AGENTS FOR CREATIVE ACTION
WILLIAMS COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART
AGENTS FOR CREATIVE ACTION
About
Meetings
Projects on the horizon
The Agents for Creative Action (ACA) at the Williams College Museum of Art is a cohort of Williams College students exploring museum practice as a creative process. During this year-long program, ACA participants animate the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and spaces through the development of original projects and programs, and contribute to museum-wide initiatives. During weekly training sessions with staff, they develop storytelling skills and exercise creative thinking and making.​
During this atypical year, we will convene remotely once a week on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 PM as a whole group where we will meet with museum staff, other student groups, and learn from one another. We will share ideas and inspiration through responses to weekly prompts, offerings to the group, brainstorming sessions, and group dialogue. We will also work independently and in small groups on a range of projects.
​
You will notice in the schedule below that various weeks have an indication of a "gift." This is a practice we will collectively contribute to. Over the course of the year, each member of ACA will sign up to give a "gift" to the group one week. These offerings are intended to be acts of generosity and reciprocity and serve as a way of experimenting with different forms for creating connection in an otherwise remote context. They will also be a way for us to get to know one another and connect with one another. The format for these is intentionally open: it could be something you create/compile and share (during our meeting or through email or our blog), it could be a reading or a resource that we reflect on together, it could be something physical that is mailed (we can support postage/mailing cost) to everyone, or it could be a short experience or exercise you craft and lead us through during part of our meeting or outside of it. It could also take another form yet to be determined!
Initiatives planned for the 2020-2021 academic year include a podcast-like series of recorded conversations and interviews that will be published on the museum's youtube channel, website, and on a sound cloud account. This series will include a selection of interviews with museum staff, professors working with the museum's collections, and artists from the museum's collection as well as other ideas to be determined by the ACA team.
​
We will also work on developing a handful of virtual/ non-in-person programs geared to Williams College students. This may take place over zoom or another virtual platform, or may take the form of an asynchronous programmatic initiative.
​
We are also planning a collaborative project with the Ephs at the Clark group at Williams on a joint initiative that would connect student artists with a selected group of works from the WCMA and Clark collections.
​
ACA will also have opportunities to contribute to and learn about the museum's ongoing projects including strategic planning and work on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.
FALL 2020 SCHEDULE
October 6
Week of October 11
October 21
October 28
November 4
November 11
November 18
November 25
December 2
Introductions
Overview
Ice Breaker Activity
​
Assignment: set up an account on this site.
Self-schedule meet up times with your groups!
Sign up for projects (link coming).
Self-scheduled virtual meet ups.
No Wednesday meeting.
​
Assignment: select a work of art from the WCMA Collection that resonates with you right now. Select a piece of music or other recording that responds to the work of art. We will turn these into a group playlist!
​
Learn more about how to search the WCMA collection on our resources page.
To be confirmed: Meet-up with Ephs at the Clark group
​
Optional: Tuesday and Thursday socially-distanced visits to WCMA. Sign up here.
Assignments to complete before Oct 28: sign up for project groups and gifts.
Make an introductory post on the blog if you have not yet and read the others on there (they are so fun to read!) *A reminder that you need to accept the invitation from Wix.com to be a collaborator that came through your email*
Add to the collection playlist project
Have something you would like to hear about from the WCMA Engagement team or curious about what we do/ what we are thinking about/ what career paths to museum engagement look like? Submit any questions for the WCMA engagement team staff to answer during our next meeting here.
​
Meet-up with the WCMA Engagement Team
Christina Yang
Beth Fischer
Elizabeth Gallerani
Anne Kennedy
Nina Pelaez
​
Gift 1: Nina (this gift is coming in the *real* mail, so keep an eye on your mailboxes. Make sure you fill out the intake form with your mailing address.
​
Read this short excerpt (link forthcoming!) by feminist and queer theorist Sara Ahmed in preparation for our meeting next week.
Meet with Lisa Dorin, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Contemporary Art about upcoming Sweaty Concepts exhibition.
​
Assignment: Research collection artists featured in Sweaty Concepts and propose artists to reach out to for interviews.
​
Gift 2
To be confirmed: Curatorial workshop on recent acquisitions
​
Gift 3
To be confirmed: Writing/ Interpreting Art Workshop
​
Gift 4
​
Assignment: Select a work from the WCMA collection and draft a blog post about it.
No meeting. Thanksgiving Break.
​
Gift 5
Meet with students from Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin College)