Every third Thursday of the month, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts hosts an audience engagement event appropriately titled, Third Thursday. Each month the museum stays open late and develops special thematic programming based off exhibitions hung in their halls. June’s Third Thursday featured an interactive project, SHARE WHAT YOU SEE designed by current MCAD MFA candidate Preston Drum.

Inspired by MYOPIA the newly installed Mark Mothersbaugh retrospective, this activity sought to engage visitors to the museum through the creation of postcards, a format that both Mothersbaugh and Drum have been working in for years. Visitors to the event were encouraged to make postcards based off of prompts written by Drum and insert them into one of his sculptures, where they were collected and shipped through the US postal service. In the digital age, where everything is moving fast and we are constantly inundated with a barrage of images, it is important to take time to slow down and really see the world around us.

As Drum was quoted saying “The act of making something physical and then sending it through the mail to someone becomes a radical act. The mission of Share What You See goes beyond the impulse to snap and chat, it urges the participants to place value on their vision by forcing them to spend time with it.” 

This event marks the beginning of a partnership between MCAD’s MFA department and the MIA’s Audience Engagement department that brings student work into the museum through programming outside the scope of a traditional gallery setting. Look for the August and September Third Thursday to see the work of other current MFA candidates, Julie Benda and Katie Lupton.