irish museum of modern art artists’ panel 2005/06 re-thinking the museum as a ‘way-station’ christine mackey the artists’ panel prov
Irish Museum of Modern Art ARTISTS’ PANEL 2005/06
Re-thinking the museum as a ‘way-station’
Christine Mackey
The Artists’ Panel provides artist(s) with the opportunity to engage
with the public in a secure and supportive environment. Artist(s)
generally develop their ideas for the workshops in relation to current
exhibitions, drawing on a multitude of ideas, from the exhibited works
to the use of materials and concepts. There may also be a
consideration of historical, political and social contexts that the
exhibited artists have formalised in their daily practice.
For the public, who are participants and observers in workshops,
familiarity with the exhibitions is an integral aspect of the
programme; therefore, regular visits are encouraged from studio
workshop to the exhibited show.
These ‘visits’ not only set a context for the work between the artist
and group
but potentially open up the museum as an accessible public space,
where discussions can take place between the artist, the participating
public and museum mediators.
It is this notion of public space, which relates the Museum’s role to
civic life. This space, identified as a ‘contact zone’ by James
Clifford in his book Routes, is a
re-thinking on the idea of public space and cultural institutions as
temporary and mobile situations conversed between a broad spectrum of
communities.1 This also draws attention to the social and political
complexity of ‘communities’ in themselves - no longer viewed with
fixed or stable tags of identification.
This supports the fluid and inter-active location for exchange
operating from the performative aspects of cultural production and
site-specific practices opened
up through the dialogue between public space and community
involvement.
The only requirement for public participation in IMMA workshops is an
interest
in and willingness to engage with cultural knowledge and artistic
practice. Therefore, the museum as a ‘way-station’ becomes a temporary
site for exchange, a space for debate and collaboration between the
public, artist and museum. This presents the audience/participants
with a platform to practice
a close reading of exhibits through a broad and non-descriptive forum
for discussion. This extends the tradition of an art-workshop, from a
taught, skill-based approach to a supportive space for investigative
and dialogical practice, exploring new methods and ways of thinking
about art practice. From my own experience, the most valuable
workshops for both artist(s) and participants are those based around
the particulars and ongoing interest and methodologies of the artist.
To frame this practice as community art or to name the profession
‘community artist’ renders the work passive and secondary to studio
practice and exhibition work. I consider the artist(s) role in society
as one of inter-relation, contingent
on audience participation, in essence an extensive social practice.
In this respect I quote from Edmond Jabes: ‘I dreamed of a work which
would not enter into any category, fit any genre, but contain them
all; a work hard to define, but defining itself precisely by this lack
of definition, a work which would not answer to any name, but had
donned them all’.2
Having delivered a number of drawing workshops, one of the few draw
backs of the IMMA education programme is the lack of funding to
develop and deliver a thorough workshop programme in tandem with the
participants for a substantial period. The educational aspect of the
Museum needs to be supported by the government on a greater financial
scale. A resource centre within the Museum should be developed for
artist(s) and the public as a research and educational space. The
philosophy of the Museum should be a balanced approach to the idea of
a collective practice rather than an emphasis on the collection as an
isolated resource.
Christine Mackey
August 2006
1 James Clifford, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth
Century, Harvard University Press, 1997.
2 Edmond Jabès. The Little Book of Unsuspected Subversion, Stanford
University Press, 1996.
2