Meditation in the Galleries

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Experiment Station

Jordan Chambers, one of our inaugural Sherman Fairchild Fellows at The Phillips Collection, tells us about her fellowship capstone project, “Meditation in the Galleries.” The first event was held on February 20. The remaining two events, scheduled for March 19 and April 16, have been postponed until further notice. In the meantime, head to the Phillips’s Instagram for some #MuseumMomentsofZen and stay tuned for additional ways to connect art and wellness.

For my fellowship capstone, I designed a project that relates to The Phillips Collection’s art and wellness initiatives. My own interests and research investigate how museum spaces and galleries can promote socially inclusive atmospheres that bolster well-being among different populations in a community. My goals for this program are to offer direct well-being benefits and new experiences for our visitors; therefore, I constructed a “Meditation in the Galleries” experience. After thorough research on existing mindfulness programs in the DC area, the need for programming of this type was apparent. Collaborating with Donna Jonte, Manager of Art & Wellness and Family Programs, I launched “Meditation in the Galleries” in February 2020.

Meditation in the Galleries, February 2020

Meditation in the Galleries, February 2020

Mindfulness Meditation helps individuals slow down and focus, while increasing self-awareness and reducing stress. Living and working in DC can be hectic; meditation can offer us new perspectives and skills, a way to navigate the stresses of everyday life by connecting to the here and now. Aparna Sadananda, The Phillips Collection’s resident yoga instructor and meditation guide, thinks of mindfulness “as a practice of living each moment in a more embodied manner. When we are mindful, we are able to step out of the autopilot mode and observe the worlds within and out just as they are. This facilitates actions, born out of awareness of choices available and choosing that which is most purposeful. This could be empowering as well as relaxing while also priming us to tune into creativity, intuition, and artistic expression of ourselves.”

The pilot for “Meditation in the Galleries” consists of three 30-minute sessions that are divided between meditation and discussion, to be held on February 20, March 19, and April 16. The February program took place in the exhibition Moira Dryer: Back in Business (on view through April 19, 2020). Moira Dryer (1957–1992) was an artist from the 1980s and early ‘90s who had worked as a set designer for the Mabou Mines theater company. She stated that “the paintings are the performers. It’s really up to the audience at that point to say what the specific production is. The pieces evolve from a very personal, emotional point, but then they become entities in themselves. I give them life and then they become their own.”

The meditation sessions are guided, immersive experiences with a meditation teacher and a museum educator, during which participants connect mind and body while exploring artwork. February’s intimate group of six participants first looked closely at Dryer’s art and shared their initial thoughts with a neighbor. Led by Aparna, the group meditated, learning to destress, relax, and embrace the moment. We closed the session with reflection, sharing our new insights and questions about the artwork. Participants learned and practiced techniques for mindful looking and thinking that they can carry with them into their lives outside the museum.

Meditation in the Galleries, February 2020

“Meditation in the Galleries” builds on The Phillips Collection’s Contemplation Audio Tour and reflects the museum’s institutional goal of promoting wellness through art. Donna Jonte reminds us that “founder Duncan Phillips opened his house as a museum in 1921 determined to create a collection of art that would be a ‘joy-giving, life-enhancing influence’ for viewers. This is our vision for meditation in the gallery: we want to engage visitors with art to promote wellness, enhance life, and bring joy. Through mindful looking at art, meditating while focused on art, and reflecting on this experience, we hope that participants will connect deeply to self, community, and the world.”

Developing, documenting, and participating in this program has been an extremely positive experience that I will take with me into my museum career. I hope that “Meditation in the Galleries” will continue as part of the permanent programming at The Phillips Collection and Phillips@THEARC.

Phillips-at-home: Making Musical Maracas

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Experiment Station

Get craft with your recyclables! You can use water bottles and toilet-paper rolls to make musical maracas at home with your family. This project is fun, engaging, and accessible for all ages.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Toilet paper rolls or water bottles (you can use both, or one or the other)
Beads or any dried food in your kitchen pantry, such as beans, pasta, or rice.
Decorative materials (colorful duct tape, tissue paper, scrapbook paper, pipe-cleaners, etc.)

