BRIDGING THE GAP HOW TO ATTRACT NON-VISITORS WITH ARTISTS?

BRIDGING THE GAP HOW TO ATTRACT NON-VISITORS WITH ARTISTS?

CONTENT

Content Introduction... 4 Performances... 5 Artwork Comissoned For Special Events... 5 In-Exhibition Art Laboratories... 6 Artist in Residence... 7 Best Practice... 10

INTRODUCTION

Bridging the Gap Introduction Page 5 For every facet of human existence there is undoubtedly someone engaging with the subject through their artwork. Museums and cultural centers no matter how widely varying their subjects can make good use of and give support to this creative impulse by bringing practicing artists into their exhibitions, spaces, and events that they host. For instance, science museums may benefit from working with contemporary technological and scientific artists. As a primary area of cultural interest and critique, every aspect of modern science has been and will continue to be engaged with by working artists; there is no lack of intriguing material. Technology museums might work with roboticists, life science museums can collaborate with bio-art makers, and even the communication of classical physics might benefit from engagement with music and dance, which among all the arts are two that are often associated with physics due to their reliance on motion, gravity, air flow, and vibration. PERFORMANCES One of the more obvious, and unsurprisingly powerful, ways to invite artists and their associated non-visitor audiences to museum spaces is through discussions, lectures, and most especially performances. Musical artists and groups have specific dedicated followings, and so appealing to a certain sector of non-visitors becomes possible with the staging of these concerts and performances. These events might take place in purpose-built areas such as concert halls when those are part of a museum space. However, performances within the galleries or other areas of the museum are also possible, and bring new audiences in closer contact with the works on exhibit. ARTWORK COMMISSIONED FOR SPECIAL EVENTS Special events offer the opportunity to collaborate with contemporary artists in performative, installation-based, or other art forms which may not be suitable for long-term display in a particular museum. These moments of public fluidity offer an opportunity to create work which appeals to non-traditional audiences for

Bridging the Gap Introduction Page 6 that venue. Art all-nighters such as Nuit Blanche or Long Night, in which museums stay open for an entire evening, are popular moments to stage unusual artistic interventions inside existing cultural facilities, including governmental facilities like city buildings, sporting centers, and parks. For instance, in 2012, Parisian museum La Palais de Decouverte commissioned artist Markus Hansen to create work in the central atrium, for which he created the installation FONDU ENCHAÎNÉ NOIR-BLANC-NOIR, a gradient composed entirely of 3,250 used shoes. On the web site of the Marie de Paris, Hansen describes the origin behind and intention for the work: http://www.dailymotion. com/video/xtu6i2_nuit-blanche-2012-markushansen-au-palais-de-la-decouverte_creation IN-EXHIBITION ART LABORATORIES One successful exhibition collaboration of the science world with working artists is the recent exhibition at the Science Gallery, in Dublin, Ireland, for their exhibition Grow Your Own. (https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/growyourown). In this exhibition the curators highlighted the collaborative work of microbiologist Christina Agapakis and scent artist Sissel Tolaas, with their conceptual biology work Selfmade: (https:// dublin.sciencegallery.com/growyourown/selfmade) Selfmade is a series of microbial sketches, portraits reflecting an individual s microbial landscape in a unique cheese. Each cheese is crafted from starter cultures sampled from the skin of a different person. [ ] Like the human body, each cheese has a unique set of microbes that metabolically shape a unique odour. [ ] Visitors to the gallery are exposed to the diversity of life in their food and bodies, and a diversity of visions for future synthetic biologies. Still from installation documentation video. CC Guillaume Diamant-Berger As one might expect, the display of the work included documentary elements like videos and scientific explanation. But it also included the cheeses themselves, some of which were developed during the course of the exhibition. These cheeses were grown in the Community

Bridging the Gap Introduction Page 7 Biolab, an area of the exhibition created to engage both the public with the participants in the exhibition. From the start, the curators intent for this open lab was expressly artistic communication, as well as scientific: Community lab spaces support not only science research projects, but also artists who want to incorporate synthetic biology into their work. By engaging the public directly through hands-on participation, it is hoped that a dialogue will be opened around synthetic biology that will be founded on knowledge and understanding. [ ] During the course of GROW YOUR OWN..., the Community BioLab will be inhabited by various DIYbio practitioners who will work on their own projects and also provide opportunities for public participation through workshops and discussions. [ ] This collection of international and local artists, scientists, biohackers and synthetic biologists will take up week-long residencies in the lab, offering the public unique and varied opportunities to participate in real synthetic biology research, experiments, and workshops. In support of Selfmade, the Community Biolab contained the technology needed to create cheese, including an incubator to grow bacteria harvested from human skin samples. Asked about the relationship of the lab space to their artwork, Agapakis said, [In] the community lab during the Grow Your Own exhibition, Sissel and I mostly used it as a kitchen; we made a lot of the cheeses while we were there, using the hot plates to warm the milk and the beakers for straining and molding the cheese. We also did a little bit of microbiology work, making petri dishes and growing some bacteria from swabs that we used to inoculate the milk. The labness of the space was an interesting constraint and juxtaposition for us that highlighted some of the connections between food microbiology, cheese-making, and biotechnology. Christina Agapakis making cheese in the Grow Your Own Community BioLab ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE One innovative approach to integrating practicing artists with museum collections is that taken by the Victoria&Albert Museum, which hosts a series of residencies for contemporary artists to engage with the collections and exhibitions of the V&A s family of museums. Though V&A is primarily a museum of historic art and design, the residencies it offers invite

