The Relevant Art Museum

helenaliikanen — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:20:45 +0000

Welcome!

This website looks into the role and relevance of art museums in today’s society. The subject is is examined through several online video interviews of Californian museum professionals, architects and other experts. The content of this site is also shared on Pinterest.

Enjoy your visit and please tell us what you think about the future of museums.

Nina Simon, museum director and expert: participatory model got us out of financial crisis

helenaliikanen — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 01:23:39 +0000

Nina Simon, a popular museum blogger and the author of the book Participatory Museum, took over the leadership of the Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center in Santa Cruz in 2011. Since then a lot has happened: attendance for programs and regular visits increased with over 50 percent. Simon’s secret is to invite the community to join in building exhibitions, organizing events and participating in decision-making. “For us moving to this participatory and community based model, was the answer to getting us out of the financial crisis,” she says.

Selma Holo, museum director and expert: yoga is one way to slow a museum visitor down

helenaliikanen — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 01:00:56 +0000

Dr. Selma Holo is the director of USC Fisher Museum of Art and a Professor of Art History. In recent years Holo has become increasingly interested in the role of museums in society. USC Fisher organizes a number of programs and events from films to panels and from music performances to exercise classes. In this video we visit a yoga class that is organized once a week in the Fisher’s exhibition room. The class is the most popular event of the museum. “Yoga is just another way of slowing people down,” Selma Holo says in her interview.

Edwin Chan, architect: museums create opportunities for people to interact

helenaliikanen — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:23:38 +0000

Thesis- Edwin Chan from Museum Project / Helena Liikanen on Vimeo.

While working with Frank O. Gehry & Associates and later Gehry Partners, architect Edwin Chan was part of ...Continue Reading

Peter Tokofsky of Getty: we need to know what the publics consider as service

helenaliikanen — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:47:29 +0000

Peter Tokofsky is the education specialist for the academic and adult programs at The J. Paul Getty Museum. Although the events he organizes are closely related to the mission of the museum, he sees no downsides in organizing music concerts or yoga classes for the museum visitors. “If we start with the premise that we are serving publics — and I always emphasize that there is a plural, publics, it is not a uniform mass out there — then we need to know what they consider service,” he says in his interview.

Linda Taalman, architect: museums need a restaurant, not a fancy shell

helenaliikanen — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:46:05 +0000

Linda Taalman is a Los Angeles-based architect and an assistant professor at Woodbury School of Architecture. When she started her practice 15 years ago in New York, her first project was to design for the new Dia: Beacon museum. In this video Taalman talks about the museum space as a social space. “It is not really enough to just have the museum program of the art work. I think you need other kind of social interaction as well,” she says.

Holly Jerger of the Craft and Folk Art Museum: exhibitions are springboards for workshops

helenaliikanen — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:48:42 +0000

The small Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles is located in the heart of Museum Row, across the street from The La Brea Tar Pits and just a short walk from LACMA. CAFAM has a wide range of public programming that is often related to the ongoing exhibitions. In this video we visit a craft night where the instructor uses images from the museum’s tattoo exhibition as an inspiration. “We look at our place for people to come to have an experience that goes beyond just looking at the artwork,” the director of public programs, Holly Jerger says.

Mark Allen of Machine Project: it is not critical to define the right way to use a museum

helenaliikanen — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:08:44 +0000

Machine Project is a store front art space in Echo Park, Los Angeles, that hosts performances, exhibitions and workshops. It is also a group of artists who collaborate when been invited to organize projects in art museums. On this video we see a glimpse of one of the Machine Project events: Dream-in at the Hammer Museum, where people were invited to stay at the museum over night. Mark Allen, the executive director of Machine Project doesn’t think that it is necessary to define the right way to use a museum. “An experience of a cultural organization is constituted by a lot of things,” he says.

Documentary: A Happening Museum

helenaliikanen — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:43:44 +0000

Show 71- Museums from USC Impact on Vimeo.

The short documentary was shown on USC Impact, an award-winning television news magazine produced by journalism students at the USC ...Continue Reading

Susana Smith Bautista, museum expert: today’s museumgoers look for experiences

helenaliikanen — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:39:36 +0000

Susana Bautista, Ph.D. from Museum Project / Helena Liikanen on Vimeo.

Susana Smith Bautista, Ph.D. is an expert in museums, art, technology and digital culture. In her research, Smith ...Continue Reading