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Behind the Scenes Education

Community Collaborations: Art and Music with H2O Milwaukee Music

Four years ago, in 2011, I was introduced to Dwight and Marquis Gilbert—otherwise known as H2O Milwaukee Music—and the teen programs at the Milwaukee Art Museum were forever changed.

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Education

Teens Discuss Michelle Erickson’s Texas Tea Party

Michelle Erickson, Texas Tea Party, 2005. Chipstone Foundation, Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
Michelle Erickson, Texas Tea Party, 2005. Chipstone Foundation, Photo by Gavin Ashworth.
Detail of Michelle Erickson, Texas Tea Party, 2005. Chipstone Foundation, Photo by Chelsea Emelie Kelly.

At the end of February, teens in the Satellite High School Program gathered around Michelle Erickson’s Texas Tea Party (2005). They’ll study this object for the whole semester, using different methods of looking to form their own interpretations. For their first session, we spent one full hour looking closely at the work and having an open-ended dialogue about what we saw, the artist’s intent, and what it all might mean.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Meet Jesús: Artist, Teen Program Alum, and Scholastic Award Winner

Jesus Hilario at the 2013 ArtXpress opening reception. Photo by Front Room Photography
Jesus Hilario at the 2013 ArtXpress opening reception. Photo by Front Room Photography
Jesus Hilario at the 2013 ArtXpress opening reception. Photo by Front Room Photography

The Museum has offered teen programs that change the lives of young people for over thirty years. I’m thrilled to feature an interview with one program alum, Jesús Hilario, who is a senior in high school at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. Jesús was an intern in the Museum’s ArtXpress high school program in 2013, and is a recent multi-award winner for the national Scholastic Art Awards, on view at the Museum through March 22. ArtXpress is a summer studio internship program for teens, who take inspiration from the Museum’s feature exhibition to create a mural that positively addresses a community issue and is displayed for a year as an advertisement on a Milwaukee County public bus. The Scholastic Art Awards is a national program that has encouraged the artistic endeavors of young people throughout the United States for over eighty-five years.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Milwaukee Art Museum Launches its First Online Course

Museum staff members Laci and Nate participate in the “Object Story” activity.

I’m thrilled to share that the Museum launched its first online course this month! Hangout with Art is a completely free MOOC (massive open online course) whose goal is to help participants find new ways to engage with art and get more comfortable visiting museums. The course went live earlier this month and I thought this might be a good moment to share more about the MOOC here on our blog.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 4

Group hug. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semester’s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 4 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

The final group of students created works out of many different kinds of media for their final projects.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 3

A view of the final celebration in progress. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semester’s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 3 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 2

A view of the final celebration in progress. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semesterrsquo;s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 2 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

Categories
Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 1

The Satellite High School Program interns, Fall 2014. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semester’s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 1 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

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Behind the Scenes Education Museum Store

ArtXpress: The Mural Lives On!

Documenting the ArtXpress installation. Photo by Front Room Photography

Sometimes I’m amazed at how a program can continue to live on, long after it’s finished—and how wonderfully collaborative staff here at the Museum can be!

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Behind the Scenes

Tech Talk: What’s On Your Phone, MAM Staff?

Michelle Bastyr, Kohl’s Art Generation Community Relations Coordinator, uses her iPhone in the Museum’s Windhover Hall. Photo by the author

It’s no secret around the Museum that I’m a huge tech nerd. One of my favorite things is finding out what apps, websites, and programs people use to get their jobs done. I’ll admit it, I’m a little bit nosy (or nebby, as the native Pittsburgher in me would say), so I find it fascinating to see how folks in any industry organize their lives and make things happen.

So it’s about time I asked staff here at the Milwaukee Art Museum what tech they use to get stuff done. You might think we museum people are all about “old stuff” (and, of course, we do love a good 500-year-old painting), but we here at MAM are pretty techie indeed. Today, I’m sharing some of our staff’s favorites apps and websites with you. You don’t have to work at an art museum to use these apps in your work or life—I guarantee it!