Bridging the Gap Introduction Page 8 innovative practitioners in distinctly contemporary forms of art and design, allowing the museum to reach younger less traditional artists who are interested in and engaged with these new forms of work. For example, within the last 10 years, in addition to residencies inviting artists in the traditional media of ceramics, poetry, and print, V&A has invited residents in the fields of Automata, Digital Design, Fashion, Comics, Maker culture, and most recently, Game Design. (http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/m/ museum-residency-programme/) Hosting a residency at a museum creates a space for the public to interact with living artists on site, framed in the context of that museum s particular focus. This social interaction proves beneficial for the artists as well as the visitors, and can allow traditional museums reach out to audiences through non-traditional means. In a 2011 residency at the V&A, the design team PostlerFerguson were invited to their Maker Collective residency. In an online interview on the V&A web site, PostlerFerguson cofounder Ian Ferguson shared his thoughts about the value of programs with contemporary artists at historic institutions: I think it s something really exciting about the contemporary programmes here at the V&A, things like the Friday Lates and all these there s a real sense of openness that you can really keep something living be really working on stuff that s very contemporary and of the moment. It s really like a big lab for us, almost like a research lab, and that opportunity s really fantastic; it s something we wouldn t really be able to do on our own. But to be here in this museum surrounded by the history of manufacturing and making things and then to be able to engage with people about what that means today is really meaningful. Ian Ferguson giving a tour of the residency space to a V&A visitor. Similarly, game designer Sophia George was invited to spend a year as V&A s Game Designer in Residence, during which she developed a game, and wrote continually about her experiences engaging with the content of the

Bridging the Gap Introduction Page 9 Left: 19th century print design Strawberry Thief from the V&A William Morris collections Right: Screenshot from rough prototype of Sophia George s game Strawberry Thief V&A s collections, in the research and creation of her work (http://www.sophiageorge.com/). George s mandate as a resident was to consider and create new ways for visitors to the museum to interact with its collections. George communicated directly with her existing audience of fans as well as followers of her contemporary medium of games through a blog and social media. This type of domain-specific communication has the potential to reach entirely new audiences that may not otherwise be interested in the V&A, and shows them how the rich archival holdings of a museum can be brought into a contemporary context. In speaking of her game underdevelopment, for instance, she writes: I said before how I was interested in looking at the animals in the British Galleries, taking a kind of Alice in Wonderland approach to the narrative. I am going to expand on this idea, but instead using the animals found in the William Morris designs in the British Galleries exclusively. For example, the Peacock and Dragon curtains in the gallery and The Forest tapestry. I ve narrowed my focus as, I thought that having animals as characters taken from the British Galleries as a whole may look inconsistent. Now that I m only looking at Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, an idea of how my game world will look is now becoming clearer.

BEST PRACTICE

Bridging the Gap Best Practice Page 11 A Mudlarking Adventure by The Museum of London http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ london-wall/whats-on/events-calendar Animate Your Night by Disney Family Museum San Francisco http://www.waltdisney.org/ animate-your-night Artist Demonstrations by The Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/events/ programs/art-making-programs/ artist-demonstrations Art in Action by The Tanks http://mw2013.museumsandtheweb.com/ paper/diving-into-the-museums-social-me dia-stream/ Black List Project by Brooklyn Museum http://bit.ly/aplus_brooklyn2 Color Uncovered by Exploratorium San Francisco http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/ activities DrentsMuseum+ by Drents Museum http://www.museumplus.org/ Drop-in Drawing by The Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/events/ programs/art-making-programs/drop-in- drawing Experience the Experience of Being Buried Alive by monochrom http://www.monochrom.at/experiences/ alive.htm Flashmob Rembrandt by The Rijksmuseum http://www.youtube.com/embed/a6w2z Mpsxhg?feature=player_embedded

Bridging the Gap Best Practice Page 12 I went to MOMA and... by MOMA http://www.moma.org/iwent/ Lange Nacht der Museen http://langenacht.orf.at/ Learn from the Masters by Disney Family Museum San Francisco http://www.waltdisney.org/the-masters Like it by Sammlung Essl http://www.essl.museum/ausstellungen/aus stellungen?article_id=1374242651922& event_id=1374242651930 MOMA Nights by MOMA http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/ programs/52 MOMA PopRally by MOMA http://www.moma.org/poprally/about MOMA Unadulterated by MOMA http://audiotourhack.com/unadulterated Museum Explored by The Museum of London http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ london-wall/whats-on/events-calendar Open Studio by Disney Family Museum San Francisco http://www.waltdisney.org/ open-studio Passagen Passagiere by MQ Vienna http://www.mqw.at/blog/2013/09/10/ passagen-passagiere-september-2013-2/ Postsecret by Frank Warren http://www.postsecret.com/ Singapore Heritage Fest http://www.heritagefest.org.sg

Bridging the Gap Best Practice Page 13 Singapore Night Festival http://www.brasbasahbugis.sg Sound Uncovered by Exploratorium San Francisco http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/ activities Under 5s Festive Storytime by The Museum of London http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ london-wall/whats-on/events-calendar Steve-Project http://steve.museum Studio Workshops by The Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/events/ programs/workshops-and-courses/ studio-workshops Summer Camp by Disney Family Museum San Francisco http://www.waltdisney.org/ summer-camp Thought Lab by Amsterdam Museum