AIC Interns 2010

Work or Play?

2010-08-06T13:12:00.012-05:00

Many of my colleagues have mentioned how lucky we are to be getting paid to talk about something that we all love all day and get compensated for it. And it's true, how many people get the opportunity to do what they love? The work portion of our position is to research and construct lesson plans for our tours. The play portion is everything else that goes along with the job, such as giving the tours and interacting with the viewers whether they are school age or adults.

Other really fun aspects of the position is having the opportunity to get involved with the different summer programs that the Art Institute is associated with.

For example Maya, Sandy and I got involved the Target Arts and Wonder, which was a free program for families to come to the Ryan Education center and make art.

We decorated totes and made really cool 3D self portraits that both the children and adults enjoyed making.

Sandy and I were also lucky enough to get involed with helping out at the Children's Museum at Navy Pier. It was "Play With Your Art Day," the Art Institute had a booth where the children could design their own hats inspired by Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

So you tell me.... Is this work or play?

The Dream Team

2010-08-05T15:46:00.017-05:00

I’m going to follow in Sandy’s footsteps and talk about a tour theme that I never got to do. For one, I could never think of a good enough title. It kept turning into “Pieces that have crazy backgrounds that no one knows about.” Pretty lame. Adrienne told me that I should call it “Past Lives”, and if it ever emerged, that’s what it would be.

Pablo Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903-04.

An icon of the Art Institute, and the highlight from Picasso’s Blue Period, this piece is a real crowd pleaser. With students, it’s great to talk about how color is important to the mood and meaning of a piece. But one of the most interesting parts about this painting is what’s behind it. X-Rays and ultraviolet photography show that Picasso used this canvas to paint two other pieces. You can even see a woman’s eyes in the paint above the guitarist’s head. There is also a visible seam where Picasso painted the canvas over the leaves of his kitchen table. Poor Picasso was so broke! No wonder he was blue.

Charles Ray, Hinoki, 2007
As Sandy said, the interns love Hinoki. I mean it’s a tree. In a museum. Carved from another tree. Love. It.

Egyptian Model Boat, c. 2046-1794 B.C.
I know I’ve used this before, but anything that has to do with death and mummification is a hit with any student. This boat was supposed to come to life with the person in the afterlife to guide them to safety. Using this piece also pays tribute to my favorite childhood movie, The Indian in the Cupboard. Things coming to life → always a good pick for a tour.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892 (right) and Equestrienne, 1887 (above).

I’ll admit it, I just really love Lautrec. The creepy faces, weird colors and all. Maya and I had a great discussion about these paintings on an adult tour. People can talk about them forever! The Moulin Rouge painting once had the green woman (presumably French dancer, May Milton) cut out because dealers didn’t think it would sell. All the figures have their backs turned to Milton because she was about to head off to America to become a big star. Lautrec even painted himself into the background! The Equestrienne painting was displayed on the wall of the Moulin Rouge as visitors walked in.

Ivan Albright, Picture of Dorian Gray, 1943-44
In the beginning of the Summer I hated this piece. So. Much. But now, I’ve grown to love it! This was painted for the 1946 movie of Oscar Wilde’s book, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Though the movie was filmed in all black and white, this portrait was the only part of the movie to be filmed in color. Creeeepy.

Felix Gonzalez Torres, "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) 1991
Who doesn’t love candy? Felix Gonzalez Torres created this portrait of his boyfriend, Ross, after he died from AIDS. The candy is set every morning at 175 lbs., Ross’s ideal weight. Throughout the day visitors are asked to take a piece of candy, causing the piece to shrink and loose weight. It shows Ross’s sweet and colorful nature, as well as the regeneration of life every morning. Plus the students get to pick out their own piece to eat! Incredible edible art.

So that's the dream tour. And hopefully one day someone can use it! This internship has been an incredible experience. I've never met a more encouraging, enthusiastic group of people, and I was actually excited about coming into work each morning. Annie from adult programs told us that we'll probably run into each other at CAA (College Art Association) conferences screaming and hugging. I can only imagine...

FANTASY TOUR: The Little Tour That Could

2010-08-05T14:37:00.000-05:00

With our time at AIC coming to a quick close, it's fun to reflect on the tours that never were. David and I stuck pretty firmly to our Travel & Transformation Tour - alternating the order and pieces that we used and sharing research with one another, since after all it was such a solid tour theme. In addition to our Travel & Transformation tour, we also had to put together ABCs In Art Tours which included "Animals In Art", "Color, Line, and Shape", and "My Five Senses" for younger audiences which focus more on the experience of interacting with the artwork and aren't as strictly content based.

Either way, we've been keeping ourselves quite busy touring, exploring, and researching - so it doesn't quite surprise me that I didn't get the chance to put together my fantasy tour. BUT it is going to be up for grabs for future docents, so feel free to borrow it!!

And now for the tour: Fabulous Fibbers & Incredible Illusions

The idea for this tour came from my desire to design a tour in which I could utilize Adriean van der Spelt's/Frans van Mieris' Tromp-l'Oeil Still-Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain - since I have a "thing" for Dutch Baroque still-life painting, being the first topic I researched as a freshman dabbling in the field of Art History. This painting is one of my absolute favorites in the collection, because of the attention to detail, particularly the surface qualities of the different textures, objects, and materials all expertly conveyed in oil paint!! I honestly feel as though I could reach my hand up and pull that curtain across to unveil what lays concealed.

Tromp-l'Oeil Still-Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain
Adriean van der Spelt/Frans van Mieris (Dutch)
1658
Oil on Canvas (or is it...)

There's a fantastic story that is being referenced here - the ancient Greek myth of the rivalry between two painters Zeuxis and Parrhasius. The two rival painters were in competition with one another to see who could paint the most lifelike picture. Zeuxis painted an image of grapes so lifelike, that birds landed upon the painting to peck at the painted grapes. Parrhasius then showed his image - a painting of closed curtains, so real that Zeuxis tried to pull them away to reveal the painting hidden behind the curtain. Parrhasius won the contest, astonishing Zeuxis, and creating the legend of illusion that inspires this very tour.

We're going to fast forward in time with the rest of our works to see how artists use illusion, tromp-l'oeil, and other tricks of the trade to depict things that could never quite exist in reality.

Time Transfixed
Rene Magritte (Belgian)
1938
Oil on Canvas

Magritte's realism and illusionism is super fun. I'm a big fan of having visitors say discuss what this painting means to them, based upon their own personal associations with the various objects and imagery. Plus his mirror that reflects/doesn't reflect is AWESOME!

Woman Descending the Staircase
Gerhard Richter
1965
Oil on Canvas

The illusion here lies in the discussion of what we're looking at. Is it a photograph? Is it a painting? Is it both? Questions like these really spur fantastic discussion, which is what these tours are all about!

Table with Pink Tablecloth
Richard Artschwager (American)
1964
Formica on Wood

I'm a gigantic fan of this work. Yeah, it's a cube. Yes, it's geometric and abstracted. BUT if you go ahead and take a closer look at it, you'll notice that the brown is actually the negative space beneath the table. It's fun to explore and discover the way in which the illusion transforms the way in which you think about the object.

Hinoki
Charles Ray (American)
2007
Cyprus Carving

And then there's Hinoki. What is it? How was it made? How did it get here? Why carve a tree out of a tree? This work was one of the summer hits for the 2010 Museum Education Interns. We LOVE Hinoki. Yes, it's a challenge to talk about, and yes it's a bit of a struggle trying to get the students to stay about 3 feet away, but the discussion is always so rewarding.

Being Not Truthful Always Works Against Me (Edition 1/10)
Stephan Sagmeister (Austrian) & Ralph Ammer (German)
2006
Interactive Projection

And here's where the tour concludes. I am a firm believer in ending with a bang. This work not only teaches a lesson about fibbing, but also is great fun because it is interactive. Loosely based on Charlotte's Web, the well-meaning message spun into the web is part of a computer program that reacts and changes to one's shadows in the exhibition space.

Basically, this tour would have ruled if I had the time to write and research each of these objects. I hope that a future docent or intern might take inspiration from this little tour that never was...

The Powers of Perception...

2010-08-05T11:44:00.011-05:00

Maya introducing the students to the touch gallery

Adrienne discussing Dan Flavin's One of May 27, 1963, 1963

As our time here at the museum comes to a close, we’ve been thinking about the tours we’ve found most rewarding. Maya, Jen, Adrienne and I were assigned to give a tour to high school students from the Blind Service Association. I was a little nervous about giving this tour because honestly, I didn’t really know what to do. So to prepare for the tour we talked with a few staff members that had done similar tours in the past and scoured the Education Resource Center for ideas. A few days before the tour we decided to walk around the museum paying special attention to four of our senses: smell, taste, sound, and touch. We were astounded at what we discovered! There are so many pieces in the museum that require more senses than just looking. Here is a run-down of our Powers of Perception tour…

(Mary D.) Our tour began with bringing the twelve students and four chaperones into Griffin Court, the main entrance of the Modern Wing. Since I love the design of the Modern Wing, I thought it was important for the students to understand more about the space they were standing in, even if they couldn’t see it. Smell, sound, and touch all played a really big role for the entire tour, and these senses worked really well for understanding architecture! First I had them tell me what they sensed in the space around them. I was bombarded with a dozen answers! They were telling me “It must be big, because everything echoes,” and “The air is a lot colder and more open in here.” Thought that could sense light said, “The ceiling must be glass, because it’s much brighter when I move my head upwards.”
Next we headed outside to Pritzker Garden. I asked them what the differences were from the inside of the building. They caught on that it used the same flooring and that the only thing that separated inside for outside was a large glass wall. They loved listening to Louise Lawler’s sound piece, Birdcalls. Lawler squaks the names of artists in the modern wing to make them sound like birds.This was a piece that we didn’t know about until we listened closely! Here's a clip of the same piece installed at the lily pond of the Huntington Library:

(Adrienne) Going into my piece on the blind tour I was a bit worried because it was the only piece we planned that is purely visual…or so I thought. I spoke about Dan Flavin’s florescent light piece “One of May 27, 1963” and had the kids come very close. Probably too close, blind people see with their hands and when I asked if they could sense anything around them one girl reached directly in front of her and held onto the vertical florescent light.

