Poesy-Praxis

Last weekend Poesy & Praxis took part in the Denver Art Museum’s monthly Untitled program.  This after hours event has been going on for several years, so visitors typically have been to one before, or at least have heard about it from friends.  They know that Untitled is a place to do things, make things and share things, which is a nice starting point when you want people to participate. For me it was an interesting look into how larger museums grapple with visitor participation among many departments, interests and goals.  At the DCM I basically did whatever I liked; working with DAM provided some really useful insight into the more common issues museums face when planning participatory programming. And it was a lot of fun, thanks Lindsey!

The theme for this month’s Untitled was Pledge; relating to artists’ creative commitments and manifestos, with a dose of dust bunnies too.  Some of the activities we planned were really ambitious, (like the crowd created Untitled campaign), while others were successful because of their simplicity.  One such event was the pledge name tag.  Conceived as a way for strangers to interact and to encourage conversation, the name tags were the first thing people saw when they came in the door.  Many of them were pre-printed with prompts such as “I pledge to…talk to a stanger while standing in front of a painting.”  We also had blank ones available for the folks who wanted to come up with their own promise to fulfill.  Visitors could also choose to have their photo taken with their pledge, which was then projected on to one of DAM’s huge white walls (top photo, right).

The projection idea worked great; I heard several people talking about their pledges, or wanting to make one, after seeing the photos flick by.  Showcasing the participants seemed to be a form of positive peer pressure that got others involved.  If I did it again though, I wouldn’t let people write their own pledge.  Not because “playing more guitar” isn’t a worthy ambition, but the point was to get people connecting in the space and to the space.  If the tags only offered three or four pledges to choose from, people still could have selected what they felt comfortable with, but it would have created more common goals.  Then maybe those conversations in front of the paintings could have happened, (and maybe they did).

The more ambitious activity was to have the crowd brainstorm, design and plan the first Untitled of 2012.  We decided that for the first hour of the evening, visitors could post their ideas for an Untitled theme up on a wall (middle photo, right).  Once the hour was up, a DAM staff member (the Untitled coordinator) came by and selected the three themes she thought had the most potential.  At that point things switched gears and the area became a campaign headquarters, where visitors could pledge their allegiance to one of the three themes by writing letters of support (with ideas on activities and artwork related to the theme), making buttons, signing petitions or whatever else they could dream up.  There was a lot going on.

The key to this area was staffing.  It would have been useful to have a little more help here, not only to catch the confused newcomer, but also to draw more people in.  From my experience, some people need that personal invitation (or explanation), but feel perfectly comfortble once they are in.  The people we did catch got really involved and had fun.  People appreciated being given a job that had a tangible result (creating the programming for a future Untitled).  The highlight of the night was a group of four teenagers, who not only embraced the idea of the Untitled campaign, they took it to the streets (or in this case the galleries).   One of them was the mastermind behind one of the theme suggestions, “Anonymous,” and he/she (sorry I don’t know which person it was!)  took ownership to get the idea selected.  The group made hats, posters and badges, then went into the galleries, talking to people about the theme and having them sign their campaign petition.  How awesome is that?  I came across them in the contemporary art gallery and it almost brought a little tear to my eye.  They had already collected over 50 signatures and were chatting away with some nearby adults.  The fact they had self-motivated to continue their campaign and used it as a way to interact with strangers was exactly what the museum had hoped for.  Who knows what their experience would have been like if Untitled hadn’t been happening, but I think it’s safe to say this was a visit they would remember.