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Interview with Amanda Blake, Manager of Family Experiences and Access Programs

Published February 25, 2010 Art & Teaching , Community Connection , Museum Insight 1 Comment
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Amanda Blake in the Galleries

Amanda Blake in the Galleries

I recently interviewed Amanda Blake, Manager of Family Experiences and Access Programs, about her position here at the Museum. Amanda has  given insight into Family Programs occurring this spring. I hope you enjoy reading about her job and upcoming events for families.  To keep connected with programs for families at the DMA, visit We Art Family! The DMA Family Blog.

Name and Title: Amanda Blake, Manager of Family Experiences and Access Programs

 Years Employed at the Dallas Museum of Art: 3

 Describe your job here at the Museum:

I create programming to help families learn about art together, explore their own creativity, and have fun together. Some of these programs include weekend activities like Studio Creations, Collection Connections, and Sketching in the Galleries for Kids. We have Family Celebrations, which are fun days for families at the Museum and are often focused on special exhibitions. Another exciting program that I get to be a part of is Late Night programming for families.  I manage the summer art camps, spring break programming, and the newly added monthly class for homeschool families. Recently, I have begun to create programs for visitors with special needs.

What is your favorite part of your job?

One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to be in the galleries with children talking about works of art. I also love to see all of the creative things that kids create during summer art camp. I led a monthly program with a group of adults from the Arc of Dallas; they are definitely one of my favorite groups to work with – the group is so joyful and always full of great ideas and inspiring thoughts. The people I work with also make my job enjoyable; we have so much fun together.

Tell me about a memorable experience you had with someone participating in a Family Programs event.

October is the Art Beyond Sight Awareness month and Art Education for the Blind encourages institutions all over the world to participate by highlighting visual awareness. Last October, I invited John Bramblitt, a blind painter from Denton, to lead workshops for both blind and sighted visitors. John brought his paintings to share with the public and then taught a workshop challenging sighted people to paint blindfolded. John and his wife prepared four different paint colors by mixing them with different textures mixed in and brought paper with their own designs that they had created with puffy paint. Visitors could feel the puff-paint line designs and then feel the paint to determine the colors that they wanted to use. Families with children who had vision impairment attend the event and talked about how it was the first time that they could “see” to paint. While working with John, I discovered what an amazing person he is and am planning to work with him more this summer! 

 What are some highlights for Family Programs this spring?

We have several Family Celebrations this spring and are busy preparing for our full summer of programming.

Some highlights include:


Young Masters: Advanced Placement Student Art Competition
February 27 – April 18, 2010, Concourse
This annual juried exhibition is funded by the O’Donnell Foundation. The exhibition showcases the talent of local high school students in the Advanced Placement art classes.

Autism Awareness Day Family Celebration
April 3, 2010, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
April is National Autism Awareness Month, and the Dallas Museum of Art is having  a special free Family Celebration designed just for children on the Autism Spectrum and their families. Visit the Museum’s Center for Creative Connections and participate in special programming before the Museum opens to the public.
Pre-registration is required, space is limited. For more information or to register for the event, please email your name, phone number, and the number of people in your family who will attend to: ablake@DallasMuseumofArt.org or call 214.922.1251.

 Amy Wolf
Teaching Programs Coordinator

Art for Two

Published February 2, 2010 Museum Insight , works of art 1 Comment
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It’s a perfect day for thinking in twos; we’re getting close to that couple-y time of year, and it’s also the 2nd day of February (2/2)!

The DMA collection is full of couples in works of art—some of them are real-life pairs, some are fictional twosomes.  Below are just a few of the many couples here at the Museum.  All of them (or works by them) are currently on view.

Wendy & Emery Reves: A Couple Art-lovers
She was a fashion model. He was a Hungarian journalist and writer.  Together Wendy and Emery Reves befriended celebrities (Winston Churchill and Greta Garbo) and amassed a breath-taking collection of decorative and fine art by artists like Degas, Monet, and van Gogh.  The Reves gave their entire 1,400 piece collection to the Museum in 1985, where it is housed in a beautiful replica of their French villa on the 3rd floor of the Museum.

Shiva & Parvati: A Divine Couple
Hindu god Shiva, and his wife, the goddess Parvati, are shown in this 7th-8th century atwork as a loving couple.  Shiva is the Lord of Life, Death and Rebirth, and in this sculpture he appears as Maheshvara, or great god. Parvati appears as Uma, or the shining one.

