Internship Report Van Abbe Museum

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Internship Report

Van Abbe Museum

Julia Szejnblum 3444651

Supervisor: Dr. Thijs Lijster

Arts, Culture and Media, University of Groningen Arts Policy and Cultural Entrepreneurship

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The museum reflects about certain themes, for example about the role of the museum as a public space. The Van Abbemuseum actively seeks the exchange between art and society; it aims to make of the museum a useful institution. To tackle that, the education department and the mediation team offer numerous special inclusive programs. There are special tours for blind and partially sighted, and for deaf and hard of hearing. They also offer programs designed for persons with Alzheimer, and aphasia, among other programs for special guests. They also organize other projects which bring new voices to the museum. For instance, for nine seasons the museum has organized the project Radically Mine! in which over 240 students from secondary schools exhibit their own artworks inspired by the collection of the museum. The curatorial department has also been exploring the usefulness of the collection. In 2013, the museum held the exhibition “Museum of Arte Útil” to examine how the collection can be used, and how the museum can be part of a process of a collaborative renegotiation (Byrne, 2018) in which things are produced. The museum was transformed into a Social Power Plant and live projects were organized by local groups.

All these projects can be framed in academic and museological discussions around constituencies in the museum. Moreover, the debate about constituencies in the museum is a central topic in the network L’Internationale which comprehends the Van Abbemuseum and other museums1_. They are on a five-year program discussing art and its usages. As Janna Graham (in Byrne, 2018) explains, incorporating constituencies in the museum is a way of “re-thinking the role and function of the museum and gallery –where the museum or gallery, in and of itself, could be conceived as a democratic and collective process rather than the ideological embodiment of a centralized dogma” (46). In this context, the museum started a new project called the Werksalon in September 2017.

1_{Moderna galerija (MG+MSUM, Ljubljana, Slovenia); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS,} Madrid, Spain); Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA, Barcelona, Spain); Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium); and SALT (Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey).

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5 The Werksalon research project

The Werksalon is a concrete space in the Van Abbemuseum that also gives name to a project at the museum involving constituencies. Groups that already existed in Eindhoven and that work on social and political themes were selected to investigate, together with the museum, how they can use the collection, and the museum to face certain problematics, and to strengthen their communities.

The project started in September 2017 and is programed until January 2021. The first season took place between September 2017 and July 2018 and it involved five constituencies: 1. The Agents of Change which are a network that nucleates neighbor social initiatives in Eindhoven; 2. The Internationalocals which is a group of spouses from the Expat Spouses Initiative Eindhoven exploring their relationship with the city as international newcomers; 3. De Groene Gasten composed by advocates for climate change; 4. The Queer Constituency, a cultural and political queer group; 5. The Museum Choir composed by singers interested in the relationship between the museum and music. There is a sixth group called the Soroptimists which is not exactly a constituency, since it did not sign a contract with the museum, but they work with the museum as if they were part of the project. The Soroptimists are devoted to the challenges that women face in art today.

The Werksalon project is about the constituencies reflecting and intervening on the collection from their own perspective. The idea is that they can use the museum and its collection to support their critical discourses, but also to communicate their questionings to a larger audience. The constituencies that were part of the first season of the Werksalon signed a contract and received a small budget to carry out the project. In the contract it was specified that they should come up with interventions in the collection, and/ or with public programs. At the beginning of the first season, the constituencies came up with specific questions that their group had, and they translated those questions into different and concrete outcomes. One way of intervening the collection was to make banners with statements and questions that the groups has. The banners are now included in the exhibition The Way Beyond Art at the museum. They also organized public programs at the museum as workshops, concerts, and dialogue sessions. They helped with exhibiting their own work at the museum, and they intervened the collection selecting specific artworks that have points of contact with their perspectives.

Werksalon: First Season Constituencies

I will now introduce the constituencies of the first season and some of their activities during the first season.

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6 1. The Agents of Change: is a project of The Umbrella network which is a collective of social designers in Eindhoven. They highlight and connect social design, art and social initiatives in the city by mapping them. The museum was a space in which they organized workshops and meetings with members of their network to interconnect them. In these meetings, the initiatives would present their own projects to other initiatives that would give them feedback and ideas. Moreover, the Agents of Change would invite someone from the Municipality who could guide the initiatives with certain governmental tools and resources.

