Students are in high demand at The Pulitzer Foundation of the Arts.
The museum, located in the Grand Center arts district, is looking for groups of students, usually no more than eight, interested in participating in the museum’s newly revamped Exploring Art workshops as a part of their new exhibition, “Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer.”
“We wanted to take a step back from what we had done before in Exploring Arts workshops,” Courtney Henson, Visitor Services Manager for the Pulitzer, said.
In the program’s current incarnation, student groups will be led through the museum by two docents specially trained in facilitating discussion. Students will explore the museum by themselves before gathering back with the group to discuss the implications and meanings they derived from the art.
“We come back together and discuss and question, ‘What really caught your eye?’ These works, as old as they may be, still have some pertinence in today’s life,” she said.
It is Henson’s hope that the diversity of students attending the workshops will provide an insight into the processes by which we interpret art.
“Who you are as a group influences what you get out of the art,” she said. “I wonder what a group of international students would get out of it. I wonder what a group of business students would get out of it.”
Henson is quick to add that a background in art is not necessary for enjoyment of the Exploring Arts workshops. In fact, she hopes students who wouldn’t normally come to the Pulitzer take advantage of the opportunity.
“You don’t have to come to a work with all this art history background, instead your life experience helps you look into the art,” she said. “We have been trying to find a non average audience for these old works … We’re looking to find groups of people who thought they maybe weren’t into art.”
Apart from the addition of this new program, the exhibit is a departure for the usually very modern institution.
“It’s old masterworks here at the Pulitzer … It’s more modern architecture, in terms of our space,” Henson said. “We have predominantly shown works that are more modern. So this exhibit is a displacement in terms of what we’ve shown before.”
As part of the exhibit, the artwork will not be lit using overhead lighting, a choice Henson feels puts the work in a better context.
“One of the things our architecture gives us is that our architect uses windows, and light comes in and changes throughout the day,” she said. “These works were all painted at a time when that’s how they were painting, and only the light from the sun was available to them.”
Though the Pulitzer will evaluate the success of the program after more groups have come, reactions so far have been positive.
“[Students] felt they had learned more than they normally would have,” she said. “They felt a greater ownership of the work, and they remember it better. There’s something about this program that makes people slow down.”
The Pulitzer Foundation of the Arts is located at 3716 Washington Blvd., between Grand Boulevard and Spring Avenue. Admission and participation in this program is free.
For more information about The Pulitzer Foundation of the Arts, the current exhibition or the Exploring Arts workshop, visit www.pulitzerarts.org.
Email Courtney Henson at [email protected] if interested in sending a group to the Pulitzer.
