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MoMA

TALKS & READINGS

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See art from different perspectives and get inspired by artists, writers, curators, and designers.

  • Join us for daily gallery talks and weekly lunch lectures
  • Attend performances and poetry readings inspired by modern and contemporary art
  • Talk with artists and curators about their work
  • Explore our online multimedia player for past lectures and events
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Panels & Symposia

61205

Contemporary Art Forum: Critical Play—The Game as an Art Form

Thursday, May 17, 2012, 6:00 p.m.
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From Marcel Duchamp’s chess games to Lygia Clark’s puzzles, artists throughout the 20th century have adopted the structures and strategies of games. In recent years, they have begun to explore virtual, online, and video games in their work—as well as game theory, an increasingly critical framework for audience engagement and participation—to create social interactions. This two-day forum brings together artists, educators, curators, and game theorists to discuss the influence of game theory on art practice and the ways in which art making has reformulated audience engagement and learning.

Program Schedule

Thursday, May 17
6:00 p.m.: Welcome
Pablo Helguera
, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, The Museum of Modern Art

6:10–6:30 p.m.: Critical Play
Mary Flanagan
, Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities and Director, Tiltfactor Laboratory, Dartmouth College

6:30–8:00 p.m.: Artist Play, A Short History
Susan Laxton
, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of California, Riverside; Hannah Higgins, Professor, University Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Frank Lantz, Director, New York University Game Center. Moderated by Christian Rattemeyer, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art.

Friday May 18, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
10:00 a.m. Welcome
Pablo Helguera
, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, The Museum of Modern Art

10:10–10:40 a.m.: Games and 21st–Century Literacy
James Paul Gee
, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, Arizona State University

10:45–11:45 a.m.: War and Games
Scholar Christopher Robbins
, Associate Professor of Social Foundations at Eastern Michigan University; with artist Coco Fusco; and Ana Janevski, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art

11:45 a.m.–1:00 p.m.: From Hello World! to Hello Nails! Videogames and Design
Artists Scott Snibbe (Biophilia) and Pippin Barr (The Artist is Present) in conversation with Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art

1:00–3:00 p.m.: Lunch and Game Time
Games will be available for open play in the Education Building mezzanine and classrooms, located adjacent to Theater 3

3:00–4:00 p.m.: Games and Social Practice
Artists Pekko Koskinen and Pedro Reyes with Pablo Helguera, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, The Museum of Modern Art

4:00–5:00 p.m.: Respondent’s Panel
Sebastian Chan
, Director of Digital Media and Technology, Smithsonian, Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum; Kevin Slavin, independent consultant; Daphne Dragona, independent new media curator; Erica Gangsei, Manager of Interpretative Media, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Moderated by Stephanie Pau, Associate Educator, Interpretation and Research, The Museum of Modern Art.

Follow us on Twitter @momatalks and join in the conversation—use hashtag #momacriticalplay to find out more about this program and share your thoughts! A live stream of this program will be available at livestream.com/momatalks.

The Contemporary Art Forum presents timely and innovative programs (lectures, conversations, and performances) that address pressing issues in contemporary art, and grow out of discussions with MoMA curators. Participants include artists and designers, critics, curators, and scholars, among others.

Can't make this event? This event also occurs on:

Program

Contemporary Art Forum

When

Thursday, May 17, 2012, 6:00 p.m.

Where
Theater 3 (The Celeste Bartos Theater), mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
Fees
This symposium takes place over two days, May 17 and 18, and separate admission applies to each day. Tickets ($10, $8 members and corporate members, $5 students, seniors and staff of other museums) are available online, at the information desk in the main lobby, and at the film desk after 4:00 p.m. Any remaining tickets may be picked up one hour before the start of the program at the Education and Research Building ticketing desk.
61933

Contemporary Art Forum: Critical Play—The Game as an Art Form

Friday, May 18, 2012, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
View Detail
Close
61933

From Marcel Duchamp’s chess games to Lygia Clark’s puzzles, artists throughout the 20th century have adopted the structures and strategies of games. In recent years, they have begun to explore virtual, online, and video games in their work—as well as game theory, an increasingly critical framework for audience engagement and participation—to create social interactions. This two-day forum brings together artists, educators, curators, and game theorists to discuss the influence of game theory on art practice and the ways in which art making has reformulated audience engagement and learning.

Program Schedule

Thursday, May 17
6:00 p.m.: Welcome
Pablo Helguera
, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, The Museum of Modern Art

6:10–6:30 p.m.: Critical Play
Mary Flanagan
, Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities and Director, Tiltfactor Laboratory, Dartmouth College

6:30–8:00 p.m.: Artist Play, A Short History
Susan Laxton
, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of California, Riverside; Hannah Higgins, Professor, University Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Frank Lantz, Director, New York University Game Center. Moderated by Christian Rattemeyer, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings, The Museum of Modern Art.

