the National Medal for museum and library services is the nation's highest
honor for libraries and museums that are serving their communities in exceptional
Ways museum of contemporary Art director bonnie clearwater and community member
cassandra timothy traveled to Washington from North Miami Florida to receive the
National Medal and spoke to imls about how the museum impacts the community
moka Mission is to bring the best of local national and international art
to Miami and um and especially to the widest and most diverse audience
Possible our programming is always at the very highest level um it is
contemporary Art so i very often say We're the most accessible museum showing
the least accessible Art and um perhaps because contemporary work is so
challenging and We don't compromise on the kind of programming We Do it means
How do you find Find Ways to engage an audience in a Way That they feel
comfortable and open and receptive to the ideas and the work that are produced
by artists of our time so the trick or the or um the Method is to Find Ways to
bring people in Make them um Break Down that barrier to feel like they do
n't understand or This is too weird um How to engage and make Feel comfortable
and That's Done With All kinds of educational programs public programs
outreach programs when we had our Keith herring retrospective i felt this was a
good introduction for teens to um to the contemporary Art and We started the
Junior doson program the Idea was to have a seminar program it's really Done
at a very sophisticated level at a College level seminar We recruited
students from the High schools and and not Just from our Media area they Were
coming from All over Well the Junior do program It's a program for like after
school high school students you go in and you know you kind of Walk through
the exhibition that are there We kind of learn about the artist and then We also Come Back
and We like you know We kind of Break it Down um We We pretty much
kind of dissect the artwork and then We like and We become T guides towards The
End Of The week so like we'll Give out towards when we Feel comfortable enough
but it's Just really Just Going and Just learning about the exhibition learning
about the Ar like learning about the different Crafts and then We kind of put
It was interesting about the Junior docent
program uh We have an Art an Art historian um Who will uh Meet with the students
and discuss and it's not like a typical classroom situation there they
see this Art it provokes questions um on İTS own and the students and the and the educator
and the teacher um have conversations about it and they learn about
how to analyze and that kind of um criticality can be applied to anything
then We also educate them in How to do public speaking Now because they're
going to give tours of the exhibitions Now That's really important As We Found
because a lot of the Kids Were not doing well in their school in İn um When they
applied to colleges in in the interview so We put even greater emphasis on the
public speaking but so We realized if We taught them the techniques of
interviewing this would also benefit them Right Now i graduated College and i
currently the legislative aid for a councilman in the City of Tampa Mocha
Has provided me with the on job Skills that i need the communication Skills that
i need Like The ability To think critically and like you know Just from
dissecting Art pieces Now to you know working in a Council and working with
the constituent and working with members in the community i remember Going over
to the City hing you know dropping off you know Stuff from our Office And it
was Just like Now i can put them both Together and see how they relate cuz
moka moka We Do so much community outreach We're in the community and Now
that i am helping the community i wish i i hope to bring Art to the Tampa
community because That's One Thing that We definitely Need in the City of Tampa
so That's One Thing i can take Away from mocha that i've learned in North Miami
to the City of Tampa Where i am Now very often people Say That You're
building the audience For The Future i often say
our audiences today Just because they're Kids Just
because they're teens doesn't mean We're building them For The Future This is our audience
these Are the People engaged with What We have to do they are at that
Age Where they are searching and they're Still at a point of becoming and that if we
can Get them at that Moment to realize that the world is much bigger
and and so wonderful and so many and that they are Part of it we could have
such a major impact we could build a community That's receptive to
contemporary Art we could build a community that would be receptive to
innovation in Everyday life and thinking about Ways of solving problems because
artists are basically problem solvers and if we Get an audience to understand that that is a
point of View a way of thinking that they bring to All problems
All issues and Something that cassandra and i Were talking about is how she's
analyzing in tampa the problems and How to solve them and that was partly
Because of the analytical um Training that she had As a Junior
docent