India, Stele of Uma-Maheshvara, 7th-8th century

Frances Bagley & Tom Orr: A Couple of Local Artists
Dallas artists and real-life couple Frances Bagley and Tom Orr collaborated to create the stage set for the 2006 Dallas Opera’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s, Nabucco.  They translated several components of the production’s set to create an installation that is on view in the exhibition Performance/Art, through March 21st.  Nabucco tells the Biblical story of the Jews’ exile from their homeland by Nabucco, the Babylonian king.  The image below shows Bagley and Orr’s interpretation of the Hanging Garden, the final scene of the opera.


Scene from the Tales of Ise: An Ill-fated Couple
The couple in these 16th century screens is based on characters from a Japanese collection of fables called “Tales of Ise.”  This scene shows the pair attempting to elope by escaping through a field of grass, as they are pursued by servants of a provincial governor.  The empty, lonely scene foreshadows the tragic fate of the young couple, who will soon be discovered in hiding after the servants set fire to the field.
Tosa Mitsuyoshi, Scene from the ales of Ise, Momoyama Period

Couplet
This last one isn’t an artwork in our collection, but it just might be my favorite on the list.  It’s a student-made video about two chairs visiting the Museum, and it reminds me of the fun of looking at art with someone else.  Hats off to the Booker T. Washington High School Film Club students who created it during a Saturday afternoon here this past October.

Our next Late Night on Friday, February 19th is a perfect time to visit the Museum with a special someone; there will be French themed performances, and a focus on Impressionism and romance.

Happy February!
Amy Copeland
Coordinator of Learning Partnerships with Schools and the Community

Woven Records Sneak Peek!

Published January 29, 2010 Art & Teaching , Creativity , Friday Photos , Museum Insight , People , works of art Closed
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Lesli Robertson returned to the DMA this week to aid in the installation of Woven Records, the Museum’s first community partner response art project designed and executed by a single artist.  Last fall, Lesli guided sixteen community groups in the creation of small concrete collages.  She then wove over 500 concrete collages into strips that form a larger textile-based art installation that will be on view in the Center for Creative Connections February 7-May 23, 2010.

Each section is laid out on a table before it is mounted to the exhibition wall.

John Lendvay, a DMA preparator, aligns each section as it is mounted.

A covered opening allows interior access to the wall, which is hollow.

Lance Lander, another DMA preparator, has the lucky job of securing the mounts inside the wall.

Lesli is interviewed for footage that will be available to CW 33, Fox 4, and NBC 5.

Close-up view of installation.
Melissa Nelson
Manager of Learning Partnerships with the Community

 

A Dream Come True

Published January 8, 2010 Community Connection , Friday Photos , Museum Insight Closed
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Last year, the DMA marked its 25th year in the Arts District, and the 30th anniversary of the successful bond election that brought it here.  Today’s photo post includes images from A Dream Come True: the Dallas Arts District, an exhibition of images and ephemera (from the Museum’s Archives) that documents both the DMA’s journey from bond campaign to building construction, and the recent growth of the Arts District.  A Dream Come True is on view in the Museum’s concourse until January 31st.

Amy Copeland
Coordinator of Learning Partnerships with Schools and the Community

Clockwise from top left: Advertisement for Bond Election Campaign, 1979;  View of Barrel Vault during construction, c. 1982;  View of DMA during construction, c. 1983;  Aerial view of DMA, 2004.       

From Faxing to Blogging: A Few Reflective Moments

Published January 1, 2010 Museum Insight 3 Comments

As many of us do with each new year, I will take an opportunity to reflect.  In this year’s case, we transitioned from one decade to another one. Since I began working at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1999 (exactly 10 years ago), I’ve decided to reflect on a collection of memorable Museum moments from the past decade. In keeping with the popular top 10-list approach, here is my list of moments — some BIG, some small.  In no particular order…

Educator Blog Goes Live! In September 2009, my colleagues and I entered the spacious blogosphere with our first entries for the Dallas Museum of Art Educator Blog.  This makes us one among the 133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002. Ten years ago faxes and snail mail were my primary form of communicating with teachers.  Now it’s email and social networks. Can you believe it?  Thanks for reading — we love to write for this blog!