Other than that mishap, I think the talk was successful. A few kids who did have some level of sightedness were able to tell the others that the light was red while the ones who could not see and were standing close to the pieces could sense the warmth of the light and the buzz of the electricity. It was very interesting to experience a light piece in this way. Flavin’s objective is too create an environment with the light and I had never thought about sensing that environment with any other sense than sight.

(Maya) After Jen helped the students explore the Felix Gonzales Torres Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) candy piece and a video installation, I led the group towards the touch gallery under the grand staircase. Leading students through Alsdorf gallery was a bit of a challenge! Luckily, Renzo designed this gallery to have a wide, open pathway on its south end, so students moved through the space a little more easily. Once we reached the end of Alsdorf, we arrived at a few steps. I quickly learned a good trick: count the stairs for students first! This worked pretty well until we made it to the set of stairs just under the Grand Staircase, where students pretty much just had to hold on the railing and help each other.

I’d also like to mention how impressed I was by the group’s museum navigational skills. The Blind Service Association group is made up of 40 percent of students who can see some color and shape, and 60 percent of students who are fully blind. The chaperones are also either partially or fully blind. In this case, students who had partial sight would lead fully blind students and chaperones through the museum and visa versa.

Upon entering the gallery, the group was thrilled to discover that they could touch the objects and even read wall text in brail! I began my part of the tour by going though my very structured lesson plan—asking one open-ended question after the other and hoping to guide their thinking and reach a conclusion. Mid-way through this process, I decided to change gears and just let the students explore the space themselves. We were lucky enough to have one student who understoood brail, so she read the text aloud to the rest of us as we felt the sculptures. My experience with the Blind Service Association was one of my most rewarding here at the Art Institute. We certainly learned to experience the museum in a new and profound way that did not involve seeing. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to co-lead this tour with such incredible fellow interns here at the AIC this Summer!

Separated at birth?

2010-08-05T11:18:00.001-05:00

Alex Katz, Vincent and Tony 1969

MAD MEN DAY!

2010-08-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

Photo by Henri Cartier Bresson

(Left: Bresson photo; Right: Mad Men)

All of us interns have expressed a love for the stylish and era accurate AMC show, Mad Men. Upon seeing the new Henri Cartier Bresson exhibition for the first time (which is BEAUTIFUL) Jen, Mary H. and I noticed a few photos that looked as if they could have been taken right on the Mad Men set. Errr... I suppose since Bresson came first, Mad Men just looks authentic enough to have been in one of Cartier Bresson's photos.

In order to show our love for the show and the Cartier Bresson exhibit we interns decided to dress the part for one of our last days here on the job. It wasn't easy finding late 50's early 60's clothing options in our contemporary wardrobes, but I think we managed to put together some pretty snazzy outfits.

All the ladies in front of Gerhard Richter's 1965 - "Woman Descending the Staircase"

Mary D. and I in front of David Hockney's 1968 - "American Collectors"

Sandy and David by Alex Katz's 1969 - "Vincent and Tony"

My personal favorite photo - all of us in front of Rothko's 1953 - "Untitled (Purple, White and Red)." If you've seen Mad Men you may remember the Rothko in Cooper's office - here is our verision of that scene.

I think today pretty much sums up our experience as Museum Ed interns - meshing good art with good pop culture references to make the museum experience accessible to everyone.

I LOVE Adult Tours!

2010-08-03T13:53:00.008-05:00

I've recently realized how much I enjoy giving adult tours. Between last Thursday and this Tuesday I gave three:

Thursday: Modern Hightlights Tour
This was the first tour that I was allowed to give by myself though I was scheduled to give the tour with senior lecturer, Annie Morse. I pitched the theme of Modern and Contemporary Portraiture and I planned on doing two pieces, Picasso's "Mother and Child" and Hockney's "American Collectors." Annie decided to contribute a visit to Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled (Portrait of Ross)" for the final piece.

A few hours before the tour Annie called me to ask if I'd like to talk about the Gonzalez-Torres and just do the whole tour myself. My first thought: "OMG, WHAT!?! I can't do that!"...what I said to Annie, "Well, I'm brushing up on the other pieces right now, but I think I can handle it...can I tell you in a couple hours?" An couple hours later I felt sufficiently well versed on my other two pieces to tackle the FGT, which I had talked about before. Long story short: I did it! I tackled an adult tour by myself for the very first time!

Friday: Matisse in Nice Tour with Jen
Jen and I signed up for the Matisse in Nice tour without really knowing what he did in Nice and why we would have a tour specifically about that time. After a lot of studying we knew so much, not only about Matisse's Nice period, but about his entire career that we thought we should try to include every Matisse displayed in the 3rd floor....which we did. (Note to future interns: don't do more that 5 or 6 pieces on an hour long tour) Though we had a very successful tour, we later realized that we probably should have edited our selections down from almost 10 to half of that.

Tuesday: Highlights of the Museum Tour with Jen
Jen and I have spent most of our internship researching and touring later highlights of the museum from Post Impressionism to the present. We both love Contemporary Art and so it was a bit of a challenge to expand our oeuvre to include the earlier masterpieces in the museum's collection when it came time to plan our highlights tour.

Again, we were a bit ambitious and not only did we plan to do 7 pieces in an hour long tour, we also planned to take our group through 3 different wings of the museum. (Another note to future interns: take the distance of your pieces into account when planning the timing of your tour). We were fine for the first few pieces: Manet's "The Races at Longchamp" and Van Gogh's "The Bedroom," but we became a bit pressed for time and rushed by the time we got to Wood's "American Gothic" and Matisse's "Daisies." All in all, I think the tour went well and even though we didn't really have a theme to connect all of the pieces, by the time I got to our final piece, Hockney's "American Collectors" I realized how all of the pieces we looked at did have some sort of influence, whether direct or indirect, on our final piece.

The Art of The Self Portrait

2010-08-03T13:52:00.002-05:00

A famous motif that artists from all times return to over and over again is the self-portrait. Inspired by the many self-portraits I've come into contact with over the years as well as the gallery containing the Thomas Struth photographs of people in museum spaces, I embarked on a project photographing myself in various galleries that I grew to know and love over the course of working here at AIC this summer. Enjoy!

Thomas Struth
Art Institute of Chicago II
1990
Chromogenic Print, Mounted to Acrylic

"Inked" AIC...

2010-08-03T10:51:00.005-05:00

UPDATE: Mary D. and Maya got AIC tattoos!

Well, not really... We did just find out that the gift shop sells temporary ones though. We're partial to the Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt images. Check it out!

Captain Obvious

2010-08-02T11:23:00.000-05:00

We were able to meet with John Molini of Packing this week and he was one of the coolest and most down to Earth individuals we have come across in our Museum Practices Seminars. A perfect way to end our trek through the inner workings of the Museum! Just sayin'.

Why Should We Care?

2010-08-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

So, my partner in crime Sandy stumbled across this gem on the Art Institute’s YouTube channel:

Kudos to the geniuses who decided to have the “two sisters” dress up as the Renoir. Instant classic.

Needless to say, we haven’t been able to get the song out of heads, particularly the hook warning visitors to “expect the unexpected” at the Art Institute. Sure, it’s a cheesy jingle from the 80’s, but the statement rings no less true now then it did then, both for visitors and educators.

I had my first and only Roads Scholars tour this past week and despite my planning, there was nothing I could have done to prepare me for what was in store. I did the tour alongside Terah Walkup (she is AWESOME by the way, just in case you didn’t already know) covering European Modernism & Contemporary Art. We surveyed Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, and Contemporary, all in a brief hour and a half that went as quickly as it came. I tackled Surrealism with Magritte’s On the Threshold of Liberty, 1937 and Pop Art with Lichtenstein’s George Washington.

Rene Magritte, On the Threshold of Liberty 1937

Roy Lichtenstein, George Washington 1962

The Road Scholars program members visited the AIC for three days participating in gallery walks, talks, and related gallery programs. They differ from most visiting groups in that the majority of them are not casual museum goers and have formulated views and theories on art. This makes the resulting tours more challenging and the ensuing conversations more in-depth than those you normally get on a Highlights Tour on a Thursday night.

I started off with the Magritte and Surrealism and everything was going exactly as planned (a sure sign that something is about to go wrong) when a woman cut me off to inform me that not only did she not like nor care about the piece but that she didn’t know why anyone else should care either. I expected that type of comment and question further along our tour during Minimalism or Pop Art (based off of past groups reaction to those movements) but certainly not that early on in our tour.

I wanted to answer her question with my personal opinion, but I figured it would be better to let her colleagues and fellow Road Scholars tackle it for her. Why exactly should we care about this work? The result was a series of colorful, intelligent, and honest responses from people not necessarily defending the work, but suggesting that one need not like a work of art to appreciate what it represents from an art-historical perspective. Some commented on the technical and aesthetic qualities of the work while others on the content and its significance. After it all, she may still not have liked Magritte’s work, but her nods and smile hinted at a newfound way of looking and appreciating art. I’d consider that a small victory for art!

PERKS OF WORKING AT AIC

2010-07-26T16:23:00.004-05:00

So, I'm not sure if it has been quite stressed enough - but I LOVE THIS JOB. In addition to seeing amazing works of art all day, every day - having a back stage pass to the museum is almost worth more than the art itself, metaphorically speaking that is...

Over the course of the last four weeks, we have had regularly scheduled museum practices seminars in which different departments have come to us, as well as welcomed us into their spaces letting us quite honestly pick their brains on the ins, outs, ups, and downs of working at this institution. So far we have met with

Mark Pascale, curator of Prints and Drawings,
Bob Eskridge, Executive Director of Museum Education
Public Affairs and Marketing
Development
The Teens and Library Program
Kate Bussard and Liz Siegel, curators of Photography
Conservation

and that's only the beginning - we have yet to meet with Contemporary Art, Security, Art Packing, and the director of the museum Jim Cuno himself!!! In case you can't tell - I really, really, really like the Museum Practices Seminars. Don't get me wrong, touring has been an absolute blast, so has the research, but understanding how the museum functions is completely fascinating.

