EVENTS & INSTITUTES

Participants from eight museums in Mexico and from MoMA held roundtable discus¬sions, workshops, and engaged in debates about the role of museum education and how staff and visitors interpret contemporary art.

Participants talked about museum education in relation to their specific contexts, which helped the group to develop a broader, more international understanding of the key shared issues, the opportunities for successes, and the challenges.

This symposium is part of an ongoing museum-wide commitment to creating platforms for colleagues from across the globe to come together and discuss key issues relating to modern and contemporary arts & museum practice.

We were inspired to have this institute both by MoMA’s longstanding commitment to Latin America and Mexico and by a recent visit to Mexico by Wendy Woon, Edward John Noble Deputy Director for Education, and Pablo Helguera, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, to research museum education programs there and develop a network of institutions. The Patricia Cisneros Travel Fund for Latin America made this visit possible.

Collaborators

• Museo Amparo
• Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (MACG)
• Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM)
• Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (MARCO)
• Museo Universitario Arte Contemporaneo (MuAC)
• Museo Soumaya
• Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo
• Museo Sala de Arte Publico David Alfaro Siqueiros

Download the executive summary of the symposium.

Learn more about MoMA's related exhibition, Gabriel Orozco.

This panel celebrated the launch of MoMA’s publication Alfredo Boulton and his Contemporaries: Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art 1912–1974 by bringing together, for debates and discussions, scholars, poets and others to discuss this important period in the history of Venezuelan art.

The panelists included: Hugo Achugar, poet, essayist, and professor of Spanish at the University of Miami; Carlos Brillembourg, architect; Sofia Vollmer de Maduro of the Alberto Vollmer Foundation in Caracas; Luis Pérez-Oramas, The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art at MoMA, and Edward Sullivan, professor of fine arts at New York University.

Listen to the launch event at MoMA, New York.

Purchase Alfredo Boulton and his Contemporaries: Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art 1912–1974.

The program was supported by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

This public program celebrated the publication of MoMA’s Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts by bringing together the three editors of the volume: Lucy Creagh, architect and PhD candidate at Columbia University; Helena Kåberg, curator at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm; and Barbara Miller Lane, Emeritus Professor, Bryn Mawr College, for a discussion about Modern Swedish design that was moderated by Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University.

Listen to the launch event at MoMA, New York.

Purchase MoMA’s Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts.

This program was supported by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Additional support is provided by the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.

In 2008, MoMA engaged in a multi-part Japanese Curatorial Exchange program to engage more deeply with the field of postwar Japanese art. As part of this program a number of MoMA curators travelled to Japan to both meet with contemporary artists, scholars, and curators and to conduct research on post-1945 artistic practices, movements, and collectives. Upon return, curators began to look more closely at the Museum’s holdings of postwar Japanese art, which are numerous, and to question: what are these works? How did they come into MoMA’s collection? And how do they relate to the research conducted as part of the curatorial exchange program?

To help explore these questions and to continue to develop a deeper understanding of the field, in 2009 we invited five curators, scholars, and critics from Japan to spend two days meeting with MoMA staff and curators and sharing their expertise on the period and specific works and movements. To celebrate this gathering, we organized a public panel, in which the visiting curators and scholars explored the work of artists, collectives, and movements in Japan since the 1940s.

Participants included Michiko Kasahara, Chief Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Dr. Midori Matsui, independent curator and scholar; Fumihiko Sumitomo, then Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and Akira Tatehata, then Director, National Museum of Art, Osaka. The panel was moderated by Cornelia H. Butler, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at MoMA.

Based on the success of the Japanese Curatorial Exchange, the next title in MoMA’s Primary Documents series is Postwar Japanese Art, 1945–1989: Primary Documents, which will be available in Fall 2012 through the MoMA Store.

Listen to the full proceedings of the public panel.

This program was co-organized by the Japan Foundation and was generously supported by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art and the Asian Cultural Council.

MoMA’s International Program and Department of Architecture and Design collaborated with the University of Technology, Jamaica, to present a symposium on modernist architecture in the Caribbean.

Architects, architectural historians, and curators from thirteen countries gave talks and participated in discussions, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Venezuela. The talks and panels covered subjects from regional and international legacies, preservation, environmental sustainability, and urban planning as they related to modernist architectural history and contemporary practice.

The goals were to broaden awareness of modernist architecture in the Caribbean and to learn lessons for contemporary practice from its architectural heritage.

