund the cost of school buses to tranport kids to the Walker. Its true! Inspired by a generous grant from UBS during the run of our exhibition Chuck Close Self-Portraits which helped defray the cost of many of the school buses bringing kids to the Walker for field trips to see the show, our intrepid group of tour guides have decided to continue the generosity on their own.

This is a great thing for them to do, as more and more schools find that the cost of buses (which can run $150-$200) can be one of the largest impediments to offering field trips to students.

The fundraising kick-off happened a few weeks ago, and we’re well on our way to paying the way for quite a few budding artists to make their way over for tours during the next school year. Check out the cute bus fund donation box, made by our tour guide council chair, Jane Mercier. Isn’t she crafty!

As our current class of tour guide “trainees” finishes up their 6 months of training in order to begin providing guided tours to museum visitors, we’re gearing up for another session of the training course. If you’re interested in contemporary art, enjoy being around and talking to others who share your interest, have teaching or public speaking experience, and would like to dedicate your time to guiding visitors through Walker exhibitions, please consider joining us as a volunteer tour guide.

Benefits include curator-led tours of Walker exhibitions, training in modern and contemporary art history, catalogues for exhibitions you tour, discounts on many Walker events, and opportunities to further your own education in the arts.
If you’ve been reading these posts you also know that we offer additional opportunities for guides to further their knowledge of the arts, as well as build a community of other individuals interested in contemporary art and what’s going on in the local, national, and international art scene. For more information on this opportunity, or to receive an application, email tours@walkerart.org or call 612.375.7574.

Walker tour guide Claudia Swager writes:

Birders, bring your binoculars when visiting the Sculpture Garden. I was in the 9^th floor conference room when a peregrine falcon flew really close along the length of the bank of windows. It was awesome. They are the fastest flyers in the bird world. I was thinking that the windows in the new addition would be a lovely nesting place if they would remove the screen. We could have Walker falcon cam. I wonder if anyone else has sighted some birds perched in the linden trees or nestled in the sculpture? Several years ago a Mother robin nested in the jaw of Deborah Butterfield's Woodrow. She was calm and unperturbed when visitors came close. I saw a nest in D'Suvero's Arikidea--it was a "rock a bye birdie" affair which would move with the sculpture. I have seen hummingbirds in the perennial beds and there are always a few sparrows in the conservatory flitting among the palms.

What are the conservation problems with birds on the sculpture? Who cleans and how often? Any bird tour of the sculpture garden would have to include the vulture in Prometheus Strangling the Vulture II by Jaques Lipchitz. That is a really big bird! There are always new baby ducks in the pond and an occasional visit of a heron or an egret. Nature in the middle of the city is entertaining and exciting.

As I’ve written on these pages before, a group of Walker tour guides recently expanded their arts and culture horizons by travelling to Beijing and Shanghai and becoming immersed in both the traditional cultural environs, as well as the contemporary art scene. On a smaller, but still worthwhile scale, last week a group of 22 guides travelled to Rochester, MN for some exposure to the Southern Minnesota art scene.

On the way to Rochester we stopped at the Wells Fargo (formerly National Farmers Bank) in Owatonna, MN. Not widely known, the building, a stellar example of Prairie School architecture, was designed by Louis Sullivan and built in 1908. It is described on the National Register of Historic Places as “Green and brown terra cotta panels and blue and gold glass mosaic bands contrast with the reddish brick walls and the red sandstone base that anchors the bank to its site. Elegantly arched stained-glass windows are mirrored on the interior by murals of dairy and harvest scenes painted by Chicago artist Oskar Gross. The lavish organic ornamentation, designed largely by Sullivan's partner George Elmslie, carries through all interior elements, from 18-foot-tall light fixtures down to the tellers' window grills.”
First we visited the (relatively) newly remodeled Rochester Art Center. The building, designed by Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson is beautiful- attached to the Rochester Civic Center with a gorgeous atrium overlooking the Zumbro River. Without its own permanent collection, the center features a frequently rotating selection of special exhibitions. Currently a retrospective of work by Rochester native Judy Onofrio fills the main gallery, while 2 smaller spaces are taken up by film work by local artists techtonic industries and Norwegian artist Torbjorn Rodland. We were treated to guided tours by Education staff members Scott Stulen and Michele Heidel

We then toured the art collection of the Mayo Clinic. A staggering assortment of both contemporary and historical work that has been donated by physicians and patients over the years fills the Gonda building, designed by Cesar Pelli and opened in 2004.
Some highlights of the collection include great prints by Ellsworth Kelly and Joan Miro, enormous glass “chandeliers” by Dale Chihuly, as well as works by Jennifer Bartlett, Andy Warhol, Auguste Rodin, and many contemporary glass artists. The Mayo offers free public guided tours of their collection, as well as an audio tour. The Mayo’s philosophy involves not only physical care of the patient, but also emotional care through the inclusion of art and music. A lovely thought in today’s environment of managed care.

Reading Paul’s blog posting on Holland Cotter’s recent New York Times review of the Walker oganized exhibition, House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective reminded me (once again) of the Walker tour guides’ experiences during our recent trip to China. In Shanghai as we visited the Bund area (Shanghai’s main banking and finance area) we immediately noticed one of the large colonial buildings lining the street.

We had all seen this building many times, entering and exciting the Walker during the run of the Huang Yong Ping show. However, the version we’d become so accustomed to was much smaller and made of…sand.

Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank was, as the artist described it, a detailed recreation of a bank “measuring 6 meters (19 feet and 8 1/4 inches) long, 4.3 meters (14 feet and 1 1/4 inches) wide, and 3.5 (11 feet and 5 3/4 inches) meters high, out of sand in the main hall of the entrance lobby of the museum. The model for this bank was the former British HSBC (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) building, constructed in 1923. This "bank of sand" was composed of four wooden molds, reinforced and fixed together with long screws. Then dry sand mixed with a small quantity of cement was poured into the molds. After that, water was sprayed on it, and it was pressed down with a wooden post to make it compact and solid. After this dried, the "bank of sand" would maintain its basic appearance, which, however, was only temporary and extremely vulnerable, and could crumble at any time.”

As we all rushed to have our photos taken in front of this particular building, fraught with memories of guiding Walker visitors through this esoteric, yet beautiful show, I was reminded of what an experience it is to be a tour guide. For many visitors to Shanghai, the building was just more more example of, admittedly beautiful, colonialist architecture. But after the experience of working with Huang’s art we had our own experience of the building, our own memories, our own understanding of what the building might represent. As Cotter wrote about Huang Yong Ping’s art in his review: It has a complicated sense of newness: you have never seen anything quite like this art before, yet it feels musty and archaic, as if excavated from tombs. And unlike his earlier work, it carries a dense, particular content of stories, myths, esoteric lore and political commentary.

For a traveler to China, one of the most striking things about the country are the dramatic changes taking place everywhere. As you drive through the cities there are countless enormous cranes hovering overhead. As our Shanghai guide, David, said, "the crane is the national bird of China"- ha! As we moved through contemporary art galleries, one of the themes that emerged from a lot of the work that we saw were artists who seemed to be grappling with these monumental changes to the Chinese culture and environment.

At the 1918 Gallery in Shanghai, photographer Michael Wolf, in his series “Architecture of Density” takes large-scale photographs of office buildings, skyscrapers, hotels (many from Hong Kong), etc. The images are cropped so that the facades of the building completely fill the image- creating abstract grids out of steel, glass, and concrete. As we drove around the city of Shanghai, we were continually bombarded by vistas that reminded us of Wolf's photographs.
At ShangART gallery the work of Hu Yang, also a photographer, was captivating in its depiction of ordinary people struggling with the pressures of modern life. His work Shanghai Living which paired a photograph of a "successful" person in their home with an image of someone struggling to find a job, a place to live, pay for school or just survive, were extremely poignant and arresting. For example, with this image, the caption reads:

Sheng Chaozhen (Shanghainese, Retired Worker)
Fan Jiujin (Shanghainese, Retired Worker)
An estate agent spotted this land and urged us to move. We have had this stalemate for more than two years and life is very inconvenient. We are surrounded by builders’ rubbish, dust, flies and mosquitoes. We hope the government can help us to solve this soon.

Many of these people were living in older homes which were being eyed for demolition in preparation for new building projects.

A group of around 15 Walker Art Center volunteer tour guides and three Education and Community Programs Department staff members recently travelled to Beijing and Shanghai for 10 days for a whirlwind foray into the traditional/contemporary art scene of China. The trip was enlightening, to say the least. Upon re-entry from such a voyage, it always seems difficult to hold on to the experience. Even after the first few minutes off the plane and back into so-called “real life”, the whole thing seems a little bit fleeting. I plan to use the blog format to reflect on the experience, and perhaps share a little bit about what we all learned/gained/experienced during our adventure.

Item 1: The past and the present converge into one. The Red Gate Gallery in Beijing is a perfect example of the merging of old and new that can be seen all over China. Located in the Dongbianmen Watchtower, a Ming Dynasty military tower, erected in 1436, the gallery showcases the work of Chinese contemporary artists and has an active artist in residency program.
Beijing, with the Forbidden City, Emperor's Summer Palace, and Hutong traditional neighborhoods is fraught with history.

The contemporary art scene is growing, but even in the work the artists seem to address this duality (more on that in another post). One of the premier spaces for contemporary art is the Dashanzi Art District, a labyrinth of galleries and studios emerging out of the abandoned architecture of a 1950s Bauhaus style electronics factory.

Contrasts abound as well both between Beijing, the political capitol of China, and Shanghai, a city completely focused on business and capital, as well as within the city of Shanghai itself. Walker guides were astounded by both the number of skyscrapers not just dotting the Shanghai landscape, but completely filling it, as well as by the incredible lightshows displayed on their surfaces. These almost futuristic buildings provided a striking contrast against the colonial architecture across the Huanpu River.

A good deal of our trip was spent investigating the current art scene in China. Gallery owners and directors, as well as staff at the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art aided us in our exploration by provided unique insight into the art and artists of today's China. However, our understanding of the work we saw, as well as the artists behind it, was enhanced by the richness of the traditional culture as well.

On Monday several education department staff members leave on an excursion to accompany 15 Walker Art Center tour guides for 10 days exploring the art scene in Beijing and Shanghai. Why China? Some of the motivation for our trip emerged in the wake of the Walker exhibition House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective, a show that examined the body of work of one of the most active and thought provoking contemporary Chinese artists working today, Huang Yong Ping. Huang Yong Ping was part of the Xiamen Dada movement, a conceptual movement that adopted the philosopies of the early 20th century movement of the same name, led in a large part by Marcel Duchamp.

Another exhibition influential on our travel plans is from a few years back, How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age. The “Latitudes” show examined the new globalism in contemporary art, and featured artists from around the world, including several from China, such as Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen.
As with technology, building, and everything else, the visual art scene in China has exploded in the past several years. What will we discover in China? It remains to be scene, but surely our plans to visit both contemporary galleries and artists’ studios, as well as more traditional museums and sights will provide us with a new insight into not only the work of contemporary Chinese artists, but artists from across the globe.