Welcome to Miranda, ICA’s blog! A couple of days ago our spring shows, Queer Voice and Video Art: Replay, Part 3: Ludicrous! opened in the galleries, and today Miranda, an inside look at what happens inside the museum, opens in cyberspace.

This is a theme at ICA lately: connecting the literal space of the galleries and the limitless space of the internet, so that what we do here—creating avenues for people to engage and connect with the art of our time—is available to more people at more times in more ways.

This blog is one small way.

I hope you’ll read Miranda regularly, and leave comments—both for us here at ICA and for each other. I’d love this space to be a forum for conversation about contemporary art and culture, and I’m as eager to hear what you think as I am to tell you about our shows and events and processes and ideas.

The morning before the opening, there was a palpable tension up in the offices as well as down in the galleries, where the installation crew was making final tests and adjustments. The catalogue for Queer Voice arrived, and everyone was excited about that! Ingrid, who curated the exhibition, was putting together a pin-board of images to complement the voices you’ll hear in the galleries. Someone had to go out and buy pins for it. Robert (who together with Shannon, the head preparator, oversees installation) was waiting for an amplifier he ordered overnighted, which he needed to run the sound isolation bell Ingrid wanted for the Laurie Anderson material. He was also waiting for one of the artists, Ryan Trecartin, to show up to make some last minute projection decisions.

Shannon, meanwhile, was busy adjusting sound levels so that all the different voices in the exhibition won’t create total cacophony (but maybe just a little interesting cacophony). She changed the legs for the Jack Smith chaise lounge from wood to metal so it looks more like something from his era. She made user-friendly directions for the record player and the Vocoder that you (you!) can play with if you want to come in and queer your own voice (if it’s not queer already).

Meanwhile, the usual work of the museum continued. Mail was sorted, meetings were held, next year’s shows were budgeted, the phone rang and rang. The phone is always ringing here. People call to get information about the shows, they call to order prints and catalogues, they call to find out what subway stop we’re near. They call to find out if we’re open and how much admission costs. It’s always free!

Just like Miranda.