Episode 4: The Youth

In Episode 4 of monca Unframed, we focus on the next generation shaping the future of the Museum of Northern California Art. Featuring Junior Board Advisor Kent Moore and Junior Board President Johnny Meek, this episode explores how the Junior Board was created, the projects they’re leading, and how youth are getting involved in the arts through Monca. From student exhibitions and community events to partnerships with local schools and programs like Inspire, we take a closer look at how the museum is building connections with young artists and audiences. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

We are here to talk about the Museum of Northern California Art, or Monca, and the museum exists to make art accessible and to promote awareness of Northern California artists through collections, exhibitions, and educational programs. In this five-episode series, we're going behind the frames into the stories, the risks, and the history, and the big ideas that continue to shape this community-driven museum. This is episode four, The Youth. I'm Georges Weber, and this is Monka Unframed. Today we are delighted to have with us the leaders of our junior board, Miss Kent Moore and Mr. Johnny Meek. And I would love to know how this whole idea of having a junior board, we have a regular board for the museum board of directors, and now we have this marvelous junior board. How did that come about? I think Kent, you were pretty instrumental there.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah. Um, I think two years ago now. And I was just volunteering at the front desk. And, you know, Pat will have you do tasks that need to get done around the museum. And one shit one thing she brought up to me was I think a kid at Inspire had proposed a junior board at Monka as a way to like just an opportunity for students to get more involved. And she was like, What do you think of that? I was like, that sounds really cool. And she was like, Could you like write something up just like like what would the junior board do? Like, what would that look like maybe? And so I wrote something really casual up, and she ended up showing it to the board, and they really liked it. And then she was like, Okay, well, what's the next step? Can we do this? And so it was just a lot, like, I mean, it was it started really basic and like as just another task as a volunteer. And quickly, before I knew it, I was writing emails and making flyers and doing interviews. Um I was working, so I was working with Pat, but I was also working with an intern who was at Monca at the time, Larkin Blau. Okay. I was a Chico State student in anthropology, um, who did the museum certificate program, and they were really helpful. Um, and they were the also an advisor in the beginning.

SPEAKER_06 2:54

Wonderful. And um, so you you're a student yourself, correct? Yes. And where are you studying?

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I'm at Chico State, art history.

SPEAKER_06 3:04

Excellent, excellent. And then is that what led you to volunteering at the museum?

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Yeah, I I switched my major a couple times um and landed on art history, which I've really found a passion for. And I think my previous majors, I just I mean, I was just kind of going through the motions with them. But this was the first major that I was like, I actually want to get out and do things with it. And seeing museums as like a possibility for my future, I really wanted to get involved in what we have in Chico. And so honestly, the first time that I went into Monka was with the intention of volunteering. And so I didn't really know that much about it, but that's how I started out, and I met Margo, the volunteer coordinator at the time, and she was just so lovely, and then meeting Pat. So it was it was a great introduction to Manka.

SPEAKER_06 4:02

Thank you. And what about you, Johnny? How how did you get embroiled in this loveliness?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Um, I got involved in Manka around last April when the junior board was first being formed. I was in my Tweet Foundations class at Butte, and my teacher, Cynthia Schildhauer, had told me about um this opportunity at the museum for a junior board, and that it's open to all students to apply, and that I should try it out. So I emailed Kent and then went through the interview process, and then um in May we had our first meeting for the junior board, and I've been part of the museum since.

SPEAKER_06 4:41

And we are so happy to have you. And Cindy Schildhauer is amazing. She is, she's a great person, she's a great character. Both as a professor and an artist. She's gonna be at the gala, by the way. I'll have to say hi when we're there. So we've had really good feedback from the cocktails and conversations event that you guys held. Um, what inspired you to come up with that event and how did you advertise it?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Um, what inspired us to come up with with cocktails and conversations was one of the first events we had as a junior board was a visual analysis party for one of the shows that was in the museum. And I forget what show it was that we did it for.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Um I think it was it was very up to interpretation. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 5:36

Well, it was it was successful and it's evolved into all of these other shows.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Um yeah, but um the cocktails and conversations is what you asked about. We decided after the visual analysis party that it might be better to bring more of the artists back that put their work in the exhibition and give people a chance to come have a cocktail, talk with the artists, talk with each other in more of a light after having some time to absorb the show compared to just talking to the artist at the opening reception when everything's fresh and they're just seeing it for the first time. So they've had some time to process it first and then come back.

SPEAKER_06 6:16

We may actually be able to include some little sound bites from that.

SPEAKER_05 6:20

My question is Um, how did you uh find out about Monka? Like, how did you become a participant, let alone an exhibition artist?

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Uh I heard about Monka because of the Snow Goose Festival. And um heard that there was the bird art exhibit last year, and so came by to see it and really enjoyed seeing all the different stuff that was on display or on the part of the exhibition here. Um and uh my interest in art has always been um I'm not a photographer, I haven't done that work, and so there were a lot of photographs, and I wanted to bring see if I could bring a piece that was uh just a different medium at that time. And find all the different ways that people like to explore their relationship with birds.

