Class #16: December 12th – MOAD

Wonderful experience at MOAD for our last field trip of the semester.  Our visit was hosted by Demetri Broxton, Senior Education Direction, with a tour led by Sedey Gebreyes, MOAD new Education Program Manager, followed by observations, class meeting, and finally a discussion Demetri and Sedey, along with Nia McAllistor, Visitor Experience Manager, and Azha Simmons, Development Associate.

Overview of MOAD

 “MoAD, a contemporary art museum, celebrates Black cultures, ignites challenging conversations, and inspires learning through the global lens of the African Diaspora.” (MOAD website)  The museum’s current emphasis on contemporary art is a shift from MOAD’s earlier mission. Opening in 2005 as a “modern museum designed to showcase art and culture through the lens of the African Diaspora” MOAD emphasized the history of the diaspora, defined as the migration of people and culture away from their homeland. The content was organized around four themes:  Origin, Movement, Adaptation and Transformation. Some Bay Area educators are dismayed by this shift of focus to contemporary art, as they were accustomed to using MOAD as a resource for teaching African diasporic histories.  Some of this content can still be found through museum’s website portals, such as the Wells Fargo Heritage Center, and the Slavery Narratives.  The website also includes information on its street-facing, staircase photomosaic The Face of the African Diaspora, made up of over 2,000 individual photos submitted by people across the world and ascends three floors.  It is based around an original photo portrait by Chester Higgins, Jr. and has a musical component– the MoAD Suite.  This piece, composed by Babatude Lea working with producers Greg Landau and John Greenham to “take listeners on a musical journey through time, demonstrating the ways music has evolved as it has traveled across the diaspora.”

MOAD has no permanent collection and now focuses on mounting changing contemporary art exhibitions, featuring the work of African artists throughout the diaspora.  MOAD is a Smithsonian affiliate. This means that MOAD has access to training, library and archive.  This arrangement does not include generally include funding, although occasionally the Smithsonian may provide a small amount of support for a particular short-term project.

Tour of Galleries

Sedey walked us through the exhibition on the third floor Black is Beautiful, a show organized by the Aperture Foundation, featuring the photographs of Kwame Braithwaite and exploring the Pan African movement of the 50’s and 60’s in Harlem.  She explained the overarching perspective in play of “nothing about us, for us, without us.”

Stopping in front of a few select works, she shared information about the artist and pointed out specific imagery, his graphic design and aesthetic sensibilities, as well as his interest in generating and circulating resources and creativity within the Black community. Sedey also asked us questions to provoke individual observations, collective reflective, thinking and discussion. We paused together to look and consider possible meanings. We spent a bit of time in each section of this show–African Jazz Art Society; Think Black, Buy Black; The Gradassa Models.  Curatorial text for each of these sections is included in the Educator’s Resource Guide, available for download online and includes a handy list of themes and guiding questions that can be used to stimulate thinking and conversation.

Sedey walked us briefly through the second floor exhibitions.  Don’t Shoot: An Opus of the Opulence of Blackness features the work of local artists (co-curated by Melanie Green and Melorra Green who are co-directors of the African American Art & Culture Complex in San Francisco) and includes some participatory engagement opportunities–i.e. photo opportunity within an art installation.  She also walked us through Chanelle Stone’s exhibition Natura Negra / Black Nature exploring the re-naturing of the black body in the American landscape.

Individual Observations

We explored the museum and exhibitions on view individually and in pairs, as a class on our own, using the following guiding prompts:

1. Global Observation. How do the curators open space for the contest of ideas in the museum?  What questions and thoughts are being upended and explored?  Are the artists and/or the exhibitions functioning as catalysts?  Are the artists and/or the exhibition addressing and/or rewriting history? If so, what strategies are in play?
2. Intimate Observation. Artist as catalyst…. Find a work of art that you find challenging or don’t fully understand.  Spend 10 minutes or more with it, observing, reading labels or contextual text. What strategies is the artist employing to engage thinking and challenge assumptions? What happens? Does this experience shift, unravel or expand your thinking?
3. Community Engagement. How can exhibitions be a catalyst for community learning and dialogue? Spend time with one exhibition at the museum? What relevant issues are addressed?  What visions, thoughts, or questions are evoked?  How could this exhibition be used to advance meaningful community dialogue or engagement?

Class Meeting

We gathered in MOAD’s classroom and while we were settling in, we noticed the poster on the MOAD classroom wall depicting the Transatlantic Slave Routes, adding another contextual layer to our experience.

We spent a little time discussing the final assignment and clarifying all lingering questions before jumping into a conversation about video homework assignment–Thelma Golden’s Ted Talk, How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change and your observation experiences in the gallery.

