Visitors to the Museum always delight in discovering Devorah Sperber‘s After the Mona Lisa 2 in the permanent collection. Sperber used an amazing  5,184 spools of thread to re-create Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Her piece explores the reproduction of images in the digital era, the links between art and technology, and visual perception (how the eye and the brain make sense of the visual world).

Taking a popular image and manipulating it into something new is a way both to honor the masters of art and to express personal creativity. This echoes the reason we developed our Teens, Inspired blog and our annual Teen Art and Video Competition. Sperber’s work inspired 2010’s first-place winner, Virginia Niver, who recently graduated from Broughton High School in Raleigh. Niver’s submission, made from M&M’s, is a great example of how a high school student can reinvent a piece from the NCMA’s permanent collection. Current students are invited to submit art or video entries to this year’s competition. For details on how to do that, visit Teens, Inspired.

Today’s guest contributor is Sydney Snedeker, who will graduate from Apex High School in May and plans to attend the University of Texas to major in public relations. Sydney is a member of the Museum’s Teen Advisory Council and is the intern responsible for managing the Teens, Inspired blog. The blog contains posts by Sydney and other members of the Teen Advisory Council as well as images of works from last year’s Teen Art Competition.

Thanks to funding from the North Carolina General Assembly to support character education in K–12 public schools, the ELA section of the Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Museum of Art had the privilege of hosting these young people and their teachers for a Character Education Teen Residency Project. Under the leadership of artist Peg Gignoux and writer Susie Wilde, students transformed their ideas into images and words that tell the story of what it means to be a good person. (See photos of the event on Flickr.)

Carolyn Crutcher, an English 10 teacher at New Technology High School at Garinger in Charlotte, N.C., reflects on her experience.

Participating in the residency was such a rewarding experience for my students and me. First, in the words of Moe Win: “I had so many new experiences in a few days. The environment at the NCMA made me feel so creative. As I was an author/writer, I learned so much about showing not telling, revising, and editing for the story. I am not the type of person who likes to work with a team, but I learned that it is more fantastic to work with others. We were discussing and helping each other while writing our story. Another good opportunity was visiting the art galleries. I loved the tours Ms. Rusak guided. The art work invited me to think more about the purpose of the artists.”

Here are Ivan Gaddy’s reflections: “I wanted to go to Raleigh, but I was nervous because this was the first time that I had gone somewhere and spent more than one day without my family. The main thing I was worried about was the way we had to make the art. Before the residency, I had only used pencil and paper for drawing. Also I was afraid that the groups weren’t going to agree on anything. I am so glad that my assumptions were wrong. It was nice hearing the other groups’ stories and seeing how they drew the main character, “Bird.” I liked making the collages out of fabric, and I hope to use that form of art in the near future. The trip was great and I hope to go again.”

For me, as the teacher, it was sheer pleasure to have this time with such talented young people on such a creative project. I spent most of my time with the writing groups, but to my delight, I also got to help cut out fabric for the illustrations and even helped a little with sewing. When we toured the galleries, I was deeply moved by Michael Richards’s bronze sculpture, Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian, especially when Sandy Rusak told us that Michael died on September 11, 2001, in his art studio in one of the Twin Towers.

I used a picture of the sculpture and Michael’s story to introduce the essential question for a recent literature project: How do beliefs and attitudes affect the lives of individuals? First I showed the students a picture of the sculpture and instructed them to look at it and think about it. Then I had them read about Richards. With a partner they discussed these questions and wrote their answers:

1. What is ironic about the bronze statue?
2. Explain the allusions in the title Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian.
3. Who were the Tuskegee Airmen?
4. How did Michael Richards’s beliefs and attitudes shape his art?
5. How did the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of the young men who flew the planes 9/11 affect Michael Richards’s life?

When the students completed their research, we had a stimulating class discussion. Although only two of my students were able to participate in the art residency, I was able to share one of the pieces of art with all my students.

A steady stream of visitors poured through the front doors. They arrived all day long, and many came up until the moment we closed. Families. Teenagers. Toddlers and lots of them. People of all ages. People from across the state and even from across the country.

They pondered art, conversed with friends, shared a meal in the restaurant, laughed with their children, strolled through the Park, and bought a treasure in the store.

It felt like a preview of the new kind of Museum we’re creating—a community gathering place, a social hub—a place where a variety of experiences, from the recreational to the leisurely to the sublime, await each and every visitor.

On the verge of closure, it was a great to see the Museum so full of life.

Our Last Visitors

All the way from Floyds Knobs, Indiana, Mary Jo and John Gohmann were the final visitors to leave the Museum as our doors closed on Sunday. Little did they know that by being the last to step out the front door there was a special surprise for them—a package full of Museum goodies and a photo request!

The couple was in Raleigh visiting their daughter Joanna, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a 2009 summer intern for the Museum. The couple planned a visit after their daughter told them it was their last chance to visit until April 2010.

This summer while attending a workshop entitled The Art of Collaboration at the North Carolina Museum of Art, I wandered over to a bench, sat down, and quickly became mesmerized by two women that appeared to work at the museum. One was dressed casually and comfortably. She stood on a ladder drilling holes straight into the wall wherein she stuck a metal rod attached to a concrete head. The other, dressed more professionally, stood next to a cardboard box–a box filled with faces she’d randomly pull out and hand to the other woman.

As I watched a piece of art unfold, I began asking myself questions. I wondered if these two women had a plan or a grid. I wondered how heavy the faces were since they didn’t seem to be supported by drywall anchors. I wondered who the artist was and what the piece meant to him. Before long, I felt compelled to ask these questions of the installers, and to my surprise, I learned that the woman on the ladder, a young, beautiful woman with a South African accent, was the artist herself. It was like meeting Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I was left speechless.

The next day, while standing in front of Congregation and thinking about its story, I noticed a young woman not far from me doing the same. “Excuse me,” I said nervously, “But are you the artist I met yesterday?” The twenty minute conversation that ensued was engaging, inspiring, and monumental in my eyes. Others gathered to listen, but I, transformed by an artist, hung on her every word. In that dialogue, I learned a little bit about her story: how she created the piece. What inspired her. What she valued. What surprised her. I learned how my interpretation was part of her story. The faces speak a story. The title speaks a story.

The story continued as Rocquel introduced Ledelle Moe’s work to her 8th grade students; she offered the artwork as a metaphor for the stories they create as individuals and as a “congregation”.

Ledelle Moe’s Congregation is currently on view in the Modern Gallery.