Friday May 18, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
10:00 a.m. Welcome
Pablo Helguera
, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, The Museum of Modern Art

10:10–10:40 a.m.: Games and 21st–Century Literacy
James Paul Gee
, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, Arizona State University

10:45–11:45 a.m.: War and Games
Scholar Christopher Robbins
, Associate Professor of Social Foundations at Eastern Michigan University; with artist Coco Fusco; and Ana Janevski, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art

11:45 a.m.–1:00 p.m.: From Hello World! to Hello Nails! Videogames and Design
Artists Scott Snibbe (Biophilia) and Pippin Barr (The Artist is Present) in conversation with Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art

1:00–3:00 p.m.: Lunch and Game Time
Games will be available for open play in the Education Building mezzanine and classrooms, located adjacent to Theater 3

3:00–4:00 p.m.: Games and Social Practice
Artists Pekko Koskinen and Pedro Reyes with Pablo Helguera, Director of Adult and Academic Programs, The Museum of Modern Art

4:00–5:00 p.m.: Respondent’s Panel
Sebastian Chan
, Director of Digital Media and Technology, Smithsonian, Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum; Kevin Slavin, independent consultant; Daphne Dragona, independent new media curator; Erica Gangsei, Manager of Interpretative Media, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Moderated by Stephanie Pau, Associate Educator, Interpretation and Research, The Museum of Modern Art.

Follow us on Twitter @momatalks and join in the conversation—use hashtag #momacriticalplay to find out more about this program and share your thoughts! A live stream of this program will be available at livestream.com/momatalks.

The Contemporary Art Forum presents timely and innovative programs (lectures, conversations, and performances) that address pressing issues in contemporary art, and grow out of discussions with MoMA curators. Participants include artists and designers, critics, curators, and scholars, among others.

Can't make this event? This event also occurs on:

Program

Contemporary Art Forum

When

Friday, May 18, 2012, 10:00 a.m. –5:00 p.m.

Where
Theater 3 (The Celeste Bartos Theater), mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
Fees

This symposium takes place over two days, May 17 and 18, and separate admission applies to each day. Tickets ($10, $8 members and corporate members, $5 students, seniors and staff of other museums) are available online, at the information desk in the main lobby, and at the film desk after 4:00 p.m. Any remaining tickets may be picked up one hour before the start of the program at the Education and Research Building ticketing desk.

Cindy Sherman: From 1975 to Now

Monday, May 21, 2012, 6:30 p.m.
In conjunction with the exhibition Cindy Sherman
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On the occasion of The Museum of Modern Art's Cindy Sherman retrospective and the publication of Cindy Sherman: The Early Work, 1975–1977, Catalogue Raisonné, MoMA and Parsons The New School for Design present a lecture on Sherman’s career from the very beginning to the present. Gabriele Schor, author of the catalogue raisonné, will discuss Sherman’s early works, produced during her studies in Buffalo from 1975 through the summer of 1977. In just two-and-a-half years the young artist created an impressive number of portraits, films, and complex cutout pictorial narratives that have remained unknown until now. Eva Respini will discuss connections between early works and more recent bodies of work, emphasizing how identity, feminine roles, and the artifice of photography have been at the heart of Sherman’s artistic practice from its earliest phases.

Eva Respini is Associate Curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and curator of the exhibition Cindy Sherman. She has organized numerous exhibitions on contemporary art and photography at MoMA, including Boris Mikhailov: Case History (2011), Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960 (co-curated 2011), Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography (co-curated 2010), Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West (2009), Artist’s Choice: Vik Muniz (2008), and New Photography (2012, 2009, 2007, and 2005), among others. She is the author of Cindy Sherman and Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West, co-author of Fashioning Fiction in Photography since 1990, and a contributor to other museum publications.

Gabriele Schor is director of the collection Sammlung Verbund, which was established in 2004 in Vienna. A former teacher of American and European modern art and contemporary photography at the Universities of Graz and Vienna, she is author of Cindy Sherman: The Early Works 1975–1977, Catalogue Raisonné (2012) and The Prints of Barnett Newman 1961–1969 (1996). She has organized numerous exhibitions, including Cindy Sherman: That's me – That's not me: The Early Works 1975–1977; DONNA: Avanguardia Femminista negli anni '70, at the Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna in Rome (2010); and Held Together with Water, at MAK Vienna (2007) and the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2008). Together with Abigail Solomon-Godeau, she edited the first monograph of the Austrian artist Birgit Jürgenssen (2009).

When

Monday, May 21, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

Where
Parsons The New School for Design
Fees

The event is free and open to the public. No tickets required. This program is hosted by the BFA in photography program at Parsons. Visit parsons.edu for more information.