A rich conversation…a very few highlights:

• Appreciation for the arts capacity to open up the world to new thoughts and ideas.
• “The more things change, the more they stay the same” an appropriate catch all for our dialogue about aesthetic styles and fashions from the sixties to the present day. Several of you felt there were noticeable differences; others saw similarities; someone commented that today’s styles make the sixties look tame.
• Curatorial vision and strategy of Golden, where an exhibition serves as a sort of think tank engaging a series of questions she’s curious about–in her case African American artists and communities and how they can help us shape and understand the world.
• Several discussed images they studied and found powerful, or were perplexed by and curious about. A few examples: Mothers of the Church – five women all dressed in white, bringing to mind the power of spirit and maturity; Stone’s Fruitvale 2019 – woman under a fig tree within a bleak landscape, would this be referencing the Garden of Eden and being cast out as a metaphor? ALSO naked imagery in Stone’s work–different speculations on its impact and what her intention might be.

Conversation with MOAD Staff

Career Pathways – Each person introduced themselves and talked about their specific job and career trajectory.

Demetri – He is also an exhibiting artist with an undergraduate degree in painting and a minor in education.  He received a graduate degree in museum studies from SFSU. He began working at MOAD in 2007 as an education coordinator.  Due to a philosophical difference with MOAD leadership at the time, he left this position and went to work in the area of nonprofit and educational policy, working for 6.5 years with Americorps at a middle school.  In 2016 he came back to MOAD and was hired onto his current position, Senior Education Director.

He discussed how his education philosophy has evolved from earlier days to his current work.  He has a new lens on the transformative aspects of education that he has applied at MOAD.  For example, his predecessor started the MOAD in the Classroom Program serving third- graders at Title 1 Schools (where 50% or more of the students are eligible for free/reduced lunch).  When he came to MOAD, rather than imposing his own ideas, he held a teacher focus group and asked teachers what they needed and wanted.  The program grew to provide more wrap around services–involving schools, families and communities, growing from 300 – 1,300 students served annually–especially important given the lack of art education in schools.

Sedey – New to MOAD as the Education Program Manager.  She has less than two weeks on the job, but feels like she’s come home.  She studied art in college but found work in the corporate world until she realized her passion was in art and education.  She worked in education in schools as a teaching artist, as well as after-school programs, and museums (DeYoung and SF MOMA).

Nia – Visitor Experience Manager, is a writer who majored in Environmental Justice.  Her job includes managing the bookstore and focusing on visitor engagement by developing programming around specific exhibitions, i.e. films, theatre, readings, music performances, etc.  She is passionate about being a resource for the community and cultivating meaningful connections with curators and artists.  She is an avid reader and loves the part of her job where she selects books for the bookstore–the only Black bookstore in SF.

Azha – Development Associate.  She focused on African Studies at SFSU and worked as an intern at MOAD.  She got her graduate degree in museum studies and education interpretation from JFK University and during this time worked as an intern at a variety of museums.  Once she completed her MA degree, she returned to MOAD and was hired into her current position.  Responding to a question on her vision for museums in the future, Azha commented that she would like to see more hands-on participatory engagement–going beyond the role of traditional museums in exhibiting and preserving objects.  “Like the Exploratorium but not so loud.”

Open Dialogue & Exchange – Introductory remarks were followed by a question and answer exchange with the staff.  A few highlights:

• Collections – Demetri explained that MOAD does not have a collection and that young culturally specific museums (MOAD is only 15 years old) prefer not to have collections so that they do not have to get involved with identifying the provenance of objects and addressing repatriation issues–giving back objects that were originally stolen, changed hands, and then eventually donated to museums. He mentioned that donating objects to HBCU’s (historically Black colleges and universities) is an established practice.
• Traveling Exhibitions – MOAD has partnered with other museums and exhibited their traveling shows. The museum is also interested in organizing exhibits that travel but has not yet done so.
• Beyond exhibitions, MOAD has a variety of programs to engage a diversity of visitors.  At least two or three programs a week are held. A few examples:  Chef in Residence events (talks, panels, discussions, symposia) on topics like food justice; Poets in Residence readings; Hosting the African American Bookclub.

NEXT WEEK (December 19th):  Meet in our CCSF downtown classroom.  We will harvest learning across the semester through presentations, dialogue and celebration in our last class together.  Leslie & Ann will bring healthy snacks to share. You are welcome to add to the mix–but definitely NOT required.

HOMEWORK

1. Final Assignments Due: Final Project (students taking class for a letter grade):  5-7 minute oral presentation; turn in cover sheet and worksheet; or Final Reflection Paper (students taking the class P/NP) . NOTE:  Bring self-addressed, stamped envelope if you would like us to return your assignment with grade and comments.
2. Blog Posts for MOAD field trip.
3. Finish up any blogs or outstanding missing assignments to turn in.