Gallery Search On.
Justice, Community, and Leadership students create activities to engage visitors.
by JCL 150 students: Karl Headley, Alyssa Huie, Julia McNair, Laibing Rhodes, and Alec Schaefer
In Spring 2023, community engagement students in the Justice, Community, and Leadership Course 150 worked with the SMCMoA to identify and create a project supporting engagement practices. The group created a variety of activities, including gallery searches, seek and finds, bingo boards, and an origami art folding station. These activities were created to promote wellness and provide guidance for interacting with the exhibits. These activities are currently available in the museum. Read more about Julia, Karl, Laibing, Alyssa, and Alec’s thoughts and reflections on the experience below.
Alyssa
The vision for the “Young Scholars From the Ground Up: Seek & Find” was to open avenues empowering children to contribute to conversations about art. The goal was to acknowledge them as knowledge holders in a museum space to make the environment more approachable. It was also crucial for this activity to be accessible for collaboration between children and their parents to spark a dialogue within a space typically reserved for adults.
To accomplish this goal, I selected five aspects of exploration as an entry point for engaging with the artwork in objective and subjective reflection that is age appropriate for young children. These aspects were texture, color, shapes, feelings, and landscape, followed by reflection questions. The initial process included brainstorming a few guiding questions that led me to the final design. First, I reflected on accessible language for young learners, the target audience, and how to effectively spark their curiosity through grounding questions in the gallery art and visual aspects that children can easily access. Second, I explored how to tie elements of the pieces/artwork into the exercise of reflection. This was particularly relevant when choosing whether to utilize pictures of the actual art pieces or general concept images to convey to the viewer what they should be looking for according to the seek and find. In addressing this conflict, I decided to allow broader use of Seek and Find activity by incorporating general concept images. The activities are accessible in the MoA space.
Julia
As part of the Justice Community Leadership 150 course (JCL 150), I worked with the Museum of Art (MoA) for Community Engagement hours. At first, I was unsure how my group could help and support the museum. After multiple discussions, our group decided it would be beneficial to support museums, interact and engage with children and families. Our goal was to create work enabling an inclusive place for children and families unfamiliar with museums. During our meetings, Britt showed engagement activities she had collected from other museums. We liked the idea of a gallery search because it is easily accessible for multiple age groups and something kids can enjoy.
The process of creating gallery searches involved considering pieces of art in the current exhibits and creating questions that children of all ages could respond to. While creating the gallery searches, I hit a couple of roadblocks regarding what to ask or how to connect and activate wellness concepts, as that was another topic our group focused on for our work. Our group focused on our work. I found the most beneficial gallery search children would be open-ended questions that could support different answers for various visitors. I also included how the art and exhibits made the individual feel, indicated by circling their emotion on the gallery search. This allows the individual to connect to the piece to guide their experience. JCL 150 is a leadership class allowing us to work in groups to collaborate and help an organization. My group experienced some ups and downs. Once we shared our ideas amongst ourselves and Britt, we came together, creating various activities to engage wellness in the museum as people visit and experience the works.
I personally have enjoyed spending time in the museum and understanding the mission of the museum. This project made the experience more special and meaningful. I loved getting to know the staff members and the current work displayed and working alongside my peers to create something great for them!
Karl
SMCMoA is a place on the SMC campus that seems unappreciated for its value and the effects that it can have on students. My JCL group created an activity for visitors at the museum to guide looking and finding through their museum visit. My task was to make a guide for adult visitors, as each guide was created to engage a specific learner. Making the guides was easy and challenging at the same time because most of the questions I came up with in my rough draft were too broad. Some questions were, “How do the colors in this painting emphasize the tone or message of the overall work?” and “What do you think the artist was expressing in this piece?” I wanted to make sure that the questions I asked got the visitors engaged with the exhibits in the museum and for them to think outside of the box when observing the art pieces. With it being for adults, I’m hoping the visitors could widen their knowledge by observing exhibits like “From the Ground Up,” and with the questions generated.
I feel like this project adds an element of inclusivity and belonging to the museum because doing this activity in the museum is an excellent opportunity to bond and connect with other students or just people you meet. While working in the museum, I learned how important collaboration with other students is and how vital having good observation skills is, especially in an art environment. Working with a group on this project was great for us as students because we learned how important collaboration is and how it brings the best out of everyone while doing the assignment.
Laibing
The JCL service with SMCMoA profoundly impacted my connection to the community. The museum shares exhibitions and collections specific to the campus community and their needs. As an SMC transfer student, I gained insights into the museum’s audiences. I worked to create a project to enhance leadership, self-awareness, and wellness for building connections with the public through origami.
One of these community service methods is connecting with the public, which I facilitated through an origami activity. The exhibition features Jacob Lawrence’s “Hiroshima Series,” which visually explores the emotional impact of nuclear warfare. On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb “little boy” exploded on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The radiation affected thousands and thousands of people, including a girl named Sadako Sasaki. She kept folding cranes even though she was in exclusive pain from leukemia caused by the atomic bombs. When she passed away, her classmates continued to fold 1,000 cranes and pray for other people to get well. The emotional connection between the prints and visitors is different. The origami cranes connected me to Jacob Lawrence and bridged wellness and healing to our communities. Time will heal all the broken hearts across the globe. I believe that origami will bring peace to our community.
Leadership, self-awareness, and wellness for building connections with the public through origami are essential in the MoA project. Through community service, I solved problems of my interpersonal skills, answered unsolved questions through artworks, and all the materials affected my future thinking. I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve and establish the direction for our community.
Alec
Creating a bingo activity for the Museum of Art was an enjoyable and insightful experience. Before having the idea of MoA Bingo, I knew that I wanted to create an activity that would be engaging and enjoyable for everyone who steps foot into the museum. I wouldn’t describe myself as an artist or someone skillful in the visual arts. I also understand that many people on St. Mary’s campus can relate. With this in mind, I envisioned creating an activity that could reach a large audience, whether you are artistically gifted or have alternative talents.
My group provided insights and discussion on creating these engagement activities. I met with my JCL 150 Community Engagement cohort for guidance. As they helped me brainstorm, a critical point caught my attention: The Museum of Art reaches a diverse audience. My activity should engage the multiple intelligences of those who walk into the museum. Not only are some people more artistically inclined than others, but they are also more reflective, logical, and emotional. I concluded that I wanted to create something that would engage all types of learners.
Lastly, I wanted to design an activity allowing someone to explore the Museum of Art. This made me imagine some checklist for things seen around the museum space and for a time of reflection. So, I created the MoA Bingo activity used today. This type of bingo allows learners to check off things they see around the museum, reflect on, and connect with things they see and feel.
