Teen Art Connections

TAC Attack!

2012-02-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hello again! It's Haleemah and Zoe here to talk about what some of us Teen Art Connect interns have been up to lately, and to share some photos of TACs hard at work at the Museum. We're right past the halfway point of our Teen Art Connect internship here at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and we just wanted to check in to keep you all updated on what's been going on.

Zoe: I've really enjoyed the whole TAC program so far. I've learned a lot and the people are amazing. What about you, Haleemah?

Haleemah: Yeah, me too! It's really cool here. I love working in coat check and helping out around the museum.

Zoe: I'm so excited for our new exhibit to open this Thursday, Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought.

Haleemah: Yeah, I can't wait for Preschool Gallery Hour next Sunday as well!

Zoe and Haleemah: We hope you enjoy the pictures and hope to see you at the CJM soon!

Moises is #1 at coat check!

TACs Anthony and Francesca staying hydrated (and making silly faces!)

Zoe giving the thumbs-up at work.

Evan working with a new volunteer.

An attempt at a high five by Anthony and Francesca.

Success! Teamwork is fun!

Francesca talking to a museum visitor.

Nina hard at work in drop-in art-making.

Great Apprenticeship !!!

2012-02-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!!!

It's me Haleemah again and I'm here to talk a little about my apprenticeship here at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. I have recently started working in the development department with Aliza Aronson, manger of Individual Giving and my mentor. On the first day of sitting and talking with her I was pleased to see how joyful and enthusiastic she was to work with me; [making me feel very welcomed].

Going in I had no idea of how the Museum obtained money from donors and I thought only rich people gave money, but boy did Aliza put me on game. She told me how the development department was categorize into six sections; Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, Membership, Database, Events, and Circle of Friends (those that donate over $1,000). Each section helps contribute and make the development department possible in their own special way, but we can get to how another time.

I learned that she makes a lot of phones calls to members and non members and gives information on the Museum, and the programs we offer for example, my Teen Art Connect Internship. I learned that she has to do research and remember a lot of names and information about people, which for me can be very difficult (so I have no clue how she does it). The most significant thing I learned from her was that people who have less money seem to donate more. I found this amazing, because I always thought it were the better-off people who made all the donations. Through, this apprenticeship I hope to obtain some communication skills and learn some office skills (like working with database) to help me with my future career; entrepreneurship. Overall, she is really kind and heart warming and I am very excited now, though at the beginning I was unsure to work with her.

Always busy...

What's up with all these apprenticeships? Let me tell you!

2012-02-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

Hello!
This is Zoe again, another one of the Teen Art Connect interns here at the CJM. As you've probably noticed from the previous few posts, it's that exciting time of the TAC program when we all start our apprenticeships with a certain department in the Museum. This apprenticeship component is something that begins about halfway through the program, in January. There are many different departments in the Museum, such as marketing, public programs, curatorial, and education. The members of these various departments are the driving force behind the Museum, and they're really what makes things happen here (even if they're behind the scenes!). Each TAC has a choice of which department they would like to apprenticeship with, and almost everyone got exactly what they wanted. Personally, I knew all along that I would love to work with Public Programs, and that's where I ended up! The chance to work closely with a mentor, while learning so much about the musem, is arguably one of the most valuable parts of the TAC internship (and maybe one of my favorite parts!). These apprenticeships continue on until the end of the program, and from now until then, I know all my fellow TACs and I will learn, grow, and help out around here a lot. All this new responsiblity also means we're working a few more hours a week, which is exciting because it usually means we get to come upstairs where all the offices are and work at our own desk!

Although I've only had two meetings with the Public Programs Manager and my mentor, Gravity Goldberg, I've already been put to work. We started out with an initial meeting where we got to know each other better, discussed my duties, and came to some agreements about my apprenticeship. Gravity also asked me what skills relating to my apprenticeship I was confident about, and if I had any skills I wanted to work on. I mentioned that I enjoy talking to the public and working with people, and I'm also quite organized. However, I wanted to improve my overall confidence in striking up a conversation with someone at a public event, for example. Also, much like other TACs in their respective apprenticeships, I wanted to work on general office skills. After this helpful meeting, I began working on organizing and categorizing all the papers and information for all the past events in 2011. It amazed me how much thought and work went into every single event. For example, a previous event at the Museum like the concert with Alicia Jo Rabins and Girls in Trouble required months and months of planning, and hundreds of papers to rent instruments, secure media releases, etc. I then went on to learn about all the upcoming events for this year, such as the opening of our new exhibit, Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought (on February 16, this Thursday!), and I have to say, I'm beyond excited to help out with them!

Anyways, I know all of us TACs are going to have a fun journey along our apprenticeships, and I hope to check in again soon.

My Apprenticeship!

2012-02-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, it's Evan. I am a TAC here and this is my first blog post! I've been working here for about seven months now and all of it has been a blast. From meeting new people to working new jobs, I've learned a lot about the CJM and the people who make this museum such a great place to visit and work in.
But that is just the beginning! At the start of this week, I started my apprenticeship upstairs with Cecile, in Education. Among other things, I get to be a part of a new program where I will work and mentor a teen with a special needs here in the museum. I am so excited to meet my colleague this week. From what I've heard about him, he and I will get along great. I haven't heard much else about my duties in my apprenticeship, but I can't wait to begin!

Apprenticeship!

2012-02-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

It's Iedryn, one of the wonderful Tacs you can find roaming around the Contemporary Jewish Museum! So last Tuesday I started my apprenticeship in the Marketing department, which I was so glad I got! It was the one I was hoping to get out of all the possible apprenticeships. I was really scared and nervous about the first day, because I wasn't too sure about what I was going to be doing or how my mentors would be. Turns out I had nothing to worry about, in fact I should had been more excited than anything else! I remember feeling so intimidated, because I thought I was only meeting with one person instead I was meeting with 3 people! One of them told that I was going to get put straight to work, but he was just teasing me. They took me out for some hot chocolate at a nice little cafe about 2 blocks away from the CJM. When we got there a Japanese television show was doing a documentary about the cafe, and they asked if they could record us drinking our coffee and hot chocolate. IT WAS AWESOME! Kathy then used the Japanese Tv show crew as an example of marketing. When we got back to the Museum I got work a little bit on the Battle of the Bands flier, for the remaining time I had that day. A few days later my co-worker Lena and I finished the Battle of the Bands flier! When I asked to be a part of the marketing department I was not quite sure exactly what I'd be doing. I thought I would have to make fliers, and what not, which I did. However that is not the only thing they do in marketing. I am very excited to see what this apprenticeship has in store for me. Keep you posted! =D

I Love It Here ! ! !

2012-01-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Me in the Yud Gallery

First let me say I love it here at the CJM!!! Being able to work here has been more than a pleasure. Most of the time I feel like I am getting paid to have fun. The Teen Art Connect program here has helped me transform dramatically. I have gained patience and phenomenal communication skills since I have been here.

Before coming a part of this program I was very timid and shy, I had no idea how to start yet alone continue a conversation with others. Though, with time of being here I am now capable of entering a room full of strangers and exiting with tons of new friends. I am so proud and glad to say that I am a member of the CJM and I am very grateful for being able to participate in such a program.

In Fall 2012 I will be the first member of my family that will be attending college (Notre Dame de Namur to be exact) and I feel much more eager and prepare to attend after being a TAC. No matter what obstacles college might throw my way I will be able to overcome them, because I have been prep by the TAC program already. I now know how to keep on pushing and going even when days are tough, because here at the CJM they say, "Fake it until you make it". Which to me means that you have to keep on being positive no matter what negativity comes your way and in the end you'll get positive results. I have learned some significant virtues such as being open minded and having acceptance to others opinions. I will take everything I learned here and apply it to my general acts in life.

Overall, it brings great sadness to me that I will have to end my time here and I will sincerely miss all the staff and friends I made here and hope that we will all stay in touch. I honestly believe that our time here as TACs was way too short, and if I had one wish it would be that we could be permanent.

TAC Holiday Party

2011-12-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

Hello all! My name is Francesca and I'm one of fifteen Teen Art Connect interns here at the CJM, writing for the very first time on the blog to document the fun outing that us TACs and our boss Leah took last week to celebrate our first months working here and the holidays.

We started off visiting the neighboring Children's Creativity Museum, located just across the street at Yerba Buena, to film an awesome yet ironic music video to "Jingle Bell Rock" (CJM interns, jingle bells, christmas-what?) in the museum's media area. Our fellow museum-intern C.I.T.Y guides helped us create what turned out to be a hilarious and festive holiday music video, complete with costumes and awkward dancing.

TACs Monique, Ema, and Haleemah enjoy the carousel

We then used our convenient museum connections to get a free ride on the Children's Creavity Museum's carousel. We all had a great time acting like 5-year-olds and enjoying eachother's company on the oh-so-special merry-go-round, but had to rush out after for our next activity...bowling!

After getting our shoes on and teams set up, we began to bowl, with some TACs standing out as experienced and talented bowlers, while others took the roles of cheerleading. The prize for "Most Skills" went to Landis, who wowed us all with her many strikes and nonchalant attitude. The prizes for "Best Cheerleader" came out to be a tie, with Moises and Iedryn keeping good spirits the whole time. And, last but certainly not least, the prize for "Best Loser" went to Ema. Although many of her balls ended up in the gutter, she had agreat attitude the whole time.

"Best Loser" Ema laughs with "Best Cheerleader" Iedryn

"Best Skills" winner Landis celebrates with the always-enthusuastic Anthony

Nina, Iedryn, and Lena bowl

Our awesome boss Leah provided us with a pizza and soda dinner, and we ended the evening with a bag of gelt for each of us and a nice walk back to the CJM.

Thanks for reading, and happy ChrismaHanuKwanSolstikah to all!

-Francesca

The Second Time Around

2011-11-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

This is Lena, here to give you a little background on what it's like for me as a second-year intern at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. If you've been following the blog for a while, you may remember my posts from as early as the summer of 2010. I started as a Teen Art Connect intern the summer after my freshman year, and now that I'm a junior I can barely remember a time when working at the CJM wasn't part of my life!

Me working coat check!

In my first year, I worked on developing skills needed to be successful in any workplace like time management, communication, public speaking and taking initiative, as well as specific skills for working in a museum, like how to work coat check and give an architecture or gallery tour. My fabulous and encouraging boss Leah Greenberg, who runs the teen programs at the CJM, helped me so much in this department-- I felt like there was a certain degree of throwing-us-into-the-fray, but that was completely balanced by Leah's unwavering support.

Reading to kids in the Curious George exhibit!

This year, my role as a TAC has changed in many ways. My goal at the beginning of the year was to help Leah with duties she would be performing herself, so as to relieve some of the pressure on her (because she has to do a lot!). Officially, I'm now called a Senior Teen Art Connect Intern: Youth Programs Assistant (sounds faaancy, right? Only you have to say it in a British accent). One change is that I work more hours this year since I began my apprenticeship early, instead of starting in January or February. In my apprenticeship hours with Leah, I've worked on a variety of projects like planning trainings for the TACs and developing a proposal for an activity in the Houdini gallery with another TAC, Francesca. Working in admin with other TACs is the most fun for me because we get to joke around and hang out while collaborating on projects.

My architecture tour group in action!

Leah's also been giving me more opportunities as a returning TAC to work with other administrators, and recently that has involved my love of visual art, which has been really cool. Zoe, Kyle and I got to design Houdini-themed prints for the upcoming Family Gala, and then we worked with Daniel from the Education Department to edit them so they were exactly what he was looking for. It was crazy fun to get payed for doing something we love!
Overall, working at the museum for a second year has so far been a great experience, and equally as fun as last year. And I'm really enjoying having more responsiblity, since I feel like I'm moving closer to becoming a real adult with concrete goals. I'll be back with more updates as the year progresses!

Later, alligators.
-Lena

Architecture and Families

2011-10-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I'm Anthony, again, one of the fifteen TAC interns at the CJM, blogging today.

A lot has happened within the last month. We've had a workshop for teens and a fabulous, fun, free, Family Day.

A few weeks ago, Ronald Rael from Rael San Fratello Architects came to the CJM for our Art Buffs workshop on Architecture and Activism. He showed us a really cool keynote presentation that contained a lot of his work. All of these projects were concerned with breaking the "rules" and allowing people to interact with each other. My personal favorite was The Bay Line, one of their projects that transforms the eastern span of the Bay Bridge into public and private spaces.

After his presentation, we got into small groups and created our own architecture with a purpose. We only had one limitation-we had to build a bus stop. With that in mind, we got to work, building and creating our own socially conscious structures.

I was extremely ecstatic to be able to build a model using our ideas, but being able to see what the other groups came up with was the highlight of this whole experience. One of the groups created an eco-friendly bus stop that was part of a city wide competition. Whichever neighborhood gets the most points (recycles the most) gets perks. It was such a good idea. I'm a little bit jealous that I didn't come up with that one.