2. The Internationalocals: The Expat Spouses Initiative in Eindhoven helps spouses in finding a job, and in integrating into the local scene. They work as mediators between the local labor market and international newcomers. During the collaboration between the Expat Spouses Initiative and the museum, a new community emerged: the Internationalocals. This group organized several activities. First, they came up with a motto that represents them, and their situation as expats exploring if they do or do not 'Blend, Behave, Belong'. They printed this motto on a banner which is included in the exhibition The Way Beyond Art. That banner was used to reflect about their own experiences, and the concept behind these words. With these reflections, they organized a workshop in which they made personal prints. Moreover, they organized workshops in which they activate Politisch (NR 36, 1 Werksatz), 1967 by Franz Erhard Walther which is part of the museum’s collection. This artwork is made of cloth and invites people to perform with it.

3. De Groene Gasten: entrepreneurs from Eindhoven that work on the urgent problems related to climate change. They advocate for changes in behavior and in culture for a sustainable future. During meetings they examined how they can make a connection between the collection and the visitor, based on the theme of sustainability. In the first season, they picked one artwork from the museum collection which was hanged at the museum. The artwork is The Trial and Judgement of Franz K, 2006 by Pavel Büchler. The artist approves of this drawing being exhibited in unfiltered daylight, which, as a result, means that it will slowly disappear. This disappearance breaks with normal museum practice in which works are meant to be preserved. The Trial therefore asks for a change of behavior which connects with what De Grone Gasten advocate for. Moreover, they are organizing four dialogue sessions about sustainability in The People’s Parliament of Rojava, at the Van Abbe’s exhibition Museum as Parliament.

4. The Queer Constituency: the project aims to make the museum more inclusive. A community has grown out of this project, which now meets in the Werksalon. They have a book club once a

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7 month, and they organize workshops on the basis of the literature that they read. Moreover, they connect the debates in their book club and workshops with the collection of the museum. They also recorded a podcast and did other small projects. They had been collaborating with Van Abbe for some years now, doing projects like Qwearing the collection which was an intervention on the collection with garments designed by Olle Ludin.

5. The Van Abbemuseum Choir: founded in January 2013 by Willy de Rooij was always part of the museum, and they were incorporated as a constituency during this first season. The choir sings at different locations, in various languages. They are mainly volunteers and staff of the museum. By singing at the museum, the relationship between art and music is investigated in a sensory way. During this project, they sang often at the museum, and in different events and programs. They also had a Lustrum, since 2018 was their 5-year anniversary. It was a special celebration at the museum, an entire day with concerts.

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Soroptimists: they only became involved in the Werksalon in April. The group is part of Soroptimist International, the biggest international service organization that works to support human rights and to strengthen the position of women and girls in the world. They have researched the position of women in art, which is still far from equal to men. In the group’s conversation, the main topic explored was the challenges that women face today. They organized tours about women in art, and selected works from the depot to show at the museum. They selected posters made from the Guerilla Girls, a group of activist and feminist artists.

Werksalon: the space

The Werksalon is not only a research project, but a physical space at the museum, it is an open space on the first floor of the museum. The space works as a laboratory of research and design composed of three rooms. The first room is the research room which is a space adjustable for different research styles. It has a seating area and mobile desks, also an Audio Broadcasting suite where constituencies can make audio recordings, audio guides, and podcasts. The second room is the production room which has a long table and different tools to make banners, the idea is that every constituency can make banner to hang in the collection. This production room contains large empty

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8 scrolls and letter templates to leave questions and statements on the banners. The third room is the presentation room equipped with chairs.

The research room is also used as an exhibition room which evolves through the duration of the program. The space has now two areas of exhibition: a wall with wooden panels, and a series of mobile archiving closets. Each constituency has designed and filled their own closets and wooden panels, showing there their activities, programs and values through photos, texts, videos and objects. Panels and closets are labeled with the names of the current constituencies. Museum visitors can access the space as any other exhibition room in the museum, the exhibition is aimed to communicate the project to the public of the museum. Moreover, at the Audio Broadcasting suite there is a screen used as an interactive tool with visitors. On special cards, the visitors can leave general questions about the museum or the constituencies, the question will later be answered in a short-video which will be displayed in that screen with other videos from past questions, creating a system of exchange of questions and answers.

