2019052_MUN_ViajeMCSNuevaYork

The city of skyscrapers, the city that never sleeps, the eternal movie set that is New York, also treasures, for many, the degree scroll of the world capital of contemporary art. Since the 1940s, the immense American city, home to more than 8 million people, has become the perfect place for museums, galleries and other art venues.

It is also the enormous residency program of an effervescent artistic and social community in which the boundaries of art are blurred and permeable to the construction of the city itself. With the interest of getting to know in situ this artistic ecosystem of planetary influences, the 24 students of the first promotion of the Master in Curatorial Studies of the Museo Universidad de Navarra, made a curatorial trip to the Big Apple last April.

The students, of ten different nationalities, had the opportunity to discover different art centers with curators, artists and other art professionals. During this ten-day trip, they had the opportunity to visit emblematic museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET); Chelsea galleries such as Gagosian, Pace or Hauser & Wirth, and even to get to know public art projects promoted by the City Council .   

Precisely, the first quotation they had upon landing in New York was with the curator of Latin American art at MOMA, Inés Katzstein, who explained how she develops her work, in which she seeks the dynamization of the collection, the multidisciplinarity and the creation of exhibitions with a self-critical look at the museum itself.

They were also able to learn more about Latin American art from the founder and director of the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, Ariel Aisiks (ISLAA). It is an entrepreneurial cultural project that aims to promote the history of Latin American art and support artists in their international projection.

NEW YORK PUBLIC ART

The trip also provided an opportunity to learn about different art interventions in public space, an aspect in which New York is a benchmark. The group maintained a meeting with Sergio Pardo López, of the Department of Cultural Affairs of New York City. For María Díaz Banet, a Madrid-born graduate in Art History, this was one of the most enriching experiences of the trip: "We were able to learn about the work of the Department of Culture in relation to the program for the creation of art for public space. It was also very interesting to discover how 1% for the arts works, a public initiative to promote culture and public art. It is a fascinating project with many implications." At another workshop they were also able to tour the Highline Park, where works, especially sculptures, are exhibited by curator Cecilia Alemani.

EXIT TO HUDSON VALLEY

One of the conference, the group went to Cold Spring (Hudson Valley), one hour from New York, where the Magazzino Italian Art is located. There they made a visit guided by the Spanish architect Miguel Quismondo, who was in charge of the design of the current building, which houses the art collection of Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. "I really liked both his collection and the architecture of the Museum and having the chance to do the visit with the architect," explains Pau Cassany, a Catalan student who is an architect by profession. That day they also visited Dia: Beacon, a minimalist art center located two hours from New York City.

CUSTOM ROUTES

The students also enjoyed two free days to visit those museums and cultural spaces most closely related to their interests and concerns as curators. For example, they visited different artists' programs of study at Mana Open House in New Jersey and Dumbo Open Studio in Brooklyn, and toured the Bronx Museum, The Met Breuer, MoMa PS1, SculptureCenter in Long Island, and Isamu Noguchi Museum, located in Queens, among others. They also visited programs of study of artists such as Alfred Jaar, in Chelsea.

"Getting to know closely aspects and institutions of the New York art sphere has contributed substantially to my training as a curator. I have been aware of the great multiplicity of possible points of view and lines of research ," says Díaz.

In the same vein, Cassany values the experience: "It is very important to get to know other ways of working and this trip has given us the opportunity to learn from different professionals and multiply our points of view".

In total, the students visited more than 20 museums and art centers, met with 15 professionals and visited multiple programs of study, as well as the residency program of two private collectors. An enriching trip to a constantly changing scenario development.