COMMUNITY COMMENT

Museums around the world regularly face the challenge of engaging audiences from their surrounding communities and have been adopting a more democratic approach when dealing with interpretation in their galleries. At the Tate Britain, any visitor can submit language for wall text to be displayed alongside a world-renowned work of art.

At the Brooklyn Museum of Art, a young student’s reaction to an Egyptian sculpture is displayed alongside text from one of the museum’s curators. Increasingly, museums recognize the importance of honoring voices from the community as a way to engage audiences from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

Lyman Allyn Art Museum has joined this prestigious list of world-class museums with an ongoing exhibition Community Comment.

Part of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s mission is dedicated to engaging and responding to the regional community. The concept of Community Comment is to select members of the surrounding community and invite them in to view the museum’s permanent collection, along with the museum’s Registrar. They will choose an artwork that resonates for them or captures their attention in a specific way. Participants will then create an essay, poem or other written work that explains how and/or why the artwork “spoke” to them. The artworks will be installed on the museum’s main floor, along with wall text including the written comments by the participants about their selections.

Click the images below to see the participants and works in the current Community Comment.

Angela Angulo on Charles Doratt Brandegee’s Thread Mill, Berlin, Connecticut	Antonio Farias on Morris Berd Boy with Bird	Jerry Fischer on Charles Ebert Blue Cliff at Monhegan	Barkley Hendricks on Walter Stuempfig The Philosopher