In common

 Back and forth with excerpts from a NY Times article, "From Show and Tell to Show and Teach."

- Two summers ago, the Walker [Art Museum] took a fallow field adjacent to the museum and turned it into what Ms. Schultz described as a “cultural commons.” “It’s meant to be a mash-up of creative life,” she explained.

A few years ago, I was feeling that my library was a fallow field adjacent to our school. At that point I adopted the concept of a "library commons;" a physical place to create meaning from information.

- Among its offerings is “The Drawing Club,” a collaborative artwork that someone might start — a simple drawing on an 11-by-13 inch sheet of paper — that another person will then pick up and add to. The person who thinks it is complete starts a new drawing. “We invite local artists to come and participate,” she said. “It’s about trying to break down hierarchies.” 

Independent of classroom hierarchies, students who come to the Library Commons have painted chairs, created map-graphics on our carpet, constructed book sculptures, and exhibited their drawings from home.

- In Washington, at the National Gallery of Art, Lynn Pearson Russell, the director of education, said she saw “a bigger return to teaching from original objects and less of a high-tech approach.”

Our focus has been less on being a virtual destination than it has on being an actual one.

- In this high-speed information age, one of the museum’s newer programs is geared toward just the opposite kind of experience — slowing down. “Families are invited to spend 60 to 75 minutes investigating one work of art,” Ms. Russell said. “It’s a less-is-more approach. In this increasingly fast-paced world, it’s an alternative way to spend time together, learning to look and revealing the complexity of art in a group conversation.” The program also includes a component of drawing. “You’re not dependent on technology, but you’re doing it yourself,” she said. 

There are no due dates for Library Commons projects; focusing instead on revision, process, community critique, and attention to detail.

- The space is just the kind of thing the public wants these days. “Audiences today are more interested in participatory events, not just being talked to,” Ms. Potts said.

We think so, too.