Geoffrey Greene

As the inaugural Meg Reitman Jacobs ‘63 Intern at the Tang Teaching Museum during the 2017-18 academic year, I worked on numerous programs with both the Museum Educator for K-12 and Community Programs and the Museum Educator for College and Public Programs.

In the fall, I primarily worked in K-12 Education, creating art activities and models for school-age children. The museum’s weekly Family Saturdays are a wonderful opportunity to bring kids into the museum and to make them excited about art. Each week, the K-12 Educators provide tours of specific pieces in various exhibitions and conduct a related art-making activity. During the week, I made prototypes for each craft activity to serve as models for the kids. I created a range of models and sculptures based on current exhibitions, such as 3-D still lifes of a dining room table inspired by the work of Njideka Akunyili Crosby, towers with spools and thread on seven-inch vinyl inspired by the work of Dario Robleto, and even my own board game, inspired by Willie Cole’s To get to the other side. I enjoyed exploring my own creativity in making these prototypes, and learning how children can learn new things and develop their own creativity through art.

During Family Saturdays, we use Visual Thinking Strategies, which let younger visitors say a great deal about each artwork without any prior knowledge of the piece, artist, or meaning, and thus make the work more accessible. This was even true when encountering work with serious themes, such as the work in the exhibitions Other Side: Art, Object, Self and Opener 30: Njedika Akunyili Crosby — Predecessors. The craft activities provided a great, hands-on opportunity for the children to apply what they learned about in the galleries.

As an Anthropology major, I used observational skills I gained in my courses to notice how different families worked on the art-making projects. Some parents and caregivers did most of work while taking direction from their children. Sometimes parents would make their own artworks alongside their children, each generation working independently. Sometimes children from different families would work together. As a facilitator, I took a passive approach and provided help only when asked. Mainly, I let families interpret and create projects on their own terms. By the end of the activity, children presented and shared their creations with one another, showcasing a huge array of colorful and unique pieces. Growing up in New York City, I was surrounded by many different art museums in a close proximity and some of my fondest memories involved doing art activities with my classes and family at the museums in my neighborhood. These positive experiences with art at an early age continue to impact my love for art and museums, and I am grateful to help pass on these experiences through the Tang’s family education programs.

Throughout the fall and spring semesters, I participated in the Tang’s Student Advisory Council, which serves as a bridge between the Tang and Skidmore students. We met biweekly to discuss upcoming events and brainstorm ideas of how to better engage with and reach a broader range of students. I also helped organize a student-run hip-hop performance in December, which provided a great outlet for student rappers, DJs, and dancers to showcase their skills and love of various facets of hip-hop. Connecting the Tang to campus has been exciting, highlighting the museum as a useful resource for students and vice versa.

In the spring semester, my main project was to help revitalize the annual Tang Party, which is held on the last Friday of April every year. The Tang Party is a one-night event that features art installations, performance art, and musical groups all on the grounds of the Tang. Over the years, the number of participants had gone down, so working with Tom Yoshikami, the Tang’s Museum Educator for College and Public Programming, and Emma Fritschel ’19, the President of the Pro-Arts Club, we strove to make the event better than ever before.

Using posters, emails, and social media posts, we advertised the event and encouraged students to apply. We even set up “office hours” in Case Center, so students interested in participating could ask us questions about the Tang Party in general, as well as any specific questions they had about the application process. We selected twenty student projects and worked closely with each student and group to realize their ideas. As the main organizers, Emma and I conducted group meetings with participants, advertised the event through informational brochures and posters, assisted with the installation and deinstallation of each piece, and organized the distribution of reimbursements for students’ materials. This range of responsibilities gave me a great deal of invaluable experiences in event planning, and I felt extremely proud when the process culminated in a successful and fun art installation and performance party.

The Tang Party and other student events showed me just how valuable the Tang is as a resource for students, providing space, staff, and financial support to realize imaginative projects. At the same time, an enthusiastic and creative community of students is equally valuable. During my internship, I participated in the Museum’s myriad efforts to engage both Skidmore students and students from around the region, and I saw a deep commitment to education and learning through art.

Over the summer, I focused on community programming, especially the Upbeat on the Roof concert series. From July through August, the Tang presents a regional musical act in a free concert open to the community. The highly attended event provides accessible music in a range of genres, and highlights the diversity of the upstate New York music scene. I helped book the nine acts that performed, and served as the main point of contact for one act I was excited about: a psychedelic folk-rock group called William Hale. For each Thursday night concert, I worked with another student assistant and Tom Yoshikami to set up the sound equipment, meet the band, and introduce them to the audience. I enjoyed gaining more experience with live-audio equipment and attending so many fun and lively concerts. I also learned the Tang has a devoted community audience that attended each week, regardless of act or genre. That sense of community the Tang creates around its programming and exhibitions is unique and special to its relationship with both college students and the community.

I held this internship my senior year, and my many hands-on experiences corresponded directly with courses in my Anthropology major and Arts Administration minor, especially in my research of arts and nonprofit engagement and fundraising. Combining these academic interests with my internship created an integrated and holistic college experience. The numerous leadership experiences the internship gave me have been pivotal in helping me refine my interests as I begin pursuing career opportunities in the arts.