Ronald Rael posted a little something on his website about us. It's here!

Moving on...

... Last week was Yerba Buena Family Day presented by Target. That meant that admission to the CJM was FREE! Along with that, people, people, and more people came here.

During the day, there was a lot going on. There was continuous art-making activities. There were multiple performances of a magic show that I chose not to see and now regret. Of course, Houdini: Art and Magic was open to everyone. And then there was the people greeting.

Oh, the people greeting. Around two hours before closing, Leah, our (the TAC) boss lady, made an executive decision to station me as a greeter at the bottom of the staircase. At first, I kind of just stood there and like stared at the people who passed by. That wasn't good enough. Leah wanted me to say something along the lines of, "Hello, how are you doing?" to the visitors while smiling.

The whole thing was pretty awkward, but sooner or later, I got the hang of things. I even saw people smiling back and replying to my greetings. While I got pushed a little out of my comfort zone, I'm happy that I did. Growth requires work. Growth requires a little pain. Growth requires sweat, which I'm pretty sure I was covered with. Growth is good.

Overall, Family Day was great. The CJM was bustling, always a good sight to see. Moreover, my working here as part of the TAC internship is proving to be an experience of growth and support, a wonderful mix indeed.

This is Not Supposed to Be Dramatic

2011-09-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

My name is Anthony. Yes, I know, a new name on the block. The Contemporary Jewish Muesum, once again, has a new batch of Teen Art Connect interns.

Every year, the Contemporary Jewish Muesum "hires" fifteen (15) teens to take part in the Teen Art Connect program. The program allows these teens to learn more about the inner workings of a muesum while experiencing and learning about Jewish culture. As new TACs, we've been learning and learning and learning and learning. We've gotten new responsibilities and roles, not to mention a all the rules to follow.

First, some introductions. All of you are probably familiar with Lena. She's the only returning TAC from last year. The remaining fourteen are probably not so familiar. On the grid of portraits below, we have Stacie, Moises, Haleemah, Landis, Zoe, Iedryn, Monique, Evan, Nina, Kyle, Francesca, Ema, Simone, and, of course, me. I'd like to say that we've gotten to know each other quite well in the three and a half months that we have been here. Training with these people is fun! Work shifts with these people are fun! Fun is in the air! Yay! Fun!

Because we've taken positions that we aren't familiar with, we've had to be sponges and take in just about everything related to what we have to do. This is where are training sessions come in handy. We began this internship with a huge two week training session in June during which we came to the museum Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Training was definitely a mix of school-type instruction and play. We discussed expectations, an important component of working with a team of people. In addition, we learned about tour styles that we should apply to our upcoming architecture tours. We worked with identity, Judaism, and art too. Finally, we visited various muesums around San Francisco and met up with some of their teen interns.

After that chunk of training we got to work. Oh the horror! Just kidding. I was a bit nervous when I arrived for my first shift, but I was lucky to be here with fellow TACs and Annie, the visitor services manager at the CJM. She's super important to us because we almost always check in with her when we arrive. We have a few different types of shifts. Many of us run coat check on the days when we are assigned. We also get to help out at the StoryCorps booth at the museum. Our prescence is also requested for public events and administrative help as well. TACs learn to be quite the versatile worker.

So far, my experience at the muesum has been really great. I've done things I've never done before. I've met people I would never have even talked to. I've interacted with adults in a work environment. It's been a wild experience, just not the animal or the party kind. I feel incredibly lucky to have been given this opportunity to learn and work and talk and study and socialize all at the same time, and I hope that the following months will bring me undeniable edification.

I think that's it for now.

Okay, bye.

Anthony

From the StoryCorps Blog to Ours

2011-06-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

From Frank's blog post on the StoryCorps Blog:

"One of my favorite groups is comprised of the young people in the program that the CJM calls Teen Art Connect. They are recruited to do a variety of tasks at the museum as paid interns: Docents for Architectural Tours and Gallery Tours; activities for children and families, art and craft projects; they’ve even worn a Curious George suit or other costume for storytelling events and other programs! They also assist participants when filling out forms, answering questions and being the first welcoming face of StoryCorps.

Two of the interns, Carmelisa and Eliza, also worked directly with us doing research on community-based organizations for us to contact in the Bay, and culminated their internship by planning a day of recordings at the booth. A few weeks ago on a Saturday, when the booth is not usually open, these two teens brought in participants through outreach contacts that they had developed. They had full run of the show: reaching out to participants, telling them about StoryCorps, scheduling them, and coordinating the day of interviews to ensure it went smoothly. And it did!

Eliza did a recording at the Booth with her grandmother, which you can read about here."

StoryCorps Booth Day

2011-06-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is Carmelisa blogging today, one of the fifteen TAC interns at the CJM. Within the TAC program, I am also in an apprenticeship with StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and the beliefs the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life stories, along with Eliza.
For our apprenticeship's final project, our mentors, Natalia and Sophia, gave us an amazing opportunity for us to really see how StoryCorps works. We were given our very own Booth Day. On this day, the interview appointments we scheduled ourselves will come in and we are responsible for fascilitating the process from getting forms filled out to making sure our participants are prepared. For this project, we had to do research on organizations that fulfill StoryCorps' goals. It wasn't just about finding random people to come in for an interview. There are a number of our participants that need to be from particular ethnic backgrounds. It's StoryCorps' way of creating a diverse archive and reflecting the true community as a whole, not just one part of it.

As Eliza and I researched different organizations and tried contacting them, I realized how hard it is to reach people. It was either no one answered their phones or they didn't reply back to the email. Then it came down to just a few weeks before our Booth Day and we were both scrambling for people to fill our interview slots. I asked a lot of my friends, family, and even my teachers. No one really knew what the organization was, but when I explained to them what it was all about and how it worked, they got really interested.
I now understand how word of mouth is the best way of reaching out to people. It's different when it's a phone call or an email, you are limited to what can be expressed. But in person, it's so much more powerful. It's like you see their emotions radiating just because they're right in front of you. You're not just reading text or hearing a voice from some stranger. The greater effect is the way you present yourself and how you persuade people to come with your first impression. The impact of being physically there makes all the difference.

Filling out forms before the interview.

It was less than a week before our Booth Day, and we only had two confirmed interviews. I finally got two friends of mine to come and my teacher and his family. Eliza was able to get another interview slot filled. We had one more unconfirmed slot, but they weren't able to come.

Rosa and her mom after their interview.

Our Booth Day had arrived. Our first two scheduled appointments went by smoothly. For our 1pm slot, we needed to find a walk-in. Eliza was walking around the museum and she managed to find a mother and son who were on vacation from L.A that agreed to interview. We thought the rest of the day would be over, but then our 2pm was running late and the clock was ticking. So instead of the scheduled interview, we found another walk-in eager for the opportunity. The rest of the day went by very well and we left the museum feeling proud and accomplished.


Participants in the Booth.

A lot of things could of went wrong, like a no show or some technical difficulties, or even some angry people. But I feel like our mentors prepared us for our Booth Day and when we hit a rough patch, we knew how to play our cards right. This rewarding experience has shown me how a nonprofit organization works and how hard you need to work to make it all happen. It was a lot of fun. I got to work with really cool people.

My mentors were GREAT. They were really supportive, worked with our crazy schedules, and made this apprenticeship something to look forward to. What really stuck in my mind is what my mentors told me about their experiences while working in StoryCorps. I got to experience them while working as a StoryCorps intern. Some participants came out very happy and thankful for the experience. And there were others that seemed overwhelmed. I remember seeing a participants face look so surprised at herself because of everything she was never able to say until that day in the Booth. Our Booth Day has shown me how a simple idea could affect the lives of many. StoryCorps has certainly changed the way the lives of Americans will be remembered.

(If you want to read more, you can check out the blog post that Frank, a StoryCorps facilitator, wrote about us and our Booth Day!

Purim Party

2011-04-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

Shalom and Hag Sameach!

My name is Florencia and I am a Teen Art Connect Intern here at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

As part of my internship I chose to do my apprenticeship in the Education Department. One of the tasks that was given to me was to organize and plan our Purim Party. I came up with ideas for ways our party could be educational and super fun. And if i do say so myself, I believe I succeeded tremendously in my goal.

The Purim Party was a wonderful opportunity for TACs who aren't Jewish and for those of us who are, as well as the teenage public, to learn about one of the most exciting and important Jewish holidays through costumes, food, story telling and grogger making. The night started with making groggers which are noise makers used to "Boo" the evil character Haman in the story of Purim. After our groggers were made, the TACs and other teens got into costume and make-up, ready to be a part of a narrated improvisation of the story. This activity allowed everyone to learn the story that all Jews around the world celebrate in a fun, hysterical and interactive way.

Everyone was wearing smiles from beginning to end, the giggles were contagious. After the (imaginary) curtains were drawn and the show came to a close, everyone ran over to the table filled with delicious treats. We invited people to participate in a bake off, which required home-made hamentashen (yummy Jewish cookies made specially for Purim).

People brought in a variety of delicious recipes and we all got to taste and vote on which hamentashen we found the most savory after having worked up an appetite. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners took home a prize, but everyone took home smiles and full stomachs.

My experience of the night was wonderful, not only because I enjoyed the activities and food but mostly because of the joyful stress-free atmosphere that surrounded me. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves while dressed in silly boas, wigs, and dresses and everyone was fully engaged and participating. At the end of the night, I took a moment to take it all in and felt completely satisfied and relieved that all the hard work I had put into planning this event had truly paid off. The TACs all put in a tremendous amount of work and effort to help put the party together as well. Lena wrote an amazing script, other TACs divided and conquered to bring in what was needed: costumes, makeup, hamentashen, music and decorations.

Hope your Purim celebrations were just as good, or better, than ours!

Florencia

Farewell from the TACs

2011-04-10T11:20:00.001-07:00

Hannah Lukanuski

Hey blogosphere!

Nearing the end of our time here at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, I wanted to take some time to appreciate the learning I’ve done thus far. This internship and the specific apprenticeship I had with the curatorial department have both been invaluable experiences that I hope to carry with me when I leave for University of Washington (!) in the fall.

As an apprentice, I’ve learned to navigate a computer and the various printers of the CJM like no other. The abundance of knowledge I’ve gained and the information I’ve gleaned cannot, however, be captured by a statement of my current Microsoft Word prowess. By engaging directly with materials for upcoming exhibits, and more often than not for Gertrude Stein: Five Stories, I’ve come to a huge appreciation for the effort that goes into assembling such an exhibit, even with other institutions as collaborators. Organizing photos of Gertrude and listening to her poetry readings truly brings history alive, as corny as that sounds. Hearing the voice of a close friend of Matisse and Picasso gives a life and voice to masterpieces I’ve encountered on multiple continents. For some reason the technological aspect – that she could record her voice and that these recordings are now online- makes her presence and therefore the presence of those artists feel much more recent. That’s really the beauty of the Contemporary Jewish Museum and indeed the entire art world- the constant addition of perspectives to a growing network of opinions and approach to art and its history.

Chanelle's Apprenticeship

2011-03-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Hey it's TAC Chanelle just checking in to tell you about this fabulous apprenticeship that I am doing. During the second half of our wonderful world of being a TAC intern, we get to participate in apprenticeships that show us the many different jobs of being an actual staff at a museum. I am being apprenticing with Cecile, who is now helping me learn about the different experiences and information in relations to her position as the volunteer and tour coordinator. So far, we have been on a few tours and did a substantial amount of office work, which balances out great. During the tours I would help facilitate and assist with smooth transitioning. I like doing that because it is, slowly but surely, helping me conquer my fear of shyness when I talk in front of large groups of people.

Chanelle and Cecile

Up til this time I have really enjoyed the different people who incorporate themselves with the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the volunteer experiences that are offered. I was really in awe about the fact that these people come from all walks of life from around the world and enjoy the same thing (which is helping out in the museum). Whether it is being in a monkey suit or just working coat check, they usually come back and volunteer more
Most of all I've enjoyed just being a coworker and and a mentee. I absolutely love checking in and getting to ~~meet~~ know some of the other CJM Staff. Overall I am having a great time being a TAC/mentee and I can't wait until next week when Cecile and I will meet again.

Art Buffs Interfaith Connection Field Trip

2011-02-08T17:48:00.001-08:00

It was a pleasant surprise to find out that all the TAC interns and some friends would have the opportunity to take a field trip to the St. Ignatious Church. We were also able to look at, observe, and reflect upon some art pieces that were in display, which was an unusual and exciting opportunity. (Being able to observe a gallery in a church). Especially since many of us had never been to or around St. Ignatious.
This church is a church on the campus of the University of San Francisco. It serves as a parish of the Catholic Archidocese of San Francisco in addition to being the university's chapel.
The TACS enjoyed a tour of the church, a particially guided discussion and picinc on the beautiful grass, and a chance to write haiku-like poetry about the intriguing artwork. After this we took a the winding, tiring, and exhilarating walk up to the bell tower. Here we took breathtaking pictures and enjoyed the view. Before we knew it it was time to head back down the stairs. We shared our favorite poems, and felt the inspiration around us.

