Museumology



Nancy Rubins, Pleasure Point, 2006



Many tweens are going through lots of new changes.  They’re questioning the way things are, and they’re seeing things that they may have considered normal with new critical eyes.  In many ways, they’re similar to professional visual artists.  I think this is why it was so fun to give tours to classes of tweens when I worked as a tour guide at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Bruce Nauman, The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths, 1967

When I first began working as a tour guide, giving tours to groups of tweens worried me.  I was afraid that they would think the art was stupid.  Many of my own friends who did not have a background in art tended to roll their eyes at contemporary artworks, “What’s the point?” they’d ask.  “It’s a waste of time,” they’d say.  The funny thing is, in the year I gave tours; no student ever said that the art was stupid.  They were always open to whatever was presented to them.  They also always came up with the best ideas for what the art on display represented.  They were on the same wavelength as the artists.  They were all just trying to figure out what this crazy world means and also trying to find the best way to express themselves, to define their existence.

Ernesto Neto, Installation, 2007

The nice thing about art museums is that many are free to people who are tweenage.  Also, the museum gallery space is a place where tweens can wander by themselves and feel independent, while learning to abide the museum rules and rituals of observing art through the example of other patrons and the direction of the museum guards.    

Robert Irwin, Light and Space, 2007