The Albright-Knox has announced that it is dedicating space within Clifton Hall to create an Innovation Center that will concentrate on exploring the relationships between art and societal issues. Appropriately called Innovation Lab, a series of “pods” will be launched intended to explore the educational and innovative aspects of the gallery as it relates to Western New York and the world. By collaborating with local organizations and educational bodies, Innovation Lab will test the limits of creativity and innovative thinking.
“The AK Innovation Lab is a creative center at the Albright-Knox for new thinking and new ideas—a place where innovative thought and partnership converge to realize meaningful projects,” said AK Director, Janne Sirén. “The AK Innovation Lab expands our notion of what the twenty-first century museum can become. It feeds on intelligent energies, creative place-making, and fortunately, we are surrounded by organizations, institutions, and foundations that share this collective mindset.”
Currently two “pods” are already underway. Pod 1 involves the creation of interactive mobile gaming called ArtGames2.0. The games are designed to be played by children ages 9 to 13. The premise is to create fun games linking the AK’s collection of works while tying in social media and other critical components as they relate to current trends in the tech industry. In order to bring the concept to fruition, a collaboration was struck up between the International Center for Excellence in Animation at Daemen College and Empire Visual Effects. The app is scheduled to be released on June 27, 2015.
The second “pod” that is also underway (Pod 2) is intended to get the region’s art inside education institutions throughout Western New York. The program is called Education Discovery Initiative (EDI), and seeks to make art relevant with educators, administrators, and policy-makers, who will then instill the values into education institutions. The focus will be on grades K through 12 – an age group that often times is not subjected to the region’s art bounty. By emphasizing the importance of art at an early age, the thought is that the students will forever be armed with the knowledge that Buffalo equates to art on many levels. EDI is being undertaken by faculty and graduate students in the Sociology Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo.
*The initiative has been made possible, in part, through the support of The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, in conjunction with The John R. Oishei Foundation, an anonymous family foundation, and by the New York State Council on the Arts through Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Western New York Regional Economic Development Council initiative.