Interaction of Color workshop at the Exploratorium, San Francisco
In January 2016, a team from the Albers Foundation traveled to San Francisco's Exploratorium to participate in Begin here: Assignments, instructions, prompts, and cues from the artist's classroom, a program organized by Marina McDougall of the Exploratorium and Sarah Ganz-Blythe of the RISD Museum.
In January 2016, a team from the Albers Foundation traveled to San Francisco's Exploratorium to participate in Begin here: Assignments, instructions, prompts, and cues from the artist's classroom, a program organized by Marina McDougall of the Exploratorium and Sarah Ganz-Blythe of the RISD Museum. Sponsored by the Exploratorium's Center for Art and Inquiry, the weekend included presentations from the museum's art and scientific research staff and from Stephen Thomas, director of the experimental Oxbow School in Napa, California, as well as workshops with dancers from Company Wayne McGregor and by the Albers Foundation. The objective of the Begin Here project is to use artists' studio practices and teaching methods as models or inspiration for new kinds of public education programs and hands-on exhibits.
As part of the weekend program, Albers Foundation educators Fritz Horstman, Jeannette Redensek, and Michael Beggs led a two-hour Interaction of Color workshop for the museum's general public. The beginning exercise was to make 3 colors appear to be 4. From there, everyone dove in, compared colors, consulted with neighbors, tried, tested, experimented. It was an inspired and energetic exploration of careful looking and playful making, from which everyone left with a sharper eye and a work of art. More than 100 participants joined in for a morning of color experiments inspired by Josef Albers's Interaction of Color.