My tasks

I started working at the museum by the end of the First Season of the Werksalon, organizing the Eind(je)Feest that took place on June 9th 2018. My tasks were to organize the event together with Loes Janssen (Public Mediation), Steven ten Thije (Research Curator), Hilde van der Heijde (Communication and education), and Cleo Thomas (Public Mediation Intern). The event was a closing of the first season of the Werksalon project involving all the constituencies and other groups working with the museum. The day was programmed by the constituencies, who came up with their own special activities for the day. Moreover, other actors associated with the museum were invited to program their own activities. The event lasted all day, and there were more than 14 activities going on. On my first weeks at the museum, I was in touch with the people from the constituencies to help them with the activities that they were going to do the day of the event. I especially helped Luca Soudant from the Queer Constituency with a workshop she gave on queerness at the museum. She wanted to do an accessible workshop for general public of the museum, and to link queer theory with the museum and she found that difficult. I helped her with ideas and strategies to do so. Together with Cleo Thomas, the other intern, and the museum’s graphic designer we made a special program book for the day so that the guests will know about the activities and where they were taking place at the museum. Together with them we also did a special handout about the interventions that the constituencies did on the collection. Furthermore, together with Cleo, we coordinated the internal organization of the event, being in touch with the technical department and the people from facility

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9 management of the museum. We were in contact with all the external actors involved in the event like the DJ, the catering, the photographer, and the video producer. We approached them and gave them directions before and during the event. Moreover, we created content for the website, the Facebook page and the Instagram of the museum.

In parallel, we curated the space of the Werksalon, filling the exhibition spaces in the research room with texts, images, objects and videos to narrate what the constituencies did during the last season. We did that job in collaboration with the constituencies, who had already designed how they were going to fill up the exhibition spaces assigned to them. However, the texts were all produced by us. I wrote the English versions, and Cleo wrote the Dutch versions.

After the event, I archived all the material we had from the first season of the Werksalon following the directions of the librarians of the Van Abbe. The idea was to follow the general scheme of archiving that the museum uses to archive other projects of the museum. With their help, I made other documents available to the general public at the museum’s online library.

Furthermore, I helped Steven ten Thije with an upcoming exhibition by Etcetera…, which is an Argentine artist collective. I did some background research about their installation. Finally, I wrote a reflection about the Werksalon project.

Evaluation of the Placement

The internship linked with the Master’s program in Arts Policy and Cultural Entrepreneurship perfectly. The museum is very political, and it is always coming up with new and innovative ideas that are shaping the museum field. At the University, I have studied how different institutions work as cultural entrepreneurs, leading change. Being at the Van Abbe was experiencing an institution of this kind from the inside. The Werksalon was especially interesting for me in that sense, since the project has just started, and was designed and created by the museum. Its first season was quite experimental and the idea is to make this project grow, incorporating new voices to the public sphere. That also connects with my Master’s program, since we discussed widely the role that culture has in the public sphere. Museums like the Van Abbe want to function as public spaces, and a project with constituencies is key to incorporate new voices in the museum. As Sharon Macdonald (2013) argues museums are “certainly capable of expanding the range of ‘voices’ included in the public sphere” (184). During my internship I could experience practically what I have studied academically during my Master’s. Moreover, the study program gave me tools to critique what I was doing at the museum. One of my learning outcomes was to apply the theoretical framework learned during the Master’s program, and that was something I did during this internship.

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10 Another learning outcome that I wanted to have was about teamwork. The group of work was very nice and I could become part of it very quickly. Luckily, I formed a great team with Cleo Thomas who was already interning at the museum for four months when I started working with her. She helped me a lot, since the coordinators of the project were working intensely and did not always have the time to guide me. I had to be very proactive, meeting and calling them to ask questions. That was not a problem for me and they were occasionally available for me, which was enough. They also trusted me from the beginning, which gave me a lot of freedom. They never questioned my decisions.