A Centennial Celebration! In 2003, the DMA celebrated it’s 100th birthday. Based on an idea from one of the staff members, the Museum celebrated this momentous occasion by staying open for 100 straight hours!  Visitors young and old, big and small visited the Museum at all hours of the day and night for tours, yoga, birthday hat making, birthday cake, and much more.  Did you visit during the birthday celebration?  We also opened two amazing exhibitions that year.  100 Treasures for 100 Years was an exhibition featuring 100 masterworks from the Museum collection, which were organized by themes such as Mask, Opulence, and Transcendence.  That same year the DMA celebrated contemporary Texas art through the exhibition Come Forward: Emerging Art in Texas.

DISD 4th Graders Visit! During the 2007-2008 school year, the DMA initiated a partnership with DISD and Big Thought to bring every 4th grade student to the Museum.  Since the start of the program over 22,000 students have viewed works of art on docent-led tours at the DMA.  We look forward to a future time when every DISD graduate can say they have visited the DMA!

King Tutankhamun in the Big D! For 8 months spanning 2008 and 2009 Tut and his family’s treasures filled our galleries. The Boy King, as we referred to him around the halls, brought over 600,000 visitors to the DMA.  Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs was the third in a series of royal world art exhibitions that the DMA welcomed in last decade.  In 2006 it was Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship and in 2004 Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong.

Late Nights at the DMA! Based on the success of the 100-hour Centennial event, the Museum’s popular monthly Late Night celebration was born in 2004.  On the third Friday of each month, we stay open until midnight to welcome between 3,000 – 5,000 visitors.  I love Late Nights!   They transform the Museum and the experience of visiting a Museum.  People visit to come to have fun with friends, view art, make art, listen to music, attend talks and lectures, and watch performances.  The next Late Night is January 15.  Hope to see you there!

The Center for Creative Connections Opens! After several years of planning, the former Gateway Gallery was transformed into the new Center for Creative Connections, opening to the public in May 2008.  An interactive space designed to inspire visitors of all ages, the C3 is anchored in the DMA’s intent to connect with creativity and artists.  Look for programs and classes with artists throughout 2010!

New Kids on the Block! Did I make you look twice?  This one isn’t about the 80’s boy band.  The new kids I am talking about are the DMA’s neighbors to the East in the Dallas Arts District.  Do you remember the big parking lot where the Nasher used to be?  In 2003 the Nasher Sculpture Center, designed by architect Renzo Piano, opened to the public.  Our newest neighbors, the AT&T Performing Arts Center Winspear Opera House and the AT&T Performing Arts Center Wyly Theater, joined us this past fall to complete a vision for the Dallas Arts District that has been in the making since the 1970s.

Digitizing Educator Resources! 10 years ago the DMA said goodbye to slides and projectors, making the leap from paper teaching materials to digital resources for teachers and students.  I bet some of you still have those paper packets in your closets! We now have over 25 collections and exhibition-based online resource units available free to teachers near and far.  In partnership with UT Dallas, we also created an web-based learning game called DIG! The Maya Project.

Contemporary Collections Explode! In 2005, an unprecedented gift of modern and contemporary art was made to the DMA from several Dallas families including the Rachofsky, Hoffman, and Rose families.  In 2007, an exhibition featuring 300 of these artworks was held at the Museum.   Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art included work by artists Gerhard Richter, Matthew Barney, Vija Celmins, Joseph Cornell, Robert Ryman, and Lucio Fontana among others.

Go van Gogh Gets a New Look! For more than 30 years, Go van Gogh has traveled out to classrooms in the community delivering free art programs to elementary age students.  A new van and a new look were introduced in this decade to celebrate the dynamic nature of this education program and honor its long history!

What events, exhibitions, and experiences are among your top 10 at the DMA? Leave a comment and let us know!  We would love to hear from you and we look forward to more blogging in 2010.  Happy New Year!

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Learning Partnerships for Schools and the Community

Thursday Evening Program for Teachers: DIY@DMA

Published December 22, 2009 Art & Teaching , Creativity , Museum Insight , People Closed
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Our Thursday Evening Program for Teachers this month was DIY@DMA, a program offered through the DMA’s Center for Creative Connections.  We joined artist Lizzy Wetzel to learn about felting wool, a process she uses in her own artwork.

After hearing Lizzy talk about her art-making, we went to the All the World’s a Stage exhibition to see Joseph Beuys’ Felt Suit (Filzanzug), which is made of felt.  We returned to the Studio and tried our hand at turning merino wool roving into felt.

Our Thursday Evening Program for Teachers features a different program each month and is included in general admission.  I hope that you will join us on January 14 at 6:30 p.m. for the Tech Lab: Open Lab program, led by artist Kevin Todora, during which we will experiment with making collages using digital photography and Adobe Photoshop software.

