1. 11/14/16, 4:48 PMThe Art of Learning with MoMA's Cari Frisch - December 27, 2013 - NewYork.com
Page 1 of 6http://www.newyork.com/articles/attractions/the-art-of-learning-with-momas-cari-frisch-40829/
The Art of Learning with MoMA’s Cari Frisch
The museum educator works to design interactive spaces that give families a fun,
fresh view of modern art
December 27, 2013, Craigh Barboza
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Tucked in the corner on the first floor of the Museum of Modern Art‘s education wing is where I found
Cari Frisch one afternoon, giving a tour of the MoMA Art Lab. This year’s space, which runs through
Aug. 31, 2014 and on which Frisch collaborated, is dedicated to Movement. It is both playful and
provocative, with an activity inspired by an Alexander Calder kinetic sculpture and a performance art
station, where a group of kids are glued to a short film by an artist in the museum’s collection. On the
back wall, above a row of boxes that contain activities inspired by works of art, is a projected screen
hooked up to a Wii remote. But the young boy working the controller isn’t slaying dragons or
protecting the streets of Gotham City; he’s splattering paint Pollock-like across the digital canvas in
front of him. Look around at the stop-motion animation tools, thaumatropes in the window, building
blocks and other toys on the art-making table, and it’s easy to forget you’re at a museum.
This sort of sentiment is not unusual. “I think we’re changing families’ ideas about what a museum
visit can be,” says Frisch, an associate educator in family programs. Before joining the department,
Frisch was an intern at MoMA. Among other things, she now helps develop weekend workshops and
film series as well as organize gallery talks. Museums, once seen as soulless institutions, are no longer
simply places where you go to stare at art and learn about historical objects. “They’re increasingly
providing dynamic experiences for many kinds of visitors and learners,” says Frisch. The Art Labs,
which started as an experiment in 2008, are now something the museum fully embraces. According to
Frisch, as many as 40,000 people attend the annual labs, which are adjacent to MoMA’s gallery
building in Midtown Manhattan.
After showing me around, Frisch walks up to the second-floor mezzanine and takes a seat overlooking
the sleek lower lobby, where an eye-catching red Formula One Ferrari racecar hangs from one of the
walls. It’s been a busy day, full of department meetings, emails and a long-distance call to Berlin, but
Frisch is in a cheerful mood. When she and her boss, MoMA’s Assistant Director of Family
Programs, Elizabeth Margulies, aren’t blueprinting new programs, she says, they’re often tweaking
existing ones. In her downtime, Frisch also enjoys teaching the occasional school program at MoMA,
although the last four groups she volunteered to lead ended up canceling on her, including one earlier
today. (“I’m beginning to think I’m cursed,” she says jokingly.) Ask her what she loves most about her
job, though, and Frisch will tell you that it’s creative and — much like the art on view at the museum
— it’s also consistently fresh and interesting. “I like that,” says Frisch. Below are excerpts from our
conversation.
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3. 11/14/16, 4:48 PMThe Art of Learning with MoMA's Cari Frisch - December 27, 2013 - NewYork.com
Page 3 of 6http://www.newyork.com/articles/attractions/the-art-of-learning-with-momas-cari-frisch-40829/
‘Shape Lab’ exhibit, part of MoMA’s family programming in 2010 (Photo: Michael Nagle)
How do you plan a program?
We start with the exhibitions that will be on view. Then we think about what families could do, like
should there be an art-making workshop? Should we just look at the show through the lens of
materials and techniques and have it be a gallery talk? And, of course, we try to figure out what’s
going to be fun. MoMA exhibitions are always changing and the art on view is rotating so the family
programs that we have are changing too. Right now we have a collage art workshop in relation to the
Magritte show. And next season we’ll have families do a sculpture assemblage workshop in response
to an Isa Genzken special exhibition that opened and is really awesome.
Working at one of the world’s leading art institutions has its privileges. The staff café serves up
foods prepared by star chef Danny Meyer and, in years past, acts like Kanye West and M.I.A.
have performed at MoMA’s annual fundraiser party. Do you get a little spoiled working at
MoMA?
I wouldn’t say I’m spoiled; though, there are many perks to working at MoMA. I usually don’t go to
Party in the Garden, our big fundraiser. My husband and I went once, when Jay Z came out and
performed with Kanye. That was fun. And on most days I bring lunch, usually a salad with some farm-
share lettuce. But, yes, working here is pretty special. There are those moments, like when you’re in
the galleries alone, before the doors open, where you’re kind of awestruck that you get to be in the
galleries alone, like, really? [Laughs.] It’s moments like that, when you’re hurrying to prepare for a
class tour and you walk by [Les] Demoiselles d’Avignon and Starry Night and all these famous works.
The fact that you get to work with this collection, which is one of the foremost collections of modern
art in the world, and all these great people the institution attracts. I learn so much from the people I
work with in education and other departments I collaborate with. For instance, like Ingrid Chou and
Tony Lee in graphic design. Our department works closely with them to develop the Art Labs and
other resources for kids. We challenge and are inspired by each other in ways that make the end result
better because of our collaboration.
