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.

Liberty Loan Parade by Arthur Clifton Goodwin

Angel of the Resurrection by Louis Comfort Tiffany

Untitled (Flag) by Laylah Ali

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/05/26/memorial-day/feed/ 0 Liberty Loan Parade by Arthur Clifton Goodwin Angel of the Resurrection by Louis Comfort Tiffany Untitled (Flag) by Laylah Ali http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/02/18/ill-tell-you-what-i-want-what-i-really-really-want/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/02/18/ill-tell-you-what-i-want-what-i-really-really-want/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:30:30 +0000 Despi http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/02/18/ill-tell-you-what-i-want-what-i-really-really-want/ Aside from the "zigazig ah" that everyone wants, I want IMA to be, “genre-defying.” Films, bands, authors, artists: they can all be genre-defying. So why can’t we?

In many ways museums have been required to wear many hats for a while now. They have found themselves in precarious places, needing to get a piece of that proverbial cash pie, necessitating competition with movies, sporting events, zoos and other, much flashier leisure time attractions. This unfamiliar and uncomfortable competition led to horrible things like the invention of the word “edu-tainment.” As a museum educator turned new media super-star I have seen this scenario from a couple of angles. One was the need to tie everything a museum did to some educational goal that had to do with something more obviously valuable than “art.” Art and science, art and math: boy, were art museums thankful for da Vinci! Of course, for many of us, a more enlightened 21^st century point of view has evolved and now we are comfortable asserting that art is valuable, all by itself. Learning about art and how people make it is a worthwhile endeavor for every man, woman and child, and sometimes by chance, or even on purpose, art actually relates to those other things that kids learn in school.

But even after this realization, we are still multi-tasking, still trying to find a variety of angles that will allow us to pitch our work to the world. You’ve read IMA blog posts about social networking, seen us on iTunes U, and we have engaged in other technological exploits. These are examples of how IMA is trying to insert itself into the lives of unsuspecting internet users all over the world by using the same tools gimmicky (and successful) companies use. As a member of the new media team, I can honestly say that all we do is multi-task, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. But it is definitely a different variety of juggling from the previous thematic exploits of many museums. These days we look at an exhibition, a program, a topic and think about all the potential audiences and ask, who are they really and what do we want them to know? Why would they care about Roman art, or contemporary art or any kind of art? In order to get answers that matter, new media talks to marketing and both of them talk to education and curatorial reps. We struggle to keep up with all this communicating, but we work really hard at it in the hopes that if we can pull it all together we might find the best way to tell you about what we’re all doing at IMA. Thus we blog, maintain a Facebook page, create web content, edit videos, and we have those galleries full of art, too. We have trouble figuring it all out and keeping it all straight. What is marketing’s job? What does new media do exactly? How should we divide it all up? The short answer, I think, is we shouldn’t. Instead we should do what we’ve been doing, rolling with the punches, talking a lot and trying not to be fussy about who does what until someone does nothing. Daniel is best at this, but I am trying hard to get up to speed.

Under Daniel’s leadership we (the royal we) have taken these ideas to heart, as a cross-departmental team, and created firm plans with great ambition that combine the best of many worlds. Collaboration on many levels is the thing that makes us genre-defying. You might find new media poking around in conservation (supervised and with permission, of course) or in the greenhouse shooting a video about that. We work with education to coordinate video for guest lecturers and talk to artists when they visit IMA thanks to tip-offs from the contemporary department. All of this internal networking results in all the stuff you see from us on the web.

Now that technology has a hold on all of us, it is essential that museums understand how to harness it. And IMA is working hard. Watch for some big things this year. We might still be students in some regard, but at least we show up for class. So when 2008 wraps, don’t be surprised to find that IMA is listed among all the other genre-defying juggernauts out there. And if we’re not…well, then you’re not reading the right blogs.

P.S. – I tried really hard to work in a reference to Aerosmith and RUN DMC being genre-defying, and I am really sad I couldn’t, thus the existence of this pathetic add-on.