Photograph courtesy of The Columbus Museum.
In support of community programs during the pandemic, Phillips partnered with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) to fund community initiatives at museums across the United States. Recipient organizations include The Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, and the Missoula Art Museum in Missoula, Montana. Lauren Peterson, Director of Museum & Corporate Collections at Phillips, caught up with these institutions and the impact of the programs.
LAUREN PETERSON: Tell us about the programs the Phillips x AAMD grant supports. What impact are you seeing?
MASHA TURCHINSKY: The grant allowed the Hudson River Museum to continue its Junior Docent program and serve students from public high schools throughout Yonkers. The HRM Junior Docent teen leadership program is a nationally recognized model for programming that provides youth, many of whom are considered at risk, with dedicated mentorship services. The program expands their knowledge of art, science, and history, while building and strengthening their skills in communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and leadership. Through this program, the HRM cultivates young leaders who completely dismantle the notion that equity and diversity in the pipeline of leadership positions is difficult to achieve.
Participants sign up for four years of dedicated mentorship and attend weekly training sessions where they learn about the Museum's permanent collection and exhibitions, and through our environmental teaching gallery and Planetarium, they learn current science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEM and STEAM) concepts by working directly with curators, educators, artists, scientists, and leading professionals in many fields. The teens in turn become compelling guides, strong public speakers, and adept program facilitators.
An essential component of the Program is an extensive College Readiness Series, guiding the teens through SAT/ACTs, college visits, interview preparation, the application process, financial literacy for the entire family, and more. Since its inception in 1995, the Junior Docent Program has graduated more than 470 young adults; and we are immensely proud that 100% of Junior Docents who completed the Program have been accepted to college. Together, the 17 graduates of our Junior Docent Class of 2021 accepted $1,261,000 in scholarships.
In response to the pandemic, 2021 Junior Docent Navaiya Williams states: The Junior Docent program allows me to interact more with my friends at the Hudson River Museum and see them face-to-face. It gives us time to support one another and also even to just communicate our grievances during this time. We all feel a sort of grief by not being at school, losing time with each other, and not being able to go to the museum. I am especially grateful to have more opportunities on the advisory board which allows me to maintain some semblance of normalcy by staying busy with event-planning. The Junior Docent program at home has made me feel productive at times when I feel very helpless and allows me to continue to build my leadership skills under trying times.
MARIANNE RICHTER: The grant supported the outreach The Columbus Museum does in partnership with the Housing Authority of Columbus. Pre-pandemic, our program for K-5 youth at four Housing Authority communities included art-making classes and a field trip to the Museum. With the funds from the grant from Phillips, we offered summer painting classes led by local artist Tony Pettis (@tonyartist) that culminated in a community art project for youth at Wilson Homes. They worked alongside Pettis to create a collaborative artwork inspired by their favorite summer activities. Pettis demonstrated his techniques for creating abstract backgrounds before asking them to work together to cover a large canvas utilizing the techniques. Pettis then used the canvas to complete the unique artwork for the Wilson Homes’ community room. The collaborative piece, created by Pettis and the program participants, was displayed in a local show of the artist’s work. This was our first in-person program with Housing Authority students since the pandemic shut-down, and children were enthusiastic about working with an artist and encouraged to continue creating.
The goal of this program was to provide a safe and engaging opportunity for children to experiment with art after missing out on creative experiences over the last year. The Housing Authority usually offers many programs for the youth in their communities, but had to cancel them due to the pandemic. We wanted to support our partner organization by helping to facilitate a return to in-person programs. We knew the desire for artistic expression was present among these students, so it made sense to plan a fun, collaborative art project after such a difficult school year. In addition to supporting these students, we also got to bolster the work of a local artist through this program. We had been looking for the right opportunity to work with Tony, and he was the perfect fit for this project. It made a big impact on the participants to learn about Tony’s career in the arts, and they all left inspired, saying they wanted to be artists when they grew up.