Tempo Teen Movie Night

2011-02-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Raiders of the Lost Ark!

I'm TAC Leah K-R, and it's taken a week for all the TACs to recooperate from the awesomeness that was our Tempo Teen Movie Night. If you didn't hear about our movie night that happened last Saturday, I'm sorry but you all missed out! I wish I could have begun blogging about this the moment the movie night ended but sleeping seemed a lot more logical at the time. The movie night took a lot of hard work and planning so we were all wiped before the movie night even started. But the environment was so chill and cozy that we were all able to kick back and relax. If there are just a few words that could sum up the movie night that would be:

food, friends and fun.

Beanbags>Chairs

Previous TACs Nancy L. and Mandy
knew from experience how cool this event would be!

Everyone who came participated in a treasure hunt where you got raffle tickets to win an iPod shuffle, took photos with our very own Indiana Jones, grabbed some glowsticks and noisemakers, and ate delicious snacks-- slushies, popcorn, caramel corn, white cheddar popcorn, and truckloads of candy! It was fun and exciting and an all around crazy fun time.

TAC/Talented Photographer Lauren

taking pictures

TAC Zach as Indiana Jones

That alligator is fierce!

TAC Rosa whipping Indiana into shape!

TACs Johnny and Lena are glowing!

Johnny is making some noise while making some slushies

Guests sucking on their Ring Pops

and cozying up into their blankets!

My friends Nancy, Me, and Christine
just hanging out.

TACs Rosa and Christina
all dressed up!

TAC Lena
gaurding the gummy worms!

The Food Crew:
Johnny, Lena, Me and Harry

Johnny, Harry and I
love our popcorn and slushies

The Happy TAC Family!

2011-01-20T00:24:00.000-08:00

watch the promo video for the

Tempo Teen Movie Night!!!

it's quick and painless. and funny.

please.CLICK HERE. thanks.

Lena's Tips: A Mother/Daughter Experience at StoryCorps

2011-01-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

The first time I heard about StoryCorps, during the Teen Art Connect summer training at the CJM, my immediate reaction was "I need to do that." As a representative of StoryCorps explained how the nonprofit organization was started, shared its mission to preserve the stories of ordinary people, and played some heartwarming snippets of stories, I was already planning out my interview with my mother. I think the magic of StoryCorps for me is that it is an opportunity to record the stories I'd heard my whole life and guarantee that my children, and their children, etc., would always know a piece of my mother.

The night before, I sat down with my mom to map out our interview, which I highly recommend since it gives both participants time to formulate thoughts before the microphones switch on. (The notes we made that night helped a lot to alleviate any awkward pauses or "um"s!). I also looked through the archive of 3-minute clips and preconceived list of questions on the StoryCorps website to get ideas. The questions I compiled spanned from my mother's childhood to early adulthood to the future. After a lengthy discussion, we decided that instead of me only interviewing her, the experience would be most fun as a give-and-take. We planned that she would repeat some questions back to me after answering them. Looking over the detailed list of questions, I felt confident that our conversation would flow well and accomplish the purpose of the interview: to memorialize not just my mom's stories, but our relationship.

When we arrived at the CJM and ducked into the toasty, welcoming StoryCorps booth, I was a little nervous and a lot excited. We jumped right in with my first question, "What is your favorite memory from your childhood?" My mom smiled and began to talk about the mischief she got into with her best friend and partner in crime. The topic shifted to high school, and I was surprised to hear that she "had one foot out the door the whole time." We discussed the differences between our high school experiences and what she hopes college will be like for me, and for the first time I could really imagine my mother as a teenager.
The most thought-provoking question of the interview in my opinion was, "What are you afraid of?" This was something we had never really expressed, so it felt revealing to go in-depth about our fears, and reassuring to get consolation. We ended the interview positively with what we are thankful for about my Grandma and Papa.

Every StoryCorps experience is different. In the interview with my mom, we focused mostly on anecdotes that I had heard before but wanted commemorated, and on capturing our relationship. For others, it may be more of an opportunity to learn something completely new about their interview partner. But in any situation, my advice is to consider what you want remembered about the other person, and to take your StoryCorps experience seriously. It can make a great memory!

Preschool Gallery Hour

2011-01-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,
My name is Rosa and I am one of this year's TACs. It's a quiet Sunday at the CJM and I thought it would be simply a splendid time to write my first blog post! The question became what to write about? There are so many interesting things coming up (tours and talks and teen nights, oh my!) But while I am excited for these upcoming, I decided to talk about something I already have experience with: Preschool Gallery Hour

PGH happens every second Sunday of the month from 10 am to 11:30 am when the Museum is open only for preschoolers and their families. I have worked every one of them since I started working here. Let me start by saying it is so much fun. The museum floods with a sea of the cutest children and we put on all kinds of age-appropriate activities. We have art making and interactive gallery tours. We also read books aloud and have special musical and acrobatic guest performers (anyone from circus troupes to family music bands to beat boxers have dazzled us with their talents). Recently, Curious George himself has been making appearances and the kids really love him (a note: as someone who has often been inside the monkey suit, it is hot and sweaty and bulky and some of the most fun I have ever had at work).

I have had a blast at every single Preschool Gallery Hours. Whether I'm holding signs (yep that's me above) or reading books or cutting paper. Hopefully, I will see all you readers with kids at the next one!

Ping and Grandma's Trip to the Museum: StoryCorps

2010-12-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

StoryCorps is rooted in the oral histories of ordinary people. They create a place for every-day people to come and record a conversation. From a listener's perspective, there is something very powerful from hearing only voices. Our society is focused so much on images in advertisements and technology that I have a completely different experience when I am solely listening to a conversation without staring at the people who are creating it.

When I first heard about StoryCorps, I was driving in the car on my way to school on a foggy, Friday morning. A brief clip came on between a husband and wife, thoughtfully recalling the many years they had spent together. It was strange to be listening to what seemed like a private conversation on National Public Radio, but I recognized without seeing their faces, that they were sharing a special piece of their lives. When I found out that the CJM is one of three sites in the country that holds a StoryCorps recording booth I was extremely excited and decided to bring my Grandma in for a chat.

   If just asking her to participate made me nervous, you can imagine how nervous I was when we picked her up from her apartment with all of her stories in hand and neatly typed out. I knew that my Grandma was worried about spontaneity and that she might forget something, but I wanted an organic conversation to take shape in our time together.

   When we arrived, we settled into the cozy booth. The soundproof walls and warm light made me feel much more comfortable as we began our sound checks. Before I knew it, our facilitator Sophia was giving us the thumbs up and we began.

    " Grandma, tell me about your childhood in China, what did your house look like? How did your mother spend her days?"

   As she began to talk I realized that this was one of the first times I had ever been alone with my Grandmother. I listened to her map our her childhood in Shanghai and what it was like to grow up in a multi-racial family in the early 20th century. It surprised me how much I had never known about my Grandma and her family. Over the course of 40 minutes I listened mostly to her favorite and most memorable parts about China. The smallest details about her home and even the recipe for her "1-2-3-4 cake" were enchanting. My questions were often clumsy compared to her eloquence, but in the comfort and privacy of our space in the booth, it didn't matter. The time went by in a flash, and by the end of our conversation I felt that I had been exposed to only a small piece of a full chest of stories.

   StoryCorps taught me many things. It allowed me to converse with someone I love in a way that I can physically keep and listen to forever. It also showed me the power of listening. I learned that there is a certain skill and art to telling stories and asking for stories, even the ones that you may know by heart. StoryCorps made the space and time for me to listen and appreciate an extraordinary person in my life and it is an experience everyone should try.Over these holidays, think about the value of listening and how refreshing it might be to sit down and converse with someone that you love.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    Eliza Jiaping Kingsley-Ma
    Teen Art Connect Intern.

TAC Holiday Party

2010-12-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

TACs monkeying around with Curious George

I hope you are all celebrating this winter break by staying inside with some hot chocolates. The TACs did this just last week at our holiday party. We threw a cozy little gathering in the board room, where we had friends, food and fun. We even got to hang out with previous TACs! We all got to meet them and they got to reminisce and catch up on good times. They even remembered interviewing a few of us!

Previous TACs Nancy, Vanessa and Liana
making gingerbread houses

We had stations to make holiday cards, tote bags, make gingerbread houses, spin the driedel, get some delicious snacks and just lounge around. We listened to holiday music and watched a TAC slideshow filled with photos of both previous and current TACs. Not to mention Curious George paid us a visit as well. The atmosphere was perfect, a soothing feeling before the hurricane of finals. There was intial stress about the timing of the party, but it all worked out. All the TACs chipped in with prepation for the event, and was pulled off great.

Tha TACs working hard at artmaking

My "Hummus House" made of carrots, matzo and hummus.
Take that traditional gingerbread!

Chanelle, Adar, Me (Leah K-R), Carmelisa and Olivia
having an ultimate driedel tournament

All of us decorated the room, prepared the activities, got food, brought music and personally invited the former TACs. It was an extraordinary way to celebrate the holidays, is there anything better than simply kicking back with friends? Well, maybe kicking back with friends whilst eating donuts...

The Pile!

Stay warm, dry and safe this Holiday,

Leah K-R

Check out...

2010-10-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

...our new photos

on Flickr !!!!!!!!

2010-10-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Photos and thoughts about
DIASPORA
from our
collaborative exhibit with MoAD
Who Am I?
More Than Meets the Eye.

That's me, Leah K-R, on the left.

Leah Kelly-Reingold

I was adopted from China when I was only a few months old. My parents were raised very religiously, my mom Catholic and my dad Jewish. When I was the three, a baby sister was welcomed into our family from Cambodia. Our family created a very eclectic culture and tradition. My family is not very religious but we still celebrate the holidays from both religions as well as eat the food. My sister and I attended Sunday school, Hebrew school and some Jewish summer camps. I learned Mandarin and Cantonese, traveled to China twice, and keep in touch with the eight other Chinese girls I was adopted with. I hope to maintain cultural practices that I view as family traditions and ancestral information. I hope to keep my knowledge of the Chinese language, and learn Hebrew. I hope to travel around the world, as I’ve already been to China and Israel, next on my list would probably be Ireland and Cambodia. The most important parts of culture are the celebrations we have as a family over food, our annual Christmas Eve dinners, our small Passover Seders and our occasional Chinese New Years banquets. The most important part of culture to me is celebrating and experiencing all it has to offer.

That's me, Eliza, on the right.

Eliza Kingsley-Ma

When I think about Diaspora, I imagine a large web; different strands of thin silky string meticulously branching off from each other yet delicately connected. Diaspora is a fragile thing in my mind, because it is the dispersal or separation of a large group of people. It is sometimes brought on by human force but it can also be created solely by time. As time moves along, each culture experiences its own everlasting Diaspora. A new generation brings out a different branch of culture, expanding the web. I am a product of many different Diasporas conjoining, but I am also a creator and contributor to Diaspora.

Florencia Hasson

I feel connected to different people in different ways. I feel connected with my family across space. The majority of my family lives in Uruguay and even though there is a lot of physical space between us I still feel one of the strongest connections and pulls to that country and to the culture and values practiced there. I feel connected to friends through the time I’ve spent getting to know them and through our similar cultural backgrounds. Since I go to the Jewish Community High School of the Bay the majority of my friends are Jewish. Therefore, I share many of the similar traditions and beliefs with them. All in all I am able to distinguish different and unique relationships that I have with the people in my life through different connections and cultural beliefs and similarities that we share.

This is me, Carmelisa.

Carmelisa Morales

Diaspora is not something I usually think about. In a way, I feel like diaspora is a form of identity; you are facing your roots to discover who you are. I can say I am part of the diaspora of the Filipinos and that can tie into how we are connected to Spain and the US because of their ties to colonizing us, but I’d rather not. Culturally, the connections I make with my diaspora are through religion, traditions and the way in which we do some things. I don’t feel like it defines me. I chose to do these things, but I also chose to do other things. As an individual, I’m making my own culture. I believe people look at their culture as a foundation or background and the intricate details they put into effect make it a different, more unique culture all on its own. The most important thing for me is to live life, no matter which diaspora I come from because in the end, that is what will surprise you.

Who Am I: More than Meets the Eye

2010-10-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Leah K-R, and I have been a TAC at the CJM for about three months now. We have recently dabbled in events for the Contemporary Jewish Museum in a collaboration with the interns from The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD). We joined forces to have an art crawl with both museums. One stop focuses on performances related to the Maira Kalman exhibit here at the CJM. The other stop of the event is a reception for our (the interns') exhibit at MoAD.

