Laboratorios de mediaciónEspacios participativos en el MOMA 1939-1972.
- 1 Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
ISSN: 2343-6131, 2610-8046
Year of publication: 2022
Issue Title: Mediación artística como factor de desarrollo humano, social y comunitario.
Issue: 15
Pages: 131-145
Type: Article
More publications in: Encuentros: Revista de Ciencias Humanas, Teoría Social y Pensamiento Crítico
Abstract
A lab is a space for ideas to be tested, challenged or co-created. The lab as a concept can offer the future museum a framework for being experimental, research-based and committed to questioning itself. Powered by honest curiosity, it promotes an ideal frame for education. In 1939 Alfred H. Barr, the first director of The Museum of Modern Art, defined the museum as a ‘laboratory’. In 1937 Victor D’Amico had been appointed Director of the Educational Project to fulfill MoMA’s educational mission which included the opening of the Young People’s Gallery. The Young People’s Gallery served as a safe, participative space for pushing the limits of the idea of the museum as a laboratory. This article is an exploration of the concept of museums as labs through MoMA’s educational past, in search for socially relevant practices to inspire the museum of the future.