With portraits by Alexis Adler of Jean-Michel Basquiat being displayed in the caribBEING House, I wa

With portraits by Alexis Adler of Jean-Michel Basquiat being displayed in the caribBEING House, I was asked to follow up on an item that was displayed in our 2015 Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks exhibition, Basquiat’s Brooklyn Museum Junior Membership card. The card does not specify which years Basquiat was a Junior Member, so I dove into research. Going into this search I knew that there was almost no chance I would find Basquiat by name because in the archives, as stipulated by our retention schedule, we do not retain our membership lists for privacy reasons. Slim chance aside, this was an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of the Museum’s Junior Membership department, the precursor to our current Youth and Family and Teens programs, and see the workshops that Basquiat probably attended as a child and influenced his later career.I searched the archives for all mention of Junior Membership. However, these records have not been processed (described to a level of detail that allows for the quick identification of materials). I widened my search to include any folders that had the words Junior or Teen in the title. The Junior Membership department was founded in 1961 and had on average 17,700 to 20,000+ members. In 1963 there was a fire in the department so we do not have any early records from the department itself, just reports and statements that were sent to other departments.Junior Membership organized free activities and a gallery for children ages 7-17. They also ran a Junior Aides program that allowed children 12+ to engage in community service, assisting the museum for 10 week periods. For the later years, we have the programming schedules and attendance tallies. Some exciting programs were 16mm filmmaking workshops, “Find-It” scavenger hunts, and the African and Afro-American Art seminar that took place during the summer of 1969. An interesting fact is that, as this was during the Vietnam War era, Conscientious Objectors worked in the Department as their alternative service. Although the programs were incredibly popular, in 1972 the department was reorganized: one of the staff members was reassigned to start an audiovisual collection, the teaching staff member was assigned to the education department, and the department’s secretary was passed on to another (there were many clerical errors that contributed to the demise of the department—several letters from parents about classes being overbooked or canceled without notice). The more hands-on courses that the Junior Membership department ran became known as “The Workshop.”Although I didn’t find any trace of Basquiat, the Junior Membership department’s history shows that the Brooklyn Museum’s dedication to engaging young people with art through progressive means has deep roots.Posted by J.E. Molly Seegers -- source link

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