The exhibit explores our ideas about identity and diaspora, so we titled it
"Who Am I: More than Meets the Eye".

Both museums held workshops for the interns with CJM educator and professional painter, Jen Ewing. During our workshop we looked at and discussed the Kalman exhibit and then painted self portraits that express who we are as realistically or abstractly as we wanted.

Both museums also did photography projects (ours was with SF Camerawork and included a workshop with First Exposures mentors and mentees) in which all interns created self portrait photos.

The third component of the exhibit was that interns from both the CJM and MoAD got together and interviewed each other around questions related to identity and culture, diaspora and family. The recorded conversations all started with an explanation of what our names mean - literally or symbolically and it was really interesting to talk about this and hear what others had to say. These recordings are going to be part of the exhibit as well.

We've had multiple meetings with the MoAD interns and learned so much from each other. We were able to hear so many different and creative perspectives that might not have been considered had we not collaborated. We have all separated into groups focusing on curating, food, tech and outreach. We are all doing a lot to prepare for the exhibit opening on 10.10.10. I have been working on outreach with my fellow interns Flo, Zach, Olivia and Lauren. Lauren has put a great magnitude of work into creating the postcards for the exhibit. They look great and the rest of the outreach is trying to figure out effective and creative ways to spread the word about our event. Though it is challenging trying to coordinate meetings and particular tasks, it is fascinating to be working in such a professional yet artistic setting. I am excited to continue working on this project, and anticipating the turnout. I hope it goes well, and I am looking forward to doing similar tasks in the future and seeing improvement.

Shalom friends, and I hope to see you at our exhibition!

Leah

The Little Orange Box - StoryCorps at the CJM

2010-09-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Shalom!

Leah and Florencia are here to talk about our experience in StoryCorps:

        It was September 5th on an early Sunday morning when Leah and I came in to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for our 11-1 shifts. Both Leah and I had not been trained on how to run that interesting little orange box called StoryCorps, so we decided that today was the day! Surrounded by eager co-workers willing to show us the ways we were told to wait for the 11 o'clock appointment that was supposed to come for an interview that morning. We waited for about ten minutes but then it was assumed that the interview would not be happening as planned. After this assumption was determined we were surprisingly offered to take their slot.
        We were so ecstatic to have an opportunity to enter and use the facilities of the little orange box. "What will we talk about?" asked Leah. Our expectations were uncertain but our excitement was never subdued. We entered the booth and were welcomed with professional recording surroundings. There were two large microphones at a small table with two chairs to the right of the room. On the left was a large mysterious box, plentiful in buttons and switches of all sorts and varieties. Next to the mysterious box was another chair with headphones laying on it. The lady who was to facilitate our stay, instructed us to each take a seat at the table with two microphones. She then placed herself at the chair to the left and put on the headphones. She then instructed her attention to the mysterious box and fidgeted with the buttons and switches until she told us to begin our conversation. Leah and I both looked at each other, the excitement pouring out of our eyes and our teeth grinning from ear to ear, however we did not know where to begin so i causally said, "How do you know Sophie Navarro?" (a mutual friend) And that is how it began.
      Twenty minutes later we were told that our time was up. Our conversation had flown so far and personal into truly discovering more about ourselves and each other than we had known before we had entered.We were able to discover how easy it was to have a fluid conversation in such a formal setting. I learned some things about Leah that I would never have dreamed about knowing if I hadn't had such a wonderful opportunity like this. I shared personal stories about my family and background that would never have come up in casual conversation. Because of this formal experience we were able to connect and grow in a way that would not have occurred in our regular settings.

Learn more about StoryCorps (aka the little orange box) and what it has to offer by visiting www.storycorps.org.

Thanks for reading!

Florencia Hasson & Leah Kelly-Reingold

TACs featured in video shorts

2010-09-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Check out these short films that feature some of last year's TACS attempting to pronounce and define Yiddish words. There's a bunch of them on youtube...created by a teen from the New Jewish Film Project ...enjoy!

Interning at the Museum

2010-09-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

     Hey, my name is Chanelle and I am an intern at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California. My co-workers, Carmelisa, Christina, Johnny, Hannah, Lena, Olivia, Adar, Rosa, Florencia, Eliza, Harry, Leah K-R., Zach, Lauren, and I make up the Teen Art Connect program. All 15 of us were chosen from a group of 80 other teens applicants, which makes me feel honored to be apart of this. We come from all over the Bay Area and all come different types of ethnic backgrounds which makes this internship very unique.
     In the beginning of this program, we were interviewed in groups held by former Teen Art Connects (TACs) and our Program Director, Leah G. I was very nervous to go to the interview, but as soon as I got to the room I was welcomed to a bunch of equally nervous teens (which made me feel better). After being selected, we were all asked to attend to a 2- week summer INTENSIVE training. In addition to the TACs, we also had one very special person, named Josh, added to the group. In the short duration of the training, we learned a lot about each other and what we would be doing throughout our year-long internship here at the museum. I learned a substantial amount about the Jewish culture and religion. I also learned about the historic landmark, which is now home of the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The training was very exciting and challenging due to the group tours we led towards the end.
   Even though the school year has started, we still have our Sunday Trainings in addition to our regular work shifts. Sometimes at our Sunday Trainings we do workshops that challenge us to dig deeper into ourselves as artist or as creative people.Other times we go over to different museums and see what they have to offer. We also have a partnership with the Museum of African Diaspora's Youth Media Interns, in which we will have our own exhibit with all of our creations we've made over the past few months. Now, during our regular work shifts we assist in Coat Check, in which we check-in peoples' belongings into the museum to make their visit as comfortable as possible. We also greet visitors during the openings of exhibits to make them feel very welcomed into our museum. Along with that, we work in RitLab, a program designed for adults to get a chance to experience making their own art, assisting them or just being there to shed insight about the museum itself. There is also Story Corps, where a visitor can come in for a 40 minute session to converse with a person/people of their choice that will be documented and recorded, in which you can come and get information from staff or one of us TACs who will be outside the booth awaiting.
    As you can see the Teen Art Connect Program is a very educational and exciting program, and even though I have only been interning here at the museum for only 2 1/2 months I've already developed friendships with people that may last a lifetime. I've really enjoyed coming here and meeting the new people, experiencing the new exhibits, and learning the new things that I did not seem to know or have any interest for before coming here. Also, the people here are very supportive. In just this little time they have in me instilled a new spirit of determination that I never knew existed. With that said, I really look forward to the rest of this internship and all the information I can glean from it.

                                                                Thank you for your time!
                                                                   Chanelle


.

My Internship told by Liana

2010-05-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hello there, it's me Liana.

I wanted to talk a little about my internship today since I haven't done so yet. I am currently an intern for the Public Programs department. At first I didn't know much about what goes into planning the amazing events that take place here at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The events range from learning to bake hamentashen cookies to extravagant family galas. I have experienced a lot of them from the 2 years I have been interning here and it's great to actually experience what really goes into organizing them. I decided that I want to pursue an internship in Public Programs because I am also my Dance Chair at school, which means I plan all the dances. I have a little experience in planning but never thought it could be something I would major in college. After taking this internship I realize that I do want to major in areas that relate to planning events, even public events as big as the ones here. It has opened my eyes to different jobs I could take in the future after college . Unfortunately my internship is almost at its end and I will be closing one chapter in my life and opening a new one next year when I go off to college.
(Photo: Kira Shemano)

Over Already....

2010-05-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this internship isn't over yet, we still have Battle of the Bands this Saturday and then graduation on May 16. Then we're done...I can't believe this year went by so fast! I still remember our first day of TAC training. It was a Monday on June 15, 2009. I recall taking a seat then glancing around nervously at strangers and taking lunch breaks in Jesse Square. Those "strangers" have become some of my closest friends and those lunchtime gatherings have become some of my fondest memories. I have so much to reminisce over but I can’t put it all on one blog post. I’ll spare you the details and summarize my experience all in one sentence: Being a TAC was Cool, Outstanding, Nice, Terrific, Empowering, Miraculous, Phenomenal, Out-of-this-world, Remarkable, Amazing, Renown, Youthful, Jewish, Enriching, Wonderful, Important Splendid, High-quality Magnificent, Unparallel, Super-fun, Entertaining, Unique, Marvelous….you get the point!

Big shout out to the following people!

Leah- Thank you for everything you did for all the TACS! This was one amazing year!
Amy, Janet, Joe, Bernice- Thank you for being great mentors during my development internship! You guys where so sweet and I learned so much!
Fellow TACS-I love you all! Thank you for being great friends!

-Olivia

Ending a Year's Work

2010-04-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

My name is Zachary Ruylemeyer, and I am a Teen Art Connect intern at the CJM.
Our internship Graduation, so to speak, is one month away, and this has me thinking of what I do here.

This museum runs every day, and surely I have not been an absolute necessity to its success.
Nor have I sat in the background.
I can greet the public, take the public's coats and umbrellas, and direct the public to the restrooms.
I can inform the public on the building's over a century-old history, and I can explain to them how the very architecture designed by Daniel Libeskind brings together the old and new visions, an integral part of the CJM's mission.
I know how to approach a stranger, introduce myself so that I am not so strange, and gain insight as to why they have visited our museum and what they have taken with them.

I'll admit, I have fallen into a sort of routine as our days for this year are numbered.

I come every Sunday about 15 minutes to 1.

Lately, our fun and social TAC trainings have not happened as often as I wish, but am pleased to announce that the TAC teens will converge today for a special program.

There has not been one consistent vibe to describe my experience here.

At all times the museum has stressed teamwork and community. Yet there have been times, when I felt the individual ambitions, the individual responsibilities, that any job demands. There has been a balance of the team and the individual, an atmosphere where we can appreciate each other's different schedules and skills as well as open the doors for us to be flexible and improve our weaknesses.

So much has been learned, taught, absorbed and given over this last year, and I am proud to have been a part of this amazing and thoughtful Teen Art Connect internship program.

-Zach Ruylemeyer

LGBTQ teens from Israel!

2010-04-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Nancy L. here to talk about the amazing tour Karni, Beverly, and I led on Monday 03/29/10 for a group of LGBTQ teens from Israel! We showed them the most recent exhibit at the CJM, "Our Struggle: Responding to Mein Kampf" in which lots of people responded to pages of Hitler's book artistically and 250 of these pages are displayed on the gallery walls.

Wow. I can't even explain how great the tour went. Although this was the first tour any of the TACs had to lead without an official tour guide, I think we handled it pretty well. Karni, Beverly, and I each chose to talk about different parts of the gallery...and of course, Leah's input helped A LOT. =) The teens had a lot of comments, stories, and knowledge to share about the exhibit both as lesbian/gay/bi-sexual/transgender/questioning people and as Jewish people, some of whose grandparents were in the Holocaust. They answered our questions really well and seemed to really relate to the artwork.

My favorite part was when they took time in the middle of the tour to write on the chalkboard in the galleries. I remember that one of the guys drew two books side-by-side: one was titled "dream" and the other was titled "reality"; the books were separated by the Star of David. When I asked what his drawings meant, he said that all the pages in the galleries were like nightmares/dreams, and once he entered the room with the timeline of the Holocaust, it all turned into reality.

After the tour, we went into the classroom to start the art project. The group was asked to use clay to form any symbols/images/thoughts that came to mind while going through "Our Struggle" in general, or in response to a specific page. They then each gave their artworks titles, and explained what their creation represented.

The LGBTQ teens and adults from Israel were really friendly and cool! Karni, Beverly, and I wanted to spend more time with them, but they soon had to leave. If any of you happen to be reading this, THANK YOU for coming on the tour. You guys are amazinggg.

Battle of the Bands

2010-04-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Battle of the Bands Poem

Get ready for Battle of the Bands

You may get to shake musicians' hands

Fans come from far and near

So get ready to lend your ear

Listen to jazz, pop, or rock

Be there at 7 o'clock

Tell your friends in bands

So that the crowd expands

The bigger the crowd the better it gets

So get ready to place your bets

No one knows who will win

Here talent is not a sin

We really hope to see you there

Performing or not get ready to hear music blare

You'll have a blast and soon you'll see

The many talented bands and listen to an emcee

-Olivia S.

Come to the Battle of the Bands at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on May 8, 2010 and join us for some epic performances! Do you know any bands that would like to perform for the chance $500?

Dear Linda Ellia

2010-03-20T12:23:00.001-07:00

Hello, reader. This is Beverly, one of the TACs. Recently we have been inviting teens from all over San Francisco to check out one of the coolest and most thought-provoking exhibits we have had: "Our Struggle: Responding to Mein Kampf." Our Struggle is a collaborative collection of artwork in response to Hilter's book Mein Kampf, which means My Struggle.

