Seth Cameron

Talk to The Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA) New York’s Executive Director Seth Cameron for more than five minutes, and I guarantee your passion for art made by kids will increase ten-fold. “Art shouldn’t be thought of as an extra-curricular activity,” Cameron told Observer recently. “Children realize this intuitively.” 

The robust CMA programming tells this story. Its latest project, an animated kids series titled, The Look Make Show, teaches kids how art reflects the contemporary cultural context and invites them to add their voices. Beginning this summer, the museum will create a robust online channel made in collaboration with kids. Filled with stories from art history, follow-along activities, artist interviews, the content will begin dropping this fall. 

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. “We’re emerging from the unprecedented experience of this past year with a whole new mission aimed at creating ambitious works of art with children,” Cameron told Observer. “We’re going to platform children’s creativity beyond its usual feel-good window dressing and make it a critical piece of the wider cultural conversation.” 

Part of Cameron’s passion for art and kids relates to his background as a member of the artist collective Bruce High Quality Foundation. That perspective gives him optimism for this time others might not share. “When I’m caught up in the spirit of creativity – and I think this is true for a lot of artists – there’s a sense that there could never be enough time to complete all the work you want, that it’s a race against death. These waves don’t last forever, but if my experience holds, these are the right moments to build paradigm-shifting institutions.”

Note on photo credit: The featured image of Seth Cameron was shot by Jeremy Liebman for Apartamento