Participcants included Silvia Arango, Professor, National University of Colombia, Colombia; Mervyn Awon, architect, Barbados; Marcus Barinas, architect and Professor, Universidad Nacional; Barry Bergdoll, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carlos Brillembourg, architect, Caracas and New York; Jackson Burnside, architect, Bahamas; Mrs. Epsy Campbell-Barr, human rights activist, professor, and economist, Costa Rica; Jean Doucet, engineer and author, Martinique; Belmont Freeman, architect, New York; The Honorable Bruce Golding, Prime Minister, Jamaica; David Gouverneur, architect and visiting lecturer, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; David Harrison, Principal Lecturer, Caribbean School of Architecture, University of Technology, Jamaica; Margaret Jarrett, Programme Director, M. Arch, Caribbean School of Architecture, University of Technology, Jamaica; Jean François Lejeune, University of Miami, Florida; Ronny Lobo, organic architect, Netherlands Antilles; Gustavo Luis Moré, architect and editor of Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana, Dominican Republic; Enrique Norten, primary architect, TEN Arquitectos, Mexico and New York; Louise Noelle, Professor, National Autonomous University of Mexico; Jorge Otero Pailos, Columbia University, New York; Pat Ramsey, Director, Center for the Arts; Mark Raymond, architect, Trinidad and Tobago; Miguel Rodriguez, architect and Dean, Polytechnic School of Architecture, Puerto Rico; Bruno Stagno, architect, Costa Rica; L. Mark Taylor, Head, Caribbean School of Architecture, University of Technology, Jamaica; Dr. Ken Yeang, architect, Malaysia and United Kingdom; and Pedro Henriquez Ureña, Dominican Republic.

Listen to the two-day conference.

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) gratefully acknowledge the following sponsors of the Caribbean Modernist Architecture Symposium: The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, The Reed Foundation, Patricia Cisneros Travel Fund for Latin America of The Museum of Modern Art, Jamaica National Building Society, Pan Jam, Victoria Mutual Building Society, Air Jamaica, American Airlines, British Airways, The Courtleigh Hotel and Suites, and Jamaica Conference Centre.

In January 2004, in collaboration with the National Gallery in Delhi and the National Gallery in Mumbai, The Museum of Modern Art organized a series of panel discussions and workshops on curatorial practice in Delhi and Mumbai. Participants included invited Indian art professionals—curators, critics, artists, and publishers—together with four curators from MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, the Director of the International Program, and a staff member of the MoMA Department of Education. The sessions were structured as discussion groups, encouraging a broad exchange of information and ideas and as much interaction as possible, and focused mainly on contemporary art—both in India and at MoMA and P.S.1.

Participants included Klaus Biesenbach, then Chief Curator of MoMAPS1; Feri Daftari, then Assistant Curator, Painting & Sculpture at MoMA; Alanna Heiss, Founder of PS1; Amy Horschak, Assistant Director, Adult & Academic Programs, MoMA; Jay Levenson, Director of MoMA’s International Program; and Roxana Marcoci, then Assistant Curator, Photography at MoMA.

The program was generously sponsored by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

This workshop, jointly organized by the International Program and the Hong Kong Arts Centre, took place in Hong Kong from November 14 to 18, 2002. In addition to attending workshop sessions at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, participants and MoMA staff attended a symposium on contemporary art exhibitions, organized at the Hong Kong Museum of Art by the Guangdong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. MoMA staff members and participants also attended the opening of the First Guangzhou Triennial at the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, along with its opening symposium. Members of MoMA's staff also attended the opening of the Shanghai Biennale 2002 at the Shanghai Art Museum.

Participants included Ahn Soyeon, The Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Zanita Anuar, National Art Gallery, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Judy Chan, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong; Choi Yan-Chi, 1A Space, Hong Kong; Christina Chu, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong; James Chu, Old Ladies' House Art Space, Macau; Rhana Devenport, Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, Australia; Yasuko Furuichi, The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo, Japan; Sid Gomez Hildawa, The Cultural Center of The Philippines (CCP), Manila, The Philippines; Lee Weng Choy, The Substation, Singapore; Anthony Leung Po Shan, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong; Low Sze Wee, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Tran Luong, Hanoi Contemporary Art Center, Hanoi, Vietnam; Petch Osathanugrah, Bangkok Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand; Or Wai Chun, Artist Commune, Hong Kong; Suhanya Raffel, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, Australia; Chaitanya Sambrani, Independent Curator, Canberra, Australia, and Bombay, India; Shen Yi-Ning, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan; Judy Freya Sibayan, The Museum of Mental Objects, Manila, The Philippines; Ung Vai Meng, Macau Museum of Art, Macau; Anita Wong, University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Wu Meichun, National Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China; Ashley Yeung, Videotage, Hong Kong; and Zhang Qing, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

The Organizing Committee Members for Museum Practices in the Twenty-First Century: A Cultural Exchange with MoMA include: Oscar Ho Hing-kay, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong; Grace Cheng Sim-yee, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong; Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Liz Lau, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong; Loretta Lo, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong; Irene Ngan Shuk-fun, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong; and Rachel Wang Yung-hsin, Independent Consultant, Sydney, Australia.