LAURA MILLIN: The grant supported Museum as Megaphone, the Missoula Art Museum (MAM)’s distance learning platform. The MAM education team brought decades of experience as well as best practices in the field of museum education and arts integration, to serve teachers and students across the state of Montana. In a state where obstacles such as geography, weather, and economic factors make it impossible for rural and Tribal communities to visit the museum, the technological expertise of Inspired Classroom has enabled us to design an experience that is easy to navigate and mirrors the actual experience of coming to MAM as closely as possible including real time conversations with exhibiting artists live from the MAM galleries. We hope that the Museum as Megaphone experience inspires creativity and leaves participants feeling more confident to engage with contemporary art and to bring the museum into the classroom.
During the pandemic MAM’s Education Team pivoted immediately to release 2019’s Museum as Megaphone content as a virtual offering, free and open to all. We then prepared to bring our largest program, the Fifth Grade Art Experience (FGAE) online virtually using Museum as Megaphone. For 35 years, FGAE has served all fifth‐grade classes in Missoula and a 70‐ mile radius including the Flathead Indian Reservation, bringing one class each day to visit the museum. In 2020, MAM served that entire audience virtually, and extended the program’s reach to serve over 1200 students total in schools from 11 counties in Montana including schools on the Crow Agency and the Fort Peck reservation. Students were able to meet contemporary visual art and artists, both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous, widen their vision of the world and what is possible. Best of all, their voices were amplified as they discussed work with artists and educators at MAM, and when they made their own art and shared it. Teachers were provided with enrichment and professional development for both themselves and their students.
The museum was able to expand outreach to rural and Tribal schools, improve access for all to exhibiting and collection artists, and support MAM’s vision of museums as democratic places where all people are welcome to exchange ideas. Video
Photograph courtesy of The Missoula Art Museum.
LP: What is essential when it comes to broadening audiences in art museums?
LM: As MAM works to extend our Radical Welcome to everyone, breaking down barriers to access and engagement, we feel that representation is key. Audiences must see themselves represented in the art, artists, speakers, teachers, staff, and board in order to feel full belonging. Another key is building relationships and trust, which takes time, commitment and repeated positive experiences. MAM has considered and acted upon the idea that museums are not neutral, put forth by LaTanya Autry and Mike Murawski in their 2017 article and subsequent hashtag, #MuseumsArtNotNeutral. MAM embraces our role to create acknowledgement, access, and action in service of our institutional values. MAM sits on the ancestral territories of the Salish and Pend d’Oreille people. We respect the Indigenous stewards of the land. We acknowledge these rich cultures as fundamental to artistic life in Montana and to the work of MAM. This land acknowledgement is read at all public programs and classes. But this alone is not enough. MAM also collects and exhibits the work of contemporary Indigenous artists and shares their work broadly. The Lynda M. Frost gallery is specifically dedicated to always showing contemporary Indigenous art, to counteract erasure and Indigenize the museum. Indigenous artists are also often on view in other spaces at MAM. We welcome the public with no admission charge at MAM. But even so, audiences must see self‐representation to want to enter and become involved. If our museums are to become true democratic institutions, we must welcome and represent a plurality of voices. Our program, Indian Country Conversations, is an example of this. An exhibiting artist and two guest speakers introduce a topic of significance to Tribal people brought up by an exhibition, for example language reclamation, or Tribal sovereignty. The audience members are then invited into the conversation. Sitting in the gallery, surrounded by the art as a catalyst for the conversation, the artist’s vision and voice are activated, and representation is amplified.
LP: The pandemic presents both challenges and opportunities for museums to offer new experiences. What did you learn about engaging with your community in new ways? What surprised or inspired you?
MT: The pandemic has required that we reconsider our order of business, and seek new opportunities and ways to approach our mission and audiences when they need us most, and when we need their ideas and participation to become a better version of ourselves. It's critical to really listen to what someone says they need, rather than impose what you think they need.
In the 2020/2021 school year, we developed a flexible Junior Docent training syllabus that was attuned to the needs of the Junior Docents during this isolating time. Junior Docents attended online training sessions in lieu of in-person training sessions. We maintained a consistent schedule of weekly meetings as they proved to be critical in addressing the teens' social and emotional needs, providing a safe and informal forum where they could express their feelings and listen to each other. This online interaction continues to improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing, alleviating solitude, and encouraging camaraderie and empathy.