Some highlights of our meetings have included:

- Telling PR/Marketing about our twitter and having them in return give our twitter unbelievable press.
- Seeing some of the amazing creative work done by the high school interns through the program After School Matters.
- Going into the refrigerated rooms in photography with the curators (I SAW A BOX OF CINDY SHERMAN'S AND ALMOST CRIED) - they store the black and white photographs at about 60 degrees fahrenheit, and the color photographs at 40.
- Jen receiving a copy of the book published from the Victorian Photocollage Exhibition, because she loved it and Liz Siegel curated it.
- Having Mark Pascale pull out two different editions of rare Toulouse Lautrec posters, a Degas pastel drawing, Bruce Nauman color screenprints, a Charles Ray marker drawing, a Miro print - and we have been invited to come back and have prints pulled out for us (I know I want to see some Warhol!!).

Toulouse-Lautrec, Aristide Bruant in His Cabaret, 1893

Edgar Degas, Landscape with Smokestacks, 1890

Bruce Nauman, Study for Holograms, 1970

Charles Ray, Untitled, 2003

- Getting a private walk/talk from Mark Pascale at the See America First Exhibition.

- Seeing Manet's Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers both on the wall and up close and personal in restoration mode at Conservation.

Edouard Manet, Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers, 1865

- Seeing the lovely Chagall Windows being cleaned in preparation for their return to display this coming fall!!

Marc Chagall, America Windows, 1977

- Getting several different scientific and historical private consultations on works being cleaned, restored, and prepared by preparators in Conservation.

And we still haven't seen it all! We also had the opportunity to attend a Town Hall meeting in the Fullerton Auditorium, which was totally and completely AWESOME. Basically, representatives from various departments present to other employees updates, ideas, new exhibitions, and marketing campaigns. It was really, really, really cool.

What I'm trying to say is - the behind the scenes aspects of AIC are just as fascinating and interesting at the works in the galleries. Learning day by day all that goes into the functionality of the museum is one of the major perks of interning here, and for that I and the other interns are completely grateful!

Best Intern Duo Part II

2010-07-22T16:30:00.002-05:00

David recently published a blog entry about how he and I make the best intern pair ever, which at this point I have to agree with. We both think well on our toes, have great senses of humor, and love talking about art with anyone who will listen.

Oh and we accidentally wore the same exact outfit to work today.

Call it fate, or maybe just a real appreciation for salmon colored bottoms - we were all very surprised and mortified to walk into the docent room and realize that we have been spending a little too much time together...

Tales from the "Plus One"

2010-07-22T14:57:00.004-05:00

The "Plus One" is finally coming out of the woodwork and onto the blog! I know I've been a little slow on this, but am excited to finally write an entry! To clarify, I'm a little separate from the other interns - I'm here as the guinea pig (or "Plus One") for a budding partnership with Randolph College, and are doing other projects in addition to giving tours.

While my "home" is in Teacher Programs, I've gotten a taste of all divisions of the department. I was trained with the other interns (the whirl-wind two-week department overview!), but have been doing various projects and workshops. One thing I've been doing a lot of is working the Artist's Studio with Family Programs, which is fun. It's so interesting to observe parents work with their children on art projects. Some just sit there and read, or get on their phone. Others help their children and make suggestions. Some try to make the project for them, or tell them how to create it. Others make one themselves, and get REALLY into it. My favorite though, are the adults who come in and are pleasantly surprised by the project. I introduced the activity to a group the other night, and told the adults with the children they could make one too. One woman in particular denied pretty firmly that she would participate ("oh, I'll just let them have fun"), but at the end of the night they were one of the last tables still working. I went over to tell them it was getting time to clean up, and the same woman looked up at me (surprised that the time had gone by so quickly, I think) and said exasperately, "Creativity takes time!" Why yes, yes it does.

Another program I've participated in recently was the Digital Storytelling workshop with Teacher Programs. This was tons of fun - I went up into the galleries with them the first day, and listened to some of their insights on contemporary pieces. It was good to hear some new voice, and since many of them were art teachers they weren't afraid to approach (at least not that I could tell). I also helped to answer technological questions when they were creating their own Digital Stories. (as a side note: if any future interns are reading this I hope you have some experience on a Mac; if not get some ASAP). Surprisingly it took a good deal of time, as many had never used a Mac computer before so that was a challenge. Nonetheless, it was rewarding to see how creative and nicely done their own digital stories were, especially for only having a few hours to work on (and some had never used the programs!).

One similarity I have with the other interns is that I'm also giving tours. I've given a total of 2 (one student, one adult) with two more of the same type to go! As I've only given two, I'm not sure which audience I like better (I should probably have a bit more experience before I judge that), but my adult tour today went pretty smoothly. The tour was on Asian Art, something that I have no formal training or background in. Yikes! Luckily, the audience was very engaged and made my job pretty easy. Annie was also a great support, and I learned a lot just from watching her interact with the audience.

Next week, amidst all the craziness (another teacher program and more on-going projects), I also have an ABCs tour with little kids with Kate. I am SO EXCITED! After hearing all the other interns talk about how adorable the younger crowd is, I can't wait to see for myself!

¡Olé! A Spanish Victory on Two Fronts...

2010-07-16T21:07:00.006-05:00

Photo: Me, presenting the "Old Guitarist" with Natalie

This past Sunday, it just so happened that the national soccer team of Spain—the birthplace of Penelope Cruz, Ferdinand and Isabella, and a slice of heaven known as “Tortilla Española”—won the world cup, or shall we say, Copa Mundial. As a student who recently returned to the United States after spending nearly six months in this country, I was so ECSTATIC by this win that I just about grabbed the nearest ham leg hanging above me at a Spanish bar and swung it 'round my head in celebration.

Coincidentally, I have also been working to include Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso’s, Old Guitarist into one of my tours. I began researching this piece when I was developing my mock student tour. I impulsively picked it from the museum’s “highlights” list, not having any lesson plan in mind or concept as how to structure a tour. After presenting Old Guitarist and considering the valuable feedback from my colleagues, I realized that, were I to include the piece in one of my tours, I needed to do some careful thinking about how to present it. I understood that I needed to discuss the emotion of the piece with students, without assuming Picasso’s intention.

I knew I didn’t want to give up on Pablo just yet, but including the work in our first week of touring seemed a little ambitious. Instead, Natalie and I led tours on nature, animals, and dance. Truth be told, I was deathly afraid of tackling the blue painting and I was intimidated by the discouraging and gloomy old man it depicted...

Meanwhile, Spain was quickly advancing in the world cup! After starting off with a loss to Switzerland, they won games against Chile and Honduras. By this time, Natalie and I had practically perfected our nature tour. I became so confident leading the nature tour that I used a shorter version of it for my family gallery walk—also very successful!

Spain wins to Portugal—Sergio Ramos and Christiano Ronaldo share a hug—some kid tells us he wants to "marry the museum"—progress on all fronts…

Around the date of the Spain/Germany game, I decided it was time to give the Old Guitarist another shot. I developed a lesson plan (with the help and advice of Robin) that tried to identify how the painting made us feel—not the feelings of Picasso himself. With some open-ended questions and kinesthetic teaching strategies under my belt, I felt ready to work the piece into my gallery walk. After a few hours of research I thought I should reward myself by watching the first half of the game at lunch (well, considering it was the semifinal, I probably would have watched it even if I had spent those research hours just eating from the docent cookie jar). At 1:30 I headed over (alone, due to lack of interest from fellow interns) to Bennigans and sat with the rest of the American soccer fans—and by that I mean the ONE other person watching the game, and he was from Sweden….

Finally, Natalie developed a “Music and Dance” tour theme just to include my presenting of the Old Guitarist. Our first tour group with this theme consisted of 1^st and 2^nd graders, so for this work I mostly discussed the piece’s color. We discussed how blue makes us feel. Everyone responded especially well to my question: “If this work were painted in all red, how would our feelings change?” Students shared a variety of responses, but all seemed to become aware of the fact that artist’s are conscious of how colors can elicit emotional reactions. We also talked about how the man in the painting might feel. Since gallery 391A was empty (awesome!) we had the opportunity to all mimic the old guitarist’s body language. The group decided that he might feel rather uncomfortable...

That Sunday, the Spanish national team played in the world cup final against the Netherlands. After a nerve-wracking 90 minutes with a stagnant score of nil-nil, the game moved into overtime. I bit all of my nails I had so carefully tried to grow out so as not to look totally childish leading my upcoming adult tour. During the many pauses in play due to fouls, I couldn’t help but think about whether Picasso might have enjoyed a casual, barefoot game of fútbol every so often on the beaches of the French Riviera. And then, in the last six minutes of play, Iniesta SCORED! The Dutch were devastated. I began to imagine the Dutch painter, Gerard Terboch’s, Music Lesson painted in sad blue tones… Finally, the world cup was over and every Spaniard at Café Iberico took over LaSalle Street screaming “¡Olé!” And so, my first student tour of Picasso’s Old Guitarist was over as well. And once again, SPAIN PREVAILED! I hope to continue using the Picasso painting in future tours: student, adult, and family. Interns even considered putting together a tour of Spanish art in honor of the world cup—proving that even the artsy folk here in the United States can appreciate a well-played soccer victory.

Well, we’ve still got a ways to go before we become true soccer fanáticos. Apparently Christiano Ronaldo just made an appearance at a Chicago restaurant and someone thought he was the “Situation” from Jersey Shore…

Best. Intern Pair. Ever.

2010-07-16T11:17:00.002-05:00

Over past few weeks the more Sandy and I gave tours the more we realized that we were not only the coolest intern pair ever, but that we also had a lot in common. Behold the similarities:

Royal Lineage

Sandy and I have both descended from a long line of Chicago High School Kings and Queens. Sandy was voted Prom Queen and unsurprisingly lists this major accomplishment on her resume. I believe this is what separated her from other applicants during the interview process and the main reason she was able to land this internship. I was voted Prom King when I was in high school. Coincidence? Don’t think so. The AIC knows all.

We are both Mexican*

* I am 31/32nds Mexican. Sandy is 1/4 Mexican. Together we make nearly 1 and ¼ Mexicans.

We both love bagels.

Plain bagels, raisin bagels, everything bagels, onion bagels, cheese bagels, cinnamon bagels, plain bagels, shrimp bagels, shrimp stew, shrimp and rice, bagels with chives, bagels with cream cheese, bagel sandwiches, You name it, we love it.