Molly Kysar
Head of Teaching Programs

Hoffman Galleries Reinstalled

Published December 10, 2009 Museum Insight , works of art 1 Comment
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Charlie Wylie, the Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art, recently completed his reinstallation of the Hoffman galleries on the first floor of the museum. The installation addresses narrative in contemporary art, specifically the “continuing ability of art in whatever form to express narratives of what it can feel like to be alive in the present moment,” as the wall text states. The reinstallation features such artists as Peter Doig and Marlene Dumas, both notable for their recent inclusion at TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art, the annual charity auction held at The Rachofsky House benefiting amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) and the Dallas Museum of Art.

In addition to these painters and work by many other artists, the galleries currently contain installations by Tatsuo Miyajima and Erick Swenson, mixed media work by Vernon Fisher, and photographs by Matthew Barney and Gregory Crewdson. Both Barney and Crewdson also have work in All the World’s a Stage, another special exhibition on view at the DMA. Barney’s photographs (and other mixed media works) reference a series of five films of enormous scope called The Cremaster Cycle, quite specifically referencing narrative. Crewdson’s art, on the other hand, centers around the idea of open or false narratives but evokes similar feelings of theatricality. Crewdson himself says, “And what I’m very, very interested in is a moment that hovers between before and after, a moment that is unresolved, that remains a question…”

Untitled (House in the Road)

To achieve this suspended moment, clear in both Untitled (brief encounter) and Untitled (House in the Road), Crewdson literally constructs his scenes, utilizing stage crews and props to form the subject matter which he then photographs. Tension plays a large part in his artwork, both literally for the artist through his chaotic process of realizing these staged spectacles as well as for the viewer stepping into enormously detailed scenes with no frame of reference beyond the image itself.

If you’d like to get a closer look at Gregory Crewdson’s artwork, in addition to the other works on view at the DMA and The Rachofsky House, sign up for our two-part January Teacher Workshop on Contemporary Art!

Logan Acton
McDermott Intern in Teaching Programs

Interview with a…Preparator!

Published December 8, 2009 Museum Insight 2 Comments
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There are many different positions here at the Dallas Museum of Art. Since there is always something exciting going on at the Museum, we thought it would be interesting to begin a series of staff interviews with members of other departments.

Installation of Semiramis, by Henry Wetmore Story, 1872-73

The below interview was conducted with Vince Jones, Head Preparator. He graciously answered questions related to his job.  I hope you find this as interesting as I do!

Amy Wolf
Teaching Programs Coordinator

1. Name and Title:  Vincent Jones……..Head Preparator

2. Years Employed at the Dallas Museum of Art:  14

3.  Describe your job as  a preparator in an art museum:  The essential job of a preparator is to safely handle the artworks that are permanently acquired and/or on loan to the Museum.  For obvious reasons, this job position is also referred to as an “art handler”.  The word “preparator” refers directly to the tasks of moving and installing (or “preparing”) artworks as part of an exhibition.  Subsequently, when an artwork is not on view, then it is placed (or “prepared”) in museum storage or returned to its lender.  Every day at the DMA, preparators like myself move artworks in and out of storage to be installed, photographed, or examined by other museum staff such as registrars and conservators.  It is the preparator’s job to know how to perform these duties patiently and with the utmost care to the objects. 

4.  What is your favorite part of your job?  A favorite part of my job is the opportunity to handle and closely inspect works of art that, for whatever reason, have some special meaning to me.  It feels like an honor in a way, and that is certainly a rewarding experience.  The Portrait Vase of Mme. Schuffenecker by Paul Gauguin is a piece in the DMA’s collection that comes to mind.  If I saw this artwork in another museum, I’d be thinking how weird and beautiful and odd it is; well, working here, I get the chance to pick it up occasionally.
Another favorite aspect is the opportunity to work with contemporary artists who come to the Museum to oversee or install their artwork.  Working with the artist Richard Tuttle several years ago is still a favorite highlight of mine.  I am a big fan of his art, so watching him handle and talk about his own work was a treat.

5. What is a challenge that you face in your job?  For me, one of the most interesting challenges of being a preparator is the continual re-thinking of how we move and install various heavy, complicated, or fragile artworks.  The large marble sculpture Semiramis by William Wetmore Story and Matthew Barney’s The Cloud Club are examples that have required this consideration.  We have successfully installed both works several times now, but inevitably we say to each other, “This technique works, but if we reconfigured the platform a bit or bought an additional piece of equipment next time, the installation would be even better”.  By better, I mean less stressful and safer for the object and the preparators.

