Elemental

I developed a proposal and was selected to be the Lead Artist for “Elemental”. The Artist Project is a collaboration between an artist, the MFA, and ten community organizations in the Boston area. Over the school year, I led a total of sixty lessons when I met with children from ten community organizations throughout Boston who visited the MFA to learn about six elements found in every artwork in the Museum’s vast collection: line, shape, form, value, color, and texture. My goal was to teach the students about the fundamental elements of art while also encouraging visitors to question what makes an artwork worthy of museum walls. “Elemental” was as much about the individual creations and artists as it was about collaboration, community, education, experience, difference, and harmony, and how they all came together to create a work of art. The final installation was on display in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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Elemental

"Over the past school year, children from ten community organizations throughout Boston visited the MFA six times and met with artist Hilary Zelson to learn about six elements found in every object and painting in the Museum’s vast collection: line, shape, form, value, color, and texture. As part of their visits, the students took photographs and created artworks that demonstrate both their creativity and their new knowledge of how these elements are incorporated into art.

Through Elemental, Zelson wanted to bring creative ideas back to basics, with the understanding that art is easier to comprehend and to make if you also have the tools to appreciate the elements involved in its creation. The children explored galleries devoted to the arts of the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Ancient World, and Contemporary art. Each visit revolved around one element and was broken into three parts: learning, photographing, and creating. During the learning phase, Zelson and the children defined the meaning of an element and why it is important. Next, they participated in a photography scavenger hunt, looking closely at works of art using digital cameras and taking pictures of the ways different artists used the element they had defined. At the end of each visit, the children created artwork focused on that element using a range of media, from markers and paint to plaster, modeling compound, fabric, colored paper, and recycled materials.

Instead of just viewing an artwork as a whole, the children were empowered to visualize its essential, fundamental elements, and then set out to create. With this installation, we encourage you to do as the students did: step back and see what happens when elements spiral together to create a complete artwork. Elemental is also as much about the individual creations and artists as it is about collaboration, community, education, experience, difference, and harmony—and how they all come together to create a work of art."

- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Artist Project Assemblage

I am currently working as the lead artist for the 2014-2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Community Arts initiative, Artist Project. The Artist Project is a collaboration between an experienced artist, the Museum of Fine Arts, and ten after-school community organizations in the Boston area. The program is designed to engage children in the art-making process under the guidance of a lead artist.

If you want to learn more about the Artist Project, join me on June 27th for a Gallery Talk at the MFA with Edward Saywell, Chair Linde Family Wing, Head of Department of Contemporary Art & MFA Programs.

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Opening reception of Elemental

Pictured: Malcolm Rogers, MFA Museum Director, and Joyce Linde, Executive Director of the Linde Family Foundation, with Hilary Zelson, Artist.