Teens make the Bronx Museum’s galleries their own

From the subversion of Duchamp’s readymade Fountain to the culture-jamming activism of the Guerilla girls, the question of what belongs in galleries and museums has long animated the art world. For the students on the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Teen Council, it’s a question that’s both considered academically as part of the curriculum and one with very real and practical implications: they know they’ll be participating in creating an exhibition at the Museum.

Teen Council is an intensive paid internship program for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors in New York City. It’s offered in two four-month sessions—students may participate in both or only one—in the fall and spring, supplemented by a four-week Teen Summer program.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) believes deeply in the importance of opening up opportunities in the arts for young people and recently provided support for the Teen Council programming, which has been running for nearly 20 years.

For the around a dozen teens who participate in each cohort, the program offers a chance to learn about a career in the arts, gain paid work experience in the museum facilitating art-making activities for families, and receive guidance as they build skills useful for the college and career stage of their lives.

“I feel like I improved with being confident in my ideas enough to execute them,” said one teen of their experience participating in the Teen Council.

“I am glad I joined this program because I was able to meet a lot of creative people who have the same interest as me and I was able to improve my art skills and push past my limits,” commented another.

The Teen Council curriculum includes creating a zine, interacting with a working artist—including last spring as the subject of life-sized portrait casts by Rigoberto Torres, an artist whose work was then on display at the Museum—and participating in an exhibition there. Last spring, this meant taking ownership of the gallery space and curating Unmasking Community, which featured their own work and art submitted by teenagers around the city. This spring, it meant seeing their work in Making Room alongside pieces by participants in the Museum’s program for older adults.

As one member said, “Teen Council has definitely changed my perspective on the role that museums play in communities.”

To the question of whose work belongs in a museum, the Teen Council programming responds with a resounding “ours.”

Asked if their experience had changed their perspective on museums, one participant responded, “In a way no because I always admired them, but Teen Council gave me the chance to be a part of a museum.”