Kenneth Lamborn

To revere art, or to dance with it?

Adult museum-going audience.
Spaces Opening, MoMA, by Garry Winogrand
(American, 1928-1984), 1969
Gelatin Silver Print
8 11/16 x 13 1/16" (22.1 x 33.2 cm)

Theme
To revere art, or to dance with it?
Art museums are notoriously quiet and sophisticated places: visitors come and
move through galleries at a set pace, half observing, and half thinking about
something else. Fundamentally, however, museums are institutions that serve to
educate the public. But what do we see happening in this piece by photographer
Garry Winogrand? We see a group of people partying at the opening of a new MoMA
exhibition, and they certainly look like theyre having fun.
When art is treated as something with a right answer, people tend to observe it for
its historical and monetary value. This isnt how any artist intends for their work to
be looked at (with the exception of political art). Rethinking how people experience
museums and the art within them could offer visitors a much richer experience, and
allow people more access to the knowledge a museum has to offer. Offering a change
in atmosphere, or including activities for visitors to participate in, could
revolutionize the museum and bring it into the modern era.
Open-Ended Questions
1. In our modern world, is it possible to make art a more social and interactive
experience?
2. What skills and knowledge will visitors take away from museums if they
leave having made their own interpretations, rather than being force-fed the
right answer?
3. In making art an exciting social activity, will visitors better understand the
individual pieces?
Bullets of Information
Winogrand used new camera technologythe wide-angle lensto fully
capture his subjects in the photograph from unique perspectives and with
unique focus (from Winogrand article, Masters of Photography).
Capturing people in different ways allows for an unsettling, extremely
personal experience between viewer and subject (from Winogrand article,
Masters of Photography).
Winogrand did not try to take pictures that he knew would be successful;
many of them were experimental shots, the result of pure luck. Galleries and
museums were where his photos were experimentally exposed to the public
(Winogrand: Figments of the Real World, John Szarkowski).

Interpretive Activity
Kenneth Lamborn
Using a digital camera, a laptop computer, and basic photobooth software,
visitors can select their own music to play during this experience with the
help of the volunteer. After music is playing, visitors can select from a variety
of props, if they wish. The volunteer will then direct them to step into the
gallery space and dancea snapshot will be taken of the visitors as they do
so. The snapshot will imitate Winogrands event-style photography.
The photo will be e-mailed to the visitors, who input their email address,
along with two or three questions about how people experience museums.
This allows visitors to keep a fun souvenir of their experience in the galley
while encouraging them to question the motive of the activity and their role
in the museum.
The goal of this activity is to encourage people to rethink educational
institutions and art access. If art is made into a fun activity, people
experience it in an entirely different way!