Emily Wesenick, youth and family program manager
I have a confession to make…I have never really been to Chicago.
Needless to say, I was excited to be able to experience the city when I traveled there with fellow educator Rachel Hausmann-Schall for the National Art Education Association’s National Convention. Founded in 1947, NAEA has become the largest professional art education association in the world. This year, the convention boasted over 5,000 attendees and keynote speakers including Bisa Butler, Liz Flores, and Jeffrey Gibson.
Although attending the convention provides collaboration time with colleagues and a wealth of art education resources, the most impactful experiences were the unexpected ones. One night, our plans pivoted from the Shedd Aquarium to a surprising opportunity to experience City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago and a performance of The Rite (2018) by Brendan Fernandes. Inspired by Stravinsky’s 1913 ballet, The Rite of Spring, and influenced by Fernandes’ time training at the Martha Graham Dance Company, this hour-long performance around a large sculptural cage and rocking chairs was unlike anything I had ever seen. Sitting in awe, watching the movements of two dancers pacing around the structure, hearing the breathwork echo through a space allowed me to start this Chicago exploration fully immersed in art. And to think I could have missed it in favor of fish.
With this explosive start, I was primed to take in the wealth of artwork at the Art Institute of Chicago for the Museum Education pre-convention. I knew the works I wanted to see—George Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884), Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942), and even some Monet (a personal favorite). What I wasn’t expecting was to be enthralled by a small boy exploring Seurat’s work for the first time. All around him, adults were experiencing this massive work through their phones; myself included. And there he was: mimicking the poses of people in the painting, pacing back and forth to take it in from different angles, uninhibited by the technology the rest of us have come to rely on to document the experiences we are having.
Although this is something I have come to expect when taking little ones through gallery spaces at the Woodson, I think I forgot what it looked like outside of these walls. To document experiences with your eyes rather than your phone. To allow unexpected observations to drive the experience you have. While the rest of the museum pre-convention day was filled with enriching discussions, I found myself thinking about this experience often.
The conference this year, as with years passed, was filled with an overwhelming amount of knowledge, program ideas, and professional connections. However, all of that was overtaken by unexpected experiences. From off-the-beaten path restaurants like Lucia’s (where we got the best local gossip from two sweet Italian men sitting behind us) to watching a little boy experience one of my favorite works for the first time to a breathtaking performance I won’t soon forget, Chicago was full of surprises.
