This article is part of the museum’s special section on how the museum is reaching out to new artists and attracting new audiences.
The Queen’s Museum is getting ready for the show. On an early spring Monday afternoon, canvases of various sizes hang on a 14-foot-tall wall in Gallery 6, one of the museum’s six exhibition spaces, in the New York City Building built for the 1939 World’s Fair. lined up along fair.
A crowd of curators and volunteers gather around an iPad on a workbench. They are reviewing the layout of her 1,144-square-foot space and an adjacent similarly-sized gallery, and are discussing how to best display Aliza Nisenbaum’s work.
“It’s my first solo show in New York,” she said. “i’m so excited.”
Ms. Neisenbaum is an accomplished artist, her work has been shown at places like the Tate Liverpool and the Minneapolis Museum of Art, a show that may never have happened at another institution.
Originally from Mexico, currently living in New York, Neisenbaum is an artist-in-residence at the Queen’s Museum of Art. Her show will run until her September 10th and represents the culmination of her two years of work during her residency. It grew out of her 10-year involvement with Corona, a Queens neighborhood.
title”Queens, Lynd, Kerid,” (beautiful and darling), the show features enthusiastic and colorful paintings of Corona residents whom Neisenbaum began dating in 2012 when he began volunteering at a local immigration assistance organization and teaching arts. is. Many of them come from Mexico and Central America. History and English classes.
The show is also an example of how the concept of artist-in-residence is changing. It starts with the fact that in most museums, solo exhibition honors are not usually given to artists in residence.
“For a museum that tends to be relatively conservative, it may have been seen as a high risk,” said Mary Certy, executive director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
But that’s changing as museums and other museums seek closer relationships with the communities around them.
Susan Hapgood, executive director of the International Studio & Curatorial Program, an international artist residency program based in Brooklyn, said: “We are trying to make the viewing experience more transparent and accessible. Residency programs are able to do that well by bringing artists closer to the audiences that institutions serve.”
Traditionally, residencies provided creative individuals with a kind of artistic sanctuary. According to some historians, the idea dates back to the Renaissance. From the 1400s, Cosimo de’ Medici, a powerful merchant patriarch known for his patronage of the arts, invited artists and philosophers to his villa to think, create and research without outside pressure. spent time.
Similar motives were behind American and British artist colonies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these residency programs were held in rural areas, fueled by the idea that artists needed an escape from the industrialized world.
In recent years, the concept of residency has changed again. Many of the museums, universities, and other institutions that offer their programs want artists to engage with society rather than escape from it.
“In my opinion, the most important concept of the artist-in-residence program is the interaction of visiting artists with the community,” says Nancy Campbell, professor emeritus at Mount Holyoke College and founder of the college’s printmaking workshops. said Mr. program. “Whether it is a museum or a university, personal contact and interaction with visiting artists and communities is key.”
She admits that not all artists do their best in the environment. “Some people thrive on larger interactions,” she says. “Others prefer an isolated, private, quiet studio.”
While some may choose to pursue their muse in an idyllic secluded location, most artists recognize the importance of interaction to their careers.
Amanda Lee, an assistant professor at Utah State University’s Department of Art and Design, said the residency program is important. ”
Artists, like everyone else, need to make a living. In that regard, Professor Lee, who is also a multimedia artist whose work has been exhibited at prominent galleries on the West Coast, says residency his program can provide a “lifeline” for artists at all stages of their careers. . Emerging or young artists can be mentored by a senior curatorial staff. Parenting responsibilities are available for parenting support.
The length of residency programs, scholarships and accommodation vary widely. Professor Lee said he has done residencies that lasted a week. Neisenbaum has been at the Queen’s Museum for two years. She was also offered studio space and a scholarship.
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto provides each artist with a $10,000 scholarship (approximately $7,500 in US currency) and $3,000 for six to 10 weeks of residency. However, these terms are not fixed.
“We are very flexible,” said Stefan Jost, the gallery’s director and chief executive. “The residency is fundamentally about the relationship between the institution and the artists and the community. We don’t want artists to worry about bills. I hope to help.”
Jost, who is also second vice-president and secretary of the Museum Directors’ Association, said he believes institutions need to manage expectations of visitors. “You have to be open,” he said. “Sometimes residencies lead to big acquisitions, publications, or exhibitions. Sometimes ideas are born that take him ten years to come to fruition.”
Not only do the results of an artist’s stay change, but so do the residents themselves.
Case in point: Erik Elstein, who is often seen in the main hall of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, sits behind a 1943 Smith Corona typewriter next to a sign reading “Listen to what I’m writing” I’m sitting ”
Erstein is Field’s resident poet, a position he proposed to the museum in 2017.
“I came up with a pretty loosely structured idea,” he said. “Basically, I said, ‘I’ll be out in public to interact with visitors, work on my poems, promote poetry contests, and hold workshops,'” Field said. Do what you want and we will support you.”
Although Elshtain does not receive a scholarship, he does get unlimited access to office space and museum collections, and is funded by the Poetry Foundation.
His residency has produced tangible results. In addition to holding quarterly workshops, nine of the approximately 150 poems he wrote during his unlimited residency are on display in the museum next to the objects and exhibits that inspired him. increase.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing’s new African Art Residency. Irene Musundi, curator of exhibits at the National Museum of Kenya, has been appointed for a four-month stay. Musundi’s goal isn’t to create art. She is supposed to curate it. A statement from the museum said she would develop a proposal for “a traveling exhibition of works on loan from the Metropolitan Collection to Nairobi and the development and guidance of public education programs.”
Similarly, residency programs Philadelphia Fabric Studios and Museums In recent years, not only textile artists but also sculptors, painters, musicians, filmmakers and even cabaret performers have taken part. Her eight workshop residents work closely with senior staff to develop ideas.
The museum’s chief curator, DJ Hellerman, said: “You don’t necessarily have to think of the exhibition as the final result.”
Neisenbaum’s solo exhibition at the Queen’s Museum is truly the final result of her time at her institution and the Covid-19 era.Perhaps her most famous work is “Doers” A drawing of 16 airport workers she completed in 2022. This year, it will be used for a mosaic mural in Delta Terminal C at LaGuardia Airport.
Neisenbaum also taught an art class for beginners, which developed into a master class for many up-and-coming locals. She wanted to showcase these talents as part of an exhibition, so 28 paintings by her students will be displayed in the museum’s gallery alongside hers. I was thinking,” she said.
When asked about her time as the museum’s resident artist, she smiled and said she looked around the gallery, ready for her paintings to be hung. All kinds of new ideas came out of it. ”