We both love fashion.

Cool kicks, shades, hats, shirts, the list goes on and on.

We both love animals.

We love them as pets, we love eating them, we love wearing them, we love talking about them in art...

But most importantly, we both love art.

We love to create it, study it, and share our love for it with others. That's the main reason why all of the interns are able to work so well with each other and why look forward to coming in to work everyday. The last three weeks have featured a great run of touring in pairs with students of all shapes and sizes, from the littlest and most adorable 4 years olds to the slightly more “intimidating” middle schoolers. But next week that will all come to end as we will both be sent off into the world to tour on our own. I can already feel the separation anxiety…

From overbearing chaperones to touring solo!

2010-07-15T15:34:00.024-05:00

Jen and I had quite the interesting tour this afternoon. Our group consisted of 4th through 8th graders, but a majority of the students were in the 6th to 7th grade range. They were a particularly smart group, but for the first half of the tour, while Jen and I were asking what we thought were interesting and engaging questions, we were met with crickets! They looked interested in what we were saying, but the students seemed intimidated to say anything at all. This was particularly evident when we got to Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Not only is this painting one of our most famous pieces, but the teacher/lead chaperone of the group also told us before the tour that the kids were very excited to see the pointilist piece that they had discussed in class.

Jen & I used the same "Technology & Innovation" tour that we blogged about before, and we noticed that the lead chaperone began to hijack our tour towards the end of our discussion of Caillebotte's Paris Street, Rainy Day. We're on a fairly tight 1 hour schedule for student tours, and we normally plan to talk about 6 pieces for about 10 minutes each. When we got to the end of the Caillebotte, and Jen was about to tell the kids to pick up their stools to move on to the Monet painting, the chaperone stepped in with, "I just want to say a few more things about this piece before we move on." My first thought was, "Sure! Why not. Maybe they're learning about something in particular in class." About three minutes later, after a *riveting* discussion of repetitive shapes, we moved on.

When we got to the Seurat piece, all of the kids got excited and took their seats. They sat patiently and listened to Jen talk about Pointilism and innovations in optics during the late 19th century. The students all seemed a bit too intimidated to say much about the piece, even though they had already discussed it in class. I began to notice that the chaperone was looking impatiently at the kids, and leading some of their answers to Jen's questions. Finally, Jen got the kids to open up by talking about the different animals in the painting, namely the monkey on a leash in the front right corner, which a few of the kids had made curious comments about. Toward the end of the discussion, yet again, the chaperone said that she wanted to say a little something. She stood up and asked the kids, "Where does your eye go first when you look at this painting?" One little boy said enthusiastically, "the monkey!" and a few other students nodded. The chaperone then said, "No! Look at the little girl in the white dress. That's where your eye should go first."

Watching this lady tell her students that they were experiencing Seurat's iconic painting incorrectly really upset me. The last thing that we want to do on our tours is tell kids that there is a right and a wrong way to talk about and experience art. Everyone should be allowed to look at things differently, and our discussion of each piece allows the students to listen to each other's different points of view. A little girl next to me turned and whispered in a downtrodden tone, "My eye went to the monkey..." I reassured her (fairly loudly) that everyone sees different things, and that it was perfectly fine that she saw the monkey first. I tried not to belittle the chaperone's comment, so I asked the little girl what she thought about the girl in the painting, and got her to talk a bit about that. The chaperone then proceeded to tell the kids "facts" about the painting that were just plain wrong (ie: "The little girl in the white dress is the only figure painted not in a pointilist style." ...excuse me?). Jen and I looked at each other and mutually understood that we had had enough.

We quickly moved on to the Modern Wing, and discussed the Bonticou and Richter pieces. Since the chaperone didn't seem to know much about either of these objects, she sat back and let the kids talk more. These two pieces, by *far*, were our two most successful pieces of the day. We got the kids to talk about the different materials in the Bonticou, and how its context within the Vietnam and Cold Wars added to its symbolic meaning. We talked about photography and painting in Richter's Woman Descending the Staircase, and got the kids excited about glamorous celebrities and digital photography's role in pop culture today. It's amazing how far these kids pushed these pieces' meanings on their own, without needing much help from the chaperones (or us!).

In these past five weeks, I've learned some valuable lessons. Here are a few of the things that I would like to pass on to future interns about school group tours:

When you prepare a tour for a group of thirty 5th-8th graders, don't be shocked when a group of forty 3rd-6th graders show up. Flexibility and improvisation are invaluable skills in this job, but they also make it much more fun.
Be prepared to lengthen or shorten your tour at will. Not only do groups rarely show up on time (sometimes half an hour early, sometimes half an hour late), but you also may end up spending 15 minutes having kids pose as characters from the Seurat painting, and end up with minimal time to spend talking about O'Keefe.
Note the attention span of the group and go with it. Sometimes kids will think that every word coming out of your mouth is pure gold, and other times, you may as well be speaking Latin. If they look engaged, stick with it. If they look bored, either spice it up or move on.
When invited to happy hour with the staff....go!
Make your intern team a collaborative one. I can't tell you how helpful it is to have a group of 7 people to bounce ideas off of!
Don't let the first two weeks of training scare the crap (and fun) out of you. Touring with real kids (as opposed to your peers and supervisors pretending to be kids) is much less nerve-racking and intense.
Use your lesson plan as a loose guide. Don't be upset if you've created a series of elaborate open ended questions meant to uncover the great ideological mystery behind Hinoki's tree...and you just don't get to it. Adjusting to the types of things that seem to interest the group and making sure that they take something valuable away from it is much more important.

Now that we all have our 2 weeks of training and 3 weeks of partnered touring under our belts, I think that I can speak for all of the interns when I say that we are all equally nervous and excited to start touring solo. It's been pretty nice having a right-hand-(wo)man who can keep track of time, help corral the little ones and, of course, make sure to jot down the ever-entertaining comments from the kids.

Here are some photos of the interns from the past few weeks:

David, Maya, Meghan, Adrienne & I at the Taste of Chicago

Natalie, Sandy & David at lunch in the Lurie Garden

Jen & Maya enjoying lunch in the Lurie Garden

The "lazy river"/"best place to eat lunch ever" in the Lurie Garden.

Maya getting comfy and researching in the docent room

Jen & I hamming it up for the camera

Sandy, Me & Natalie at a Caribou concert @ Pritzker Pavillion

A Day In The Life of a Museum Ed. Intern

2010-07-15T13:46:00.038-05:00

(Mary H. using our powerful Prox card)

(click on the pictures for a larger view)

9:00 AM: Our day begins in the Student Programs and Docent Room in the basement of the Modern Wing - we lovingly refer to our windowless domain as "the dungeon" - though it's quite nice and comfy inside.

Our 'Prox' cards are the magic keys to the Staff Only doors. Forgetting your Prox card makes for a miserably tedious day of inaccessibility... I learned this the hard way.

9 - 10:15 am: Here in the Docent Room we conduct a lot of SERIOUS RESEARCH to come up with great tour ideas such as: Storytelling in Art, Travel and Transformation, Technology and Innovation, Movement and Music, Ritual and Celebration and of course, my tour partner Mary and I's favorite, EXTRAORDINARY TRANSPORTATION!

(NOTE the breakfast muffins in the foreground - early on we realized that something about this job made us hungry as soon as we stepped in the door regardless of how large our breakfast was - thus, we instated a breakfast schedule.)

At 10:00am we also have a morning meeting so we know where everyone's tour is going - though even with this kind of preparation we still find ourselves in traffic jams every now and then.

10:15 - 10:30 am: We meet our little tour participants (who are not always as little as seen here - the group here is Pre-K and ADORABLE!) in the orange floored Ryan Education Center just off the Modern Wing Entrance.

Here we introduce ourselves and introduce them to the museum rules. The question, "Does anyone know some rules we have here in the museum?" has produced a wide range of odd and adorable answers such as: "No hurting" or "No choking" or "No stealing"

(left to right: Jen leading the little ones through Griffin Court, Maya and Natalie going into the closed Modern Wing galleries in the morning)

10:30: Annnnd...we're off! At 10:30 we can officially let our groups into the museum. A guard tails each group so that we can bring them into the galleries that are closed due to the rotating closures.

(left to right: Mary D. and I (Adrienne) going to the Alsdorf Galleries; David and Sandy in the Rice Wing; Mary H. and Jen in the Alsdorf Galleries)

10:30 - 11:30: Chaos in the museum! Ok, not really - but for an hour there are multiple student tour groups weaving in, out and around galleries.

(left to right: Me (Adrienne) have an impromptu story time, Mary D. in front of the Seurat, Jen using her teacher tricks in the Chinese galleries)

We try to see 6 works on an Art From Many Places tour (meant for student groups above 1st grade) and 4 works of art for the ABC's Tours (meant for the little ones with a shorter attention span) - but sometimes you have to improvise.

Pre-K kids are adorable, but if they aren't paying attention to the artwork as much as you'd like, sitting them down for a story might help corral them in.

(left to right: Mary D. using the key to get back into the Modern Wing, Mary D. and I about to take kinds into the Sagmiester, Natalie leaving the modern galleries)

Mary and I took the Pre-K tour to "Being Not Truthful Always Works Against Me" by Stefan Sagmeister - this is an interactive piece which kids LOVE.

They jumped, they played, they ran, they yelled - they pretty much broke every rule we introduced to them that morning and they loved every second of it.

(left to right: Maya and Picasso, Natalie with Shiva, Natalie and Mary H. talking to groups in the same room, Mary H. at Doris Lee's "Thanksgiving")

One problem we occasionally encounter is the tour traffic jam - however a skilled docent can maneuver through this problem with ease like Natalie and Mary H. did today. By crouching down with their groups and keeping their voices low they masterfully engaged two young groups in an American art gallery.

(left to right: Sandy and David leading their group down the Grand Staircase at the end of the tour)

"Oh my god, there are so many stairs! I'm going to be so tired! (after 3 stairs) I'm already SO tired" - 7 year old boy

- Quotes like these and many others on our intern Twitter: Overheard at AIC

12:00 pm: We like to attend the noon-time gallery walks led by other experienced docents in the museum. We went to a Highlights tour to get ideas for future tours.

