Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial is one of those times. The exhibition opens in February of 2011, and I know it will present multiple opportunities to engage members of our community in thoughtful, productive discussions about current events and relevant social issues. Through a grant we received from the NEA, we have been able to form a partnership with students and faculty at Lynhurst 7th and 8th Grade Center in Wayne Township.

Thornton Dial, Sr., "Don't Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together"

This group of students—the Junior Giant Kings—is one of the most remarkable groups of young men I have ever worked with.  They are the coolest bunch of kids, and their relationships with each other, with their faculty sponsors and their growing relationship with art has been astounding to witness.

Gang strife is a growing problem in middle and high schools across the country, and Wayne Township is no exception.  The Junior Giant Kings is made up of a select group of Latino and African-American boys –two groups who are experiencing increased ethnic tensions in many Indianapolis schools–who must go through a fairly rigorous application process to join.  Within the group, they have daily discussions about social issues, cultural awareness and leadership.  They are led by a core group of committed and dedicated young teachers–incredible men who serve as positive role models to these boys and show them what potential lies within.

Perhaps the aspect of the Junior Giant Kings program that has proven to be most advantageous (both to the students and to us here at the IMA) is that their group meets every morning in home room—the administration gives them the time to build those relationships, have productive discussions and learn to trust and respect each other.  Developing these skills has allowed them to become mediators within their own school, taking it upon themselves to act as arbitrators between gang members and encouraging their peers to slow down, look fairly at a situation and be willing to hear each other out.

Where does the IMA fit in to this?  Let’s go back to Hard Truths.

A variety of special programs focused on the Thornton Dial exhibition is planned; one with the Junior Giant Kings has already begun.  We’ve designed a program that uses Visual Thinking Strategies (or VTS) as its core component.  VTS is a facilitated discussion method that, through discussions about works of art, encourages careful looking, development of critical thinking skills, increased use of vocabulary and openness to multiple points of view.  The discussions are completely student-driven and evolve based on participants’ comments, while the facilitator maintains a neutral and non-judgmental position throughout.
Through VTS, the students learn to look at artwork in a different way (or for the first time), yet in a way that allows them to incorporate their own experiences, observations and opinions without the threat of being corrected or criticized.  It is precisely this kind of discussion that can lead to more productive conflict resolution and a greater sense of understanding in their everyday lives.

We have had the great pleasure to visit Lynhurst on several occasions and to lead the Junior Giant Kings in VTS discussions.  Soon they will begin in-class activities that build on the skills VTS teaches and apply them through writing and other language arts experiences.  Perhaps the most rewarding experience I have shared with the Kings so far, however, was several weeks ago when they visited the museum.  Each month, we are featuring a different work by Thornton Dial on display as a sort of “preview piece”, and 13 boys came out one Friday afternoon (some even skipping basketball practice to come!) to discuss one of these pieces in addition to several other works of art throughout the galleries.

I am constantly astounded by the depth and insight teens can share through these sessions.  In a culture that supports machismo and defensiveness in its youth, it is rare but extraordinary to listen to the boys open up, speak freely and reflect on the art they’re seeing…and yet, through use of VTS coupled with the intricacies and ambiguous nature of Dial’s work, we spent almost 15 minutes discussing a single work of art.  The insightfulness of their observations and comments was exceptional.

I find myself so grateful and truly honored to have the chance to work with the Junior Giant Kings in this context and to be a part of how their love and appreciation for art is developing.  I believe teens and young people have a very important role to play in the museum and its galleries, and they deserve and need to be given opportunities to explore artwork in a safe and non-critical environment.

So, through the school visits, the IMA field trips, the in-class activities and a tour of the Dial show early in the new year, we hope to foster a sense of ownership and confidence amongst the Junior Giant Kings.  We are incredibly fortunate to have their teachers as advocates and partners in this effort, and to see how these phenomenal young men are well on their way to becoming phenomenal adults.

In the autumn of 2009, Andrea Zittel sent a request for proposals to students at the Herron School of Art and Design who wished to live on her latest piece, Indianapolis Island. The island is an 18′ x 20′ fiberglass living structure that will float in the lake of the new 100 Acres Art and Nature Park. We (Jessica Dunn and Michael Runge) collaborated to write a proposal and were chosen by Zittel and the IMA after several interviews and meetings.

We are really excited to be a part of this project and have many ideas dealing with the Give and Take nature of the project.

Here is a quick overview of our project:

Fabrication of the interior: We will be fabricating the entire interior of the island with modular, dual-purpose furniture including a bed which functions as a couch as well as storage space. We will also be building a bicycle generator so we can have electricity on the island.

Floating garden: Similar to a self watering container, we will be building floating garden pots that will grow vegetables we can eat while living on the island.

Floating messages: Visitors may send messages to the island inhabitants by floating paper messages via capsules visually reminiscent of the island’s shape.

Island trade: Every visitor who sets foot on the island will have the opportunity to give and take something from the island. This trade will will show a tangible example of the mark left on the individual and the space.

Follow our construction progress and our evolving (or deteriorating) mental state on our blog. You can also follow us on Twitter.

