MOPA Staff Blogs
How Small the World Is
I’d like to share one of my favorite photographs with you. First, follow this link to see it. Take a good look; let your eyes and mind wander over it. Then meet me back here.
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A Closer Look at Infinite Balance: Artists and the Environment
This week, MOPA opened, Infinite Balance: Artists and the Environment, a compelling look at images dealing directly with our impact and on the environment and sustainability.
The SEPIA Initiative
With the turning of every year the ways in which our eyes see the world changes. Experience and wisdom clarifies our perspective and allows for uniquely centered and focused artistic expressions.
Youth Works at MOPA
Each year MOPA hosts an exhibition of photographs from our educational outreach programs. The works in these exhibitions remind us of how refreshing the world is when seen through the eyes of an emerging photographer—eyes not yet steeped in the rules and formulas often associated with the medium. MOPA proudly presents these images with the same dignity and presentation standards we afford all of our exhibitions, and often use these exhibitions as an opportunity to try out new ideas. Later, these ideas often find their way into larger projects.
The Dubois Library: Books & Technology
I have vivid memories of my elementary school’s card catalog, the beautifully polished wood, the shiny brass handles on the drawers, and the mass of white and yellow cards, all heavily marked with pencil and typewriter ink. It all seems so quaint and antique now, and I nostalgically remember the process of finding a library book as such a lovely ritual.
Touch Table Project: Insights from Wesley Hsu
UCSD PRIME students Lance Castillo and Wesley Hsu spent the summer in Japan designing and implementing an interactive touch table featuring MOPA's hand selected photography collection. The touch table, My Gallery 対話型 (Interactive), premiered in Osaka, Japan at the Knowledge Capital Trial Event. The students worked with three partners: MOPA, the National Institute of Information
Touch Table Project: Interview with Lance Castillo
UCSD PRIME students Lance Castillo and Wesley Hsu spent the summer in Japan designing and implementing an interactive touch table featuring MOPA's hand selected photography collection. The touch table, My Gallery 対話型 (Interactive), premiered in Osaka, Japan at the Knowledge Capital Trial Event. The students worked with three partners: MOPA, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technol
Travel With MOPA
Traveling with MOPA is one method to exploring the universal language of photography, and how it transforms our culture. Members of MOPA’s Collecting Groups can indulge in year-round travel opportunities, receiving intimate and engaging access to photography-infused trips. Participants enjoy opportunities to meet world-renowned artists, and delight in behind-the-scenes tours.
We're In!
Yesterday, I stopped in to The Frame Maker to watch Tom Houk and his team in action as they framed a vibrant piece by Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani for the upcoming Photo Auction. The team brings craft and soul to the process, calling MOPA staff on a daily basis to ensure framing is just right for every piece.
Reflections on Arts Education and the CARE Program
When I used to teach, my favorite moments were wrapped up in an energetic silence—those times when you knew a student was “working it out” in her head. Now that I am an education researcher, I have shifted from teaching into empirically investigating these moments. What exactly is happening to students’ thinking when they are exposed to the arts and how can we recognize it when it happens?
The major question we have been asking through the CARE program is how the arts promote critical thinking. Like many others interested in this issue (See: Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, for a good compendia of existing research), we have looked at indicators of critical thinking, such as, making robust observations, forming hypothesis about what is going on in a work of art, providing reasoning based on evidence, and handling multiple interpretations…and the results have been significant. For you stats geeks like me who are reading this, we’re finding p-values at less than .01 on a majority of the indicators.