She was great! What I learned: Doing extensive research really helps to keep people engaged on a tour. The public (and we interns) LOVED the little anecdotes found in original letters and other obscure research material that the docent shared with us.

Some of the regular docents have been doing this for as long as 30 years! So, needless to say, we have a lot to learn from them.

LUNCH (1:15 pm): We tend to rotate our lunch locations depending on the weather - which in Chicago can change dramatically in seconds. On nice days we like to sit outside at the museum cafe, sometimes we dip our feet in the river at the Lurie Gardens and on miserably humid days we admire the view from inside one of the studios in the Ryan Education Center.

2:15 - 5:00 pm: (Imagine more research and tour planning here - it pretty much looks the same as the morning except we may be spread amongst The Education Resource Center, Ryerson Library or walking around the museum)

5:00 pm: On our way to have happy hour drinks with some other Museum Education staff. One of the best parts of this job is liking the people we work with.

5:30 - whenever: Drinks at Midtown Bar.

The day is DONE...well not really...most of us are doing multiple things this summer - whether it's another job, school, one of the many Chicago summer festivals or just making sure we see our non-museum friends - we all keep pretty busy.

After a long day, we go home, sleep and do it all over again tomorrow :)

Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #1111: A Metaphor For Interns in Training

2010-07-14T09:44:00.005-05:00

Though I will admit this post is long overdue, it's about time we noted that Sol LeWitt's installation ran perfectly parallel to our crash course in Museum Education.

Upon our arrival here at The Art Institute of Chicago, we were greeted by a fantastic work in progress: none other than one of the many carefully instructed Sol LeWitt's dotting the art world today, including Wall Drawing #63 on display in Gallery 294. For those of you who aren't familiar with Sol LeWitt, a large body of his work consists of conceptual and minimalist pieces. Wall Drawing #1111: A Circle With Broken Bands of Color like much of his other work is strictly directed based upon drafted up plans and schematics as well as predetermined colors and materials. The idea is at the core of these works, and the plan and execution follows second - revealing an often times large scale, geometric, and minimal image in the wake of work and preparation.

Wall Drawing #1111 took about three weeks to complete. When we arrived at AIC for our first day of work, the layout and colors had been determined. Day by day, tape was added, then color, layer after layer in a hard to follow pattern.

One of the artists executing LeWitt's work

Each day, more and more of the colors were painted in place filling in the grand scheme of the circle upon the wall. The wall drawing mirrored our own budding experiences here at AIC. We began the internship with an idea of what this opportunity was, what this institution was, but over the course of our training and the first we weeks of touring, the idea of this internship really came to life. With each color added to the wall drawing came one more day of experience, whether it was finding where the elevators are, mock touring, or learning everyone's names.

Sections of color systematically added to the wall

I like to think of the primary colors coming to represent the three facets of museum education that we are working for: Adult, Family, and Student Programs. Each one stands alone, yet together they function as a wonderful whole that works toward the unifying goal of bringing the museum and the art within to the diverse range of visitors. The secondary colors are what comes when you combine the primary colors - the result being the way in which the different departments work together training us on all facets of museum education and the inner-workings of this institution. With each day came more paint, and more information, as the circle began to fill in, we began to feel comfortable in our roles as museum educators. At the end of our final day of training the tape and paper was removed from the wall, revealing the finished product, a wall drawing for our intern class to call our own.

(interns left to right) Natalie, Mary D., David, Adrienne, Mary H., Maya, Jen, Sandy

To read a full interview with one of executors of Wall Drawing #1111 and to see more photographs of the installation, visit the AIC blog. The first two photographs were taken by Jason Stec.

Exciting Experiences

2010-07-13T15:06:00.019-05:00

After two weeks of touring I still was a bit anxious about my first adult tour. Lucky for me the tour required two interns so I signed up with Sensational Sandy. We would be discussing Belgium Surrealism with David Stark; focusing on René Magritte and Paul Delvaux.In preparation for the tour Sandy and I went to the Ryerson Library and had the opportunity to access the stacks. That in it's self was a pretty awesome experience, as few privileged people are able to check out materials.

The day of our tour I was a little nervous... and then a bit more when I saw all the people that began to gather around our starting point. Surprisingly I relaxed once we actually got started and had a really great time talking about one of my favorite artist, René Magritte. I think the crowed really enjoyed it as quite a few of the patrons stayed after to further discuss some of the artwork and also to let us know that they really enjoyed our presentations.

An epic moment was when a patron pulled out a wooden pipe and ask Sandy to take her picture with the famous painting The Tune and Also the Words. Then she asked if she could take a picture of Sandy and I. Too bad we didn't get her information as it would be nice to have those pics.

Now that I know what to expect, I can't wait to give another adult tour!

The following Monday seemed to be a very busy morning however there was nothing really new going on. My partner Maya and I were tasked to set up the studio prior to our tour which turned out to be a bit more stressful then originally thought. We had to connect a laptop to a projector in one of the new studio classrooms in the Ryan Education Center. There was a bit of confusion as to how it is all connected and more importantly how to get it to work. So FYI to next year interns, make sure you go over how everything is set up etc. at least a day or two before your studio class.

Once we got everything organized our students arrived. They were a very lively bunch ranging from ages 9-13 yrs old. Maya and I planned a music and dance tour which turned out to be a big hit for the older children. We related music and dance to what our students are listening to today. I think when you can explain artwork in a way that relates to a younger viewer as to what they are currently experiencing in everyday life they appreciate it more, and are over all more interested.

The rest of the day we spent researching for our future tours and also tweeted about the funny things we heard in the museum. The twitter account that Sandy created on June 30^th is getting larger and larger every time we look at it. It's pretty exciting... actually so far this whole experience has been pretty exciting; it's gonna be a really sad day when it's all over.

Major (Okay, Minor) Fail

2010-07-13T15:01:00.021-05:00

After three false starts, Mary H. and I (Jen) still have not completed our Art from Many Places: Ritual and Celebration tour as initially intended! The game plan for this tour has been to start at the Mummy Case; then on to the Persephone Plate, which is officially - and creatively - titled Knob Handled Dish (one of our personal favorite titles, by the way - right up there with Millet’s Peasants Bringing Home a Calf Born in the Fields. Really, Millet? Really?!).

Coffin and Mummy of Paankhenamun, c. 945–715 B.C.

Knob Handled Dish, 1864

Jean-Francois Millet, Peasants Bringing Home a Calf Born in the Fields, 1864

American Gothic comes next, followed by the lovely dancing Shiva. We then fast-forward a few (thousand) years to Robert Watts’s Auto Series from 1971 - 3, ending at On Kawara’s Oct. 31, 1978.

Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930

Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), Chola period, c. 10th/11th century

*imagine Robert Watts's Auto Series here*

On Kawara, Oct. 31, 1978, 1978

Last week was our first attempt at this tour, and it began without a hitch. Soon, however, we began to notice a trend: dragons. The kids were wanting dragons. A lot. They had been studying Asian art, and dragons in particular, and had been hoping to see one or two on their trip to the Art Institute. Well, far be it from us to stand in their way. Luckily, I had an ancient Chinese dragon plate lesson handy from our Animals in Art tours, so we quickly revised our plan. But as a result, both of our contemporary pieces - Auto Series and the On Kawara date piece - got the shaft.

Later that week, we eagerly awaited the arrival of our Ritual and Celebration tour-goers... We waited... and waited... Unfortunately for all of us, the group didn’t show up until 11:30! The time that the tour is supposed to end! Well, they were forced to tour themselves around the museum (sorry, guys!) and we were forced to wait another week to give our much-anticipated R&C tour.

Today we got our third (and probably final!) chance to give our elusive tour. Everything was going great until we marched up the American wing stairs to find Terrah - AIC's Kress Fellow - surrounded by an eager group of her own at American Gothic. It was ours no longer! Major fail!

The good news is that we finally made it to both of our contemporary pieces. We started with the Watts Auto Series photographs, which were initially met with some sideways glances. As the kids began to talk about what they saw, however, it was clear that they could grasp the ritual content of the piece. The celebratory aspect, however, was a bit trickier.

Heading up to the On Kawara date painting, I was pretty worried that we would have a rebellion on our hands. And not to disappoint, the first question I got was, “How is this art?” Good question, kid. Let’s talk about that... We discussed the artist’s process of daily creation, and the group, again, was able to see the ritual aspect rather quickly. More than with the Watt’s piece, I wanted to impress upon them the celebratory aspect of this work, so I pushed a bit harder with my questions. All of a sudden, their faces lit up with recognition and they seemed to see it: the work is a celebration of living, of the simple act of being alive one more day.

Well, with a success like that, I think we can both live with a little bit of tour-giving failure. I, for one, would take that compromise any day!

Huzzah! Extraordinary Transportation!

2010-07-12T16:00:00.009-05:00

Alexander Calder, Streetcar

This morning, at 10:30 AM, the curse was broken. Adrienne and I finally gave a student tour after three no-show groups! And it was a success! The group was pretty rambunctious, but they really got into all the artworks we were exploring. We started out with Calder’s Streetcar. This was a great piece to begin with because it engaged the students so quickly! It was hanging from the ceiling, so Adrienne had the students walk around in a circle. Because they were generating an air current, the mobile started to move! I’ve noticed that by getting the students up and moving with the artwork, students feel more involved and are more willing to answer questions.

Egyptian Model Boat

Next we moved to the Egyptian model boat and mummy case. I swear, anytime you involve dead bodies or gruesome pictures, 5th grade boys perk right up. After explaining the Egyptian afterlife to the group, one boy raised his hand and said, “I don’t mean to sound offensive, but that just sounds silly.” It was one of those questions I was dreading answering, but I think I handled it well. I knew at one point during this internship someone would ask “Why is this piece considered art?”or “why would someone believe that?”, and I’ll admit that I was not looking forward to answering them. But once I explained that different cultures view the world differently, the boy seemed to nod and accept my answer. Phew. Later on during the studio portion of the tour, that boy told the whole group that the Egyptian pieces were his favorite! Success.

