Press Room

The Theme of Art Museum Day 2017: Art Museums Foster Vibrant Communities

New York, NY (May 4, 2017)

NEW YORK, NY (May 4, 2017) – The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) announced today that on Thursday, May 18, 2017, it will offer Pay-What-You-Wish admission, special programming, and discounts on memberships and at The Store at MAD as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) Art Museum Day.

The theme of this year’s Art Museum Day is Art Museums Foster Vibrant Communities. AAMD members across the United States, Canada, and Mexico will be offering programs and initiatives to celebrate the arts and the important role art museums play in their communities. In addition to bringing the best of human creativity to people across North America, museums serve as engines for the creative economy, partners for school systems and civic organizations, and anchors for public spaces and neighborhoods, making their regions better places for everyone who lives and works there.
 
MAD invites visitors to share their experiences on Art Museum Day via social media, with the hashtag #ArtMuseumDay and #MADmuseum.

“Art museums play an important role in our local communities, connecting people through the enduring utopian premise of human creativity, ingenuity, and imagination,” said Shannon R. Stratton, MAD’s William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator. “MAD welcomes visitors from across the five boroughs of New York City and beyond to enjoy pay-what-you-wish admission on May eighteenth and discover craftsmanship as both a means of invention and the foundation of great ideas.”

“The arts are shared by people across every time period and every place—creativity is a vital part of what makes us human and what makes our cities and towns better places to live,” said Chris Anagnos, Executive Director of AAMD. “On Art Museum Day, museums across North America invite everyone to come together with their families, friends, and neighbors to celebrate that creative spirit, connect in common experiences, and see new points of view. AAMD greatly appreciates the Museum of Arts and Design’s participation in Art Museum Day, and the contributions all art museums make to the vibrancy, economy, and strength of their communities.”

AAMD represents 245 art museums across the US, Canada, and Mexico—from regional museums in small towns to large museums in major urban centers. International Museum Day is organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). AAMD’s Art Museum Day is an opportunity to focus attention on the role of art museums in North America, as part of ICOM’s global celebration.

This year, Art Museum Day visitors will enjoy the following exhibitions and programs at MAD:

EXHIBITIONS

Counter-Couture: Handmade Fashion in an American Counterculture

Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story

fashion after Fashion

Melanie Bernier: You Can’t Bury Me, I’m Already Underground

PROGRAMS

Docent Tours
Docent tours will begin at 11:30 am, 3 pm, and 6:30 pm. Tours are free with Pay-What-You-Wish admission and meet in the lobby. 

Artist Studios: Lauren Skelly Bailey
10 am–9 pm
The Artist Studios host artists and designers daily as they produce their work in a live studio environment. Visitors to MAD meet working artists who openly welcome questions and dialogue, and discuss their processes, materials, and concepts with diverse members of the public. Resident artist Lauren Skelly Bailey explores surface, form, and the layering of histories with her ceramics. She is drawn to controlling the unexpected, and her intentional decision making allows her to develop new facets of her process of creating clay conglomerations.

Artist Studios Talk and Closing Reception
6:30 pm
Join the outgoing residents of the Artist Studios Program as they discuss their work in a presentation in The Theater at MAD.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields and presents the work of artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill. Since the Museum's founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum's curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving twenty-first-century innovation, and fosters a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design. The Museum will be celebrating its Diamond Jubilee 60th Anniversary this year.

#ArtMuseumDay #MADmuseum