Children's Museum of Art NYC – Valerie Kharchenko – 5.5 hours
My first visit to CMA was very exciting. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the minute I walked in, I could feel excitement and energy. This museum is like nothing I have ever experienced. As I waited for Val Kharchenko, the Director of Museum Eduction Programs, to meet with me I walked around the museum. There is one large room which is the main gallery, this gallery was filled with tons of art that was really focusing on the idea of text. Along with the work, were tons of children running around. This is a sight I'm not used to seeing. It was great seeing kids allowed to explore, look at art, and be inspired in a museum setting. I then met with Val, and she have me a tour of the rest of the museum. There are many different classrooms filled with teaching artists and children focusing on different kinds of mediums and art making practices. After getting a tour, we sat down and discussed what days would work with my schedule. We came to a conclusion that Monday's I would be working in the Exploring New Media class, which introduces a collaborative storytelling using stop motion animation to 5-6 year olds. I will also be working on Thursdays with the Young Artists Kollective(YAK), which provides 6th-9th graders with an after school space to just create work. I am extremely excited to start with both of these classes.
This week I started working in the YAK classroom. Val asked me to arrive early, so she could go a little bit more in depth about the YAK program. The program has come a long way, and is in a transitional period. It is held twice a week, on Monday's and Thursday's. It used to be that the media based class would happen one day, and the fine arts class on the other. But both media and fine arts are now being combined into one class. Val was really wanting me to think about how the program is working. Having a completely outside perspective will be a great contribution. I am working with two other teachers in the YAK classroom, Larissa Mellor and Camilo. I was told that there are usually around 6 to 9 kids that show up, but this week there were only 3. Larissa and Camilo were explaining to be that they usually have planned projects and everyone is working on the same thing. But the project the kids were working on this week was really whatever they felt like making. I'm really excited to get started with some new projects, Larissa and Camilo are wanting some of my feedback about the project ideas they have come up with. The museum has great resources and I'm really excited to start making things with the kids.