The other pieces Adrienne and I used were the Kumara riding on a peacock sculpture, a Venice painting by Marieschi, a hippogriff sculpture (eliciting plenty of Harry Potter comments), and Monet’s London Train Series. Overall the tour went very well! The students seemed to enjoy it and Adrienne and I didn’t make any catastrophic mistakes.

Tomorrow is our first ABCs tour and I’m really excited!! We’ll be discussing animals in all different types of art. Hopefully it’s just as EXTRAORDINARY as today’s tour!

Family Gallery Walks, Open Questions, and the Magic of Name Tags

2010-07-09T14:02:00.004-05:00

On Sunday I was able to give my first Family Programs Gallery Walk and despite it not being what I expected, I would consider it a learning experience if not a success.

The theme I chose, Families in Art, was comprised of the set of John Singleton Copley portraits, Doris Lee’s Thanksgiving, and Hockney’s American Collectors. I spent days prepping for it, learning each of the artist bios, each of the pieces respective histories, and generally preparing for the unexpected from what I hoped would be inquisitive kids.

John Singleton Copley, Daniel Hubbard 1764

John Singleton Copley, Mrs. Daniel Hubbard (Mary Greene) 1764

Doris Lee, Thanksgiving 1935

David Hockney, American Collectors 1968

I quickly learned however that the families on my tour were accustomed to taking part in tours where they were they would simply listen and not be bombarded with questions. As a result the first few minutes were what I feared: dead silence as adults and children simply looked at me expecting me to answer my own questions.
Alas, I remembered an important tool I had at my disposal: the almighty nametag. Referring to someone by their name helps foster a sense of intimacy in which people are less likely to be afraid to participate.
I started off by calling on the parents, who were more than willing to participate. Once the children saw their adult actively engaging with both the art and myself they slowly began participating as well. As the tour progressed they quickly gained a level of comfort with answering questions after learning that there were no wrong answers.
By the time it was over I was actually sad that it had only been half an hour as the families were more than willing to continue looking at art. The majority of the children had never been in the Modern Wing and were excited to go off and explore on their own. The moral of the story: make use of the nametags!!!

I broke the Jinx!

2010-07-09T11:47:00.003-05:00

I successfully gave my first Adult Tour this Thursday!

Though, I am excited that I managed to engage and educate a group of adult museum goers - a feat that seems particularly more nerve-racking than entertaining school groups and summer camps - I am most excited that I may not be the bad luck charm responsible for repulsing our would-be tour participants of the Art Institute.

(The jury is still out on Mary's bad luck and whether she is the cause of our misfortunes this week - Sorry Mary.)

FYI: In case you have not read my last blog post "The Case of the Jinxed Intern Pair," Mary and I endured the frustration and humiliation of three no-show tour groups throughout the week. Nobody likes being stood up. Our emotional wounds are still healing.

I am happy to report though, that I have broken the jinx.

After anxiously waiting in Griffin Court (with the much appreciated presence of a few other interns) a group of about 10-15 talkative museum patrons showed up for the Highlights of the Modern Wing tour I was giving with Senior Lecturer, Margaret Farr. Unfortunately the lines to get into the museum during our Thursday night free hours are so long that I know at least one friend could not even get into the museum in time to participate in my tour. *Note for future Tour-goers – Come early for the 5:30 free hours tours*

Margaret started our “Contemporary Storytelling” themed tour with Gerhard Richter’s, “Woman Descending a Staircase.” This piece is one of my personal favorites. The audience was very engaged and Margaret perfectly segued into my next two pieces by introducing ideas of layered understanding and closer investigation.

Next I took the group to Charles Ray’s, “Hinoki” asking them to give me their first impressions from further back and inviting them to take a closer look to see what it might reveal. I’ve found that this piece is rewarding to talk about. Everyone seems to be intrigued by it and they always want to know more. You can’t lose with a piece that takes a lot of technical skill (even if not by the artist, himself) and has a lot of good anecdotes to accompany it.

The third and final piece (the 5:30 tours are only 30 minutes) was Doris Salcedo’s, “Untitled (Armoire).” I was a little bit worried about people connecting to this piece and I did have one man express his frustration, but I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction and interest from the rest of the crowd.

This tour was really fun and it is up there with Family Tours as my favorite kind of tour to give. People pose interesting questions, make insightful points and usually manage to get you to look at the piece in a new light. ...wait, isn’t that my job?

Now, a few words of advice to future interns about the kind of …well, ‘characters’ you may get on a tour:

1) Always acknowledge someone’s comment, question or concern…even if they ask/state the same thing repeatedly. You will hear yourself say “Yeah, sure, maybe, that could be” more than you would like to know, but it will get worse if you chose to ignore them.

2) Other tour participants may not appreciate the incessant questioning or commenting of another tour participant – Don’t be afraid to ask, “Does anyone else have a question or comment?” while looking through/past/around said tour participant.

You’ll have your crazy, angry, frustrated, bored and know-it-all tour participants, but the large majority are nice, encouraging and engaged. They chose to be there, we want to talk to them and that’s what makes it fun.

Rising to the Challenge

2010-07-08T15:17:00.010-05:00

Yesterday, Jen and I (Mary H.) gave a very different (but very fulfilling) kind of tour. We worked with a group of college-aged kids with special needs, who functioned at a 6th-8th grade level. When we heard about our audience for this tour, we also heard that they had been studying a bit of Art History, and that they wanted "an industrial and contemporary" tour...what this means exactly, we still aren't completely sure. We used these guidelines to the best of our abilities and created a "Technology & Innovation" tour, which included 16th century Milanese armor, Monet's Arrival of Normandy Train--Gare Saint-Lazare, Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Bonticou's Untitled wall relief, and Richter's Woman Descending the Staircase.

While Jen has a background in special education, she has only worked with younger students, and was fairly nervous about working with this population. I had never worked with special needs students before, so needless to say, it was an adventure for us both.

We had initially planned a "brilliant" activity that involved splitting the students into two groups, and having each group present one painting to the rest of their classmates. Upon explaining this activity to one of the group's chaperones, our idea was quickly and politely rejected. The chaperone thought it would be best to stick with a more linear tour, and to cater to the short attention span of the group.

Our flexibility and improv skills proved invaluable during this tour. After a slightly-too-long discussion of the armor, we adjusted our timing and realized that the most important thing was picking up the pace and keeping the students engaged. We were pleasantly surprised by the group's insightful comments about the Caillebotte and Seurat pieces. One woman raised her hand and said, "Look at the people...they're walking together, but no one is talking to each other." I saw Jen's face light up, knowing full well that the woman's comment was the perfect segue to Jen's discussion of Caillebotte's lonely Parisian boulevard.

The tour ended with a lively discussion of the group's favorite celebrities in front of Richter's painting, which ranged from Faith Hill and Jennifer Lopez to Miley Cyrus. I must admit that when I asked for words that they associate with Jennifer Lopez, I was silently praying that the word "booty" did not come up. Luckily for us, the group found JLo's singing voice much more memorable than her derriere.

Overall, we found this tour to be a great success and a fantastic learning opportunity. Essentially, "We are rockstars." -Jen

(Written by Mary H. & Jen)

The Case of the Jinxed Intern Pair

2010-07-08T11:15:00.005-05:00

Sad interns - Mary D. and Adrienne (me)

This week was supposed to be our second week of touring real student groups after our intense and nerve racking mock-tour presentations. Most of the interns were able to try out a new tour theme, introduce different works to eager young eyes and most importantly, get the experience under their belts that would prepare them for giving solo tours. Most interns have had this luxury. Unfortunately, Mary and I have not.

For the third time this week, our tour was canceled.

We spent last week and the weekend preparing our new, exciting tour themed: "EXTRAORDINARY TRANSPORTATION!"(to be said in a British accent). We were anxious to try it out and talk about new pieces but the week had other plans in store for us:

Tuesday - The scheduled school group tried to call during the 4th of July holiday weekend - needless to say we didn't get the message until Tuesday morning. 'That's fine,' we thought, 'We'll just have more time to make this tour even more EXTRAORDINARY.'

Wednesday - After waiting in the studio for 20 minutes, the school group called Gianna to let her know they would not be able to make it. Gianna, Mary and I were not happy. Mary and I began to take it personal and ideas of capes, puffs of smoke and British accents started to trickle into our tour plans - 'They'll be sorry for missing THIS tour!'

Thursday - All of the interns were stood up as we waited on a group of 80 students who did not show up until 11:30. The tours are supposed to end at 11:30. Our bad luck jinxed the entire group - my sincere apologies to everyone else. Our EXTRAORDINARY tour has still not embarked on it's maiden voyage - fears that it may be too ordinary have started to creep in.

Barye "Roger and Angelica Mounted on a Hippogriff"
Part of the EXTRAORDINARY TRANSPORTATION Tour

Things learned:
1) Don't disrespect the interns/docents by not showing up for a tour - or you'll have Gianna to deal with. Gianna is awesome and will give a stern talking to/reprimand/not reschedule a group that does not show up without advance notice.

2) Summer groups are unpredictable - the number, age and presence of students could change at any time. Roll with it - the best part of touring is the unpredictability.

3) No group, means more tour prep time - this could be a good thing...or it could drive you crazy.

Now on our third day of unexpected free time - Mary and I are left to do even more research on the tour that never was and I will prepare for my adult tour tonight at 5:30 - assuming that my bad luck has not reached the adult audiences of the Art Institute. If so, I may be giving a private Highlights of the Modern Wing tour to a few lucky interns who don't mind staying a little after work.

Travel and Transformation: The Ultimate Tour

2010-07-03T10:01:00.162-05:00

After our first couple of weeks of training, David and I had to rack our brains to put together a tour worthy of kings - or maybe a tour that really highlights some of the incredible assets of our collection. Writing a tour isn't easy, but once you get into the swing of things, know your way around the museum, and understand the breadth of our collection it begins to feel like second nature.

But how about I walk you through the steps for writing a tour? Sound good?

1)THEME: Theme is key here. Especially with student tours. Themes help you to narrow down the pool of object choices for your tour and keeps things streamlined. We tried and tried and tried some more to think of the best tour theme, and after running ourselves into a wall, we consulted Robin for some ideas, settling upon the theme of Travel and Transformation. T&T, is a tour that ventures into the stories of the art, artists, and cultures of the works we've selected, which leads me to my next point...