SPEAKER_05 7:22

The question is what brought you to manga and why is this event something that you're interested in? Why are you here?

SPEAKER_04 7:29

Um Johnny brought me to manga, actually. He is my friend, and he suggested that I get out of the house. So um I really do enjoy art and appreciating it. And there's a lot of amazing pieces here. I really love the quote work, there's a lot of different colorful pieces and the way that artists view like the same thing. We're all thinking about one thing, birds, right? But there's so many different variations of that. Like there's so many different ways to express, and there's a lot of messages that I've seen like about those birds, and we're like about weirdness and different gender norms. It's it's really cool. I really enjoy it, and I just love seeing the different ways that people express themselves. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Yeah, it was. I I mean, I want to credit um Asahara Triore, who is a board member, Aussie, um, and a very good friend of mine. But she is a fellow art history major at Chico State and very into visual analysis of artworks, uh, which is something that we do in class all the time. And so she was the one who initially proposed the visual analysis party and the cocktails and conversations, as Johnny said, stemmed from there. So it's been really great.

SPEAKER_06 8:46

Can you tell me what's involved in doing visual analysis?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Yeah, I mean, it I mean, in art history, I think a lot of times people, when you go into a museum, you maybe glance at a work of art and then read the plaque that's on the wall. And so visual analysis forces art history majors and just anyone to really sit and just look at a piece of work. And I mean, some professors will even do a practice where they have students sit in front of a piece of work for like hours on end and just look at it and write down what you see. And so something that we do in class is look at a work and then talk about our ideas and create discussion around it. And those discussions are always so like enlightening and enjoyable for us and allow us to connect with the work, and that's what we wanted to bring to Manka.

SPEAKER_06 9:44

Fabulous. Kind of like in the for centuries now, artists have sat in museums and recreated, repainted paintings that they're looking at, right? Yeah, great. So, along with this, what other projects do you have cooking, you guys?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

So the only other projects we have cooking right now is the closest one is we're planning on doing another manca artisanal market, which is a junior board event we hosted for the first time this last year. And we brought some vendors to the museum and gave them a space to sell their works and a bunch of local artists, and so we're planning on doing another one of those um sometime this coming April, and then the big thing that the junior board is working on at the moment is we are going to be doing a juried student show at the museum for students put on by students called Never Too Old, Never Too Young. And it's gonna be the first show that the junior board is gonna be jurying and helping along and really taking the lead on putting together.

SPEAKER_06 10:53

And what um what ages or different class levels does that include?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Um the show includes is gonna include artwork. It's open to people from sixth grade up until the collegiate level. So anywhere from like 12 to whoever's in college, I go to people within their 60s and 70s. So it's just really a chance to try and get students into the museum to try and show their work who might have never thought to show their work.

SPEAKER_06 11:25

Wow, and so it's not just student work, it's the never too old part as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, you're never too old to become a student to try something new to try and show what you can make or what you can do, or go back and try and make a change.

SPEAKER_06 11:42

Thank you. So, with the board, you're gonna be during this exhibition and selecting the artwork. And can you talk about that process? And also, I would love to hear about the structure of the board. Like, I think you're presidente.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yeah, I'm the president of the board.

SPEAKER_06 12:00

Great, and then how does it work? How many people are on the junior board, and what is the structure of that?

SPEAKER_01 12:11

So we currently have, I believe, 11 members and one advisor, which is Kent, and then we have another prospective member um that we're planning on interviewing and bringing on. She's a Chico High student, but we have Kent as our advisor. Um, we have a president, a vice president, and a secretary, and then just uh general board members.

SPEAKER_06 12:36

Do you meet monthly? Do you meet quarterly? How does that work?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

We meet once a month um on average, usually the first Sunday of every month.

SPEAKER_06 12:46

And is that at the museum?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 12:49

Okay. Well, then for the um for the advisor role that is Miss Kent, what what do you do as an advisor, Kent?

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Um it's kind of up in the air right now. I mean, something that Johnny has been working on, uh, especially with the board, with Pat, um, and something that we really need to work on soon is um the bylaws for the board. When I went into designing the board, I came up with some general ideas, but I have no experience with this. And I mean, that's what it's about, right? It's, I mean, I'm 22, and so I've never been on a board. I and I've never heard I mean, I've never made a board before. And so there's a lot to learn. And um with the bylaws, we want to figure out terms as well as the roles people play. So right now I'm kind of wearing a bunch of hats, but I don't know, maybe like some kind of representative and then just a general board member? Great.

SPEAKER_06 13:58

And so then for that, as well as the entire board, back to the idea of juring a show, curating a show. Can you talk about the selection process and how that works? How do you get the art? How do you select the art? Who hangs the art?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

So, from what I understand, because this is my first time really helping put on a show or put one together, everyone's gonna submit an application that we had filled um designed for them, and they'll send us pictures, and then from the pictures, we'll make a determination of what artwork will come in, and then we have preset dates for them to come and drop off their work if they've been accepted after you've gone through the jury process, and we're still kind of looking at and trying to figure out what that's gonna be like, what the criteria is. None of us have ever juried a show before, so we're really trying, we just gotta figure out what it's really gonna be like and like how complicated it might be. Like, we don't know how much work we're gonna get.

