If you have even a passing interest in contemporary photography, do yourself a favor: Hop on the Megabus and get yourself over to the MoMA to see the Cindy Sherman retrospective. It's everything you hoped for and more.

If you can't get out to NYC, here is a sample of what you are missing from MoMA Multimedia:

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/cindysherman/

At first glance, I was excited to read this article, as it details--at least on the surface--the ongoing commitment to fostering free-choice or constructivist learning in some of the most well-known museums on the planet. As I read; however, it became clear that the opportunities featured in the article are primarily concentrated on art making, offered under the pedagogical auspices of "being in galleries, meeting artists and understanding their world." Furthermore, most of these examples featured art making in physical spaces outside the museum, which is problematic in itself--art museum education has long been relegated to basements and other "fringe" areas of the museum...what does it mean when learning is offered outside the physical space of the museum, i.e., the pop-up center that is soon to open at the Whitney?

As I read, I recalled an interesting comment, made my by colleague and friend Professor Steve Carpenter during a presentation on reconceptualizing curriculum at NAEA. He questioned, ever so briefly, whether or not the act of art making is, in fact, the primary goal/foundation of every model of art education (his question specifically focused on Eco-environmental curriculum)? I wonder...if it is, then where does that leave the myriad other discourses that surround art education and art museum education? What happens when we as professional educators privilege a particular kind of knowing over all other ways of relating to objects in the museum, especially when very few people excel at the skills that are being introduced in these short workshops?

It appears that construction plans for the museum complex are, in fact, on again. Frank Gehry, the architect behind the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, is also designing this building, which should look like this:



Wow.

Yesterday in the Museum Studies class, we discussed the fact that there are many museum workers whose positions and responsibilities are not known to the general public, yet museums rely on them to function at a fundamental level. Although we briefly discussed preparators, we did not discuss art handlers. This article from ArtInfo details one particular impact of budget cuts for the Whitney Museum of American Art .

Whitney Museum in Talks With Frustrated Art Handlers to Avert Whitney Biennial Strike

I recently discovered this blog post by the folks at the Penn Stater Magazine about recycling unusual things on campus that are then made into interesting items. An organization called Terracycle collects things like those thin, plastic candy wrappers and turns them into little creative items for sale that can be recycled AGAIN when the owner no longer wants it. They also collect water bottles, juice box pouches, coffee bags...and a lot more.


I love this..taking insidious, ever-present junk and making it into something beautiful and functional. The company even has an "Upcycle museum," where they display products made out of recycled materials.

President Obama is instituting changes in the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in the hopes of allowing teachers and states more flexibility to improve and encourage student achievement:
 
From the Christian Science Monitor: No Child Left Behind

I always manage to let job-hunters know about national resources for museum positions and often refer them to AAM or NAEA websites. But many students here at Penn State wouldn't mind staying in our fair Commonwealth, and this may be their opportunity: The Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations "Job Openings" page.

http://www.pamuseums.org/site/showpage.asp?page=15

The New York Times recently published a plethora of interesting articles in a special section about museums and the use of technology to engage with visitors in new and meaningful ways. Check them out if you haven't already hit your limit of free articles per month.

A long-standing practice of most museums, deaccessioning is commonly misunderstood by the general public as simply selling off works of art for cash. While this has been known to happen in rare cases, the fact is that most museums are incredibly conscientious about the process of selling works of art that no longer fit the mission of the institution, and they do so only to procure funds for works of art that will improve the collection overall. The New York Times published a good article today that explains the rationale and process with examples from major U.S. museums. Click here to read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/arts/design/19eakins.html?_r=1






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