2)OBJECTS: Picking objects!! The Art Institute has around a quarter of a million objects in the permanent collection, of which 140,000 are architectural drawings; 70,000 works on paper; 12,000 textiles; 16,000 photographs; 3,900 paintings; 3,000 sculptures; and 15,000 decorative arts (YOWZA!).* Of course it is not possible for all of our collection to be on display, but there are quite a few objects to pick from, hence having a theme to work with narrows down the selection considerable.

The objects David and I picked include:

Cartonnage Case of Paankhenamun
Egypt
Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22 c. 945-715 BCE
Cartonnage, Gold Leaf, Pigment, Human Remains
Gallery: 154A

We chose this work for the story it tells, of the transformation of a body and materials in the process of mummification, as well as the travel/transport that the spirit goes through in search of the eternal afterlife. Plus, the kids LOVE MUMMIES! And the x-ray is amazing!

End of The Trail
James Earl Fraser (American)
1918
Bronze
Gallery: 163

This sculpture tells the story of American Indians traveling across the transforming American landscape with the introduction of modern technology and transformation - the train symbolizing the beginning of a trail, and the horse and rider being the end of the trail for this culture in the American landscape.

Eight Armed Dancing Ganesha
India, Uttar Pradesh
10th Century CE
Sandstone Relief Sculpture
Gallery: Alsdorf/Bridge Gallery

Ganesha underwent a series of transformations - from losing his head, to gaining the elephant head we see here, as well as the addition of the snake belt, and rat face on the left knee, we have tales of great transformation all wrapped up into one fantastic sculpture!

Still-life With Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables In A Market
Frans Snyders (Dutch)
1614
Oil on Canvas
Gallery: 208

David and I love this work dearly, and we had to stretch to get it into our tour so here's our spiel: Supermarkets have gone through many transformations over the years - here we a supermarket from the Baroque period in the Netherlands. We have the students think about the transformation food goes through as it comes from the initial source (milk/cow) to the food we dine on at home and at restaurants. Basically we love love love this piece...

Arrival of The Normandy Train at Gare Saint-Lazare
Claude Monet (French)
1877
Oil on Canvas
Gallery: 201

With this painting, I usually discuss the ways in which technology transform our everyday life by examining how the beginning of the modern era in France (Paris in particular) was transformed by the introduction of technology. Here we have the steam engine, large single panes of glass, architectural steel framework, and the incredible mass of people coming in and out of Paris at this specific train station.

FUN FACT: The Caillebotte Paris Street: Rainy Day portrays a couple looking towards the left of the painting, which is the geographic location of this Monet painting the Gare Saint-Lazare train station. The way this painting is curated in the space aligns their pictoral view with the actual train station.

Hinoki
Charles Ray (American)
2007
Wood Carving in Japanese Cyprus
Gallery: 292B

And then there's the intern favorite: HINOKI! We love this piece. Seriously. With Hinoki, we talk about the kind of transformation the tree featured underwent, as well the transformation that occurred as the tree was remade in the wood sculptural format. It's big, it's awesome, and it's a great way to go out with a bang!

3) ORDER: The order of the tour is also extremely important. We don't want to be running the visitors around the museum in a nonsensical order. We must structure our tours to flow well, in addition to thinking about the logistics of the tour in terms of the location of each work selected within the space of the museum. Plus, having a good transition between works helps the flow of the tour.

4) PRACTICE: Practice makes perfect. Know your work. Know how to talk about it. But be flexible! Tours don't always go in the direction you expect.

5) DOUBLE CHECK THE MUSEUM: Live by this. Always check the museum before you give your tour to make sure the works you plan on discussing are still on display. It's been known that some objects grow legs and walk away overnight - so beware of gallery changes!

6) HAVE FUN!!: This is probably the most important rule to live by. Be yourself. Be comfortable. And have fun. If you are passionate and excited about what you are doing, the visitors will also become excited about their trip to the museum!!

telling the stories of Ganesha in front of the Eight Armed Dancing Ganesha sculpture

leading a discussion in front of the cartonnage case

Nerves No Mo'

2010-07-02T16:31:00.007-05:00

These past three weeks have gone by so fast! The first two weeks of training were jam-packed with information. But after being thrown into giving tours in the third week, I’ve found that most of the learning will be done on my feet!

I was so nervous for my first tour. Adrienne and I prepared for days, and I still didn’t feel ready. But once all the students showed up, all of my fears and insecurities went away. These first graders were excited, concentrated, and really smart! When I asked what they saw in Frederic Edwin Church’s View of Cotopaxi, one little boy raised his hand and said, “A tropical habitat.” Another girl told me that it was cold in the galleries because it helped preserve the artwork. These kids really knew what they were talking about! Every group of students I’ve had this week has been extremely different, but I’ve learned something new from all of them!

The most nervous I’ve been this week was just before my adult tour. I was giving an Age of Impressionism talk with senior lecturer Margaret Farr. She was so nice and helpful, but I was still sweating about the piece I was presenting. Once I started talking about Monet’s Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint Lazare, I realized that all of the adults were smiling at me, sort of cheering me on. That really boosted my confidence. Though the talk didn’t go exactly as I had planned, I felt good about it! I received some pats on the back from visitors and Mary H. and Jen (Thanks, guys!)! I know that the more I tour, the easier it will become.

So, to wrap it up, these are some things I’ve remembered from the past 3 weeks.

The tour will never go EXACTLY as you plan it. Improv is everything!
Do not enter doors that say staff only if you don’t know where they go.
The best place for lunch is the river boardwalk in Millennium Park.
It’s always okay to ask for help! I couldn’t have asked for a better group of interns to work with, and I’m excited for the next five weeks!

Tour de Force

2010-07-02T14:57:00.018-05:00

Today I paired up with Margaret Farr, an AIC senior lecturer, for my first adult tour! Together we tackled Manet's Modernism, a topic which - quite frankly - I found a bit scary. Manet is the man, as far as art historians are concerned, and I wasn't sure I was quite ready to explain why to a large group of over-eager knowledge-seekers. (As Margaret has since divulged, the noontime crowd tends to be of the more informed type, and as such are ready and willing to share their own thoughts and opinions on any given subject. This can make for lively discussion, but also means that the pressure is on!)

Now, I am normally a "go first and get it over with" type of person, but the Manet piece I was presenting made the most sense in the middle of our tour. Margaret kicked us off with Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers followed up by Beggar with Oysters (Philosopher). I fully expected to feel completely nauseous during this portion of the tour, as I *eagerly* awaited my turn. However, I found myself so engaged by Margaret's discussion that all nervousness fell to the wayside.... until it was my time to talk, that is.

I began my portion of the tour by introducing an academic painting: Jean Leon Gerome's Chariot Race from 1876. This painting was made 10 years after my main piece - Manet's Races at Longchamp - but it clearly demonstrates Manet's break with the academy (which then made Longchamp way easier to talk about!). Using this piece as a contrast was Margaret's idea, and a brilliant one at that!

Jean Leon Gerome, Chariot Race, 1876

Edouard Manet, The Races at Longchamp, 1866

As soon as I began talking and asking questions, my nerves calmed once again, and I was off to the races! (I know, I know, I'm an awful punner; I just can't help myself!) Seriously, though, it felt like second nature. I supplied interesting info, gathered ideas from the group, and fielded all sorts of questions - only one of which I couldn't answer! (Turns out, the tall bar with a circle on it is the finish line. Thanks, Margaret!) Best yet, after my tour one of the more ornery regulars congratulated me on a job well done and told me my projection was so good he could "hear me all the way in New Jersey." Well, sir, I will take that as a compliment! Faaantastic!

First week of tours is a wrap!

2010-07-02T14:56:00.005-05:00

To describe the first three weeks as ‘busy’ would be an understatement! We were all eased into the Museum Education life/family on day one with a cookie-filled meet and greet with other staff members, but little did we know what was in store (Note to future interns: There will be leftovers. Take them. They are delicious.). We spent the next four days on a sprint through Student, Family, and Adult Programs training in addition to seemingly endless logistical info: sign in procedures, museum tours, Ryerson Library checkout procedures and the ever-so-secret water fountain closets.

Mock tours during week two were a completely different ball game. After three days of mock touring I felt confident given the feedback I had received from both Museum educators and my fellow interns. The feedback received during my Family Programs Mock tour was particularly helpful. Key points to note:

1. Do NOT use Frans Snyders Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market during a Family Tour as it will more than likely include young children (something about dozens of dead animals strewn about a table that does not sit particularly well with the little ones).

2. Do NOT have an anticipatory set of questions for said piece that includes asking children if they have a pet at home and then segue into the piece’s dead animals (the children will connect the dots whether or not you ask them to…)

Frans Snyders, Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a Market 1614

I have however, fallen in love with this piece and I refuse to let it go! I will find a way to fit it into as many tours as possible this summer. Art from Many Places you say? It’s Flemish! ‘Animals in Art’ is what you seek? It has plenty! Even if they’re dead…

At the end of it all however, we were all still standing and anxiously awaiting our first tours the following week. The first tour I gave with Sandy was a Travel and Transformation themed tour under Art From Many Places. It included (surprise!) the Frans Snyders still life. This time however, it was much more appropriate for the age group receiving the tour. Starting off a discussion of the piece by getting students to think about the food they eat and were it comes from I found works particularly well. It places the imagery into context and seems to channel their collective gasps into colorful conversation.

A successful end to our first day of touring could be celebrated only with lunch at the Taste of Chicago! We all arrived with a game plan of stops and a pork-filled plantain dumpling, fried catfish sandwich, and massive rainbow cone later, my hunger was satiated.

Bring on next week!

Tour SUCCESS!!

2010-07-02T10:22:00.005-05:00

Peter Blume's "The Rock," 1944

Today we led our third and final student tour of the week. The tour went absolutely swimmingly! To our surprise, only ten students showed up rather than the twenty we had expected, so Natalie and I went ahead and led our “nature-themed” tour through the museum.

