The Issue: Every day while I was sitting at the front desk welcoming visitors, I began to notice a trend. Many people stayed in the gallery for an incredibly short amount of time, such as 10 minutes. This did not make sense to me, because there were four gallery spaces and around that many large artistic installations. When I talked to the leadership of the Atlanta Contemporary about this, they verified that people not spending very much time in the gallery is a problem. When I began to watch tours and listen to people respond to the artwork, I overwhelmingly began to understand that many people, especially adults, think that they “just don’t get” contemporary artwork. They don’t understand that personal interpretation is an essential part of enjoying modern art. People don’t know how to have a positive experience with this type of art, and do not understand how a negative experience with art is just as valuable as a positive one. These thoughts came to a boiling point when I saw a tour given to children from a summer camp. The 6-year-olds had absolutely no issue talking about the art and exploring it. I feel that part of the reason people don’t like contemporary art is that we have been taught it is not for everyone, instead of being learning that there are certain ways everyone can appreciate it.

The Idea: To remedy the fact that adults feel uncomfortable and unable to have interactions with contemporary art, I decided to invent some kind of guide that used questions in an interactive and fun way to help people think more deeply about the art at the Atlanta Contemporary. I wanted to create a box that people could draw random questions out of and settled on the matchbox as both a size and conceptually appropriate format. I wanted this box to be able to be used by a pair, a group, or just an individual. They should stand in front of the work of art, draw out a question, and use it to guide their thoughts to a deeper level about the art.

The Process and Product: Using the Atlanta Contemporary font, colors, and logo, I designed the exterior and the interior of a matchbox in photoshop, then made several prototypes out of different materials. I usually make 2D art, so 3D things are always a challenge, but luckily I had some practice boxmaking during my time in Mexico taking a typography course.

The final prototype here includes the matches and is basically usable! Some difficulty using the material impeded the product from being as clean as I wanted, but I think that this idea could be a huge asset to the experience of those visiting the Atlanta Contemporary. This box helps the viewer understand that what they bring to the table in terms of their identity and prior thought is essential to be a viewer of contemporary art.

Designing this piece independently reminded me that I have a sustained interest in design as well as Art Education, as well as a curiosity about how those things intersect.