Kid Talk
Little kid, big questions. At Studio Sundays, a day of free programs, junior journalist Sana, age eight, took up the mic and asked visitors and staff some pressing questions about the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Shiloh, Shamysia Waterman, and Sana. Photo: Natasha Logan
Shamysia Waterman, Assistant Manager of Visitor Experience
S What is the most memorable thing that has happened to you since you’ve been at the Museum?
SW There was a guest who came in during our first week of being open. He was sight-impaired and I decided to walk through the Museum with him. We got to talk to one another and had a nice time. When he was on his way out, he let me know that it was his birthday and that his daughter wasn’t able to see him, and that I made his day.
S What’s the first thing you’d do with your bestie if they were visiting the Museum?
SW I’d take them to see Glenn Ligon’s Give Us a Poem (2007) because I think it’s representative of how we are a community and how we treat each other.
Teagan, age six, Education Workshops visitor
S Do you have a favorite piece of art here?
Tegan Hmm . . . the pink piggy bank?
Natasha Logan That is a work by David Hammons [Too Obvious, 1996], who makes lots of surprising and curious art.
S Why did you like it?
Teagan The shells. We have many piggie banks.
Maya Shae, Educator
S What’s your favorite color?
MS My favorite color is black because black absorbs all the colors together.
Jennora Blair, Development Intern
S Do you have a work of art that you
JB Rosana Paulino’s Gêmeas [from the“Jatobás series,” 2003]. It has two women that look like trees. I find it really beautiful to compare women with trees.
Sana And Connie H. Choi. Photo: Natasha Logan
Connie H. Choi, Curator
S Do you have a favorite artwork in the Museum?
CC [Laughs] I don’t know if I can even imagine what my favorite would be. There’s work represented by over eight hundred artists, over a span of two hundred years. How am I supposed to pick one?
S Pick one.
CC Since Tom Lloyd is closing today,we have a work [by Lloyd] called Moussakoo (c. 1968). It was probably the last work he made before he stopped making electronically programmed light sculptures. It’s also the biggest. It has 960 lightbulbs in it. Lloyd wanted the work to be responsive to different environments; he wanted it to look different every single time. Sometimes he installed it in a diamond shape, sometimes he installed it in a diagonal, sometimes he installed it in a checkmark. There are a lot of different ways that work can be seen by audiences.
S What’s something special you remember from working here?
CC Installing the work in this incredible building that everyone has been waiting for was really impactful and inspiring.
Jossie Rivera, Museum Educator
S What’s the most memorable thing that’s happened to you since you started working in the Museum?
JR Seeing the photograph I took when I was in Expanding the Walls.
Cecil Jones, Family Progam Coordinator
S Do you know if you have a favorite piece of art in the Studio Museum?
CJ Lawdy Mama [by Barkley L. Hendricks, 1969], on the fourth floor. I love the gold, and it’s a work that reminds me of the Studio Museum and what I love about the art here. What about you? Do you have a favorite work here?
S I’m interviewing you!
CJ Oops! Excuse me, no more questions from me.
Leneer Hutchinson, Visitor
S Do you know your favorite art piece and why?
L Daphne [by Elizabeth Colomba, 2015], because that’s my mother’s name.