MAKEwild installed at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 2024. [Select photo credits: Manny Alcala]
What is wild? For most of us, the wild and the wilderness it occupies is a distant concept- a thing of legend and memory. We navigate a regulated world of rules and deadlines and few aspects of our lives contain even a hint of the wild. But perhaps art is a place that remains wild? People need spaces to express themselves and experiment, places to share new ideas and embrace the unknown. Inspired by the exploratory quality of nature and art, MAKEwild is an artwork, an environment, and an activity that provides museum-goers time and space to discuss, reflect, and ultimately, make. An open studio space built for the Blanton Museum of Art, MAKEwild presents museum-goers of all ages with an opportunity to be a little wild through hands-on creation.
We conceived of MAKEwild as a participatory installation- an active site for creative inquiry, communication, and collaboration. The stations facilitate face-to-face making through open-ended project prompts and limited, curated materials that invite participants to explore what it means to make in serendipitous and wild ways.