The exhibition opened Saturday and runs through January 18, 2010 in the IMA’s Star Studio. I spent my Tuesday lunch in the exhibition. The students’ video works and the film documenting the process with Dash drew me in. I was also tempted to add my own daydream to an IMA Flickr set shown in the exhibition as a slideshow. But my stomach was growling so I’ll have to go back.

I was delighted to sit down with Julie for a quick chat earlier this year.

Interview with artist Julie Dash

Was there a recent experience that led to the title for the exhibition, Smuggling Daydreams into Reality?
That’s something that as an artist I’ve been doing all my life and career. It’s not always easy being a visual artist. Creative ideas can be fragile and sometimes you have to protect those ideas at the same time you are developing them. We’re born creative beings. As you get older people demand that you be less creative, less imaginative and more pragmatic so you learn to protect and nurture your imagination. I’ve learned to smuggle my dreams into reality.

What do you hope visitors to the exhibition will take away from their experience?
First, it’s a way of giving a public voice to my students. Second, it’s a way for visitors to see and hear and interact with the students. And for me, it’s a great experiment with teaching and nurturing creativity. This is the first time I’ve worked with students in this way. I was presented with the opportunity and said “I can’t turn this down.” For the students, myself and the community, I hope we will continue this experience on some level.

The exhibition title also serves as a theme for this year’s Museum Apprentice Program. How do you hope the students in the program will be impacted?
I hope they will have fun smuggling their creative ideas, and at the same time they will unmask themselves. Everyone walks around with some mask on. This is the perfect venue to talk about unveiling because you have access to art and experts in one place. The students went into the galleries and looked at African and Asian masks and then video blogged about their experiences.

As a filmmaker, your daydreams would seem to be wonderful breeding ground to explore new stories, plots and characters. How have your daydreams found their way into your craft?
You’ll always see some of my daydreams in my films. If given an assignment or a script, I have to dream it from beginning to end before I make it. Dreaming comes in handy. It’s really just a more romantic way of saying “visualize.”

Are there ways you might recommend people to access and record their banished fantasies or deferred hopes?
Video blogging – it’s private and easily done with a flip camera and tripod. You can sit with yourself and talk about experiences.

Tell me something about yourself you think readers would like to know.
Before a filmmaker, I’m a mother. My daughter just graduated from college. So you could say, first I’m a mommy.

Note: this interview was also published in the fall issue of Previews membership magazine.

Interview with artist Dawoud Bey
As published in the fall issue of the IMA’s Previews membership magazine

Q. Can you tell us when you became interested in portraiture?
As I began to figure out what I wanted to do as an artist, I was spending a lot of time going to museums and galleries looking at work by other photographers. The pictures that resonated for me most strongly were those that were of human subjects. There seemed to me something quite powerful about a person confronting the camera, returning the attention of the photographer. Early on I was most struck by the photographs by Mike Disfarmer that I saw at the Museum of Modern Art in the mid-70s. I also was struck by Richard Avedon’s show of portraits at Marlboro Gallery around that same time. James Van Der Zee’s photographs had impressed me in the Harlem On My Mind exhibition. I wanted to make photographs that resonated for me the way those photographs had.

Q. How did you begin to focus on photographing teenage students?
Young people became the primary subject of my work in 1992, when I was invited to do a residency at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Andover. During the eight weeks I was there, I photographed both students at Phillips and students from Lawrence High School, a town a few minutes away. I also worked with the teachers to extend the idea of the portrait into the classroom in other forms, including writings produced by the students. I began to realize how much young people were excluded from the fabric of “the art world” as I knew it and how much their images had been stereotyped in the larger culture over the years. I decided then that I wanted to construct a more complex representation of these young people while also engaging in my own ideas about the photographic object.

Q. Can you talk about how you develop your relationship with the students you work with?
My relationship with the students actually begins while photographing them. I make photographs as a way to find out something about someone. I don’t attempt to develop a relationship and then translate that relationship into a picture; I do my finding out through the camera. All of the pictures in Class Pictures were made by spending two or three weeks in each school. Usually I have only 45 minutes in which to take a student’s photograph, since the student has been released from class in order for me to photograph them. Before making the photograph I ask the student to sit quietly for a few minutes and write something about themselves. Once they are done I make the pictures without reading what they have written. I think if a portrait is well done the viewer is left with a feeling that they have connected to the life of another human being, even though they may be a stranger. The photographs are posed and highly staged, but with an eye towards creating an appearance of informality.

Q. What advice would you give to a young Indianapolis student looking to discover his or her own voice through art?
I would say look at as much art as you can, and make as much art as you can. Never stop looking, and never stop learning. The whole history of art is available to you; it is up to you to know that history and to figure out what you want to contribute to it. Then seek out the training and education that will allow you to accomplish that. And have fun too!

Class Picture Day on Flickr!
In celebration of Bey’s exhibition, we’re inviting you to share your own high school pictures. Artist Dawoud Bey displays statements written by the students alongside the portraits he captures. Be sure to include your own caption.

Submit your class photos, past or present, and we’ll post our favorites here on the IMA Blog!