1st Edition
Art Education as a Radical Act Untold Histories of Education at MoMA
This comprehensive volume highlights and centers untold histories of education at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from 1937 to 2020, using the critical voices of artists, scholars, designers, and educators. Exploring these histories as transformative and paradigm-shifting in museum education, it elevates MoMA educators as vocal advocates for harnessing the educational power that museums inherently possess.
Divided into three interlinked parts, the first sheds light on the early educational endeavors of the museum while analyzing the context of art education in the United States. The second part focuses on the tenures of Victor D’Amico and Betty Blayton, utilizing the MoMA archives as a primary resource. It includes essays by Ellen Winner, Luis Camnitzer, Susan E. Cahan, Michelle Millar Fisher, HECTOR (Jae Shin & Damon Rich), Gregory Sholette, Carol Duncan, Moreen Maser, Nana Adusei-Poku, Carmen Mörsch, Rika Burnham, Donna M. Jones, and José Ortiz. The third part presents the perspectives of William Burback, Philip Yenawine, Patterson Sims, Deborah F. Schwartz, and Wendy Woon as former MoMA Directors of Education in their own words and considers the forces that shaped their work. This timely and unique exploration ultimately aims to trace and understand the fundamental and evolving concerns of a seemingly underexamined profession constantly striving to maintain relevance in an environment marked by institutional, social, and political uncertainty. Exploring the radical acts undertaken to keep the museum true to its original promise, it delineates the paradox whereby education is both central and invisible to the identity of MoMA and museums more broadly and re-centers the conception of the museum as an educational institution.
It is designed for scholars, researchers, and post-graduate students interested in arts education, visual literacy, museum studies, and communication studies.
Foreword
Wendy Woon
Introduction
Sara Torres-Vega
PART 1 ROOT: A BEGINNING, A PEDAGOGY, A TERRAIN, A SPIRAL Sara Torres-Vega
Chapter 1 MASS FRUSTRATION: On the historical hunger for cultural openings and inclusion Sara Torres-Vega
1.1 What Victor D’Amico Got Right About Art Education
Ellen Winner
1.2 Inclusive Exclusions: Victor D’Amico and the Management of Diversity at MoMA Education (1935–1970 and beyond)
Sara Torres-Vega
Chapter 2 DISSIDENT ELITES: on the need for powerful allies Sara Torres-Vega
2.1 The Museum, Is Not A School?
Luis Camnitzer
2.2 Art for Democracy: The Young People’s Gallery
Susan E. Cahan
2.3 "The Principles Of Modern Architecture Are ____": Arthur Drexler and the Museum as Classroom
Michelle Millar Fisher
2.4 Spaceboxing
Hector (Jae Shin and Damon Rich)
PART 2 ARCA: A SHELL, A BOX, AN ARK, A BARGE Sara Torres-Vega
Chapter 3 A WORLD IN CRISIS: on art education in times of war Sara Torres-Vega
3.1 The Archive We Don’t See: Mining a Speculative Counter-Narrative within MoMA’s Victor D’Amico Papers
Gregory Sholette
3.2 Art-Class Democracy
Carol Duncan
Chapter 4 A PERMISSIVE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT: on the globality of art Sara Torres-Vega
4.1 Archiving Il Paradiso
Sara Torres-Vega
4.2 Confidential Report: MoMA in Barcelona (Spain) Feria
Moreen Maser
4.3 Index of an Image from the MoMA Education Archive
Nana Adusei-Poku and Carmen Mörsch
4.4 Three Breakfasts With Indira Gandhi: Prabha Sahasrabudhe’s Reminiscences of the Children’s Art Carnival in India
Sara Torres-Vega
Chapter 5 DISCONTINUANCE
Rika Burnham
Chapter 6 AFTERLIFE: on leading a new beginning Betty Blayton
6.1 Finding the Children’s Art Carnival: An International Treasure
Donna M. Jones
6.2 Intro To A Life In The Arts
José Ortiz
PART III. REMANENCE: a practice, a voice, a story, a force Sara Torres-Vega
Charter 7. DEMOCRATIZING THE ARTS
William Burback
Chapter 8. VISUAL THINKING AND POLITICAL ACTION
Philip Yenawine
Chapter 9. BROADENING THE AUDIENCE: more technology and internationalization
Patterson Sims
Chapter 10. AN EXPANDING MUSEUM COMMUNITY
Deborah F. Schwartz
Chapter 11. THE MUSEUM AS A LABORATORY
Wendy Woon
Biography
Sara Torres-Vega is Associate Professor at Complutense University, Spain and Lecturer at New York University in Madrid.
Wendy Woon is an adjunct instructor at New York University’s Steinhardt School Visual Arts Administration program, and was the former Deputy Director for Education at MoMA.
