NorahScheinerHawkenProjects2025

My essential questions before starting the project were:  What marketing strategies play large roles in art museum function? Are the behind-the-scenes of museums something the public should know more about?  How do you get artists to want to be featured at your museum?  What makes moCa's exhibitions successful (or not)? To start, there are SO many marketing strategies that play into how an art museum functions and attracts visitors. I learned that first of all, the moCa building itself is an attraction. Farshid Moussavi was the architect for this building. If the building itself wasn’t such a spectacle, moCa may not draw as much attention as it does. Second, the social media and marketing team works quite hard to draw an audience for every show, event, and gathering. I am impressed with the work that goes into editing and refining marketing materials. DJ let me help him edit some marketing materials for the upcoming show, and the attention to detail even before the materi...

During an artist studio visit with Awwful Aaron, ( His website ) I got to see how personal his creative process really is. We met at his studio in East Cleveland. There were works in progress and finished ones. Aaron talked a lot about how Cleveland itself influences his work. His style is loud and bold, but also really thoughtful. He uses a mix of cartoonish characters, abstract shapes, and rough textures to say something deeper about identity, community, and emotion. He explained that some pieces start from a really spontaneous place, like a sketch, and then slowly build into something more layered and intentional. He also showed us some of his earlier work and talked about how much he’s evolved, not just in style but also in how he approaches art as a job and a way of life. He attended the CIA for some time, but he does not have a degree in art. He uses this experience to show that being “successful” in the art world does not need to come with a traditional college degree/ Being in ...

Describe something fun or pleasantly unexpected that happened: Something that happened that was pleasantly unexpected was that I got to propose a lot of what has made it to the final Kelli Connell show. As previously mentioned, DJ let me design/curate a layout for the upcoming Kelli Connell show in moCa's first floor gallery. I met with DJ and the Progressive curator, Scott, in the space for a couple hours, and majority of what I picked made it for Kelli to approve, which she did! We talked through everything and really tried to see how the space would be used for the works. While doing this we had to imagine the new wall and paint job that would come. This collaborate experience helped me get a serious glimpse into what DJ does as curator. He has to work with so many different people with different roles and personalities. He juggles so many moving parts. Overall, I didn’t expect was how much technical planning goes into even small adjustments within an exhibition space. We had to...