Summer Apprenticeship Program 2014: The Mobile Museum of American Artifacts

The Mobile Museum of American Artifacts (MMoAA) is an evolving collection of personal objects and their stories created and conceived by Laurelin Kruse. Housed in a trailer that will be parked outside of Artspace for the three weeks preceding the exhibition, the museum will invite people to donate and display personal objects and the stories behind them. Kruse will ask each contributor to provide a title, date and provenance for each object. With the help of 15 New Haven high school students specially selected by application through Artspace’s Annual Summer Apprenticeship Program (SAP), Kruse will record, catalog, archive and configure various exhibition displays for the objects.

Visitors will be invited to drop off objects at Artspace for display in the MMoAA anytime during the length of the exhibition. A designated drop off box, designed by one of the SAP students will be the location for these objects. Dropped off objects may be anonymous, or include a description provided by the person donating the object, which should include their name, date, a description of the object and its story. Visitors may also take part in an interactive element of the project which invites people to empty their pockets and photograph the contents on a MMoAA tray. These photographs will enter MMoAA’s online archive, which the artist is currently building.

During their three week apprenticeship program, the SAP students will also help Kruse collect sound bites and video clips from around New Haven. Visitors may view and listen to these clips during the length of the exhibition, when MMoAA will be parked in the Artspace galleries and open to tour. Following the exhibition, some of the objects will travel with Kruse across country to future MMoAA destinations.

This year’s participants are:  From Metroplitan Business Academy: Shawn Luzzi, Winston Knight and Grace Sawyer; from Common Ground High School: Brianna Ferrino and Ta’quann Brown; from East Haven High School: Melisa Palma; from Wilbur Cross: Lorraine Vazquer, Jahaira Gonzalez, D’Er Loving, and Khalil McBride; from Coop HS: Araziel O. Jackson and Aiden Turlington; from Career HS: Kevin Palma; from High School in The Community: Asia McCain; and from Education Center for the Arts: Sharon Cheng.