What do you think is inside this 3-D work by Lee Bontecou? Feel inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s plywood side chair? At the Space Bar in the Center for Creative Connections, we challenge you to really experience art and take what you see in our exhibition to make your very own work.
As the Coordinator of C3, I continually save creations left by Museum visitors. So do my DMA colleagues. Some we hold onto because of their extraordinary use of materials and some we save simply because we like them. Many works end up on the desks of C3 staff and the walls of the Center’s Director. However, we mostly save them to document the every-day happenings in the Center. During the Center’s first exhibition, Materials & Meanings, we filled several file cabinet drawers full of works of art visitors left on the Materials Bar shelf. For our current exhibition, Encountering Space, the C3 staff worked closely with DMA designer Jessica Harden to allow more display room specifically for the Space Bar. Now the Bar has nine shelves that extend to the ceiling providing Museum visitors with plenty of room to leave their work and become part of the exhibition.
One of my all-time favorite creations was made by a visitor on a Late Night this past fall. She made a dragon out of a cardboard box, tape, and pipe cleaners. The cardboard box was completely transformed till it was unrecognizable. ”Visual conversation” is how another visitor described the ability to leave your work of art at the Bar. From dragons to drum kits, houses to fully composed songs in visual form, art left at the Space Bar provides you an opportunity to get involved in your museum: create, respond, express, and say something.
You too can contribute to the Encountering Space exhibition by creating a response to a work of art or literally making up your own. Every other month the supplies and art-making materials change allowing the artist-in-you to surface each time you visit the Museum. We encourage you to unleash your creativity to transform and manipulate unexpected materials like color-coated wire, pipe cleaners, masking tape, cardboard boxes, and aluminum foil. The Space Bar is open during regular Museum hours and there is no need to reserve a spot. Your creations might just be featured on Facebook or a future blog post!
Hadly Clark is the C3 Specialist at the Dallas Museum of Art
Filed under: Behind-the-Scenes, Center for Creative Connections
