The first four months of creating, researching and editing the blog led to an interview with the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Director of Public Relations. We discussed the mission, vision and goals of the program, as well as how social media will play a part in reaching Millennials. As a result of this interview, we are featured in the first issue of Minnesota Monthly’s new web blog called “City Buzz.”
The blog is being featured on MIMA’s website, as well as their Facebook and Twitter sites. It is also being used for press releases to local media outlets. The blog will become an extension of their current social media outreach tool.
The “What Art Class Taught Me About Life” project will be used to promote upcoming programming at MIMA such as Homework Hour, Tuesdays @ 4:30, Summer Camps and more!
(MIMA did not pay us. They have been very kind and supportive.)
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has invited me to teach a class for Millennials. I was asked what I would teach them and I said, “What art class taught me about life.”
This is that class.
I’d like to start with a story about the creative process. It is not really about art; it’s about how to be creative in general. But you may not realize this until you get to the end, so please bear with me.
The proposed class is called Art for Millennials. Through art, we hope to convey a sense of the interrelatedness of all things, as well as a sense of history and the importance of cultural heritage.
Biography: We propose a course titled “Art for Millennials” which will be offered at the Minneapolis Institute of Art with guest lecturers such as Jonathan Safran Foer and James Franco, among many others.
I am in the process of developing an art class, along with my partner and fellow artist, Tamar Shoshani, that is intended to open up new opportunities for people in the Twin Cities who are coming of age. Given my interest in art as a mode of conflict resolution, I felt like this art class should be about something that would bring us together as a community rather than apart. I was thinking about how art is used to build dialogue between so many different cultures around the world, but it can also be used to foster discussion between groups within a given culture.
I think we could all use a do-over from time to time, and I think that’s what this class is going to provide. It’s not about being perfect but being brave enough to be willing to redefine yourself as you go. And it’s also not about perfection but about using failure as a catalyst for creative change.
It seems so simple: Art shows us that there are no mistakes, just opportunities for creative growth.
To me, this project is just one more opportunity for me to learn and grow with others.
I’ve been writing a blog post in my head for a while. It’s about how I learned to stop worrying and love the art. I switched majors from political science to art history and have been working at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (also known as MIM) since then, and that’s what inspired it. But I didn’t know how to write the post until this week, when I went to a talk by artist Nick Cave.
I recently saw a post on Facebook about Millennials and their relationship with art, and it reminded me of something I had thought about often: how do you get people who don’t think they like art to actually like it?
Cave spoke at the Walker Art Center last week at an event called “Future Perfect.” Our director gave him a tour of the museum beforehand, and he commented that he was amazed that we hadn’t installed guard rails on our balconies. He said it was just another example of how art museums make spaces that are meant to be seen as works of art in themselves. They are objects, not places you can use. You can experience them passively or not at all.*
I think this is one reason why someone might not come away from an art museum feeling very satisfied — they become objects rather than environments
“Is Mr. Modern Art a snob?”
That’s what my mom asked after I told her I was taking an art history class.
Art history is one of those intimidating college courses that people joke about-a bunch of rich kids sitting around looking at paintings and talking about how sophisticated they are.
So I felt defensive when I told my mom I wanted to take this particular course, which was offered through the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
I had seen a flier at the university and decided to give it a try, especially since it was open to everyone, not just students. I figured it would give me some exposure to art and help me understand what my college friends find so interesting about this stuff.
But even though the course was free, I worried that it would be for people with more money and education than me-that I wouldn’t belong in the class. And that concern turned out to be correct.
“We have a very successful and well-educated group of students,” Dr. Kainen told me when I talked to him about the course later. “Most of them went to good schools.”
But that wasn’t as big a problem as I thought it would be. In fact, it made the experience much more interesting and
Art can be a powerful vehicle for learning. The Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) is one of the most spectacular and prestigious art museums in the United States. The MIA has a new program called Art for All, where visitors can pay what they wish to participate in a guided tour of the museum by one of their volunteer docents. I have been fortunate enough to participate in three of these tours, and they have taught me more about history than I could ever learn from a textbook.
My recent visit to the MIA was during a school trip with my 11th grade Life Drawing class. The experience was so memorable that I want to share it with as many people as possible. As part of my blog, I will be writing a series of posts about this specific trip and how its content has affected me both inside and outside the classroom.