Monday, August 30, 2010

Teenagers and Social Participation

Image via Museum 2.0

A while ago Hannes sent through a great link to MoMA's teen website Red Studio. If you didn't have a chance to look at it then it's really worth checking out. It has lots of great interviews with artists, creators and museum staff as well as plenty of opportunity for taking part in interactive activities. It sets a pretty high benchbank for this kind of site.

Recently I've come across another couple of teen-focussed projects that provide both 'real-life' and online connections between teens. The first is the Teen Program at the Brooklyn Museum. One of the great things about this program is that the social events are programmed by the kids themselves. Inspired by the collections these nights have included everything from yoga classes and henna tatooing, to scavenger hunts and curators talks.

Getting teens to interact with each other in this way is not always as easy it seems according to Nina Simon who recently wrote this interesting post on recent research into 'Teenagers and Social Participation'. Many teenagers feel happier 'geeking out' with people online who share their own interests. A great example of this is the participatory blog run by Teen Tix, an arts access program based in Seattle for kids aged 13 -19. A Teen Tix pass entitles the holder to purchase $5 tickets to 36 different theatre companies and many museums in and around Seattle. Kids can also access free tickets through the Teen Tix site if they agree to write a review for the blog. The calibre of writing is very high and puts paid to those nay-sayers who think that such sites just end up full of crap.

If you know of any other good examples of programming for teens let me know and I'll put the links on the sidebar of our blog so that we can keep them all in one place.

Caz

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