Other than giving tours of the exhibit, however, we have also been creating projects for the teen groups, in order to allow them to respond to the art that they have seen. Some of us responded on the actual pages of an English translation of Mein Kampf and others on newspaper articles that discussed current day events. We wanted to send Linda Ellia some of the work that was done, to show her what an impact she has created with some of us. Representing the TACs, I wrote a letter to her to let her know that her positive message is spreading. A more positive chain effect was created in response to the terrible messages presented in one of Hitler's most famous book.

Here we go:

Dear Ms. Ellia,

My name is Beverly and I am currently a Teen Art Connect (TAC) intern working at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Teen Art Connect is a program sponsored by the CJM, providing work experience for high school students with diverse backgrounds from all over the Bay Area. Our tasks range from working at coat check to giving architecture tours as well as hosting events for teenagers.

In the past week, we have been working with various teen groups in events inspired by your collaborative exhibit, “Our Struggle: Responding to Mein Kampf”. In preparation for leading the events, we worked with a museum educator who opened our eyes to varying responses. Together, we further explored the question of “what do we do with such a book?” We really appreciated your unique take on exploring such a notorious book, and you inspired us to transform the negative into art.

After viewing “Our Struggle”, we were given an opportunity to create art using the ideas and perspectives we gathered from the exhibit. The various responses from our TAC group were a small representation of the diverse reactions to Mein Kampf. We responded with clay and many of us created pieces based on the images and ideas that stuck with us from the art that we saw. One created a train and another created a link of chain, representing the chain effect of the Hitler’s book.

The inspiration did not end. Knowing that we would be leading other teen groups in the “Our Struggle” exhibit, we created a workshop that would allow us to lead tours as well as give others an opportunity to respond to what they saw. One of the groups that we worked with was called The Next Chapter. This group had the opportunity to interview Holocaust survivors from Poland to create an essay that portrayed their stories. In the process, they also learned about Holocaust art and they shared some of their knowledge with us. We learned that even during the Holocaust, the Jews were able to create art with music and other mediums. Even in the last moments of their life, as many were sent into gas chambers, they created images on the walls with their fingernails.

The strength of the survivors’ fight against oppression fit well with our creative project. We asked them to respond on pages of an English translation of Mein Kampf. There were powerful reactions to the words of Hitler and we are sharing them with you because you were the original source of inspiration. We were able to respond to this terrible book in a different method than what we as humans are used to: we were able to create something beautiful out of something so ugly. Thank you.

Other groups that we worked with also were able to use this as a way of reacting creatively. We worked with teenagers that work at other museums in San Francisco, such as the deYoung Ambassadors and the ZeumMasters. The two groups were combined together and there were two different sessions for them. One workshop allowed the group to react to current day events using a similar method on newspaper articles. And the other session created a similar project as the one of The Last Chapter, in which they also responded to the English translation of Mein Kampf.

Thank you for the inspiration you create. “Our Struggle” is an intense and beautiful journey.

Sincerely,

Beverly and TACs

2010-03-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

Hi!

My name is Mandy and I am one of the Teen Art Connect interns. In the beginning of my internship, I learned a lot about architecture and art. I had no idea that there was so much to learn about our amazing building! I also helped out in coat check as well as led architecture tours and greeted visitors involved in special events. Starting at the beginning of 2010, I have been interning in the development and education departments. I have already learned how to use a computer software called Razor's Edge. I have also become quite comfortable doing outreach on the phone talking to people at synagogues and other Jewish organizations. I can't wait to see what other useful tools I'll learn in this internship in the next two months!

StoryCorps

2010-03-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

Hello I'm Vanessa! Tuesday February 23rd I made my first StoryCorps presentation: to the parental advisory board of 826 Valencia, an organization in San Francisco's Mission district dedicated to help improve the writing skills of students ages 6-18. Along with StoryCorps Supervisor Sarah Geis, I wanted to spread the word about StoryCorps' presence in San Francisco and encourage 826 Valencia families to make appointments at the booth to record their stories and add them to our archive at the Library of Congress.

I was nervous because public speaking isn’t exactly my area, especially when it’s speaking in Spanish to a group of women with far better Spanish than my own! We started off listening to a clip from the Historias project (Miriam Cruz-Colón and her husband Oscar Colón). The mothers on the board began to laugh, their eyes opening wide in surprise, and some even held their hands over their mouth, laughing.

The atmosphere was less tense than I had expected; I had littered my notebook with notes trying to memorize lines. I even used a technique my poetry teacher had taught me, changing the font so that important lines were in upper case, highlighting so I would know what to say at a glance. I wanted to be very prepared and confident. Once the clip was over Sarah, the San Francisco StoryCorps Supervisor, gave her talk on StoryCorps, and then I was on. I found I didn’t need my notes at all, speaking from memory and more fluidly than I had feared.

The mothers were interested. As Sarah continued to talk about the project, one of the women came over and jotted down her information, asking us to call her and that she was very interested, but that her baby was crying or else she would have stayed. At the end of the meeting we answered questions, and Vicki Vértiz, the Program Director of 826, asked the women if they would like to participate. One of the women responded, “Si, se oye muy bonito,” ("Yes, it sounds very pretty.") Other women collected pamphlets and took with them the sample CD of Historias stories. Overall, the women on the parental advisory council seemed very interested, and I’m looking forward to having them come to the StoryCorps booth and document their lives.

Voluntering at Glide Momorial Church.

2010-02-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

Hello there, Liana Duckworth here again.
Well last Sunday morning February 14, 2010 (VALENTINES DAY!) Teen Art Connect went to volunteer at Glide Memorial Church to share the love. It was extremely fun and we felt good doing it! Glide memorial church is known for their amazing heartfelt seminars and helping a lot of SF's homeless. You might have heard of it before in Will Smith's movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" that's based on a real life character, Chris, who goes to Glide for a program that Reverend Cecil Williams created that offers beds to the homeless.
Olivia worked really hard to organize our volunteering and lucky for us, they had an opening and we got the chance to give back and help those in need. We were split into two groups, one went to the room which was oriented towards families with small children and people with disabilities while the other group maned the main floor. It was hard trying to keep up but in the end, it was a really satisfying feeling knowing we made a difference that day.

Olivia, Vanessa, & Nancy Loung

Everyone in front of Glide.

Facebooklette

2010-02-18T15:32:00.001-08:00

Check out this "Facebooklette" that the TACs made during a photo workshop with Kira Shemano a few months ago. You can click on the individual photos to read what each TAC wrote about themselves. This link will take you to the Museum's flickr page, which has lots of cool photos.

Interesting Internships

2010-02-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm Olivia! So this is my third week working in my internship and let me tell you it has been very interesting. I am working in the development department. This experience has been really exciting. The first few months as a TAC, I spent most of my time downstairs in the actual part of the museum. There I worked coat check, handed out surveys, and gave architecture tours. Now I am working "behind the scenes" in the CJM's upstairs offices. If you've never heard of the development department, it is the department that is responsible for managing the museum’s memberships. I've been working with the Raiser's Edge data base software, which seemed daunting at first but now I've gotten the hang of it. I've become a master at reading handwriting too! Some guests fill out guest passes so quickly that their handwriting is nearly illegible. Another skill I’ve acquired is folding papers accordion style. I fold the mail that goes to members and prospective members. I'm really looking forward to learning more!
I hope the other TAC members are enjoying the experience as an intern as much as I am!
What departments are the other TACs working in?
Liana - Public Programs
Mandy-Development
May - Education (Teen Programs)
Zach - Development and Marketing
Seth - Development and Marketing
Rina - Curatorial
Nancy C.(R)-Marketing
Nancy C. - Marketing
Nancy L. - Education (School Programs)
Beverley - Curatorial
Rafa - Public Programs
Doug - Audio/Visual
Vanessa - StoryCorps
Karni - Education (Family Programs)

-Olivia S.

2010-01-31T13:32:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone.

Few weeks ago we started our new internships. All the TACs are assigned to a department in the Museum that they wanted to explore more. All the TACs get to have a professional job doing all sorts of things, like marketing, curatorial, education, and other wonderful areas. For instance, I'm interning in Education. My job is to work with Access 18, the teen program here, and communicate with other teens about our museum. I get to be involved in some of the museums on-line networking. I make sure I update the blog, facebook, and other websites involving our teen program.

It's an amazing opportunity. It's a hand-on experience that will definitely benefit me in the future. Specially since I'm considering a career as a teacher.

-May B.

Monsters, Munchies, and a Movie. From a TAC perspective.

2010-01-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

Hello =D, Hi my name is Liana Duckworth. This is my second year here being a teen at the CJM, yay! Two weeks ago we had our teen MOVIE NIGHT here at the CJM called "Monsters,Munchies, and a Movie". Thats me and one of our monsters from "Where the Wild Things Are" in the image to the right! ---------->
We had pizza, popcorn, and slushies! The movie we showed was Shrek, since last year we had a William Steig exhibition (a Jewish illustrator and cartoonist who created the character shrek which inspired the movie). Including the theme of monsters the museum also had the Maurice Sendak exhibition called "Sendak on Sendak" (Author and Publisher of "Where the Wild Things Are" children's book) which just recently closed on January 19. I thought the night turned out well, we got a pretty good turn out! We ran out of pizza quick and the slushies took a long time to make unfortunately. But on the bright side it only cost a DOLLAR. Hope our events to come get great turn outs like that one did.

Here are some of the teens watching the movie who came to support our event.

What a great turnout!

Nancy Chan (also TAC) and my friends from school that came to our event. Jillian, Linda, and Xenia.

Some of the Teen Art Connect Interns enjoying the movie. Zach,Rafa, Rina, and Vanessa.

Pin the tail on the donkey game, another TAC Seth behind the monster and friends from school Kitty, Alex, and Bianca.

Family Gala, November 14, 2009

2009-11-24T16:04:00.000-08:00

Alright, May is here to talk about the Family Gala on November 14th. There were activities for parents and their little ones. We had drumming, art-making, dancing, story telling, other entertainments, and of course amazing food. Most of the TACS helped out with the event. We made sure that everyone was bound to have a good night.

The highlight of the night was Mandy, Nancy, and I dressing up as Wild Things. I dressed up as KW, the monster with spaghetti looking hair. Boy, was it boiling hot inside the costume. It honestly felt like I was inside an oven. Plus, I had to dance and run around the museum the whole night. It got really hot. It was alright though, cause they let us take breaks whenever we needed to. The kids loved us. There were few that got scared. Some of them started crying. So I had to take off my mask to let them know I'm not a real monster. There were also some not-so-well behaved kids. The ones that tried to take off my mask and hit my stomach. But what made it all worth it were those good, adorable little kids that kept giving me the biggest hugs. I remember one little girl that kept coming up to me, and asking me if she can take me home. I didn't wanna break her heart, so I just said yes. She was really sad when I had to go.

That was such a good experience. I always brag to people that I got to be a Wild Thing for a night. I'm glad I did it.

Would I do it again? Probably not. It's one of those once in a lifetime thing. Haha.

Here's a picture of me as KW:

A picture of Me(left), Nancy Chan(middle), and Mandy(right).
Beginning of the night. Full of energy.

Picture of us at the end of the night. Exhausted.

Some more pictures. ENJOY!

2009-10-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

May here, I'm also one of the newbies at the CJM. Alright, so let me fill you in with what's been happening. So like Nancy mentioned on her previous blog, we got a new boss last month. Her name is Leah, and she is honestly one of the nicest person I've ever met. The first training with her was really fun. She provide us with delicious snacks. During the training we did this spiritual activity, called Tashlich. I'm not quite sure what it means. What I remember is it's celebrated during the Jewish new year, Roshashana. It was really motivational. So we had to think of something negative that's happening with our community and our personal life. After thinking about all the negativity in our lives, we walked outside to the fountain, we grabbed a piece of bread. Then silently threw a piece of bread in the water to represent letting go of all the negativity. Everyone had a chance to address community problems and struggles. I thought the exercise was engaging. It was a good way to start our fall shifts. Just to let go all of the negativity, you know, it was really refreshing. I think it's gonna be a good start.

Then about few weeks ago we went to a printing press in Oakland, Painted Tongue Press, where we made our invitations for our architecture tours. It was soooo nifty. Yeah, I said nifty. The owner actually put us in action, so we got to work with different kind of letterpress machines, which was exciting. And it was also a bit of a work out. It was a lot of hard work but I feel so proud of our products.

Here's some pictures of our super dooper cool invitations. And props to Vanessa for creating the artwork.

