Contemporary Art and Regional Museums
I’ve made the easy assumption that, as a kid, getting outdoors was simply a way to escape the structure and discipline imposed in the home by my parents. Which it was, but that doesn’t explain the fact that once outside, my brothers and our friends in the neighborhood spent a great deal of time trying to mimic the spatial confines we had just bolted from.
With tools surreptitiously lugged into the woods from sheds and garages, we fashioned summer forts and clubhouses. In wintertime we tunneled into snow banks and built igloos. We resisted doing the chores assigned by our parents but gleefully worked ten times harder on our “outsider” projects.
The work/play dynamic in my life continues to this day, to be honest. I’ll prioritize outdoor projects every chance I get. And when I’m faced with indoor obligations I notice that I favor doing the ones that improve my chances of getting outside sooner.
Recently, that tendency has flipped, in a way. My professional, outdoor work has generated invitations to explore indoor, group experiences. A two-day, artist charrette at Shelburne Museum and a four-day, artist lab at Rokeby Museum, in recent months, didn’t make me yearn to be outdoors. They made me thirsty for more meetings of the mind.
The chores tasked by the facilitators at each event were of a purely enjoyable nature. Engaging in problem solving with other creatives was stimulating and instructive. While none of our exploration into the potential for contemporary art to enhance the collections and programs of the two, history-based institutions, resulted in produced artworks, we all agreed that the experience had moved our thinking about what we are doing in our own practices and how they can be expanded to better partner with established venues outside the contemporary art mainstream.
Shelburne and Rokeby, along with other regional museums that focus on bygone days, are reaching out to artists for inspiration as they plan for meeting the future interests and needs of museum visitors. Collaborations, such as the two I recently took part in, give me hope that small, locally supported museums, like those that raised my awareness as a kid about the world around me, will continue to thrive. Their welcoming openness to new ideas is commendable.
For the Shelburne Museum charrette, I have Karen Peterson, and other staff members who took part, to thank. Facilitators, Mary Ellen, Gail and Matt put on a fast paced program that kept us on our toes. For the Rokeby Museum artist lab, I’d like to thank Catherine Brooks and staff and board members, along with facilitators Ric Kasini Kadour and Chris Byrne. I was honored to be included in such a high-class circle of professionals.