Manifest centers the visitor to the museum rather than the museum itself. The declarations, desires, and requests that make up “Manifest” range from the practical to the ideological, and from the personal to the abstract. The list of demands stems from Geyer’s research into the San Francisco Museum of (Modern) Art’s founding director Grace McCann Morley and her belief in museums as integral to civil society and civic life. Morley led this museum from 1935-1958, establishing gallery tours, art history courses, a public art library, an art rental gallery, the first film program at an American museum, and a TV show “Art in Your Life.” An advocate for modern art and cultural democracy, Morley was a staunch supporter of the diverse art community in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as of the broader avant-garde movement throughout the Americas. Under Morley’s direction, the museum was open until 10 p.m. As a result of these efforts, it garnered a following that was expansive and diverse in age, race, economic and cultural backgrounds. Morley wrote in 1950, “Art is an inseparable and essential part of human life.” Geyer took Morley’s mission to show the importance of art in every aspect of life and scripted a list of wants, needs, and demands directed toward museums as an invitation to reimagine what one expects and hopes for when engaging such institutions today. Additionally, the statements in “Manifest” draw from the many conversations the artist has had with colleagues in the field and beyond since the original conception of the work in 2017. Geyer also includes references in response to the 2016 U.S. presidential election (which took place while Geyer was writing the original script) that called for museums to be sites of resistance and sanctuary and has revisioned the project in the complex political realities of the United States of America in 2023 and in 2024.
see Carnegie Museum of Art install 2023