SUGGESTED AGE:

4 and up (possible for younger ages with adult supervision)

TIME FRAME:

30 minutes-1 hour

HOW TO BUILD A MARACA:

There are two easy ways to construct your musical maraca.

Option 1

Step 1: Clean, rinse and dry plastic water bottle. Any size bottle will work!

Step 2: Select beads or dried food for the inside (beads/food may be visible so think about the colors you want to choose)

Step 3: Pour beads/dried food into the water bottle

Tip: Use a piece of paper as a funnel to make this process easier and cleaner
Tip: Fill up halfway to allow room for beads to shake

Step 4: Close water bottle cap

Step 5: Decorate the outside of your maraca!

To further extend your project, create two maracas and attach a toilet paper roll in between to form a handle. Duct tape is recommended.

Option 1 examples

A large maraca with a toilet paper handle. Photo: Hayley Prihoda

Option 1 extended example

Option 2 examples: A triangular maraca made out of a toilet paper roll (on left) and a rain stick made out of a paper towel roll (on right). All photos: Hayley Prihoda

Option 2

Step 1: Select a toilet paper roll or paper towel roll

Tip: A toilet paper roll will create a hand-held maraca; a paper towel roll will create a rain stick

Step 2: Pinch one end together and seal by stapling

Step 3: Pour beads/dried food into the tube

Step 4: Close other end with staples

Tip: You can either pinch the edges together in the same direction as the other end or in the opposite direction to create a triangle shape (see photograph below)

Step 5: Decorate the outside of your maraca!

Re-purposing materials is a great way to save money, think creatively and reduce waste!

Riffs and Relations: Mequitta Ahuja

Posted on March 17, 2020 by Experiment Station

Artist Mequitta Ahuja discusses her work Xpect, which premiered in Riffs in Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition, on view at The Phillips Collection through May 24.

Left: Mequitta Ahuja, Le Damn, colored pencil sketch; Right: Le Damn, 2018, Oil on canvas, 80 x 84 in.

Because of the historical context they provide, museums like The Phillips Collection give artworks a feeling of permanence. The things you encounter came before you and will be there for future generations.

Or not.

In 2017, Adrienne Childs, guest curator of Riffs and Relations wrote me in an e-mail, “At this point I am at the proposal stage, and I have no clue if this will fly.” Because I had offered to make a new painting for the show, when Adrienne’s proposal was accepted, my participation was still in question. Adrienne wrote: “Because [the painting] does not exist at this point, the Phillips can’t really put it on the final checklist.” In an attempt to tip the scale in my favor, I made two paintings. Everyone likes a choice.

Image of Mequitta Ahuja's painting Le Damn Revisited

Mequitta Ahuja, Le Damn Revisited, 2018, Oil on canvas, 84 x 72 in., Courtesy of the artist

Image of Mequitta Ahuja's painting Xpect

Mequitta Ahuja, Xpect, 2018, Oil on canvas, 84 x 72 in., Courtesy of the artist

That sense of inevitability that one feels in museums and other sites of history is a fiction. Having a painting of mine hang on the walls of The Phillips Collection was as unlikely and tenuous as was the birth of my son, whom I regularly describe as a miracle.

In both paintings Le Damn Revisited and Xpect, I chronicle my journey to motherhood. The gray-scale painting within the painting is my rebuttal to Picasso’s 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Picasso’s painting is about the threat and allure of sex. Picasso presents woman—her body and her seduction—as an embodiment of that tension. I, too, address the threatening aspect of sex, but from a woman’s point of view. In my rebuttal to the Picasso, I depict my range of feelings from determination to despair throughout my process of trying to conceive. In Xpect and Les Damn Revisited I conclude that story with a declaration and celebration of my pregnancy.

Far from inevitable, holding my baby in front of my painting Xpect at The Phillips Collection feels magical and improbable. None of this was supposed to happen. We did it.

Photograph of Mequitta Ahuja holding her son in front of her painting Xpect

Mequitta Ahuja and her son at The Phillips Collection, February 2020. Photo: Rhiannon Newman