As we enter our seventh week of the semester, the Tang continues to host collaborative events for students, families, and faculty. In conjunction with the artworks in “Never Done” , a virtual workshop series for young kids kicked off on September 25. The Tang At Home Studio is a program with hour-long live activities that encourage responses to artwork, movement, and include educational materials about artists.
Sunny Ra, the Laurie M. Tisch Educator for K-12 and Community Programs, is working with student education interns to host virtual sessions for children between the ages of 5 and 12 years old. The five sessions, which are scheduled throughout the fall semester, are centered around artworks from the Tang’s collection and “Never Done” and lead kids through creative writing, drawing, collaging, and dance activities. Kids participating in Tang At Home Studio sessions will use a variety of materials such as markers, colored pencils, collage, and even their bodies for self-expression.
Around a year ago, Ra sought inspiration for Tang At Home Studio by focusing on artists of color, and exploring how children grasp different aspects of identity, gender, and race. In the first session, “Landscape of Discovery”, Ra and interns will make art projects influenced by Bon Voyage, a vertical landscape piece. During our conversation, Ra discussed how Beijing-born artist Yun-Fei Ji intertwines “traditional Chinese landscape painting with contemporary issues, and he’s focusing on villages in China where people are being displaced because of urbanization of rural areas. He would go to these areas and interview people by asking questions like, “What was this experience like?” “What’s happening to you and your family?” “What are your current plans?” These types of questions allow students to think critically about these topics by discussing and making artwork.
Ra emphasizes the importance around showing artists of varying racial and ethnic identities to kids. “Kids at a very young age begin to identify people by the way they look; they’re visual learners. That’s why it’s so important to have people represented from different racial and cultural backgrounds as a way to open up their view on identifiers such as gender, class, and race,” Ra said. “Landscape of Discovery” is meant to inspire creative responses to this artwork. Four more Tang At Home Studio workshops will be held throughout October and November.
Over the summer, Ra created Tang Art Kits, an effort to bring art educational programs and supplies to K-12 students in Albany, Troy, and Schenectady. A Tang addressed stamped envelope was included in the kit so that youth could share artwork and feedback that they created. Since many families in these areas do not have access to computers or phones, the colored prints within the kits may inspire kids to creatively express life stressors or experiences that they have felt during the pandemic. The Tang dropped off art kits to several community organizations in Clifton Park, Albany and Schenectady to be distributed to youth in under-resourced areas. In order to do this, Ra partnered with the Albany and Schenectady Public Libraries as well as Cheryl’s Lodge, a social services organization that supports their local mobile home community.
Ra also made a new connection this summer with the Refugee Welcome Center in Albany, a nonprofit organization that provides refugees in the U.S. with weekly public health lessons, English classes, student movie nights, gardening activities, and more. Over the past 15 years, the Center has secured affordable housing for refugees in Albany’s West Hill Neighborhood and transformed vacant buildings into event spaces. The West Hill Neighborhood has been a hub of activity and exchange since 2005, as over 4,000 refugees live in the area. This partnership allowed the Tang to give away masks to families that are supported by this program.
In the coming months, Ra intends to partner with schools in Saratoga County and beyond that have experienced budget cuts. These slashes in funding have interfered with counseling services, art programs, and events that help students during and after school hours. 10% of homes in Saratoga county alone do not have internet access, an alarmingly high percentage that affects peoples’ access to artistic and extracurricular activities.
While the pandemic has undercut many activities, the Skidmore community is participating in events like Chalk the Walk, and Love is Profoundly Political: a screenprinting event at the Tang. On Friday, September 25, the Tang Student Advisory Council, a group of students who help innovate events and collaborate with Tang staff, hosted a community chalk-drawing mural activity outside of the museum. The sun shone brightly on myriads of people as they created designs related to activism, the pandemic, and positive messages. In front of the Tang entrance, the Skidmore Democrats encouraged students to register to vote and check voter registration status.
While school feels different this fall, the Tang is keeping morale high through the virtual and in-person events, exhibitions, and dialogues they are facilitating throughout the semester. Every Thursday, a student intern, staff member, or someone from the Skidmore community hosts an Instagram Live on the Tang’s account. On October 1, Charlotte Squire ‘21 hosted a Tang Live with student musicians Carolyn who performed pieces in response to artist Marie Watt’s artwork “Companion Species (Saddle)”.
The museum has revised its open hours: Skidmore faculty, students, and staff can visit the Tang on Thursdays from 4:30-7:30pm, and on Saturdays from 12-5pm. We move onward with the hope that these conversations can thrive and allow us to question the world around us.