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What's Not to Love About Being a Teen Docent?!?

Published July 7, 2010 Art & Teaching , Creativity , Museum Insight , People 4 Comments
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Did you know that we have a group of twenty-seven Teen Docents who lead tours at the DMA each summer?  We are lucky to be the fearless leaders of the Teen Docent program, and we both love working with this talented and enthusiastic group of students.  The Teen Docent program was started because the Museum believes that teens have a unique ability to capture the interest of our youngest visitors and help them to see how works of art relate to their lives.  

Amy and Shannon with some of the Teen Docents

 

Teen Docents are wonderful at sparking imagination in the children they tour, and their enthusiasm in the galleries is contagious.  Some of the teens are new to the program this summer, and some have been with us for three or more years.  The Teen Docents come from a variety of backgrounds, but one thing that they all have in common is their excitement for sharing works of art with children.  

Amy and Shannon with even more Teen Docents

 

We asked some of the teens to reflect on their role at the Museum, and here are their responses: 

  • “If I were able to better someone’s experience at the DMA, and not only mine, it would make being a Teen Docent at the DMA worth every minute of my time.”
  • “I enjoy assisting others in creative ways.  It is wonderful to be around warm smiles and beautiful pieces of art.”
  • “I just want to be able to contribute to the greatness of the museum and in the process learn more about it.  I want to show people how much fun museums are and that it’s not nerdy to love museums.”
  • “I like touring children that have an excitement for the art.  I want to hear their perspectives about certain pieces and try to pass on interesting information they might not know.”
  • “My whole life, I have had an interest in art and I want to continue to feed that interest.  I enjoy learning about different styles of art and artists and what better way than at the museum.  Last year, I enjoyed my time as a Teen Docent enormously and I look forward to making new friends, memories, and continuing my study of art.” 

 

It’s not too late to schedule a visit to the DMA for your group this summer.  Teen Docents will be touring through mid-August, and we would love to welcome your students for a Color My World or A Looking Journey tour.  Email tours@DallasMuseumofArt.org to schedule your visit! 

Amy Copeland and Shannon Karol
Coordinators of Go van Gogh and Museum Visits

Friday Photos: Exploring Creativity

Published June 18, 2010 Art & Teaching , Creativity 1 Comment
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Today is the last day of Summer Seminar, our annual partnership course for teachers with The University of Texas at Dallas.  The topic this year was The Creative Process, and we have spent the week exploring both the theory and the practice of creativity.  Here are a few photos of our experiences this week.

Molly Kysar
Head of Teaching Programs

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Upcoming Summer Teacher Programs!

Published June 8, 2010 Art & Teaching , Creativity , Museum Insight Closed
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Congratulations to all teachers for the completion of another school year!   My colleagues and I would like to invite you to join us  for great learning experiences with works of art this summer.  Below are a few opportunities for you to engage with Museum education staff and educators from around the DFW area, and, of course, explore works of art from all times, places, and cultures.

Summer Seminar:  Exploring the Creative Process
Tuesday, June 15 – Friday, 18, 2010
9:00 – 4:00 daily
$100 registration fee

Explore both the theory and practice of creativity in sessions led by Dr. Magdalena Grohman from The University of Texas at Dallas and DMA staff.    Sessions will include gallery experiences in the Museum’s collections and Center for Creative Connections, creative thinking workshops, and discussions about classroom applications.

Visit the website for more details and to register. 

ONLY A FEW OPENINGS LEFT!

Museum Forum for Teachers: Modern & Contemporary Art Monday, July 19 – Friday, July 23, 2010
10:00 – 4:00 daily  
$250 includes all instruction, materials, and lunch each day
The Museum Forum is a week-long summer program for middle school and high school teachers of all disciplines.  Participants will spend each day at one of five Dallas–Fort Worth institutions: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Dallas Museum of Art,  Nasher Sculpture Center, and The Rachofsky House.

The application deadline has been extended until July 1.

SAVE THE DATE
Teacher Workshop with artist Jill Foley
Wednesday, August 11, 2010  
Details coming soon at www.DallasMuseumofArt.org/teachers

Join DMA staff and visiting artist, Jill Foley, for an interactive workshop filled with imagination and creativity.   Foley, a Dallas-based artist, describes her work as her consciousness turned tangible.  She creates large scale imaginary-type spaces to host her puppet-like figural sculptures and her paintings and drawings.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Until next time….