6. How did you decide you wanted to work in a museum?  I can remember as a kid going to a museum in Wisconsin and seeing an installation entitled “Streets of Old Milwaukee” (or something to that effect).  It was essentially a life-sized (or at least to a kid) re-creation of a turn-of-the-century downtown “scene” at night.  It had real brick streets and wooden sidewalks that you walked on, and there were many shops to peer in and see fake people selling candy or cutting hair.  Anyhow, what struck me the most at the time were the trees.  They seemed very life-like and one was particularly huge, and I remember looking at these on several occasions and being fascinated by how they were made and how they came to be there.  Well, now I think I know the “how’s and why’s” of the artificial trees but that place and experience made a big impression.  I’ve always liked going to museums (mostly natural history), but once I became interested in making art myself and became educated about fine art, I liked those museums as well.  At one point I just thought, “Wow, this would be a cool place to work”.  I’ve worked at museums for 20 or so years now and have been very happy with that decision. 

7. If you weren’t working here at the Museum, what is something else you would be doing?  That’s a good question.  I guess I would try devoting more time to making my own artwork.  Also, I have secretly always wanted to drive one of those big bulldozers at a landfill.  Seriously.

Coming Soon: The Lens of Impressionism

Published December 1, 2009 Museum Insight Closed
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Last week, while spending Thanksgiving with my family in Michigan, I convinced my sister to drive me to Ann Arbor to visit The University of Michigan Museum of Art. I love the UMMA and always look for any excuse to visit when I am home, but this time I had a special assignment. I was there to do background research as we plan tours, teacher workshops, and online teaching materials for The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850—1874, an exhibition that will open at the DMA on February 21, 2010.

The Lens of Impressionism at The University of Michigan Museum of Art

The Lens of Impressionism is a great exhibition for teaching about artistic process—you can look at images of the same stretch of coastline and compare what painters and photographers are choosing to include in their compositions. To me, the highlight of the exhibition was seeing a handful of original paper negatives, dating to the 1850s. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it would be to preserve a paper negative for 150 years. The negatives were displayed in lightboxes next to contemporary prints made from the negatives. They provide a great tool for teaching about photography and making photographic prints—something students may not know about in our digital age.

One of my favorite paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts is in the exhibition—Edouard Manet’s On the Beach (Sur la plage)—and I can’t wait until it arrives in Dallas and I can visit it whenever I like. However, I think I may have a new favorite painting: Eugène Boudin’s Bathing Time at Deauville, from the National Gallery of Art. Men and women visit the beach dressed in their Sunday best—it’s definitely very different from what we wear to the beach today! I also love the horses and dogs that stand on the shore, and I think this will be a fun painting to explore with students on tours.

We will be offering a variety of programs for students and teachers relating to The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850—1874, including an Evening for Educators on February 23, 2010. Visit our website for additional information on tours and teacher workshops, and be sure to check back in February for a new set of online teaching materials.

Me, outside of the UMMA

Shannon Karol
Tour Coordinator

The Arts of Africa at the DMA

Published November 24, 2009 Museum Insight 4 Comments
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November has been an exciting month at the DMA—several of us attended the Texas Art Education Association conference last week, we’ve had a busy month with tours, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. However, the most exciting event (and the one for which I am most thankful) is the publication of a brand new catalogue spotlighting the Museum’s African collection: The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art

Written by our curator of African Art, Dr. Roslyn Adele Walker, the catalogue has been published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the DMA’s first acquisition of African art in 1969. The catalogue highlights 110 works of art in our collection and includes beautiful photography of the objects.  Contextual photos have also been included to illustrate how many of the objects would have been (and in many cases still are) used in Africa.

Four years ago, before I was Tour Coordinator at the DMA, I worked with Roz as a McDermott Graduate Curatorial Intern. Over the course of my year with Roz, I contacted many scholars and photographers asking for permission to use their contextual photographs in the catalogue. I also researched various works of art, including our Egungun costume (which I blogged about in September), and I love finally seeing everything in print! This is an exciting moment for the DMA, but also for Roz, and I couldn’t be happier for her.

To celebrate the publication of The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, Roz will give a brief talk, followed by a book signing, on Thursday December 10th at 7:00 pm. I hope you’ll join us in the Center for Creative Connections Theater to learn more about our African collection, and to congratulate Roz on this wonderful accomplishment.

Shannon Karol
Tour Coordinator

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