TOP TEAM
TOMOKO KUTA Director, education and exhibitions
What do you exhibit? We don’t present traditional, interactive play pieces. Instead, we commission contemporary artists to create unique art installations that can be played with, crawled on and jumped through. Our current exhibition is called Trash
and covers three fl oors – 35,000sq ft (3,250sq m) of public gallery space. Twelve contemporary artists considered trash within their work or worked with recycled objects. We’re working on our exhibition for
autumn 2013. It’s called Feast – The Art of Playing With Your Food. It’s focused on food, but we’re not trying to docu- ment or explain the process of food production, as we’re not a science museum. We’ve found a number of con- temporary artists who either use food as a building material or food in their con- cepts – the production, transportation or the modifi cation of food.
How do you choose the pieces? We invite the artist to visit our space. To see children interacting with the art-
work is an eye opener for the artist, so we need to make sure this is something they’re comfortable with. We’ve been in communication with
some of the artists since spring 2012. It takes that long to go back and forth to share ideas and make sure everyone’s comfortable. Then there’s a safety check to make sure the artwork is safe for chil- dren to play with, which leads to another big conversation. There are certain materials that work and some that won’t withstand the love of the children.
How many exhibitions are there? Until now we’ve turned the whole museum over to one big exhibition, which runs for two years. We’re now exploring the idea of multiple exhibitions that open at different times and have each exhibition running for about a year to give diversity to our visitors.
What are the museum’s educational elements? We bring in about 15,000 children from the San Diego area every year and they spend several hours here and get a hands-on component as part of their visit. Public schools in the US are having a tough time with the budget cuts. We try to provide arts education that meets school standards, so children have some
“WE’RE WORKING ON OUR EXHIBITION FOR AUTUMN. IT’S CALLED FEAST - THE ART OF PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD”
exposure to the arts – not just looking at art, but the creative process that’s so stimulating and important for children. We also have a modest outreach
programme for schools, which we’ll be increasing in 2013. The budget con- straints on schools has made it diffi cult for them to come to us. Admission fees for school groups is very minimal and we have a category of schools called Title One. These are located in economi- cally disadvantaged areas. They can visit us for free but it’s expensive to get the school bus to us, so we’re making a concerted effort to provide programming where we send out our trained facilita- tors into the classroom.
What is the most important part of your job? There are so many details, evaluations, reports and meetings that must be done, but the most important thing is not to forget the visitor who’s out on the fl oor touching and feeling all the things that we’ve prepared. I try to visit the fl oor every day to talk
to people and hear the laughter. Or hear the quiet and do something about that because it shouldn’t be a quiet museum.
What are your future plans? The NCM has a new thematic exhibition every two years. We’re working on Feast, which will open in October 2013. We want to keep the museum fresh
and exciting, so we’re looking at chang- ing the exhibitions more often and perhaps having more than one at a time.
Artists are invited to visit and watch children interacting to help gain insight into what constitutes safe, child-friendly art 34 Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital AM 1 2013 ©cybertrek 2013
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