So now that you've seen our wonderful invitations you should mark your calendar for these days: Oct/25, Nov/8, Nov/22, and Dec/6. Support our TACS by joining us on these Sundays. It's a great experience to see youth become leaders. I'm giving a tour on Dec/6, so you should definitely come to that cause it's gonna be amazing. =)

Here's some photos of TACS in action at the printing pr ess:

AND then last Sunday was the Target Family Day, which I missed. I feel so terrible about it, cause I heard it was so much fun. They told me the museum line was so long it hit the streets. That's something you don't see everyday, so it must've have been crazy. Some of the TACS had the chance to work with little children, which I am so completely jealous about. I love children and I heard the children were dancing and making art. Seeing that, my heart would just melt. Kids are too adorable. There will be a next time though. And you can count me in for next time!

There you have it folks. Until next time. Toodles!

TAC Trainings

2009-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Heyyy!

Nancy L. here to talk about the amazingg trainings we, TACs, have had at the CJM since June 2009 until now (October 2009). =)

During the summer, we all met each other on our first training...I think it was on June 15, 2009. It was a little weird at first, cuz we didn't know each other and didn't know what to expect. But the people are all hella chill so we hit it off pretty well. Our old supervisor, Emma, was one of the coolest adults everrr. She helped us learn the ropes here at the museum during the two weeks we had with her, and then she moved to L.A. We miss her sooo much, but weeks later, we got a new boss, Leah (who's also greaaatt). By then, we already knew about the basics of the museum and the galleries, the information needed to give architecture tours, and have worked in the museum for months already...so it wasn't a HUGE adjustment having to meet a new boss. Leah's also super nice which made the transition a lot easier.

The first training, as I said before, was a little awkward. The museum actually served us food from the cafe that day, and lemme tell you, it was DELICIOUS. But after that day, we had to start bringing our own food...which sucks, yeah. But it also gave us a chance to go out for lunch together and bond. I remember eating lunch on the hot summer grass in a huge circle and having hella random conversations. Those two weeks of summer training FLEW BY. I swear. We learned so much about the architecture, the galleries that were present at the CJM during the trainings, and just a bunch of basic info required to work at the museum. ANNDDD, we got to meet each other. =)

We basically use trainings now to review our recent experiences working at the museum, going over some information, learning about the new galleries, etc. We meet once a week, unless said otherwise. So we, TACs, don't get too see each other as a whole group that often, but when we do, we have a blasttt. <3

New Beginnings.

2009-10-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, Rina C. here, and i'm one of the new TACs at the CJM.
I'm a senior at this small french school in San Francisco and i applied last April for the job and now i'm working with 14 other high school students from the Bay Area.

Here are the cool new TACs i work with:
Nancy L. --> Lowell
Nancy C. (r)--> SOTA
Nancy C. (yes there are two with the same exact name)--> George Wash
Vanessa C.--> SOTA
Olivia S.--> Miramonte
Seth G. --> Bishop O'Dowd
Rafael A.--> Berkeley High
Beverly L.--> Lick
May B. --> Balboa High
Karni Z.--> Lowell
Doug A.--> Ida B. Wells
Mandy L.--> Redwood High
Liana D. --> George Wash
and Zach R. --> Lowell

Basically, what we do here as TACs is make the museum a place for teens to come and enjoy visiting a "not so typical" museum. Every other Sunday, we're planning on giving architecture tours of the building which was designed by Daniel Liebskind, a famous Polish artist. We're also planning teen nights (i promise they'll be cool) because trust me, once you see the museum at night, you'll want to come in and see whatsup.

Hit us up on facebook any time.
Better be seeing you soon,
Rina <3

Love and Listening

2009-04-16T17:01:00.001-07:00

Love and Listening StoryCorps, one of many of the new additions to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, knows plenty about love and listening. But what IS StoryCorps? StoryCorps, according to their flyer, is an "independent, nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening." StoryCorps is a place people go to share their stories, to be interviewed by loved ones, to tell of their life experiences. Each conversation is recorded on a CD, and preserved at the Library of Congress. The Contemporary Jewish Museum opened its Story Corps booth October 12th, 2008, and more than 400 people have come in to interview and be interviewed. I fortunately got the chance to be part of one of the many interviews, what StoryCorps employees call shadowing. I sat quietly in the booth while a very-in-love couple talked about how they met and what they planned to do with the rest of their lives. StoryCorps showed an example of their committment to love on February 12th with their listening event, which was sold out, and was themed on love. The event was very popular (so much that they ran out of chairs a couple times during the event) and went very well. Teen Art Connect threw their own StoryCorps-like event in March, where we at Teen Art Connect and the other teenagers and young people who came got a chance to learn about the lives of a complete stranger. The event moved many, but could not compete with the mastery of StoryCorps.

New Jewish Filmmaking Project Free Screening Party at CJM!!

2009-03-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

The SF Jewish Film Festival and the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Teen Art Connect program present a screening of documentary shorts produced by Citizen Film. On March 19, 2009 at the Contemperary Jewish Museum. From 6:30-8pm!

Enjoy FREE popcorn and refreshments, watch films and discuss them with teen, young adult and pro filmmakers.

Then, stick around to workshop your own film ideas with award winning filmmakers.Want to tell your own story in a film shown to thousands of people?Visit the New Jewish FIlmmaking Project's group to view excerpts from the evenings 90-minute program of shorts called "inspiring" (San Francisco Bay Guardian), "memorable snapshots of teenaged Jewish Life" (Youth Radio) and a "well-crafted gem" (SF Arts Monthly).

Pleas RSVP on our facebook even page!! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=72282641468&ref=ts

Earth Girl

2009-03-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

Earth girl joyously picks the flowers off your frigid, gray, tombstone,
carefully plucking and collecting your decomposed thoughts and dreams and wishes
Stealing them for her own strange uses

Hippie dreams, rainbows, and peace signs
these distractions keeps us from our never ending truths

Organic peanut butter, flax seed, tofu
all just to keep us placated
to keep us thinking that we are balanced

Handmade clothing, hemp bedding, biodegradable shampoo
Earth girl slyly cons us into thinking were saving the world
when really, we are just turning our heads

And all the while the bloody money, the sewage, piles up
clogging the streets, blocking the gutter

We drown without knowing,
looking to Earth Girl as blood pools around our bony vegan ankles
as gore soaks our bodies clad in patchwork skirts and second hand slacks

we sink still convinced,
that we are saving the word

-Alison S. Rabbit

Bible Man

2009-03-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Bible Man makes a wild gesture
And genuflects to the moon
He moves like a serpent and then
Promises to leave you too soon

He upholds the ark
With his thin wiry arm
And careens through the mold
Inflicting random loving harm

Keeping pigs at bay
With smiley bucktooth shine
He kills the giant upon the stone
And floats his soul down the line

He gives me a handshake
I feel for the knife
He mumbles a prayer
While gripping his wife

The phantom corruption
That eats away at him
Has left his woven countenance
Pale and poor and dim

So I tell him to leave
And never ever come back
Because who needs a Bible man
Who's nothing more than a trumped up hack

But the people need him
So he stays

- Robert D. Adler

Internship Update

2009-02-12T16:35:00.000-08:00

Internships are going great for Teen Art Connect! Liana is working with Heidi, the Family Program Coordinator, Eli is working with Daniel Schifrin, the Director of Public Programs and Writer-in-Residence. Jesse is working with Story Corps, Ellen is working with Mary and is outreaching to teens in the Bay Area, Sasha has an internship at Education with Jeanine, and Nancy is interning with the curatorial staff. Tal is interning at development with Joe, and no one knows where Hana interns at- stay in for the next blog post to find out!

Liana:
Working with Heidi has been great. Not only does she have an art project available for families every Sunday, she also puts great thought and effort into planning these projects. You think it would be easy to just think of different things to do with the visitors who come in but not in this case. Heidi has to think of these art projects that. In May, I am going to be able to create my own art project for our visitors to create! But of course with the help of Heidi.

Sasha:
I have been working with Jeanine and I must say, it's been amazing! I have learned so much about the depth and dimension that is required to work as a educational coordinator. I have been able to see the connections between the museum and education. I have been given a rare opportunity to work as both a educator and a intern.

Tal:
I have been working with Joe at development. I get to find out how the museum organizes all of its members and affiliates. I usually enter data onto Raisors Edge, a program most non profit organazations use to organize information. It's great job experience if I ever want to work at a non profit organization. Working at developement is a nice break from downstairs. I get to witness how the museum runs behind the scene.

What's Going On (At the CJM)

2009-01-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

Exciting stuff is happening at the CJM! Comedian Josh Kornbluth has graced us with his illustrious presence! The Teen Art Connect Interns just can't get enough! For those of you who don't know, Josh Kornbluth is absolutely amazing! His comedic monologues provide a riveting look into the lives of modern Jew and a fresh new look at social and political issues. For his debut at the museum Josh discuses the merits and faults of Andy Warhol's series of paintings portraying famous Jews. This is essential to being able to view the works of Andy Warhol from a cultural perspective. We at the CJM recommend it to everyone!!

- Tal and Sasha

Teen Led Tour- January 11th

2009-01-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

Hello my readers! This Sunday, January 11th, is the date of the third teen led tour to grace the museum. This tour, like the others, will be given by two of our finest Teen Art Connect interns. This tour goes deep into the symbolism inherent in the building we all know and love, so if you are a devoted fan of the museum or just want to know a little more about its inner workings, definitely come through and see the themes in the CJM. This tour begins at 2:30, and is on a day that is free for all San Fransisco families. Come with proof of residence, get in free, and enjoy your time. See you there!

Family Day

2009-01-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

December 25th. A day very well known throughout the world. This is slightly due to a man named Jesus and a holiday called Christmas, but much more so because of Family Day at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Yes, the museum put one of their most important days of the year on one of everyone's most important days of the year. Bad marketing, you say? Tell that to the more than four thousand people who showed up on America's grandest holiday to see and support America's grandest museum.

I was one of the less than average amount of workers at the museum that day, and it was like walking through New York City on New Year's Eve. The steady flow of patrons was a forever moving waterfalls, smashing everything in its path. My two interns and I spent the day in the coat check, trying to pacify the stampede, but it would only leave when the battle was over, much like the one in Jumanji. The day went quite well, however; everyone who I had a chance to ask told me of their great time. There was a performance going on in the MultiPurpose Room, which was filled to the brim, with plenty of families dancing and jumping around. In The Beginning was filled to the brim with curious visitors, and every inch of the Warhol exhibit was covered with people. It was a crazy day until the museum closed at 4:30. Everyone survived the rush, and the Jewish faith emerged with a new tradition: The CJM on Christmas.

Happy New Years!! (and Chrismahanukwanzakah)

2009-01-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody,

Hope everyone had a good New Year and Happy Holidays.

Just to send out a brief catch-up as to what has been going on with the TAC and CJM:

We hosted another Family Day (hosted by Target) on Dec. 25, 2008, with a total of 4500 visitors! Many visitors turned out for fun art-making and performances at the only Museum in San Francisco open on Christmas Day.

Also, tomorrow is the last day of the In The Beginning exhibition, which will be replaced by Dateline 09 on January 30th. We're also excited to bring Jews on Vinyl: And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl to the Museum on February 6, 2009. It will be in the Yud space upstairs.

So. again, just wishing everyone a Happy New Year and Holidays from the TAC and the rest of the CJM Staff!!

Birthing Tikkun Olam

2008-12-18T17:28:00.000-08:00

Two Sundays ago, we were lucky enough to be able to particpate in a Day of Transfer of Exchange, an act of interaction and committment done in connection with Mierle Laderman Ukeles's piece in the In the Beginning gallery, called Tsimtsum / Shevirat Ha-Kelim: Contraction / The Shattering of the Perfect Vessels --> Birthing Tikkun Olam. The piece takes its inspiration from a Kabbalistic interpretation of the creation of the universe, which explains that God had to contract in order to make space for the universe, and he contracted into such a small space that he shattered, and the universe is composed of the broken fragments from the shattering. As the mystics would tell us, it is the responsibility of humans to partake in Tikkun Olam- repairing the world- so that we can restore an unbroken universe.

Ukeles, taking her cue from the Kabbalists, created a room of identical mirrors hung in columns down the walls. As part of her art, visitors make a pledge on a piece of paper to perform their own act of Tikkun Olam, and then they substitute one of the mirrors with that pledge, in that way "birthing Tikkun Olam." The TAC's got together and made their pledges, and then walked up to the exhibition and made the sacred exchange. We took our pledges and substituted them for mirrors, our faces reflected in the mirrors flanking us on all sides. We held our new mirrors in our hands and studied our reflections, thinking about how we would make the world a better place to live in. Above us, in the dim gallery light, our pledges floated over our heads, their bad-handwriting and crayon illustrations looking unusual for such a space.

