Visitors Draw Out Their MoMA Stories
Tamsin Nutter and Brigitta Bungard of the Museum of Modern Art have put together a project that exposes that other, non-curatorial, side of the museum world — the viewers' experiences. For a few days in February, they placed stations with pads of paper and pens in MoMA's galleries for guests to jot
Tamsin Nutter and Brigitta Bungard of the Museum of Modern Art have put together a project that exposes that other, non-curatorial, side of the museum world — the viewers’ experiences. For a few days in February, they placed stations with pads of paper and pens in MoMA’s galleries for guests to jot down whatever they please, from inspirations to art musings and doodles.
Signs posted by the stations read, “Leave us a message, a drawing, a poem, an idea. We’re interested in your day here—what you saw, felt, and thought.” Nutter and Bungard write that the compiled notes are a kind of guest book: rather than a formal visitor survey, they are an impressionistic look at what MoMA-goers are thinking. Some visitors might be artists looking for a new trail to follow, others just looking for a break from their routine, but it’s clear that everyone is drawing a connection to the artistic community through the museum and its collection.
Check out some of the notes Nutter and Bungard received below. Check out the originals in a MoMA blog post.
It’s funny to see the mixture of hope, cynicism, world-weary artistic perseverance and sheer mental relief that a visit to MoMA occasions. I know my own note would have to represent a mixture of artistic inspiration and total exhaustion at being confronted with an overwhelming number of master works. Stendhal syndrome anyone?