SPEAKER_06 15:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah, Penny on the exhibitions committee at Monka has been really helpful. She has everything mapped out for each exhibition, and she has shared all of that with us, and so that has been amazing so far.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah, she's really got it down to a science.

SPEAKER_06 15:26

She's she's brilliant, and she's got a great eye. Will you be involved in hanging the art as well? I think that would be a wonderful experience.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, I think so. I mean, the volunteers are welcome to help with um putting stuff up. I mean, we usually have Monday through Wednesday taking stuff down, putting it in the back, and then putting the new exhibition up. And so we could we've we've helped with that before. That's one of the boards things that they're supposed to do is be involved with a certain amount of putting up and taking down of exhibitions at Monka in a year. And so people have helped with that, but I think getting a chance, we're hoping to get a chance to like really work on curating and just like thinking about curation with this show specifically.

SPEAKER_06 16:19

Thank you. That's terrific. Um what can we do as this senior board? Or in terms of the museum in general, uh, to keep enhancing, refreshing young interest in art, in the arts, and specifically the Museum of Northern California art.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

I I feel like that's something that we're trying to figure out. I mean, the board, that's something that comes up at every meeting. Um, how do we get the youth involved? And I mean, I think it's something that's gonna evolve over time. I love I love when Manka has activities for kids. I mean, I I know that there was a collage table a while back, and I loved that. Um, and so that kind of stuff that engages you with your own artistic side, and then events that I think encourage looking at the art a lot more. As far as what the older board can do, I'm I'm not sure. I mean, Johnny, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

As far as the older board, you guys have been helping us a lot and just giving us guidance and supporting us from the start. Um, it's really helpful having the support of the full board at your back when you're trying to start new projects and do new things. But also just what you guys have been showing us from your experiences, not just as artists, because not everyone's an artist or works in the art scene, but how you can get involved with art and with the museum, even though you're not an artist, you're just an art enjoyer. Otherwise, we've just learned a lot so far, and just we just ask for more support, always more support and any ideas, or if we can change anything, or if you think there's something that could make us better, or we could make the museum better, we're always open to it.

SPEAKER_06 18:16

Yeah, definitely. And and what in terms of this uh wonderful project that you've taken on with being on the board, what are some of the challenges that we could help with? And what what inspires you in this work that you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

What really inspires me as far as the student show goes and the work with museum is pursuing art and protecting it and getting ready to be that next generation, because eventually one day someone needs to know how to take care of art and manage museums and preserve all of this because the people that know how to do it now and that love doing it and love museums aren't gonna be around forever. So it's our job as the next generation to help preserve that and to step up and to learn all of it before we can't anymore.

SPEAKER_06 19:09

You're gonna pick up the torch. That's the idea. Yeah, and it's a great torch. Um and on that note, in the midst of everything happening in this world, um what do you see as the function of art in society and the museum in our society, our local society? Our extended, you know, our call for art now goes from the Bay Area up to the Oregon border and to the eastern borders. What are your opinions about that?

SPEAKER_02 19:48

I feel like art and the humanities in general are so personal and intimate. And I I feel like at the core of them is connection with other human beings and just harboring that connection. And really, I mean, I I think that with the events at Manca, we want to give people an opportunity to connect with each other, especially in like such a digital age where loneliness is such a big issue. And in you know, a world where a lot of people are struggling to have hope, which manca has a big hope sign on the front of it. So I think that that is a really key component of the museum, is like bringing that hope back to people. And I think that art does a really, really great job of doing that. And the preservation of art is, I mean, just so important because it's it's a connection to other human beings and yeah, just humanity.

SPEAKER_06 21:02

Well, you filled my heart, and you're helping fill the eyes and the souls of everybody in our community and in Chico. Thank you so much, and keep up the good work. We are just so energized by what you all are doing. It's fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, what words of advice might you have, either one of you, for how other young folks can get involved?

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Um, my advice would be is to just go out and try it. Look around at what's in your community and what's around your or what might be at your school, or ask your teachers or anyone you know, like what kind of art things are around town, or what are just some things that might be around that you can get involved with in general and just take a chance because you never know what'll happen.

SPEAKER_06 22:00

How about directly involved with the museum?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

I mean, submit art. We have calls out. You don't have to wait for the student show to put in art as a student. I mean, we we have calls all the time. Submit your art, make art for a call specifically. Um, and come in and volunteer. I mean, again, that's how I got started with creating the board. And so there's tons of opportunities there, tons of opportunities meeting artists and just people in the community when they come in, because you you'll often be working at the front desk and then, you know, maybe get involved with the junior board also. That's possible. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Thank you for listening to Manka Unframed. This episode has been produced by Aidan Vandeverot. This episode is a production of KZFR as part of the Chico Speaks series, with funding made possible by the City of Chico Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, and listeners like you. Listen to Manca Unframed on KZFR 90.1 FM and on digital streaming platforms.