Off the Shelf is a site-specific theater piece that examines the life and character of a museum’s permanent collection, co-created by Carolyn Anderson, Professor of Theater, and Garett Wilson, Theater Department Artistic Director. The show will be performed March 27, 28, and 29 at 7:00 and 8:30 pm each night.
Off the Shelf is organized in conjunction with the exhibition The Shelf, which presents work from the Tang Teaching Museum collection that spans place, time, material, style, and subject. Displayed together on a single shelf, the objects selected confuse distinctions between “high” and “low” art, between “decorative” and “fine,” or between work made for function or beauty. The exhibition represents a snapshot of the museum’s permanent collection—a grouping that creates new meaning about the works both individually and collectively. It asks, what defines a permanent collection of things, and what defines their connections?