In the Making at 110

New at the Taubman

In the Making at 110 is a program that builds upon the success of prior programs for the museum’s teenage audiences and provides for ongoing, engaging, and unique opportunities for teenagers to encounter the arts in an array of formats, media, and educational directions. The programs of In the Making at 110, the “Museum Curatorial Fellowship,” “Teen Audio,” the “Mural Project,” “Artist Evenings,” the “Summer Arts Institute and Teacher Institute,” and, “Open Projector Nights” are closely aligned with the mission of the Taubman as an educational institution devoted to developing an appreciation of the arts broadly defined, critical thinking skills, and an understanding and strengthening of the museum and its role as a collaborative partner in the community.

It is our hope that the programs of In the Making at 110 will provide a forum for many teenagers in our community to view the Taubman as their home for arts initiatives, as a place to engage the arts and find meaning in creative endeavors, to understand that artists and their work play a critical role in society and that they can have an impact by their involvement in the museum and the community.

The programs of In the Making at 110 are:

The Curatorial Fellowship
A culturally diverse group of high school students from throughout the city will participate in this internship program that is designed to be a two year initiative for upwards of 20 students.  Under the direction of Brian Counihan, a teacher at the Community High School of Art and Academics and David Mickenberg, Executive Director of the Taubman Museum of Art the program is designed to teach critical thinking and communication skills, an appreciation for art and its role in the community, and business, design and museum management.  Students will curate on exhibition in their two year period, will assist in the management and implementation of the Marginal Arts Festival, and will be trained as student docents. They will meet at the museum once a week for two hours, and more frequently when necessary. They will engage in workshops on visual thinking strategies, contemporary art appreciation, research skills, creative writing, public speaking, etc. while working on exhibition and program development.  Trips to other museums and public art projects will be ongoing throughout the fellowship period.

The museum will work with schools, home school organizations, churches, community centers, and social service organizations to identify, interview and award these fellowship positions.  Those students completing the two-year program will be awarded a $2000 scholarship to college.

The Summer Art Institutes and Teacher Institutes
The Summer Arts Institute offers a variety of rigorous and creative arts experiences comparable or superior to those offered by the Governor’s Summer Academy or John Hopkins' Center for Talented Youth.  These programs should appeal to both novice students and to those with developed passions.  Fun, stimulating, and informative this intensive program in the arts is designed to introduce students to the complexities and challenges inherent in the arts and how they can, in a variety of ways respond in integrate them into one’s life. The Institute will be open to students in grades 8 through 12. 

Possible subjects will be:

• Creative Writing
• Visual Arts
• Film History and Production
• Theater

The Institute will offer programs from the 5^th of July through the 30^th of July. Programs will either be one or two weeks in duration - 10:00 to 4:00 Monday through Friday. We anticipate that the programs will cost $250-$300.00 per week and that generally lunch and snacks will be provided.  Students will need to apply for admission, scholarships monies will be available, and generally the programs will be limited to 10-15 students per session. Most programs will have some form of culminating event open to parents and the public as appropriate.

Faculty will come from the museum staff, the Community High School for Art and Academics, Roanoke Children’s Theater, and Roanoke City and County public schools.

Summer Arts Institute Program 1

Kay Rosen
Program Description:
The stark minimalism of Kay Rosen's large text installations may at first strike us as bombastic and authoritarian.  Is the artist shouting at us? Is the artist laughing at us? Contemporary art is too often confused by an outdated idea of artist as object maker. This class will change your mind! Rosen offers a different way to look at the world beyond a straight forward product and consumer relationship.  Students will be introduced to a surprisingly rich world of ideas as they learn to to view her work though academic disciplines like philosophy, poetry, linguistics, art history, typography and design.  We will write, construct, perform and discuss these ideas in workshops and lectures.

Summer Arts Institute Program 2

Kiel Johnson: Ghost Machines
Program Description:
If material things become extensions of ourselves, what happens to them when we die?  Kiel Johnson’s work explores, in powerful and physically specific ways, the relationship between the animate and the inanimate.  His machines and objects seem simultaneously to have souls, to have had souls, and to reflect the souls of others.  His drawings explore the ways in which our own selves are constructed from a complicated web of stuff.  In this program, students will explore his ideas and their own through archaeology, sculpture, drawing, poetry and fiction. 

