There, in a small, hot room, often interrupted by chirping BlackBerrys and other insistent demands of the workaday world, with one wall crowded with practical construction drawings and another hidden by a marker-tagged whiteboard, members of the construction crew building the city's newest museum are taking time to study art and aesthetics.
Every Wednesday for the last several weeks, John Gatti, painter and education director for the foundation, has been conducting in-depth seminars on the Barnes collection and the ideas and pedagogy behind it.
Members of the construction crew suggested the class themselves.
"They had a hunger and a desire to learn what this whole thing is about," Gatti said before class Wednesday afternoon.
"They love the building. They love the work. And they understand that they are living a part of Philadelphia history, cultural history. They want a more intrinsic understanding of what their role is."
Seven members of the L.F. Driscoll construction team crowded into the room and, for nearly two hours, Gatti showed slides of images from the collection and of the seemingly mysterious juxtapositions they formed on the Barnes gallery walls. He spoke directly to the experience of his students.
"You guys know every corner, every shadow, every pipe," Gatti said, referring to the museum rising across the street. "You know what's going on behind the walls and below. That's art. That's craft and its art. It's your curiosity and interest that brings us to a discussion of the artwork."
And away they went.
Through Matisse's vivid portrait Le Rifain Assis, painted in 1912-13.
"Anybody have any comment?" Gatti asked.
"He looks pretty confident," said Jack Garrett, site supervisor, after a moment of silence.
"Yes! Why?"
"The way he's posed."
