The genesis of this project came a year ago when my friend Ryan Schude and I started talking about collaborating on an event centered around one of his cinematic, large scale photo shoots, his Tableaux Vivant series. Our dream was to work on something like this with SFMOMA, so I contacted my friend, Sonya Yu, a dynamic and visionary member of the SFMOMA board who advocated for this project for months to get it moving. Finally, we got the word that we could move forward!
Then, three weeks before the event, our other collaborator Dylan Hosey faced major trauma—his entire studio and wood shop burned to the ground. He had been on the project as our set designer and was working at cost, so we were out a designer without the ability to pay market rates for a replacement. It was incredibly stressful to think about meeting the standards of the SFMOMA without him as a resource, but Ryan and I hustled to assemble a set made of rental items that would provide the right kind of backdrop befitting the SFMOMA staff participants. We’re also grateful that Claire Xue volunteered as a set stylist for us at the last minute. Dozens of people from the SFMOMA and from our crew contributed to make this project come together, and we’re lucky that they were all so talented, bright, and fun.
But why were we there breaking rules? In short, to celebrate that the ecosystem of art includes many, many people. To celebrate the contributions of the community of people around credited artists. To celebrate the importance of creativity in all of us. To celebrate “scenius” over genius.
Without further ado, here are the candid images from that wonderful day and the story of why we wanted to celebrate the creativity of the SFMOMA museum staff.
// This project was led by Laura Miner and Ryan Schude, who share a passion for community building and supporting self-expression in creative communities. Additional photography by Dylan Hosey. Don’t forget to come back in the next couple of weeks to see what the final shot looks like from Ryan Schude; buddybuddystudio.com.
LA photographer Ryan Schude was there to immortalize the scene.
But all of the photos shown here were taken by museum goers with disposable cameras.
A set was created to celebrate the creative practices of the SFMOMA staff: drawing, painting, ceramics, teaching art to kids, DJing, etc.
But museum visitors were also given golden tickets to go around the stanchions to join the scene.