Jenny Marvel
Manager of Programs and Resources for Teachers

Behind-the-Scenes: The Making of Coastlines Soundscapes

Published May 20, 2010 Creativity , Museum Insight , People , works of art 3 Comments
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Have you immersed yourself yet in the multi-sensory experience of Coastlines: Images of Land and Sea?  If not, let me tease you…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MO-3rvalYU]

This is one of twelve individual sound designs created for works of art in the exhibition, and these individual sound designs represent only one layer of a three-part, synchronized sound installation. A global soundscape powered by two subwoofers is audible throughout the Coastlines exhibition and contains musical elements shaped by the natural sounds and rhythms of waves. Regional soundscapes emerge from ten ceiling-mounted speakers and respond to the thematic sections of the exhibition. The twelve local, or individual, soundscapes representing interpretations of selected works of art are delivered through Holosonics hyperdirectional speakers, which allow for a controlled design of the auditory space.  Now that I’ve geeked out on the technology of the sound installation, let me tell you a little more about the making of this sonic experience.

The Coastlines sound installation was created by graduate students and faculty in the Arts and Technology program at the University of Texas at Dallas, in collaboration with undergraduate students in the School of Information and Communication and Media Engineering at the Université du Sud Toulon-Var (USTV), in Toulon, France.  The project began in September 2009 with several planning meetings between UT Dallas and the Dallas Museum of Art focusing on exhibition themes and artworks, as well as technological possibilities. UT Dallas faculty and students presented a proof of concept demonstration in December 2009 for the multilayer sound design and use of hyperdirectional speakers. In January 2010, under the direction of UT Dallas professor Dr. Frank Dufour, students selected works of art in the Coastlines exhibition and began composing sonic interpretations for these works. Lead graduate students Michael Austin and Jason Barnett also began work on the conceptual and technical development of the overall multilayer sound design.

Professor Frank Dufour talks with French students via Skype.

Communications about the project between the creators occurred primarily through the Internet using Skype, a free web-based chat software, and a private social network that provided a forum for the exchange of ideas, images, and iterative sound designs.  The exchange was bilingual, encouraging each set of students to work through language barriers.  In addition, Michael Austin visited the USTV students in Toulon, France during project development to lead them in sound design workshops.  One of the workshops included collecting sounds from the harbor in Toulon, France.  Many of these were used in the individual sound designs created by students in Texas and France.

Michael collects sounds of the harbor in Toulon.

French students record the sound of water.

This project is an education initiative undertaken in part with the support of FRAME, the French Regional and American Museum Exchange. FRAME fosters exchanges between a group of American and French art museums committed to establishing long-term partnerships on common projects that make their respective resources available to a wider public. Several collaborating museums and universities involved with FRAME are focused on the relationship between music and art and support the work of young artists.

This Friday night at the Dallas Museum of Art Late Night you can support the work of young artists involved in the Coastlines sound design project.  Visit the exhibition, then stop into the Theater in the Center for Creative Connections at 8:30 p.m. to hear Dr. Dufour and students from UT Dallas share insights about the project and their process.

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships

Friday Photo…Uh, How About A Video?

Published May 14, 2010 Creativity , Friday Photos , Technology , works of art 1 Comment
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It’s the end of a long week, and we all deserve a laugh.  I had the opportunity recently to revisit a series of video shorts that were created by a few oh-so-smart college students during a course led by my oh-so-smart colleague Molly Kysar.  I love these videos.  They are presented like commercials for a visit to the DMA and wonderfully represent our brand “Hundreds of Experiences.  Have one of your own!”   Enjoy the catchy tune and laugh hard.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oti97UrjaMQ]

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships

UT Dallas Students Make Creative Connections

Published May 1, 2010 Art & Teaching , Community Connection , Creativity , Friday Photos Closed
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Every year the Dallas Museum of Art collaborates with The University of Texas at Dallas to offer an honors course.  At the end of the semester, students create projects that draw connections between the discussions they have had and the artworks they have experienced. This year’s class focused on the process of creativity and drew to a close on Thursday evening. Here are a few photos of some of the amazing projects students produced: 

Combining Trenton Hancock's interest in storytelling with Tim Rollins' use of literature

Another take on Tim Rollins and the K.O.S.

This student was inspired to translate colorful flowers into fashion design

This student gave new life to Chihuly's work as each disc spins out from the painting

This work combined elements drawn from Vernon Fisher and Dorothea Tanning

   

A close-up including collaged images

Logan Acton
McDermott Intern for Teaching Programs

Go van Gogh at KidsFest 2010

Published April 12, 2010 Art & Teaching , Community Connection , Creativity , Friday Photos Closed
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Amy Copeland and I recently took the Go van Gogh van out to Firewheel Town Center for KidsFest 2010.  We set up shop in a booth on the square, setting out watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, and oil pastels.  We had an amazing turnout– over one hundred kids made a work of art! 

Justin Greenlee

McDermott Intern, Teaching Programs and Partnerships

À la plage

Published April 9, 2010 Art & Teaching , Creativity , Friday Photos , works of art Closed
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James McNeill Whistler, Sea and Rain, 1865, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1955/1.89

One of the things I love most is hearing visitors’ responses to works of art.  And it’s really fun when those responses take a creative shape, and you get to hear an original poem or an elaborate this-is-what-I-think-would-happen story that helps you see the artwork in a new way.