So, we usually try to organize tours by age, but since the group was so small to begin with we took everyone on the tour together. The mix of second through sixth graders made a very successful tour-group dynamic! The older students answered some of the more conceptual questions, while the younger students would jump right into the work and describe to the group what they saw. This technique not only helped conversation flow smoothly, but it also introduced the younger students to some more interesting and complex topics. Everything went especially well when we discussed Peter Blume’s The Rock. With this piece, older students made observations about the subject matter—comments include: “this talks about how we ruin nature,” “it represents the Chicago fire,” and “it shows how war destroys the earth.” Meanwhile, Natalie and I used this opportunity to have younger students identify different elements of nature in the piece. Even the chaperones joined in and described Blume’s technique—noticing how smoke from the fire in the painting subtly became part of the clouds above it.

Also pretty exciting: we had enough time to discuss all six of our pieces we had prepared! Natalie and I kept an eye on the clock and swiftly moved from one piece to the next. Students moved well through the museum, followed all the rules, and listened. More importantly, they were respectful, participative and, for the most part, genuinely interested in learning about art. Maybe this tour seemed super great because the day before was pretty much chaos, but Natalie and I now have a model for how we want our tours to run in the future!

Parading Through The Museum

2010-06-30T10:10:00.003-05:00

The last few weeks feel as though they have been on fast forward! From our intense preparatory sessions with Student Programs, Family Programs, and Adult Programs to running around the museum making sure all of our objects were still on display - two weeks has absolutely flown by. We've met a lot of great people, wandered around, gotten lost, found our way - all while keeping our heads on straight! I can confidently say I know my way around the museum, I know where the elevators are, and where the secret water fountains are hidden, and I now notice when a work of art has been taken off of the wall (to my surprise).

For Family Programs we had to start thinking about tours that we wanted to give that would cater to children ages 6 and up, with special attention to the adults and other family members going on the tour. The theme I picked was shapes in art, and I chose to focus on three pieces:

Paris Street; Rainy Day

by Gustave Caillebotte

1877

The Stack of Wheat Series

by Claude Monet

1890-91

and

The Avery Coonley Playhouse Window

by Frank Lloyd Wright

1910

Though the tour I did was the abbreviated version of the full length thirty-minute gallery walk, I brought my group the Frank Lloyd Wright triptych window where I led a discussion on the lines, shapes, and colors within the picture plane. The talk began with a brief reading of Eye Spy Shapes In Art, followed by having the families identify what it is that they were looking at - a window. I then had the families break down the piece visually by naming the different shapes and colors on the window! We talked about what images the window conjured for the viewer, coming to the conclusion that it had lollipops, flags, balloons, and confetti, settling on the conclusion that this window depicted a parade. Then came the interesting part - having the families hypothesize who the window was intended for based on the parade content. Was this window made for "grown ups" or kids? And if it was made for kids, where do you think it would hang? Non other than the experimental school in Riverside, Illinois - The Avery Coonley Playhouse. We came to the conclusion then that this window was meant to be a celebration of education, as well as an object worthy of stimulating the students' imaginations in the school house.

Some Fun Facts about the piece:

1) Completely set on the idea of him becoming an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright's mother had him working with blocks at an early age. Some scholars suggest that these blocks are represented within the window as the building blocks of education - math, science, history, geography, etc.

2) Frank Lloyd Wright's son John Lloyd Wright invented Lincoln Logs.

3) The students at the Avery Coonley Playhouse learned non-traditional/gender neutral courses including sewing, woodworking, and theater, as well as spending a lot of time outside integrating themselves with nature.

After spending so much time thinking and talking about parades, I thought why not do a little bit of "field research" by going to a parade myself. With the Blackhawks Stanley Cup championship and the Pride Parade both in June I found myself with plenty of opportunities to get lost in a crowd experiencing confetti, floats, balloons, and plenty of flags! Here are some pictures!

From the Blackhawks Parade:

The Stanley Cup at the front of the trolley!

At the Pride Parade, I had the amazing opportunity to ride on one of the floats, AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

Flags, beads, and dancing galore!

A view of the crowd from the float!

Me dancing like a crazy woman on the float!

So all in all, I've been having a lot of fun both in and out of the museum. More to come on the inner-workings of AIC!

Three whirlwind weeks at the AIC!

2010-06-29T20:31:00.010-05:00

After two weeks of intense training, and being shuttled between school, family and adult programs, we all have survived information overload and mock tours! Go us!

Even though we had heard that those two weeks would be tough from the past interns’ blog (thank you, thank you, thank you, by the way!), as well as from our supervisors, I’m pretty sure that we all just had to experience it for ourselves. Mock tours actually weren’t as terrifying as I thought that they would be! Don’t get me wrong…they were stressful and very time-consuming. But after actually standing up in front of the rest of this fabulous team of interns and our lovely supervisors, I felt much more comfortable with the idea of talking about art with various groups of people. Having just graduated, I have to get it out of my head that everything that I do here at the AIC is for a grade! The atmosphere among the interns and in the docent room is really nice. Everyone is here to help and encourage each other, and competition isn’t even involved! My kind of team! My biggest challenge in the next few weeks, I think, will be gauging how much kids already know at different ages, and adjusting my lesson plans to fit those different age groups. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of improvisation happening in my first few tours.

(Mary D., David, Sandy, Maya, Adrienne, and me (Mary H.) outside the Modern Wing)

It’s the start of week 3, and Jen and I had our first real tour yesterday morning! Although, overall, we both were very satisfied with how it went, it did not come without challenges. First of all, we usually deal with groups of students that are around the same age (within a year or two, ideally). This group consisted of kids ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade, even with a high schooler in attendance. It was very difficult to try to speak to everyone without feeling like we were belittling the older kids and boring the younger kids. We did the best we could, and everyone seemed pretty happy by the end of the tour. We did have some pretty funny comments from the little ones (I think we’re going to make a twitter account in connection with this page along the lines of “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”)

1) “I wish I could just marry this museum!”
2) “You know what most artists make? …Boobies.”

Ahh, the question of nudity in art when dealing with kids. Again, I had been warned that it would happen, and that these questions would arise. But until you hear a 6-year-old giggling about it and realize that you have to be the adult to answer questions about it, you don’t really know what you’re getting yourself into. I replied to this particular giggly 6-year-old with a tidbit about how artists see the human body as a part of nature, and that they need to see the human body to understand how muscles and bones work together, etc etc.

This morning, Jen and I had a very compliant group of first graders who were early (*gasp) for their tour! We kept our tour theme from yesterday, “Movement,” but swapped out a few objects this time around after figuring out that Monet’s Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare is in a very crowded gallery, and would be a difficult (and small) piece to monopolize with a bunch of 1^st graders. From story-telling with Ganesha, to talking about Degas’s ballerinas and posing like the people in Sunday on La Grande Jatte, I’d say we feel pretty comfortable with our tour tactics! The kids seemed pretty excited, too.

Aside from giving tours, we also have a lot of other cool activities going on. Yesterday, we helped out with the AIC studio art table at the Taste of Chicago by helping kids and their families make themed hats and watercolor projects! Here are Mary D. and Maya modeling their own foodie hat creations while "intently researching:"

This afternoon, we also got a walk-through of the Prints and Drawings exhibit (and inside the vault!) with curator Mark Pascale. We all definitely geeked out when we saw a Degas pastel drawing and a few fabulous Toulouse Lautrec poster prints (a draft without text next to the final version…so cool!) that most people don’t get to see. Needless to say, I think we're all pretty excited about the next 5 weeks! Onward, mush!

--Mary H.

Mary Dwyer

2010-06-14T17:40:00.002-05:00

Hello and welcome to the AIC Intern Blog!

My name is Mary Dwyer and I’m from Wilmette, Illinois, approximately 16 miles from the Art Institute. I’ve never been so excited to take the train to work everyday! I graduate at the end of this week (darn the quarter system!) from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Art History. I also spent a year studying at the University College London. I love everything about British and French art from the 18th century, and cannot wait to walk through the Art Institute’s galleries every day!

I have also worked at several other museums in Chicago and Evanston, and worked with the art collection at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The Art Institute is still my favorite museum in the world, and feel so lucky to work here!

Maya Ruíz-Stanbary

2010-06-14T14:30:00.003-05:00

Hi, my name is Maya and I'm about to start my last year of undergrad at Grinnell College. I'm majoring in Art History and love working for my college gallery there. I just returned to Chicago after spending my spring semester abroad in Madrid.

Most of my museum-ed related experience has been working for my college gallery's outreach program. If you would like to learn more about me you can check out my Linked-In. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work here for 8 weeks and learn the in's and out's of the business mechanics of a large institution like the Art Institute.

About Me

2010-06-14T14:02:00.003-05:00

I am a rising Senior at Brown University double concentrating in American Civilization and Visual Art.

I have spent the past four summers interning for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and the National Museum of Mexican Art’s Education Departments. There I have done everything from give tours, teach art classes, design flyers and brochures, to teach children songs about snakes in trees. Anything and everything art education related!

Adrienne Elise Tarver

2010-06-14T12:51:00.004-05:00

Welcome to our 2010 AIC Intern blog!

I'm going into my second year of graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Painting and Drawing department. I graduated from Boston University in 2007 with a BFA in Painting, a minor in Art History and a concentration in Printmaking.

After undergrad I spent time working abroad in Italy and South Africa. In Lidgetton, South Africa (about an hour north of Durban) I worked for the print studio and non-profit arts organization, Caversham Centre for Artists and Writers (http://www.cavershamcentre.org/). Also for two summers I worked in Florence, Italy for an American high school study abroad program touring teenagers around Italy's most impressive museums and ruins.

I'm an artist and you can see my online portfolio at: www.adriennetarver.com

Mary C.K. Hayes

2010-06-14T12:48:00.006-05:00

Hi everyone, and welcome to our 2010 Museum Ed Intern blog!

My name is Mary Hayes and I am originally from Denver, Colorado. I just graduated this past June (2010) from Santa Clara University where I double majored in Art History and Communication. During my senior year, a few friends and I decided to pick up and move to a fun new city to explore job opportunities and to take some time off before applying to grad school. So, here I am in Chicago!

I have had prior experience with internships in art galleries and non profits both in Denver and in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I could not be more excited to spend 8 weeks with the Art Institute of Chicago in Museum Ed and share my passion for art and education!

If you want to know more about me, you can check out my LinkedIn account or my personal blog and twitter.
LinkedIn
Personal Blog
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