I pledged to one day find a way to show classic movies in a big, old-fashioned movie theater so all people could see them free of charge. That means Bogart and Bacall, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Ingrid Bergman, Orson Welles, and other silver screen luminaries. Others made pledges about the environment, their families and their friends. Some wrote down detailed pledges, while others drew pictures or comics to illustrate their ideas. Now my mirror hangs in my room at home. Every time I look at it, I know it's more than just a mirror.

Day of Transfer and Exchange!

2008-12-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, TAC was able to participate in Mierle Ukeles's piece called "Birthing Tikkun Olam" inside the In The Beginning exhibition at the CJM! To participate, we got to write a covenant which we promised to commit too. In exchange we received one of the artist's doubled-sided hand-crafted mirrors that was replaced by our covenants inside her piece! The mirrors also have the artist's signature on the bottom of it. It's pretty cool that the TAC's who participated are now part of the exhibition upstairs at the museum; visitors can actually read our covenants! It's neat that we got to participate in something that not everyone was given the chance to do.

More information about how the Day of Transfer and Exchange works:

http://www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=19&oid=28

First Teen Tour

2008-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

Jesse and I led our first public tour last week! With a group, we toured around the museum, discussing and explaining the architecture and significance of the CJM building. Our group was nice and small; five guests joined us on our tour. The size of the group allowed us to make the tour more informal--an alteration everyone seemed to enjoy. As we embarked on the tour, we first visited the lobby, then went outside to take a look at the facade of the building. The group seemed to especially appreciate the outside look of the museum, asking numerous questions about the cross-hatching effect used by architect Daniel Liebskin. From there we moved back inside where I explained the lights on the Pardes wall to be hebrew letters, shocking a couple years off the lives of our group members. From there we ascended the staircase still seven people strong, Jesse leading the way into the famed Yud room. Our group was shocked and mystified by the Yud room and its sounds, and shared plenty of opinions and advice for us. They were impressed by the symbolism of the 36 windows meaning life, and happy to know we did actually know what type of wood the floor was. We then brought them back to the beginning of the tour with a bird's eye view of the lobby, showing them the multiple perspectives of the CJM. There the tour ended, severly saddening our tour group, who seemed to want us to walk them through all of the exhibits as well. All in all, a great tour with a great group, and the public is clamoring more and more for teen led tours.

Until next time
Ellen and Jesse

December 25, 2008

2008-12-12T17:12:00.000-08:00

As you may all know, December 25th is Christmas Day! You probably are guessing that everything around the city will be closed, but not the CJM!

The Museum is hosting another family free day sponsored by Target. We're also going to be having free art making and performances all day too. The Museum will be open from 11 am-4 pm, but the family day activities end at 3 pm. So come by and check it out!

Read more here:
http://www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&oid=113&fid=3

2008-12-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

Th Co t mp rar J wi h M e um

Zeitgeist of the zippered tally
White walls cascading along broken angles
While the children make art
And the space Briton sings about spiders

In between the sky and the brick
And the plaster angels pursing their lips
The blue chrome stigmata
And the weather that never wins

The old man and the young boy
Joined at the hip
Laughing in the orchard
And speaking in tongues

Within the great space
The music drives men mad
Singing swirling scathing sirens
Remembering the dog with the crooked tail

And Genesis within
Runs thick against the video screen
And the fuzz is transformed
Into a panorama of divinity

The pale man
Sees the world through a glass brightly
And he reminds us patiently
That the tired woman is great

God contracts into a small space
And creates carpeted floors

- A.N. Mizrachi

Access 18

2008-12-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

The Contemporary Jewish Museum offers a special Access 18 membership to youth ages 13 to 18 who are visiting the museum. The benefits include unlimited free admission for you and a guest to any and all of the museum's exhibits; invitations to special teen events at the musuem; a quarterly E-news letter, letting you in on some of the special opportunities awaiting you at CJM; terrific discounts at the Museum Cafe, Store, and select events. Sign up for your free Access 18 card by returning your application form into the Museum's Welcome Center, or by faxing your form and student ID to 415-655-7815, or by mailing it in with a copy of your student ID to: Contemporary Jewish Museum, Membership Dept., 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103. We encourage all teens to sign up for this amazing membership so they can experience Jewish culture and art firsthand, absolutely free. Sign up now!
-Teen Art Connect

Careers In The Curatorial Field

2008-12-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Sunday, the 7th, we got to listen and learn all about the Career of a Curator. What is a curator you ask? Curators are responsible for putting together ideas for a certain exhibition to be shown in the Museums. They learn a lot about the work of art being presented as well. Curators get to interact with so many different people to get the whole exhibition organized from registrars, exhibition designers and even to the crew (art handlers). They practically do everything under the sun to make the exhibition they're working on as perfect as can be, even the tiniest details are considered. Their career is pretty important to the Museum world. Without them, who would organize the set up and every detail of an exhibition? Learning about Dara's (CJM's curator) process to create just one exhibition is so interesting. Who knew that you would have to go through so much to create one?

It's great that we have the opportunity to learn about different careers that we can consider when we start planning our future after high school. Personally I have a few ideas about what I would like to become (real estate agent), but considering how bad our economy is right now, it's not such a good idea. I'm still trying to find something as a second choice that interests me. Since I'm still on that verge of deciding what is the best career out there for me, what's better then getting first glimpses of real people and their real jobs?

New Jewish Filmmaking Project Workshop

2008-12-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

Photo by Tony Tredway
On November 16th, Teen Art Connect met with young filmmakers from the New Jewish Filmmaking Project for a storytelling and film workshop. Below is a teen review of the workshop:

The New Jewish Filmmaking Project workshop was exciting and fascinating.

The films provoked a wide range of discussion topics on Jewish culture and identity. The first film centered on love in the Jewish world by exploring the dynamics of four troubled relationships. Two others concentrated on Russian and Latin American culture. One of the films included a story about a Russian emigrate to San Francisco, who learns to accept and embrace American culture. Another coming of age story covers the journey of a South American man who travels to North America, and then immigrates to Israel. Over the course of the film, the viewer is treated to a first-hand view of the man's gradual maturation, spanning three continents and the Atlantic Ocean.

After we finished watching the films, we split into groups and paired off with the film-makers to brainstorm our own movie ideas. Concluding the session, we presented our collaborations to the group and gave constructive feedback. It was a particularly good exercise because they were highly trained film-makers who were able to teach us about the nuances of trouble-shooting and cinematography. Says Teen Art Connect Ellen, "It was extremely informative; I've never been that interested in filming, but after seeing the products of professional film-makers, I've been inspired to start my own screen writing project." This sentiment was echoed by Tal, who exclaimed, "It was reel fun!"

Warhol: Good for Jews?

2008-12-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

Two Sundays ago, I had the privelege of working with local television personality/ monologuer/ comedian Josh Kornlbuth on a commercial for his upcoming program "Warhol: Good for Jews?" We went around the museum with the camera, and Josh grabbed people at random and asked them about Warhol, Judaism, sparkling water, the French langauge, modern architecture, the meaning of life, the value of love, the current value of Exxon stock and other everyday conversation topics. Mostly, though, he asked them whether they though Warhol was good for Jews, as part of his ongoing search for the meaning of Warhol's "Ten Famous Jews," currently on exhibition at the museum. Along the way, Josh decided that water fountains are bad for Jews, security guards are good for Jews, and tabouli, a Mid-Eastern dish available at our wonderful cafe, is confusing for Jews.

I was carrying the camera handheld while Jesse Kerr, a fellow TAC, was holding the boom mike above Josh's head so we could get good sound. We shot for about two hours and then called it a wrap. The shoot went well, and I'm currently working on editing the movie into a one minute segment. Check it out soon on our website, www.thecjm.org, and make sure you don't miss Josh's program starting January 10th.

One thing's for sure: Josh Kornbluth's "Warhold: Good for Jews?", is definitely good for Jews.

For more information on Kornbluth's upcoming program in January, please visit: http://www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=19&oid=104

-A. Herwitz

A Dandy Warhol Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

ANDY

Warhol. Less commonly, but legally, known as Andy Warhola. Why is this man so interesting? Why is his work interesting? These are only a few of the questions the Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered exhibit addresses. But more specifically- what do I know about these questions?

Before this exhibit came to the CJM, I liked Warhol's paintings and screen-prints, but nothing more. I though they were visually pleasing; they looked good, but that was just about it. And I knew barely anything about Warhol's personal experience.

I have come to discover that Warhol was an incredibly intriguing and quirky person. I personally believe, that his character was shaped by a childhood disease he had that caused him to stay at home for a period of his childhood. During this time, he became interested in art and spent a lot of his time reading tabloids and celebrity magazines (something I admit to indulging in while working out at my local gym). He became fixated with the celebrity world, which translated into his art. As an adult, one of his first jobs was drawing shoe advertisements, which was how he initially became well known. It was not until later on that Warhol began doing celebrity portraits that he began to gain an even higher level of recognition.
But what is most fascinating to me is his obsession with money. Warhol absolutely LOVED money. Last week I was sitting in the exhibit reading "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol", which is a collection of quotes from Warhol. My favorite quotes of his include:

"Cash. I just am not happy when I don't have it. The minute I have it I have to spend it. And I just buy STUPID THINGS."

"I have a Fantasy about Money: I'm walking down the street and I hear somebody say-in a whisper-'There goes the richest person in the world.'"

"Money is the MOMENT to me.
Money is my MOOD."

"I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Then when someone visited you the first thing they would see is the money on the wall."

I think you understand my point about his obsession.

But back to the exhibit:
Andy's work is not only visually pleasing, but, it is the first of its kind in many ways. He introduced the idea of "Pop Art", was the first to silk-screen on canvas and he challeneged the defining line between "commercial" art versus "traditional" art. But of course, you can learn about this in much more detail if you come visit the exhibit before it closes, on January 25, 2009.

THANKSGIVING

All of us TAC's are taking Thanksgiving off. But the Museum will still be open- so don't hesitate to check it out over the Thanksgiving holiday! Now, enough of advertising...

I am very excited to eat for Thanksgiving- are you??

This is Hana of the TAC signing off- tootles!

Teen Night- Success? Yes!!!

2008-11-16T12:29:00.001-08:00

The Contemporary Jewish Museum's first ever Teen Night was a success. We were able to draw in a good size crowd and keep them entertained for the 3 hours of art making, music and good times last Thursday night. I was talking to some of the people who came, and I was impressed with the range of high schools represented that warm November evening. We had teens from JCHS, Washington, Burlingame High, Lowell, Lick Wilmerding, Berkeley High, SOTA and others.

In the art-making rooms, teens made hand-decorated t-shirts using markers and ink stamps. With Hana's mellifluous, masterly music mix pulsing and pounding in the background, the teens poured their hearts and their ink onto the plain white t-shirts, transforming mundane clothing articles into expressionistic, personal canvases reflecting the spectrum of the complicated teenage experience in this here day and age.

In the multi-purpose room, Youth Movement Records was the source of everyone's attention. After Scooby-D dropped some mad beats, our very own TAC Jesse Kerr took the stage and set off a bomb of hip-hop craziness.

The architecture tours were a hit. After diving into the symbolism of Liebskind's enigmatic, kaleidoscopically angled masterpiece, the tour group settled down in the yud and absorbed the positive energy waves.

Warhol tours were also successes. Everyone enjoyed the perceptive, illuminating foray into the work and genius of Andy Warhol.

All in all, the night was a hit with everyone. Liana Duckworth, clip board in hand, was able to enlist scores of teens for Access 18, the museum's free teen membership program. Maksim Kupfer was the MC, and he came through in fine style. And all of the TAC's were busy leading tours, working the crowd and making Teen Art Connections with everyone there.

Photos are courtesy of Kira Shemano.

Rainy Day

2008-11-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

The warm glowing light from the Pardes wall swept the spiteful rainy atmosphere out. Today was a very long and slow day. Nothing exciting but nothing dreadful happened. Swarms of eager art fans flocked in groups dripping rain from umbrellas and raincoats. The rain seems to attract visitors like bright pink flowers attract hungry bees. Though rain is not the most popular type of weather, perhaps it would do the museum some good if it rained a bit more often.

While personally observing an art piece at the In the Beginning exhibit, I thought I might try the 3-D glasses and see if anything worth mentioning might occur. Two visitors also observing the piece noticed this and asked if they could see the art piece with the 3-D glasses as well. Of course, I gave them a pair, though slightly concerned that they thought the glasses were included in the art piece, I quickly explained that the glasses were for the Hancock art piece (the one with the hot pink wallpaper) and not the projectile piece we were looking at. They laughed whole-heartily and said they would go to that piece immediately after. I bet they just wanted to keep the glasses to themselves.

And so this concludes another day at the museum. Though today was not jaw-droppingly suspenseful, the atmosphere was quite lovely and relaxing. No one was too loud or hyper and after a very energetic Halloween, this was exactly what I was looking for. Now that the month of October is over, I can look forward to the cool crisp days of November, leaves falling, rain sprinkling, chilly winds and all.