Summer Arts Institute Program 3

Tim Tate: Like Smoke, I Leave my Body Behind
Program Description:
Time Tate's work is a pastiche that combines the old with the new.  His reliquaries alone attempt to provide a modern interpretation of Surrealist works. In this course, we will examine these interpretations, both in functionality and in aesthetic philosophy. Students will explore how aspects of venue, projection, and editing can transform mass media. They will each have a chance to create a piece of video art and to conceive of how to display their work. This will provide an opportunity to expand their critical understanding of media as a whole. 

The Teacher Institute will be held for three days during the time that the Arts Institute is in session. Designed so that teachers in this program can observe and engage the students and faculty working at the museum, the Teacher Institute will provide workshops on visual thinking strategies, curricula development, and the content of art in relationship to the exhibitions and collections of the museum.  Upwards of 25 teachers will be invited to participate with stipends of $250 provided for those who complete the three day program.  The program will be held in conjunction with the Copperhaven Institute at Roanoke College.

The Mural Project
Every spring or summer the Taubman Museum of Art will be hosting an artist to work on a mural on the exterior wall opposite the museum’s café.  Artists will be chosen on the basis of the quality and importance of their work but also on their willingness to work with a group of students in implementing their project.  Students will be involved with the artist in designing the work from inception through to the completed design and approval process.  They will assist in the presentation of the work to various museum and civic constituencies who have oversight of the public space on which the mural will be painted.  After approval, the students will assist the artist in the preparation of the wall and the implementation of the mural. 

The first artist for the summer of 2011 will be Kay Rosen, a Chicago based artist whose murals and exhibitions have been seen nationally and globally.  Her work involves murals with words based on their often complex and contradictory meanings.  Students working with Kay will be introduced to diverse literary explorations, poetry, the possibilities and problems of public art, communication strategies and artistic process and implementation. 

Planning for this project will begin in the late fall of 2010 and continue through to implementation in June 2011.

Teen Audio
The Taubman is planning a series of visual podcasts specifically for teenagers.  Written, directed, and filmed with voice overlays by students from throughout the city these visual podcasts are designed to attract to, and assist teenagers while they are in the museum.  The podcasts are tools by which teenage audiences can understand and appreciate the ideas, themes, artists, stories and histories on view in the exhibitions and collections of the museum.  Those themes will be explored through looking at the arts broadly defined and in conjunction with broad cultural perspectives in which the visual arts are contextualized with other arts such as poetry, music, design, theater, sculpture, the graphic arts, etc. 

Under the direction of Simon Nolen, filmmaker and faculty at the Community High School of Art and Academics and Abbie Edens, Education Coordinator at the Taubman Museum of Art, Teen Audio will produce two ten minute audio podcasts in its first year of operation. The podcasts will be available for download on the museum’s web site, on I-Tunes, and on iPods available at the museum for loan.

Artist Evenings
Every second Thursday of September, November, February and April, high school students will have the opportunity to meet with regional artists to discuss their perspectives on the collections and exhibitions at the museum including their works on view in the galleries.  Pizza will be served in the museum’s café and a discussion held about what was seen and experienced in the galleries. The following Thursday, students will have the opportunity to visit the artists’ studios to have a unique behind the scenes introduction to the artists work, methods, materials and perspectives.  Students will be urged to bring their own work to the studio visits for discussion and critique by the artist.

The program will take place during those hours when the museum is open to the public with no admission charge and will occur both in the public spaces at the museum and behind the scenes. 

Open Projector Night
In collaboration with the Grandin Theater Open Projector Night is a program overseen by the Teen Council with the assistance of several members of the film community.  Local and regional filmmakers are invited to submit film shorts they have been working on for viewing at the Grandin and at the Taubman.  The jurying of the films and the design of each evening’s programs are the responsibility of the Teen Council.