ArtLab+

            This week, I visited the Smithsonian’s ArtLab at its location in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. ArtLab is a digital media studio for teens. It is a space where teens can partner with mentors, be creative, and develop marketable skills for the future. ArtLab is open Monday through Friday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm.  These hours make it convenient for teens to go to ArtLab after school.  For the first two hours, ArtLab has Open Studio where the teens can take advantage of the space and materials in the ways that they deem fitting. The last two hours consists of Artist Studio, which includes more structured workshops on video/animation, photo/design, audio, and critical reviews.

What ArtLab offers is truly unique in terms of museums partnerships with school-aged children. This uniqueness comes with its own set of challenges. To gain a better understanding of ArtLab, I observed an Open Studio hour and spoke with Amy Homma, ArtLab educator.  

My initial observations of ArtLab consisted of watching the Open Studio portion of the day. The Open Studio is basically a drop-in hour for local teens involved in ArtLab. The teens can work on projects, explore new technology, and discover things that interest them. For most of the hour that I observed, the majority of teens were playing Xbox and Playstation video games.  While playing video games may not seem like the best way to build relationships with mentors, create new things, or develop new skills, the teens were freely choosing how they wanted to engage in the space, which is the theme of Open Studio. They were also developing social skills and mediating any conflicts that occurred over which game to play or length of playing time. In addition, the teens are being exposed to technology that they may not have access to at home or school.

One or two were working on projects of their choice. These students were harder to observe. They were working quietly by themselves drawing, working on computer graphics, or practicing in the sound studio. Even for the students working on projects, free choice was something that defined their experience. The overall atmosphere of the Open Studio was comfortable and the teens were encouraged to express themselves freely.

After my observations, I spoke to Amy Homma about ArtLab. We discussed the things ArtLab has to offer, as well as the challenges that face ArtLab, and ArtLab’s ability to connect school-aged children to museums. Ms. Homma explained that the mentors were of key importance when trying to engage the teens. She said that the building the mentor relationship can be  a “slow process”. But the process allows for a “tailored experience” for both the mentor and the teen. The relationship between the mentor and teen is built upon the foundation of personally knowing each other and then expands to a “fun, productive, rewarding” relationship where the teens are supported in “self directed learning”.

            According to Ms. Homma, in addition to the mentors, ArtLab also offers a space that is truly unique. It is through this space that ArtLab is able to fulfill their mission and engage the teen audience. ArtLab offers a space that is full of choice and self-direction, while providing the supporting structure to allow the teens to be productive, creative, and ultimately be rewarded for their work.  ArtLab provides a space where the focus is not on the “output” but rather on the “process”.

            While the mentors, space, and mission are the defining features of ArtLab, they are also the things that pose the greatest challenges. Offering the correct mixture of support and freedom is what Ms. Homma describes as the “constant push and pull”. The informality allows ArtLab to appeal and work for teens, but it also provides institutional challenges. Ms Homma said that they are “Constantly asking what success is.’ and “What are we looking for?”  Since it is hard to define success, it is even more difficult to measure and evaluate the success. ArtLab faces these difficulties in a variety of ways. They conduct team surveys, and the foundations supporting ArtLab plan to conduct several longitudinal studies following different ArtLab participants.

            Other challenges that ArtLab faces are the physical restrictions of their building and the location on the National Mall.  Artlab’s building is a small structure on the grounds of the Hirshhorn’s Sculpture Garden. Since it is not located in the Hirshhorn Museum building it can be hard to maintain that connection, but the teens are encouraged to explore the Hirshhorn. The teens recently made a Halloween zombie music video that was filmed in the Hirshhorn. The video can be viewed on the ArtLab’s Facebook page.  I highly recommend watching it.

            Artlab’s location on the National Mall can also be problematic. Like many other museums on the National Mall, ArtLab struggles with not being built into a community. ArtLab’s mission is to engage local teens, but the National Mall is not a residential community.  The teens have to commute to the National Mall to take advantage of ArtLab. This makes ArtLab less convenient than other programs that try to engage teens in their own neighborhood, which often take place in libraries or community centers near the teens’ homes.

            After talking with Ms. Homma and observing the teens during the Open Studio, it became clear that many of the things that allow ArtLab to engage their school-aged audience are also the things that provide the greatest challenges. ArtLab is trying to define itself as a learning space outside school. For museums attempting to engage school-aged children, the museum must understand and embrace the wants and needs of this audience and offer something beyond what is offered in school. 

ArtLab website:

http://artlabplus.si.edu/

ArtLab facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HMSGartlabplus