The National Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest has
\nnever ceased to surprise us. After unconventional exhibition inaugurations,
\nsome of which were allegedly way too disputed and collections that have been
\nrenewed every six months or monster installations impressing visitors as soon
\nas they step into the museum, as of late caught up indoors because of the pandemic,
\nthe National Contemporary Art Museum has come up with projects meant to get
\nchildren closer to the museum. That’s how a couple of projects have emerged as
\nof late. Among them, Contemporary Art from Plankton to Intergalactic Flight,
\nactually made of several workshops meant to help art lovers understand the
\nexhibition of the National Contemporary Art Museum Collection. Then there’s
\nalso Watching History. 1947-2007, as well as projects focusing on where
\ncontemporary art hails from and what its sources are, in general. A Night at
\nthe Museum, workshops tailored to suit the needs of the little ones, staged in
\na bid to help them understand, in a friendly formula, the National Contemporary
\nArt Museum Collection themed Watching
\nHistory. 1947-2007. Then there’s also Art through Correspondence, a project
\nbringing together the children and the elderly, facilitating the correspondence
\nbetween generations. <\/p>\n
\n
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\n
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There is another project we’re going to be dealing
\nwith in detail, themed A weekend at the National Museum of Contemporary Art online:
\nreading evenings for the little ones. On a weekly basis, the project seeks to
\noffer for reading a title from the library of the museum as a means of arousing
\nthe little ones’ interest in reading, art, as well as in dialogue.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Astrid Bogdan is a librarian with the National
\nContemporary Art Museum. She told us the story behind the project.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Late into the previous year, jointly with my
\ncolleagues, we laid the foundation stone of what we’ve themed Reading evenings
\nat the National Museum of Contemporary Art. And what we do, actually, is
\ngather, the little ones and the elderly, on Fridays, at 7 pm, to read stories
\nfrom our library, the library of the museum. Taking one step after the next, we
\nhave tried to corroborate those reading sessions, focusing on the reading
\nproper, with little graphic interventions made by book illustrators, as well as
\nwith musical interventions, so that the textual intervention may have sound and
\ncolor attached to them, why not? We can
\nthus have the opportunity to discover some of the titles even while their
\nauthors are doing the reading. There is no age limit for that, since our
\nworkshops are inclusive. Also, we want to take the well- established custom
\nfurther, that of the tales told by the fireside, since the program is free of
\ncharge. And the advantage of working online on a permanent basis is having
\nparticipants at local but also at international level.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Such a project is a support for book authors, Romanian
\nas well as foreign. <\/p>\n
\n
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\n
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<\/p>\n
Astrid Bogdan:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We also dedicate some of the reading evenings to the
\nbooks tackling the topic of the recovery of children diagnosed with autism or
\nwith other growth problems, children with certain special disabilities. The
\nstart we had for our project was kind of bumpy, we began in December, back then
\nthe project was titled Rolling astray on board a tramway and we continued
\nwith the title ‘Introtale’ which gathered a great many readers around it. All
\nthis time we have tried to bring the authors closer, so much so that on Fridays
\nwe have one author reading from their own work.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We asked Astrid Bogdan if the reading sessions brought
\ntogether many participants. <\/p>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Astrid Bogdan:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
There are evenings, and there are evenings. There were
\nevenings when we’ve got 30 people taking part, there were evenings with many
\nmore participants, we even had something to the tune of 70. We have been trying
\nto stage the event one week after the next, opening up the evenings to the
\nlittle ones, so we opted for a maximum number of 25 participants, and whenever
\nwe had more people coming in, we staged another reading evening separately, on
\na different day. <\/p>\n
\n
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\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Having taken part in the sessions, people kept sending
\nencouraging messages, which, alongside the growing number of prospective
\nparticipants, gave an impetus to the organizers so that they could take take the project further and
\nkeep searching for different and new, original titles. The library is open
\nMonday to Friday, from 13.30 to 17.30 pm, and on the first Monday of every
\nmonth, also from 13.30 to 17.30 pm. Astrid Bogdan said that, as soon as the National
\nContemporary Art Museum library was discovered, quite a few people turned up,
\nwho were willing to explore it. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Astrid Bogdan:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And I had no choice other than doing the reading for
\nthem in the library and that’s what prompted me to keep my hopes alive that at
\none point we could stage those reading sessions on the museum’s rooftop, when
\nthat is officially allowed. Yet we will stay online as well, since there are a
\ngreat many users who opt for being with us from their hometown, and by that I
\n‘m not speaking about cities from across Romania, but also about cities from
\nabroad. We believe that any youngster, through reading and art, can have a
\nfreedom of choice, nay, they can form certain genuine customs and habits, as we
\npledge for stories that are not prescribed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And that is an invitation worth taking in the
\nevenings.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Museum’s reading and online projects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":136575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[32349,35034,41764,43293],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-136574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-exhibition","tag-online","tag-reading","tag-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n