This event is held at:
Parsons The New School for Design
Tishman Auditorium
66 West 12 Street
New York, NY 10011

Performances & Readings

61219

MoMA Nights with a DJ Set by Tanlines

Thursday, June 7, 2012, 5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
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61219

Tonight's DJ: Tanlines
Tanlines is the Brooklyn duo of Eric Emm (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Jesse Cohen (drums, keyboards, bass). Initially born as a production project based out of Emm’s Brooklyn-based Brothers Studio, Tanlines has evolved into a deeply personal, unique electronic pop group. Their debut album, Mixed Emotions, was released in March 2012 to widespread critical acclaim.

Cash Bar
5:30–8:00 p.m.
Visit the cash bar for a variety of beverages, including specialty cocktails.

Terrace Dining
5:00–7:00 p.m., Terrace 5 (floor 5)
Terrace 5 will offer an à la carte menu indoors, as well as an "urban picnic"—antipasti, salumi, cheese, and sweets, with optional choice of wine—outdoors on the terrace, with seatings at 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. Menus are presented by Chef Lynn Bound. The "urban picnic" is $32 per person (not including beverage or NYS sales tax and service charge), and is not eligible for the 10% member discount. For reservations, please email jhackimer@artfoodny.com with name, preferred time, number of guests, and phone number.

Gallery Talks
Free with admission
MoMA educators give engaging talks in the galleries at 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. Groups meet the lecturer in the Marron Atrium on the second floor. Gallery talks are approximately sixty minutes in duration. For enhanced hearing in the galleries, FM headsets and neck loops are available at the meeting spot.

MoMA is open late the first Thursday of the month, September–June, with a DJ, a cash bar, a special menu in Terrace 5 or Cafe 2, and free Gallery Talks.

Regular Museum admission applies.

Program

MoMA Nights

When

Thursday, June 7, 2012, 5:30 p.m. –8:30 p.m.

Modern Poets: Frank O'Hara’s Lunch Poems

Friday, June 8, 2012, 12:00 p.m.
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In the 1960s, when poet Frank O’Hara worked at MoMA, he often spent his lunch breaks roaming the streets of midtown Manhattan, finding inspiration in the bustling city and its people and writing poems about his encounters. For our special summer session of Modern Poets, two New York–based poets read their favorite Lunch Poems and then give you prompts and guidelines for hitting the streets and writing your own.

Stefania Heim's poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Harp & Altar, La Petite Zine, The Paris Review, A Public Space, and The Literary Review. She is the author of a chapbook, 3 Poems, published by handheld editions, and is founding editor of CIRCUMFERENCE: Poetry in Translation. She teaches at Columbia University and Hunter College.

Revitalizing Frank O'Hara's legacy and MoMA's historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets and performers to bring the literary tradition to the Museum's collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art.

Can't make this event? This event also occurs on:

Program

Modern Poets

When

Friday, June 8, 2012, 12:00 p.m.

Where
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, exterior, first floor
Fees
Free with Museum admission. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Modern Poets: Frank O'Hara’s Lunch Poems

Friday, June 15, 2012, 12:00 p.m.
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In the 1960s, when poet Frank O’Hara worked at MoMA, he often spent his lunch breaks roaming the streets of midtown Manhattan, finding inspiration in the bustling city and its people and writing poems about his encounters. For our special summer session of Modern Poets, two New York–based poets read their favorite Lunch Poems and then give you prompts and guidelines for hitting the streets and writing your own.

Wayne Koestenbaum has published 15 books of poetry, criticism, and fiction, including Humiliation, The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, Blue Stranger with Mosaic Background, Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films, Hotel Theory, and Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes. He also holds a post as Distinguished Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center.

Revitalizing Frank O'Hara's legacy and MoMA's historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets and performers to bring the literary tradition to the Museum's collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art.

Can't make this event? This event also occurs on:

Program

Modern Poets

When

Friday, June 15, 2012, 12:00 p.m.

Where
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, exterior, first floor
Fees
Free with Museum admission. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Modern Poets: John Cage Day

Thursday, August 9, 2012, 12:00 p.m.
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Celebrate the centenary of legendary artist, composer, philosopher, and writer John Cage with a series of readings, performances, musical compositions, and personal reflections by poets, writers, musicians, and scholars. Participants include writer and editor Richard Kostelantez; Joan Retallack, John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Humanities, Bard College; pianist and toy-piano virtuoso Margaret Leng Tan; and poet, editor, and curator Roger van Voorhees. In the evening (at 6:30 p.m.), enjoy John Cage-composed and Cage-inspired percussion music during MoMA Nights, when Third Coast Percussion Ensemble presents Revolution: The Cage Century.

Revitalizing Frank O'Hara's legacy and MoMA's historical commitment to poetry, this series invites poets and performers to bring the literary tradition to the Museum's collection. They read historical works and their own work that reflects on modern and contemporary art.

Program

Modern Poets

When

Thursday, August 9, 2012, 12:00 p.m.

Where
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, exterior, first floor
Fees
Free with Museum admission.