I have an incredible soft spot in my heart for Mr. Rogers. We went to the same undergraduate college (at different times of course). I’ve grown to appreciate him as my work with students has developed over the years. I came across a great Fred quote this week:
“When I was very young, most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me.”
The museum has been thinking a lot about heroes lately in preparation for an upcoming exhibition about Tibet in Comics. This week my heroes have been the Education Team at the Rubin Museum who have tirelessly work to create amazing arts experiences for children young and old – and especially those who are children at heart.
On Saturday, October 1, we celebrated Fall Family Day with a Fantastic Journey through the museum. We based our day on the Pilgrimage & Faith exhibition, and planned an adventure that started in the Education Center with collaborative map making (thanks RMA Teen Guide Council), incense and bead making, and then traveled into the galleries where we held a pop-up kid’s bazaar complete with a fabric stall, souvenir station, story tours, jugglers and more.
Monday was Free Seniors Day, and it was the last session of our free senior writing workshop in relation to the Pilgrimage & Faith Exhibition. There was an incredible outpouring of gratitude from our seniors (so much so, that Ashley may continue to offer the experience). We’ve been experimenting with writing workshops at the museum, and have really seen that there is an intense interest in using the art to inspire deeper connections.
Andrew and I sat down with Beth Citron, Curator for the upcoming Modernist Art from India exhibitions for an interview. We’re featuring 6 works of art that represent the different sections of the exhibition, and closely looking at two unique artists. On Wednesday, we were also able to sit with returning curator, Martin Brauen to record a podcast for the upcoming Hero, Villain, Yeti: Tibet in Comics exhibition. This is going to be a unique exhibition that looks at how Tibet was viewed through the lens of comic book illustration as a fantastical land full of flying lamas and mystical secrets.
On Wednesday night we had our first Educator Open House for the school year. 88 teachers visited the Education Center and galleries. Every year we invite particular cultural partners to attend our open house as well, and it was great to have China Institute, Korea Society, and Latse Library in the room to talk about other Asian education opportunities for teachers in NYC (and abroad- we don’t offer trips outside the country, but Korea Society and China Institute have great programs for teachers that I HIGHLY recommend).
Happening at the same time, we had an intense story-telling training session for our RMA Teen Guide Council with our friends Talkingstick as part of ongoing preparation for to develop story-rich tours for teens. Our first Adult Art-in-Context course was also held this evening with Professor Serenity Young, and Museum Guide David R. offering an introduction to Buddhism and Art for Beginners.
On Thursday, Laura and I made a site-visit to the Borough of Manhattan Community College to meet with Hsing-Lih Chou, Head of Ethnic Studies and other professors. BMCC is one of our University Partners, and we are trying to make a big impact on what we can offer the students and faculty. I love working with Community Colleges, and I find that the professors are incredibly dedicated to creating an amazing student experience. BMCC has a lovely campus with gorgeous art installations on every floor, and we were surprised to find endless rows of study cubes and intense quite in the building. Dr. Chou exclaimed that the students from BMCC come from everywhere in the world, and many students don’t have peace at home, so providing a safe, quite space for study is essential – and valued! BMCC also wrote a great article about our partnership that was posted to their website this week.
We also had another 3-D Mandala Making School Workshop with impressive results. We scaled down the base of the project, and the students made some really interesting beautiful structures before going to explore Mandalas in the galleries.
RMA Teens also started up on Thursday with a new group of students ready to embark on the adventure of learning more about Himalayan Art and careers in the arts.
Friday brought on an interesting meeting to discuss our presentation of Educational Resources on the Web. We now have two locations for visitors to the web to find our exhibition resources: both on an individual exhibition page and also in the Educational Resources section of the Website, but we all want to improve the presentation of how people can explore our resources at home. We’ve developed about 10 computer interactive experiences over the past two years that work well in the gallery, but are a little lacking on the web, so this is one of our major priorities for the end of the year. The Family Programs team (Prachi & Aoife) and I also had a great meeting to discuss birthday programs at the museum. We’re really thinking hard about how we can celebrate a child’s life here in a really unique way, and want to go beyond a simple “party” to a great experience shared between a family, their friends, and the art in the museum.
Photo of the week goes to a mandala made by a student from PS 54 R. It’s awesome when we have schools visit from Staten Island- even more awesome when they create amazing 3-D Mandalas.
