Marge Ainsley

Had a whole day and evening at MoMA and MoMA Nights…some thoughts on my visit below (more to follow…!)

I spent the day looking at all the galleries, and tracked down some key works that inspired me in 1996 to follow a career in the arts (taught to me in art history lessons by teacher/artist John Morrison). Seeing Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was just brilliant.

I picked up plenty of print along the way, some great family guides which I’ll be sharing with colleagues back home. I also really liked MoMA teen audio, downloadable podcasts researched and created by young people from New York City High School. Gave me a few ideas for the Cultural Olympiad Stories of the World project I’m working on back home.

The Tim Burton exhibition was crammed full of stuff, and visitors. So I didn’t really stay all that long in there as I may have passed out. There seemed to be some confusion over whether you needed a timed ticket or not…but I managed to get in without one. But kind of wished they’d been timed.

One of the highlights during the day was visiting the William Kentridge exhibition ‘Five Themes’. I’d not seen his work before and must have spent a good few hours in there, particularly amazed by the mini-theatres which were just magical.

The evening started off with a reception that we felt privileged to be invited to - the opening of CreateAbility’s first exhibition. CreateAbility is MoMA’s monthly programme for individuals with learning or developmental disabilities and their families. The ‘speeches’ were given by those who had taken part CreateAbility and their families - who obviously valued the programme immensely. Then it was off to MoMA Nights, held on the first Thursday of each month. The gallery remains open until 8.45pm and there’s free access to all the spaces, along with talks, a bar/DJ and offers in the cafe. I went on a gallery talk, which are all supposed to have FM assisted listening devices - but unfortunately as it was so busy and there were different talks running, these weren’t available for our session. MoMA offers a huge range of access programmes, including for D/deaf and hard of hearing visitors. I couldn’t find any permanent provision available for sign language users (like Tate’s BSL multimedia guide for example).