Join us for a family workshop offered in conjunction with the exhibition “My Barbarian: The Audience is Always Right”, on view at the New Museum through January 8, 2017. Working at the intersection of theater, visual arts, and critical practice, the collective My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade) uses performance to theatricalize past and present problems and imagine ways of being together.

Inspired by one of the many exercises in My Barbarian’s performance manual for their Post-Living Ante-Action Theater, we will conduct our very own “Heap of Costumes” exercise. Families are invited to bring their used and unwanted Halloween costumes—cleaned for the occasion—to the Museum. A heap of costumes will be formed in the middle of the exhibition space from which families can select different elements to create a new, indecipherable character. Artist-designed furniture arranged around the heap will display various accessories that families can use to adorn and/or alter pieces in order to fashion (and later perform in!) their remixed costumes.

New Museum First Saturdays for Families are free of charge. This program is designed and recommended for families with children aged between four and twelve years, and includes free New Museum admission for up to two adults per family. Children under eighteen are always admitted free. No preregistration is required. Space is limited, and tickets are given out on a first-come, first-served basis. Your entire party must be present; tickets will not be given to partial parties.