Trenton Doyle Hancock, Flower Bed II, a Prelude to Damnation, 2008. Mixed media installation. Dimensions variable.

Commissioned for In the Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

Teen Night on November 13th!

2008-10-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hello! The Contemperary Jewish Museum is holding a Teen Night on November 13, 2008. It will be held from 5pm-8pm. Come check us out!
Please come check our myspace for more information!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=423501582

Read more about Teen Night on our website:
http://www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&fid=23&oid=83

Check out our Teen Night video:
http://www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&view=article&id=58

Target Family Day

2008-10-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Oh what a busy day! I (Hana) worked three hours this morning at our Family Target Day Event, which was completely crowded, especially in the art making stations, which is where I was. Bascially, we restocked the black construction paper whenever it was needed. kept everything in order-mess free! Also, we informed people about the fruit trade off... but it was a lot of fun!

Today, A New Raw Day

2008-10-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers

Today, Liana got to give an architecture tour to a vistor named Shelley. She was a nice woman and helped Liana learn new things about the Jewish culture.

Hana got to work coat check. She loves coat check because it gives her the oppourtunity to meet new and interesting people and find new perspectives on the museum.

Sasha worked in the In the Beginning exhibition and talked to vistors about the artist Trenton Doyle Hancock.

Jordan got to apply for his free Access 18 membership, and is very excited about it. If any readers out there want to sign up, it is free for teens ages 13-18. Visit the following link to download a form:
http://www.thecjm.org/images/gallery/albums/text_pages/education/Access%2018%20Form.pdf

We apologize for the lack of exciting news today, but we are all very tired from working so hard today, and our brains aren't functioning, so we can't think too well. Tune in next time for more news!

The TAC's

Yom Kippur

2008-10-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

...Yom Kippur...

...a holiday...

...for atonement of past sins...

...coming to you soon!...

During Yom Kippur, you are traditionally prohibited from:
-Eating and drinking
-Wearing leather shoes
-Bathing/washing
-Anointing oneself with perfumes or lotions

Yom Kippur is a day of resting and fasting.

The reason for these traditions is to purify the soul and reflect on the mistakes made in the past year. Yom Kippur is in many ways about cleansing and rectifying wrong

Traditionally, during Yom Kippur one is expected to spend that day in a state of rest and refection. One is expected to right their wrongs and seek forgiveness . During Yom Kippur you go to temple and think and pray. These activities help to prepare you for the new year ahead.

Many people associate Yom Kippur with the idea of cleasing the body, mind, and spirit.

Yom Kippur Poem

Yom Kippur's the "I'm sorry day."
To our friends and our families we say,
I'm sorry for hurting your inside or outside.
I'll try to be nicer today.

Hope you have a properly reflective Yom Kippur!

All the best,

Teen Art Connect

The New Year! Happy Rosh Hashana

2008-09-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

It's the New Year here at Teen Art Connect. Although many of you may celebrate the new year during the traditional month of January, here at the Contemporary Jewish Museum we are in the midst of celebrating the Jewish New Year- Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana is celebrated by cleaning out your house, mind , and spirit to make way for the new year. After you have throughly cleaned, you can welcome the new year with sweetness in the form of new resolutions and apples dipped in honey.

Here is a poem about the joys of Rosh Hashana

Ring in the new year!
out with the old in with the new
starts at sundown, September 29
honey and apples

hold on to tradition
a new beginning
start afresh
hope this year brings luck
a new beginning
nows the time to put the past in the past
a new beginning
happy new year!

And Now, for a Rosh Hashana tune!

Apples & Honey (sung to tune of Macarena, also fits with the steps)
Apples, apples, honey, honey.
They're so yummy in my tummy.
Apples, apples, honey, honey.
He-ey, it's Rosh Hashana

Happy New Year!

Back at CJM

2008-08-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 14th: I awake three hours earlier than usual, at 11:00 AM with a smile, (coupled with the groggy look that is usually seen when one receives only seven hours of sleep.) I stand up, throw my alarm against the wall, and fling my curtains open to release the sunlight. I'm going back to the museum!

I enjoy my standard breakfast of orange juice and leftover birthday cake. At 11:30, I open the front door with my new bike by my side, my beautiful badge hanging over my shirt, and my nice, crisp-

Oops. I shut the door, run back inside, put on my slacks, and go back outside, posing once again, however, this time with pants on.

I make it to the museum with ten minutes to spare, and am whisked in by my two educators, Mary and Heide. I am told that there is a need for my musical expertise today. A momentary daydream of me performing with Lou Reed on top of the building is shot down when I am told that I am actually using my musical expertise to buy a list (supplied by Heide) of songs by the likes of John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and aforementioned Lou Reed.

As I am working on buying the songs and grouping them into a coherent playlist, three employees of the museum, all of whom helped me during my training, come into the room. There appears to a problem with too many people needing tours and not enough tours happening. After a couple minutes, I turn and say "I can do an Architecture tour!" wondering why I am relinquishing the priviledge of sitting and listening to music all day (my usual itinerary) to lead people around the museum. I am sure it must be because of my humility, helpfulness, and overall goodness.

.......

Anyways, long story short, I end up assisting on the tour. Though the real tour guide did most of the talking, she allowed me to stutter about at certain stops. After working myself into a state of nervous collapse almost before the tour began, I felt I did a surprisingly good job. It may be my natural tour leading skills. More likely, however, is that my tour group laughed hysterically at any slightly coherent joke that happened to tumble out of mouth and asked millions of questions, making me very comfortable.

Well, that's today's update. Peace soldiers, time for me to put the streets down like steamrollers-Lupe Fiasco

zeum interns visit

2008-08-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

This morning we arrived about 9:30. Bright and early to prepare for the tours we would be giving to the zeum museum interns. Nerveracked about the things that could go wrong we immediately started rehearsing our stops. To cut to the chase we did great. Better than we expected mostly because our audience was awesome. They gave feedback which is cruicial to our interactive tours. They were also very enthusiastic which gave us a feeling that we were doing well, whether it was for show or not we loved them.

Hana: My stops included the introduction to the tour, the Outside/Facade Wall stop and the Pardes wall. I thought I did well on the introduction, ok on the Outside wall, but I personally don't think I did to well on the Pardes wall, mainly because I was most nervous about that stop. After the tour, when Nancy and I met with Mary in the docent room to go over our tours, both of them told me I did well on my first two stops, but I needed to make a few minor adjustments (mainly ask a couple more questions and word choice) for my Pardes wall stop. I am happy with their review and proud of having done a good job on my second tour ever! Hopefully i will have as much fun on my next tour next friday morning!

Nancy: I had the lobby which is one of my favorites because I almost know that stop by heart and I had the yud and the conclusion. I was not so happy that I had to take the conclusion because there is not much to talk about there even though it is such a significant part of the museum. The yud is not normally one of my stops but I winged it and felt pretty good about it. Surprisingly I did not use my index cards but I brought them and waved them around hopefully that helped in some shape or form. This tour was better than the first not because of the lack of confidence but because they seemed more interested which made me want to tell more instead of just getting it over with. I hope the next tour will be just as good. :]

Sundays in the Museum

2008-08-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

When our training came to a close in July, we signed up for shifts in the museum working at different locations throughout the building. I put my name down for art-making in the Education classroom and the past two Sundays, I've been painting and gluing with families from all over. The activities are geared for grade-school kids and younger; last week, we painted family memories, and this week kids constructed 3-D buildings.

A lot of kids come through, but I think my favorites are the chatty ones. This week, a family of three (mama, papa, little girl) came in to make a structure. They said they were museum-art veterans, and that they'd been to art programs at MoMA countless times, and it showed. Their little girl sits down, throws together a pyramid in like, seconds flat, and shouts "THIS IS THE TOP OF MY CASTLE."

The week before, the project was drawing a picture and captioning it. As Jen (a museum educator) is introducing how to do the project, this preschool-aged little girl takes her paper and yells, "I PUT MY CAPTION ON FIRST!"

They're cute. It's fun. Stop by.

-Ellen

Docent

2008-07-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

As we're listening to some E-40, we, Hana, Jordan and Max, recall our past couple weeks at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Jordan says, his favorite things he's done are answering visitor's questions and checking out the In The Beginning exhibit. Max says his favorite things we've done are having lunch at the museum cafe and learning about how to give architecture tours. Hana thinks she had the most fun exploring the In The Beginning exhibit (where artists were commissioned to create interpretations of the beginning of the Genesis section of the Bible) and sitting in the Yud Room and listening to the musical exhibit in there.

What else did we do this week? We were interviewed by Yo TV, and asked many questions, mainly about our favorite things about the museum and why we wanted to work here. Max said his favorite thing about the museum was the interactive tours, and he wants to work here to learn about his Jewish roots and contemporary views on judaism. Hana said her favorite thing about the museum is the movie exhibit in the ITB and wants to work here because she is an artist and wants to get a more contemporay view on jewish art and artists. Jordan was absent that day, so he couldn't answer the questions :(

-Hana, Jordan, Max

Three-Syllable Max

2008-07-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

I like the museum. Jack likes the museum. We have some pretty sweet exhibits. I think my favorite is In The Beginning, because it displays many different mediums. Jack, on the other hand, prefers the William Steig exhibit, "From The New Yorker to Shrek," because he is a visual arts major at SOTA, and therefore likes pictures.

That's not all we've got, though. We have Tal. If you were to ask him what his favorite part of the museum is, it would be the museum itself. Tal enjoys the museum's old and new designs, what we like to call in the museum, "adaptive reuse."

-Ellen, Jack and Tal

Life

2008-07-15T14:14:00.001-07:00

On Friday, July 11, Teen Art Connect took a field trip to the de Young Museum. While there, we met with the de Young Ambassadors (teen docents). The Ambassadors gave us tours of the Chihuly exhibition and led us on a scavenger hunt through the de Young Museum. Nancy and Andrew wrote the following creative response to the field trip:

--------

The De Young Museum. Tall, dark and handsome, just as I like them. It is a place that will stay in your heart forever. The De Young. My kind of place.

The Ambassadors. They know how to make a visitor feel good. Smart, quick, witty and lively. Smooth-talkers, museum prowlers, spiritual howlers. Voices like soft amber pudding bursting with imagination. And yes, they are perspecacious.

Chihuly. He likes glass. He twists it and forms it and feels it like soft, precious clay dug from the bottom of God's holy dominion, where it's soft and giving. Born from the sweat of his unyeilding determination, a new eden springs forth in bursting, kaladeiscopic hues. Golden glass orbs light the heavens like celestial road signs. Sublime. Majestic. Towering, turning and twisting, powerful and delicate all at once. Towers of power formed from a fabric transcending light and love.

The Scavenger Hunt. A foray into the rawness of competition, adrenaline rushing through the body like a tidal wave of unrequitted passion. Eyes wide, alive with primal instincts, exploring the depths of your desires. Enemies all around, fighting for their share of glory like sick, rabid dogs scrapping over a heap of rotting carcass. Looking, searching, seething for the counterpart to your soul which alone can fulfill the blaring, bombastic scripture which guides your path. Confidence, deeply enmeshed in the fibers of my heart, alone can lead this wild soul to its tamer. It's reedemer. A smile creeps upon my docile features, rupturing the calm with fits of lustful delight.

The lunch boxes were pretty.

A memoir of Andrew and Nancy's trip.

What is art?

2008-07-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Most of our lectures and training exercises during the first week of TAC focused on the question of "What is art?" And what is art? Liana would tell you that art is a medium used to express yourself. However, other opinions might differ. Jesse would tell you that art is a veneer to be draped over the human psyche, to better protect the vulnerable and tender human spirit. And Eli would tell you that art is a culmination of pain, anxiety, and anguish that must be flaunted to the world. Jack believes that art can only be truly explored through tour guiding. In order to strengthen our understanding of art, we were guided through several of the museum's beautiful exhibits, including the William Steig installation and the Genesis "In The Begining" exhibition. Perhaps the better example to explore is the "In The Begining" exhibition. Seeing such varied examples of artistic endevors, we realized that although many pieces of art can be inspired by a single notion (such as "creation"), the artistic product will vary from artist to artist. Jesse would tell you that he was both awed and humbled by the "Playing God" exhibition, which allowed him to rearrange actual words from the text of Genesis on several screens. "Playing God was a fascinating example of artistic vision, because I immediately understood what the artist was trying to convey." Liana, who explored the Trenton Doyle Hancock installation, said, "The installation was very interesting, a violent but creative way of plumbing the depths of the artist's intent." Although our opinions about the different art pieces in the museum are wide and diverse, we can say for certain that our understanding of art has steadily increased in the past week. But our thirst for knowledge has not yet been quenched, so this question will hopefully remain relevant for the rest of our internship.
-Eli, Liana, and Jesse