Because of the event, I had to communicate with different sectors of the museum (technical department, facility management, communication), and I think that was also successful. The museum has many interns, and all the different sectors of the museums are used to working with new people. Sometimes, and especially at the beginning they were not very responsive, since nobody knew me, and I was asking a lot of things because I had to organize the event in three weeks. After the first days, when they realized that I was in charge of the event and that the coordinators of the project trusted me with this, they collaborated smoothly, and I ended up building an efficient relationship with them.

On a personal level, I have acquired different skills. First, I had never worked at a museum before, so I have learned how these institutions work, how they are conformed, and what are the implications of working with art at a public institution. It was my first time working abroad and as an intern, which was a challenge since I had to learn about internal dynamics and cultural aspects of work. For instance, at the beginning I was not sure what was expected from me as an intern, and how far I could do things independently.

After the event, I also worked with little supervision on two projects: archiving the Werksalon project, and doing a research for an upcoming exhibition called Errorist Kabaret by Argentininan collective Etcetera… The archiving was quite challenging since the Werksalon project is not exactly an exhibition, and most of the categories used to archive exhibitions were not applicable to this project. However, with the help of the librarians I came up with a system of organization and I saved all the documents we had from this first season of the project. The archiving was digital since most of the documents were online. This task was very useful for me because I was able to better understand the project by reading old documents about the Werksalon, for instance plannings from when the research project was being conceptualized.

The second project with Errorist Kabaret perfectly suited for me. I am Argentinian as the artists, and the installation is about recent Argentinian and Latino-American problematics. I had to research and explain to the curators political events which I was already familiar with. Moreover, I could communicate with the artists in Spanish, and ask them more details about the installation. In

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11 August, Steven wants to organize a series of activities inside the installation. He asked me if I wanted to take part in that organization, as a small job during the summer. I am very interested in helping them, but they are still not sure if this program can take place, but we will stay in touch about this possible project. It was great that he offered me this opportunity. Moreover, during my lasts days at the museum I had two short meetings with Steven and the museum’s director Charles Esche about this possible program. These meetings were very interesting and constructive, exchanging ideas.

About the Werksalon reflection, I did not have enough time to write a proper theoretical reflection. Steven wanted me to produce something more theoretical but it was quite difficult to do so during the internship since I had a lot of things to do. Finally, I only wrote practical reflections of aspects that can be improved.

Before my internship

Getting the internship was quite difficult. Thijs Lijster put me in touch with Steven ten Thije since he knows him, and because I had expressed my interest in doing an internship at the Van Abbe. Steven was interested from the beginning, but he was very busy with work and the entire process took more than 4 months. At one point, I thought that the internship was not going to happen and I had to come up with another plan to get the credits that I was supposed to obtain during my internship. Hence, I asked for permission to the Exam Committee, and I started and extra course in Philosophy, and a tutorial at the University with Johan Kolsteeg. The week before I finished my tutorial, and in the middle of the Philosophy course, I heard back from the museum and arranged things to make the internship happen. I really wanted to do the internship, so it was worth dropping the Philosophy course. Now that the internship is over, I do not regret it. I am also very thankful to Lucia van Heteren and Thijs Lijster for all the support they gave me during that process.

I was also worried about finding a room in Eindhoven. At the end, the museum offered me a free room at one of the museum’s houses. They have two houses to host artists, and curators. But if they are free, they also give the rooms to international interns.

Conclusion

The internship was very fruitful. I have learned new skills and worked in a project that has many points of contact with my Master’s program. The Werksalon project touches upon topics such as the museum as public sphere, and ways of participation at the museum which were matters widely discussed during my courses. My learning objectives were fulfilled: I worked successfully in a team,

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12 I have learned about internal and external communication at the museum, I had to take a proactive attitude and solve problems by my own and it worked out. Moreover, I met interesting people and I reflected about the challenges that the contemporary museum faces. I regret not having enough time to write a theoretical reflection about the project. I have the tools to do so, but I needed more time, and the internship was too short to do it.

Sources

Byrne, J. (2018). The Constituent Museum: Constellations of Knowledge, Politics and Mediation. Amsterdam: Valiz.

Macdonald, S. (2013). Memorylands. London: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www-taylorfrancis-com.proxy-ub.rug.nl/books/9780203553336

Internship Report Van Abbe Museum

Internship Report

Van Abbe Museum

Table of Contents

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