Last fall, with their parents' approval, Junior Docents were given the opportunity to return to the Museum in person for the first time since March 2020. They facilitated outdoor Family Studio Workshops for which they received training from the Teaching Artist-in-Residence, and assisted with hosting outdoor Amphitheater performances. Teens who have met their attendance requirements become eligible for compensation. This is so important. Most of our teens do not have the luxury of unpaid work and this compensation allows them to pursue their passion for museum work. This is our firm commitment to breaking down the barriers toward a more diverse museum field.
It's critical to really listen to what someone says they need, rather than impose what you think they need.
Although it was a challenging year for all, including our Junior Docents, the pandemic also created opportunities for the Museum to adapt to new technologies and interact virtually with organizations, schools, students and museums throughout the US and even internationally. Instead of conducting in-person museum tours and family studio art projects, Junior Docents explored new ways of learning and serving the public, engaging in various research projects and planning virtual workshops for family audiences. Facilitating Museum programs virtually gave the teens real world opportunities to build their leadership skills and professionalism through interaction with their peers, museum educators, and young audiences, as well as mastery of technology.
For example, during Painting Postcards: An Exchange Program for Teens, HRM's first international "Pen Pal" program, Junior Docents connected and developed relationships with teens at the Institute Euroamericano, a high school in Oaxaca, Mexico. They honed their skills in Spanish and gained more personal understanding of each other's lived experiences and cultural traditions. They worked with artists in the US and Mexico to create their own landscape-inspired postcards, converting such a simple and economical means of communication to a form of personal connection and a collectible souvenir and work of art.
The Junior Docents never cease to amaze us. Whether they are organizing successful Virtual Teen Nights or clothing drives such as Teens for Jeans for local youth experiencing homelessness, or speaking directly with leaders such as Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres or US Congressman Jamaal Bowman, they prove to us time and time again that the future is in good hands.
Photograph courtesy of The Hudson River Museum.
LP: Tell us more about the importance of community partnerships in fulfilling your mission as an institution.
MR: One of the essential ways that art museums fulfill their mission is by connecting with their communities to share opportunities to discover and make art. Collaboration is integral to that.
A museum of our size has a relatively small staff of 30 fulltime and 5 part-time employees, and we can only know so much about what our community might want or need. We seek and listen to suggestions from members of our communities through focus and advisory groups. Our partnership with the Housing Authority of Columbus began with a special project and exhibition, Making Conversation with Warren Williams Homes, a nearby public housing community. Residents participated in selecting the artist for a public sculpture sited in their community. During the development of the exhibition and public art project, we got to know Housing Authority residents and staff. They all indicated that art-focused programming for youth would be a huge asset, and that’s how our youth program was born. Listening to and connecting with our community helped us open our doors to a new audience.
We partnered with Muscogee County School District to distribute art-making kits through their lunch program for youth living in Housing Authority communities in spring 2020. Each kit contained a written prompt to encourage creativity and an image of an artwork from the Museum’s collection with discussion questions. In all, we distributed 1,469 activity kits through the Muscogee County School District’s lunch program. We were inspired by the youth’s enthusiasm for the kits and their creativity in the project this summer with Tony Pettis—their talent and interest in learning about and making art is incredible. The school district’s support was also inspiring. Everyone from school nutrition to the cafeteria staff and bus drivers were excited to help get the kits to youth—with everything else they were dealing with they still found time to help us with this project.
We partner with other organizations such as Girls, Inc. in creating programs. These partnerships enable us to extend our reach and impact. And, when we do these partnerships, we make more connections and meet more people. Connections we have made through partnerships have become members of our Education Committee, for example, bringing new voices to the table.
LP: The Phillips grant is an example of direct monetary support of your museum. What are other ways AAMD has been supportive throughout the pandemic?
MT: My AAMD colleagues have been incredibly supportive during the pandemic. Through weekly conversations and check-ins, we have covered a range of topics that affect each and every one of our institutions, no matter the size, collection focus, or geographic region. As we have faced unprecedented challenges during this time, speaking and engaging directly with directors across the country has proven to be an invaluable resource. I do believe it involves allowing oneself to be a bit vulnerable, admit your challenges, and recognize that we all have so much to learn, not just from each other, but from our exceptional teams, communities, and youth. I look forward to the future of being together in person, yet I remain thankful for the support and resources AAMD has provided me throughout this period in our history.
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