Community activists serve as docents in new tour serious at the Barnes Foundation
The Denizen Recommends: Barnes Jawn(t)southward
By inviting customs activists to serve every bit docents and brand up the stories behind its art, the Barnes is disrupting itself—and connecting to its founder's anti-elitist philosophy
Aug. 13, 2018
Visitors to the Barnes Foundation last Tuesday nighttime were treated to some trivial-known facts about the institution and its founder, Albert C. Barnes.
"Barnes was a fierce feminist," explained tour guide Shani Akilah (who uses they/them pronouns). They explained that not but did Barnes respect the female course rather than objectify it, he likewise read prominent feminist theorists such as Betty Friedan, bell hooks, and Angela Davis. "He actually was a nudist as well," they added.
Akilah likewise related 3 attempts made on Barnes' life by his enemies: The offset involved a poisoned dinner; the 2nd a BDSM play party attack; and the third a narrowly-dodged dagger.
Of course, none of these anecdotes are truthful.
Akilah's tour was part of the Barnes Jawn(t)s serial, an experiment in improvisation led by various customs activists and cultural figures intended to open up up the museum's collection to broader audiences and interpretations.The tours began on July 17 and are set to run half dozen weeks, until August 21. Besides Akilah, co-founder of the Blackness and Chocolate-brown Workers Cooperative, guides include Elicia Gonzales, executive director of the Women'south Medical Fund; tattoo creative person/activist Jasmine "Jas" Morrell; and Arielle Johnson, possessor of Constructing Comics & Coffeehouse.
The Jawn(t)south came into beingness when Daniel Park, 1 of the members of Obvious Agency—an interactive design collaboration—reached out to Shelley Bernstein, now Consulting Creative Technologist at the Barnes. He came to the Foundation expecting to discuss his groundwork and work. And so he was blindsided when Bernstein asked: "If you were going to take over the Barnes what would you practise?"
"1 of the reasons why in that location'due south no signage on the walls, why there are no education to tell people what to see, is that Dr. Barnes actually did want people to create their own stories and create their ain ties between the pieces that are in the collection," says Kathleen Greene, the museum's Curator of Public Programs.
It took a while for Park to formulate an answer, a process which began with several trips through the collection and a meditation on what rules, "spoken and unspoken," govern the space. Those rules, according to Park, include the need to venerate the artwork on the walls; maintain a certain composure in the galleries; and speak quietly. Faced with such an atmosphere, Park constitute himself moving through the galleries and making up stories for the artworks every bit he went—a practice he realized could be turned into a larger-scale, more than collaborative exercise.
This act of making up stories is ane that fits squarely within Albert Barnes' vision for his collection. "One of the reasons why there'south no signage on the walls, why there are no pedagogy to tell people what to see, is that Dr. Barnes actually did want people to create their own stories and create their own ties between the pieces that are in the drove," says Kathleen Greene, the museum'south Curator of Public Programs. The Jawn(t)s, she says, are an "extreme version" of that vision.
The idea likewise underscores Barnes' larger philosophy about the art world—that for someone to have a valid experience with a work, they didn't need a deep knowledge of art history. All they needed was to appreciate its aesthetics and consider those aesthetics in terms of their own experiences. That anti-aristocracy philosophy, along with his commitment to social causes, formed the basis of the Foundation.
Through the whimsical, detached stories made up during the Jawn(t)s tours, the Barnes is shifting the narrative of what is and isn't represented past the usual fine art earth—even at the Barnes during its regular visiting hours. By selecting nontraditional docents—community activists—and elevating them to the level of adept, Park says the project asks the questions: "Whose stories are we telling?" and "Whose stories are we legitimizing?"
"The goal was to brand sure that we really represented Philadelphia and had a broad range of Philadelphians being asked to be guides," Greene says.
The decision to accept part was an easy one for Akilah, a writer since the historic period of 12 and longtime activist. "I was really intrigued by the improvisation piece of it, and the fact that it's in the Barnes Foundation infinite, where you don't typically come across a lot of queer and trans people of color," they say. "I absolutely see this project equally a disruption of space—disruption of elitist space, disruption of direct, cis, white space, disruption of colonial sensibilities." That disruption, performed through the way of lighthearted improvisation, is still a form of resistance. "When we have up space as marginalized people, it is resistance," Akilah says.
"The reality is that arts and civilization is where everything starts—where advancement starts, where all types of movements [start], they come out of the arts. The arts is the voice—that's why they shut that down start," says Greene.
The Jawn(t)s serial serves equally an example of how the Barnes has worked to create a greater network of community connections, i that can allow the museum to abound and thrive with a younger and more diverse audience. Since moving to the Parkway, the Barnes has started a program to allow $5 admission for higher students and gratuitous admission for Philadelphia Grand-12 teachers on Sundays; brought in musical performances from the upcoming Brazilian 24-hour interval celebration, to Sunday brunch with music; showcased city communities through a connectedness to public arts.
Greene states that programming is "key" for bringing diverse audiences into the Barnes and sustaining those audiences. She cites Creative person Fustigate, an annual Barnes commemoration of art, performance, and activism, as an example of multifariousness at the Foundation: "Nosotros have twenty year olds and lxx year olds who are staying until eleven o'clock partying with us." She describes that sort of audience as "heaven," and explains that she doesn't "see that diversity anywhere unless [she's] randomly walking downwards sure parts of the city."
The key, Greene says, is creating that network and then ensuring the links within it are potent. "How do we sustain these relationships that we're building?" Greene aks. "Both with the audition members who are coming simply too with the speakers? Any relationships that are being built, they don't meliorate the institution who is hosting it if the relationships are non sustained."
The start, she adds, is past looking past the incredible works of art, to the customs connections and borough experiences that they inspire. "The reality is that arts and culture is where everything starts—where advocacy starts, where all types of movements [start], they come out of the arts. The arts is the vox—that'southward why they close that down get-go."
August 14 through August 21, $10, vi pm-6:45 pm, the Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Correction: A previous version of this commodity misstated Shelley Bernstein's title. It is Consulting Artistic Technologist.
Photo Credits: Visit Philly 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/the-citizen-recommends-barnes-jawnts/
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