This Contemporary Art Museum Is Run by Kids

By Celeste Hamilton Dennis

Nov 16, 2017 6:05 pm

Entrance to KSMoCA. Photo by Anke Schuettler. Courtesy of KSMoCA.

At the KSMoCA International Art Fair this past August, the first clue that this was no ordinary art fair was the size of the booths. Painted and spackled by students from Martin Luther King Jr. School in Portland, Oregon, the stands were just slightly taller than they were. The fair presented artwork from 17 international exhibitors in the school cafeteria, where on a normal school day, kids can be found eating pizza or attending assembly.

Over the course of the weekend-long event, attendees could browse and purchase artwork, watch performances from local musicians, and participate in a mini-recreation of artist Pedro Reyes’s interactive performance work Sanatorium.  

As hosts of the fair, students had various responsibilities. Some were tasked with setup, including creating and hanging signage; others engaged with the public on behalf of a gallery, like the Blue Sky Gallery, where students had curated the selection of art on display. Some students chose to create spontaneous work to sell on the spot, while others spoke in discussion panels, responding to questions about being artists and art-fair organizers.