Documenting the ArtXpress installation. Photo by Front Room PhotographySometimes 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!
The mural in progress. Photo by Front Room PhotographyThere’s a reason why the summer teen program at the Milwaukee Art Museum is called ArtXpress. In less than a month, a group of sixteen high school students came together to absorb the current Kandinsky: A Retrospective exhibition, digest the meaning of abstraction, and collectively orchestrate their own Kandinsky-esque abstract mural to be blown up onto an Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) bus that will travel routes all over the city. In addition, the teens also mentored Milwaukee Public Schools elementary schoolers through the exhibition, challenging the teens to more deeply articulate the important aspects of Kandinsky’s pioneering work in abstract art.
Group shot of the ArtXpress teens with their mural! Photo by Front Room PhotographyHow does one respond to a show like 30 Americans, which raises so many contemporary issues about identity, place and culture? How does this exhibition fit into a city that at first glance is all about motorcycles, baseball, and beer? Teens in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s ArtXpress program tackled these questions this summer.
Milwaukee Art Museum Blog