The African Museum Professionals Workshop—which took place in February 2002 and began at MoMA—traveled to three American cities under the sponsorship of The International Council, Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, and The Rockefeller Foundation. In New York, participants attended the opening of the landmark exhibition The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945–1994 at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. This was the first workshop at which participants gave reports not only on their own institutions, but also on contemporary art and artists in their home countries. Participants subsequently traveled to Washington, D.C., in a program arranged by MoMA and the National Museum of African Art. The workshop concluded in Los Angeles with a program organized by MoMA with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Participants for this workshop included: Meskerem Assegued, ArtSpace, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Brendan Bell, Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermartizburg, South Africa; Hassoum Ceesay, The Gambia National Museum, Banjul, The Gambia; Philippa Curling, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe; Annaleen Eins, The National Gallery of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia; Kathy Grundlingh, The South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Simon Ikpakronyi, National Gallery of Art, Abuja, Nigeria; Silvie Kassi, Musée Municipal d'Art Contemporain de Cocody, Cocody, Côte d'Ivoire; Yacouba Konate, Independent Curator, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Koyo Kouoh, Goree Institute, Goree, Senegal; Julietta Massimbe, Museu Nacional de Arte, Maputo, Mozambique; Monica Mosarwa, Botswana National Museum, Gaborone, Botswana; Judy Ogana, Kuona Trust, Nairobi, Kenya; and Patrick Mweemba Siabokoma, Choma Museum and Crafts Centre, Choma, Zambia.

The East Asian Museum Professionals Workshop took place at MoMA from January 14 to 26, 2000, under the sponsorship of The International Council and the Asian Cultural Council. Participants enjoyed visits to Asia Society, Japan Society, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and private collections of MoMA trustees before traveling to Los Angeles from January 28 to 30 in a program arranged by MoMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Los Angeles extension included visits to the Getty Museum and Research Institute; Eli Broad Family Foundation; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; UCLA Hammer Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and several private collections of MoMA trustees and International Council members.

Participants in this workshop include: Ahmad Amerrudin, National Art Gallery, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Fang-wei Chang, Taipei Museum of Fine Art, Taipei, Taiwan; Chaos Chen, Beijing Art Museum, Beijing, China; Junmo Chung, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyungi-Do, Korea; Yukiko Harada, Mori Art Center, Tokyo, Japan; Oscar Ho Hing-kay, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong; Sun Hee Kim, Kwangju City Art Museum, Kwangju, Korea; Kenji Kubota, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan; Tran Luong, Hanoi Contemporary Art Center, Hanoi, Vietnam; Shinichiro Osaki, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Bridget Tracy Tan, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Wang Huangsheng, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; and Jian Jun Zhang, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

The Central and Eastern European Museum Professionals Workshop, which took place in New York in October and November of 1999, brought participants from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Slovenia to MoMA for a series of wide-ranging discussions of exhibition-related issues. It was the first workshop at which participants were asked to give presentations on their own institutions to MoMA staff and invited guests. The workshop also included tours of private collections in the city and visits to a selection of other institutions. The New York portion of the workshop was made possible by the sponsorship of The International Council and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Participants then traveled to Los Angeles in a program arranged by MoMA and the Getty Trust. This trip was sponsored by the Open Museum Initiative of the Open Society Institute–New York, and The Ford Foundation.

Participants in this workshop include: Katarína Bajcurová, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia; Alexander Borovsky, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Irena Buzinska, State Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia; Codruta Cruceanu, National Museum of Art, Bucharest, Romania; Alexandra Danilova, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia; Ana Deviç, Modern Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, Soros Internship Program, The Museum of Modern Art; Eha Komissarov, Estonian Contemporary Art Centre – Rotermann Salt Storage (a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia), Tallinn, Estonia; Albert Kostenevich, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Viktoras Liutkus, Lithuanian Art Museum Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania; Dorota Łoboda, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland; Zoran Petrovski, Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; Tomáš Pospiszyl, The National Gallery in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic; Aneta Prasal, Zacheta Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland; Krisztina Szipőcs, Museum of Contemporary Art – Ludwig Museum Budapest, Budapest, Hungary; Igor Zabel, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Philip Zidarov, Sofia Municipal Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Sponsored by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art and the Lampadia Foundation, the Latin American Museum Professionals Workshop was held in November of 1998 at MoMA, during the Museum's landmark exhibition Jackson Pollock: A Retrospective. Using the show itself as a case study, participants discussed a wide range of issues related to exhibition organization. Participants also attended a lecture by then Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture Kirk Varnedoe, and also visited the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson; El Museo del Barrio; the Americas Society; and other New York–area arts institutions and private collections.

The International Program has in recent years also sponsored workshops on museum libraries and archives in Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Havana, as well as workshops on conservation and fundraising in Caracas and Mexico City.

Participants in this workshop include: Moaçir dos Anjos, Jr., Instituto de Cultura, Fundação Joaqim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil; Rejane Cintrão, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Gabriel Cobo, Museo Gabriel González Videla, La Serena, Chile; Vanesa Fernández, Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico; Valeria Keller, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Aleca Le Blanc, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas, Venezuela; Xavier López de Arriaga D., Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico; Margarita Moreno de las Heras, Museo de Arte de Lima, Lima, Perú; Carlos Enrique Palacios, Museo Jacobo Borges, Caracas, Venezuela; José Ignacio Roca, Biblioteca Luis-Ángel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia; Osvaldo Sánchez Crespo, Museo de Arte Alvar y Carmen T. de Carillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico; and André Stolarski, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.