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of giving a tour to a group of students from Bowie High School’s French Club, and they came up with great creative responses to a work in our newly-opened Lens of Impressionism exhibition.  Below are two poems based on James McNeill Whistler’s Sea and Rain.  To make these poems, students wrote descriptive words on small Post-Its (shown below), and arranged them to create phrases.  They also humored me by translating the words into French!

Calmant sérène mer
Il pleut à la plage
Admirant fantastique a la coast

Calming serene sea
Lonely raining beach
Admiring amazing shore

Il fait du vent voir ciel
Calmant pur le plage
Tranquil calme une personne

Windy looking sky
Calming pure beach
Peaceful calm person


Thanks, Bowie students, for a great tour and thoughtful poetic responses.

Amy Copeland
Coordinator of Go van Gogh Outreach

Arts and Letters Live: Texas Bound II

Published April 5, 2010 Art & Teaching , Community Connection , Creativity 1 Comment
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Over the years the DMA has actively collaborated with students from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.  We’re neighbors, and we benefit from having each other around.  It’s a self-sustaining engine: students share their talents with us, we instigate and inspire new creative effort in them, and they share their creative output with us all over again.                                                                                        

The Dallas Museum of Art, Booker T. Washington, and The Dee and Charles Wyly Theater for the Performing Arts recently collaborated on Arts & Letters Live’s Texas Bound: Texas Stories I.  Texas actors gathered to read short stories by Texas authors Larry L. King, Jennifer Mathieu, Mark Wisniewski, and Matt Clark.  G.W. Bailey’s reading of Matt Clark’s The Crowned Heads of Pecos was a particular treat: Sad to say, but the bridge is gone now… If you haven’t read it, get a copy.  It’s wonderful.  As the actors read, photographs of works by students from BTW’s Portfolio Class were projected behind them. 

There won’t be any student artworks this time (the BTW students are busy preparing for the DMA’s Art Ball), but Arts & Letters Live has put together a fantastic line-up for Texas Bound: Texas Stories II.  The event takes place on Monday, April 19th at 7:30 p.m. in the Horchow Auditorium and features stories by Sarah Bird, Will Dunlap, Tim O’Brien and Cristina Henríquez read by Julie White, John Benjamin Hickey, and James Crawford (tickets).  Don’t miss it!

Justin Greenlee  

McDermott Intern with Teaching Programs and Partnerships

Lightning Kiss by Angelica Valdez

The Stricken Affair by Billie Beth Ricca

Neurological Fears by Danni Rogina-Lopez

 

A Part of You by Deanna Smith

Pablo Picasso said…

Published March 30, 2010 Creativity , People , works of art 1 Comment
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Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Best in Show - Looking Glass Self by Katy Wood

The halls and galleries of the DMA fill up this spring with two installations of creative work by young artists in the community.  Earlier this month, the Young Masters exhibition opened in the Dallas Museum of Art’s Concourse.  The exhibition features a selection of artworks created by Advanced Placement Art students from Dallas area high schools who participate in the O’Donnell Foundation AP Studio Arts Incentive Program.  The Incentive Program focuses on making Texas the strongest state in AP arts education and preparing students for life in the 21st century as critical thinkers with global perspectives.    A total 280 works were submitted for the juried exhibition, which included two rounds of judging.  The DMA’s own Jeffrey Grove, Senior Hoffman Family Curator of Contemporary Art, selected the final winners.  Katy Wood from Booker T. Washington High School took away top honors with her self-portrait Looking Glass Self, a color digital photograph. In her statement Katy says. “Psychology greatly influences my artwork.  In this piece, I explored a psychological theory called ‘looking-glass self’, in which one’s self can be reflected by the society and environment’s perceptions.”  Images by additional award winners are featured on the AP Arts Web site.

In April, the work of young artists from fourteen elementary, middle, and high schools in the Dallas area will be on display in conjunction with the exhibition Coastlines. These artists are part of the Young Artist’s Program, an education-based initiative presented with the Museum’s annual fundraising event the Art Ball.  Each year the Art Ball provides essential funding for the DMA’s exhibitions programs and gives students throughout Dallas an opportunity to make art in response to a unique theme derived from a DMA exhibition.  Inspired by images of coastal landscapes and the sea, many of the schools participating in the Young Artist’s Program this year are creating large-scale collaborative works that will fill gallery spaces on the first floor.  Works in all media will be on view to the public from April 15 to April 24, 2010, and the exhibition will be accompanied by a video documentation of students working.

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships

Students at the Dallas International School apply encaustic to their mixed media artwork about the Moroccan coast.

Eduardo Mata Elementary artists create mixed media nautical collages.

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