Who else do you work with at the museum?
The lab projects require collaboration with most areas of the museum — from curatorial to imaging
services to the museum painters. We rely on our exhibition design team to help with everything from
building tables to helping think of how to construct activities. On the Movement installation, we
worked closely with people from our IT and AV teams. Someone actually built the performance art
station, and the curatorial team, who helped find and get permission for the Bruce Nauman video, Slow
Angle Walk (Beckett Walk). You have all these, like, small miracles — [laughs] things that we didn’t
think would happen that came together.
4. 11/14/16, 4:48 PMThe Art of Learning with MoMA's Cari Frisch - December 27, 2013 - NewYork.com
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Just another day at the museum for Frisch at Play @ MoMA, a special event focused on play (Photo:
Kirsten Schroeder)
Interactive spaces like the lab are great for kids to learn about art in a tactile way. What
happens when you take them on the gallery tours? Do they get a little rowdy?
Not really. Kids are usually well behaved. Before we go into the galleries, we ask kids to share some
museum behavior rules to prepare them. The rules [that] kids consistently feel compelled to share are
pretty amusing, from “no biting” to “no shoving” to “no kicking someone in the neck.” All are pretty
good rules to live by, but not rules we necessarily expect would come up in relation to museum
etiquette.
Tell us about your introduction to art. Were you a frequent museumgoer growing up?
I’m from Tuscon, Ariz., and when I was younger, I remember we’d always visit museums on family
trips. We’d go to the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Boston Science Museum. As I got older,
my family would have to wait for me at the end. [Laughs] They would be sitting in the lobby when I
came out. I’m a little slow at the museums!
So how did you get interested in arts education?
I sort of fell into the major in college. I studied art history at Emory University and the thing that
fascinated me was how much you can learn about different periods in time — and see what was going
on in society — just from looking at artwork. I ended up doing a bunch of internships. I worked at an
art consulting firm, at a gallery, and found I didn’t really care about the commercial art world. It wasn’t
for me. Then I did a summer internship at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and realized that I like
museum work. I also did an internship at the Guggenheim in Venice, where we got to do everything.
[Laughs] It ran the gamut from guarding art to helping in the store to working with curators and their
educational programs. So I enjoyed it there too, and I kind of put it together that I wanted to work in
the education department of an art museum. That’s when I moved to New York and applied for an
internship at MoMA. I started as a 12-month intern in 2005. It was a great year in which I learned a lot
about museum work and educational programming. And when the year was up, I was lucky that my
boss received approval for a permanent full-time position. I applied and have been here ever since.
Any advice to those who want to follow in your footsteps?
When I started I did a lot of informational interviews. People were so nice to me and I’ve been giving
back that karma for the last few years. Everyone just said, “Oh, you have to intern and make yourself
indispensable and it will fall into place.” And I thought, really? And that’s what ended up happening.
You have to get your foot in the door, to get some experience, to make sure this is something that you
actually want to do because you have to love it in order to do it. It’s hard work and nowadays there are
a lot of people that want to do this job. It seems like more and more people are studying museum
education in college but there are only so many jobs, which makes it a competitive field.
5. 11/14/16, 4:48 PMThe Art of Learning with MoMA's Cari Frisch - December 27, 2013 - NewYork.com
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Frisch leading a Family Films program (Photo: Martin Seck )
A few weeks ago, you were on a panel at the Museum Computer Network in Montreal. What was
that like?
It was nice because it was a small conference, and so it was easy to meet people from other
institutions. I was on a panel with three other women: one from the Met, the Smithsonian Institute and
one from Green Door Labs, which is a game design company, and we presented about different game
projects we developed.
Museum education seems to be big on games these days.
It’s a hot topic. It’s being discussed in relation to K through 12 education, and people are thinking
about how games can change education, which is great. We just created a game called “Everyone’s a
Critic.” It was a collaboration between MoMA and the Institute of Play. We designed it for people in
their 20s and 30s. It was meant to be this fun, social and engaging way to explore the museum’s
collection. We give the games away on Friday nights when MoMA is free and many younger visitors
come, and there’s also a PDF online you can download. But one thing we learned through play-testing
is, not everyone wants to play a game. I love games. But some people feel they can get in the way of
their visit. So, yes, I think there’s potential in games, but there are obstacles too. This is something that
we’re talking about now, like “Is there a place for a kids game in the gallery? What would that even
look like?” That’s sort of the next challenge I’m interested in. Our philosophy is that games should be
in service to the works of art; they should make you stop and look closely at a painting, sculpture,
photograph or works of architecture and design. A game should help you interact with the art. It should
enhance the museum-going experience, not take away from it.
With all the technological changes happening, do you think art museums of the future will be
drastically different?
I think museums will become even more interactive. In these participatory times, visitors expect more
than to just look at art — they want to respond to what they see. I hope museums of the future will
provide opportunities for reflection and discussion that engage visitors in new ways by encouraging
them to look closely, think critically, and respond creatively.
And whatever that response is, it shouldn’t involve kicking anyone in the neck, right?
Yes, no neck kicking. I agree with the kids on that universal rule.
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