Hello
and welcome to my blog! My name is Molly and I am a senior at BASIS Scottsdale high
school. This blog that you’ve stumbled over will be a way in which I will
document my experience during my Senior Research Project. For a period of
ten weeks beginning February 8th, I will be posting weekly updates on my
various shenanigans as well as many pictures of art.
Despite
the long-winded title of my blog, my Senior Research Project will deal with a
deceptively simple topic: art. However, a caveat to this is that my main focus
will be the relationship between art and people on a large, public scale.
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| Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate is a well-known piece of public art. From cityofchicago.org |
Considering
my love of visual art, it’s not too surprising that I’m taking this opportunity
to explore further in-depth with the concept. However, I am fascinated by art
outside of the environment of a museum and not a little bit unfamiliar with the
significance and interactions between the public and pieces made for it. Thus,
my project is going to be a combination of documentation and research: I will
both examine public art in my local area of Phoenix, Arizona (mainly
sculptures, murals, or statues) and volunteer at the I.D.E.A. Museum in Mesa.
In addition, I plan to contact public artists within my community to examine
the functionality and process of creating public art. Through these means, I
hope to gain a better understanding of the concept of public art and general
attitudes towards it. In current circles of scholars, the idea of public art is
ambiguous, but through my project, I will address distinctions between art
forms such as propaganda, advertisement, vandalism, and murals, and whether any
of them fall under the notion of public art.
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| The I.D.E.A. Museum in Mesa, Arizona. |
As
stated previously, my research site will be the I.D.E.A. Museum in Mesa, Arizona.
This museum caters towards both the artistic and scientific impulses of
children and features the artwork of many public artists within its exhibits
(much of which will be featured in this blog). There, I will attempt to glean
the general attitudes towards public art from museumgoers, both children and
adults. Considering that children tend to be the most brutally inventive and
honest of all, the results should be interesting.
Overall,
my goal during my Senior Research Project is to expand my preconceived
knowledge of art as well as explore and learn more about my community. I hope
you will join me on my journey.
