Not only did Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) Director Bill Arning give a bunch of shout outs to Houston artists (Nathaniel Donnett,Trenton Doyle Hancock, Autumn Knight, Jamal Cyrus and Phillip Pyle the Second, among others) in his recent Art in America article, “Houston Loves Eccentrics” (print only: buy the magazine), the New York Times ran an article this morning (May 17) on the wonders of the CAMH’s Teen Council (TC).
The article, “Houston’s Young Curators Look at Culture and Environment,” looks at their curation of “Root Shift: Photographs of Stasis and Change” at the Menil Collection and interviews TC Director Jamal Cyrus and a couple of the twelve TC members. The CAMH’s Teen Council has received national attention recently for its participation in a published study of similar programs (with the Whitney, the Walker, and LA MOCA) entitled “Room to Rise: The Lasting Impact of Intensive Teen Programs in Art Museums.”
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
Academia is where ideas go to die; there they are analyzed to death and although the Walker, Whitney, CAMH, MOCA would deny it, this video is a prime example of the ‘bean-counters’ making the ‘experientials’ jump through the hoop in order to justify their existence. We’ve seen this before: the slick video, the ‘gifted’ subjects to be featured with their ‘gifted’ insights held up as productive gemstones to be examined by all to confirm their conferred status (and bolster the status quo). If humans don’t understand this basic fencing-in of the heretofore wilderness landscape of unrestricted abode that will be art, then so be it. I focus my gaze on the far-off edges… administrative prerogatives be damned.
the above rant references a linked vimeo video (http://camh.org/news/room-to-rise) referenced in the article above, just for clarity.