ArtInterAct
Highlights from recent ASU Art Museum ArtInterAct
programs
Ten years running, Art InterAct has been the backbone of the ASU Art Museum’s K-12 educational outreach programming. Comprised of several experiential learning opportunities, the program’s format allows students—many from underserved populations--to visit the Museum; meet with and speak to nationally and often internationally recognized exhibiting artists; work with local artists in the classroom or studio setting; and participate in a culminating art-making project and exhibition of student works. The three most recent Museum Art InterAct projects are described below.
Fall 2003 Gary Hill:
Language Willing
In the fall of 2003, art students from regional, Arizona high schools such
as Apache Junction, Centennial (Peoria), Chandler, and the Metropolitan Arts
Institute (Phoenix), attended a lecture by renowned video artist Gary Hill;
witnessed his Language Willing exhibition at the Museum; and listened
to ASU Art Museum Curator John Spiak and local video artist Sean Ross speak
in their classrooms. The Museum provided participating teachers with a packet
of instructional materials for use both before and after the students’
Museum visit. Ultimately, students were asked to create their own video projects
in response to their experiences. Selected works from each school were shown
at an evening event hosted by the Museum where awards, juried by a panel of
professors, curators, and artists, were presented. As Metro Arts student and
Honorable Mention winner Luke Hart wrote in his thank-you note to the Museum,
“ It was wonderful seeing some of my peers’ creativity come out
in that show.”
Spring 2004 Blue
Memory: Paintings by Tran Trong Vu
In the spring of 2004, the Museum hosted two international painters, Vietnam-born
Tran Trong Vu, who uses plastic sheets as supports in his installations; and
Cuba-born Pedro Alvarez, who layers oil-based pigments over collage on canvas.
The coinciding Art InterAct project, titled “Connecting to Their World,”
featured local artist Carolyn Lavender, who traveled to five Tempe Union High
School District art teachers’ classrooms. There, she engaged students
in a lively discussion about historical artists whose technique involved both
self-portraiture and the expressive use of line. Students later toured the
Vu and Alvarez exhibitions at the Museum, at which time they met with Vu and
learned more about his artistic ideas and process. Back in the classroom,
the participating teachers charged their students with creating both an individual
piece on paper, as well as a collaborative, pigment-on-plastic piece. Selected
works were later publicly displayed at the City Hall Gallery in downtown Tempe.
Fall 2004-Spring 2005 Dennis
Oppenheim: Alternate Current
The fall-winter 2004-2005 Art InterAct project, “Conceptualize,”
involved the internationally renowned artist Dennis Oppenheim and local environmental
artist Laurie Lundquist. Lundquist conducted a series of after-school workshops
at the Museum for fifteen participating art students from Phoenix Metropolitan
Arts Institute, Tempe’s Desert Vista and Tempe’s McClintock high
schools. In response to their experience of Oppenheim and his work, and under
Lundquist’s guidance, students created individual conceptual pieces
and a collaborative, public art project, all of which were on display at the
Museum from January 21 through March 5, 2005.
The ASU Art Museum has an established history of showing absorbing and provocative
contemporary art exhibitions. Its educational programming likewise strives
to enhance k-12 students’ understanding of the art and issues of today.
By offering Art InterAct experiences to a broad and diverse audience, the
Museum and its partners can open young minds to the significant contributions
of our collective human culture.
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