Dallas Museum of Art Uncrated

Archive Page 149

Getting to Know the New Docents

Published September 8, 2011 Museum Insight , People 2 Comments
Tags: docents, new docents, tours

The desire to communicate the power of art to others is the main requirement to become a docent at the Dallas Museum of Art. This year, we have twelve candidates in our New Docent class, and they begin their training next Monday. The next nine months will be jam-packed with training sessions that will help them prepare for giving tours to visitors of all ages. We’ll spend a lot of time talking about how to teach in the galleries, and a majority of their time will be spent getting to know the over 23,000 works of art in the DMA’s collection (not an easy feat).

The members of the new docent class of 2011-2012 come from a variety of backgrounds: we have artists, retired teachers, lawyers, and bankers. One thing they all have in common is a passion for art and enriching students’ lives. I asked all of them why they want to become a docent at the DMA and what they hope to gain from the experience. Below are responses from some of the new docents in their own words.

Students on a docent-guided tour of the DMA

“As a student of the arts my entire life, I would love nothing more than to share this love and understanding with others of all ages and knowledge levels. I think it’s fascinating to see art through the eyes of a child; they often point out things that I have never noticed; fresh eyes are essential to keeping artworks alive. I cannot imagine anything more rewarding than a child’s face lighting up as they explore a new piece, learn something new, and go home with excitement about art.” —Suzie Curnes
“I would like to help young people understand that to fully appreciate a work of art, you have to know its history, you have to look at it very carefully and, ideally, even sketch it. You also need to think about how it makes you feel. Then you have formed a relationship with it, and you won’t ever forget it.” —Sanlyn Kent
“I enjoy standing in front of a group of people, young or old, and explaining the topic, asking them questions, helping the group get involved in the discussion…There is nothing more exciting and fun than talking about and teaching about something that you love.” —Cynthia Camuel
“I have a strong emotional connection to the DMA. After the Museum moved downtown, I would frequently go to the DMA and walk through the galleries during my lunch hour. Spending time at the Dallas Museum of Art gave me a great education. Being a docent will give me an opportunity to make a modest payment for those great experiences.” —Bill Bounds
“As a native Dallasite, I have enjoyed the DMA for many years, and have always seen the Museum as a vibrant learning environment. As a docent, I believe I can expand my experiences, while passing on my knowledge to others. I’m truly excited about the possibility!” —Harriet Stoneham

This will be my first year to train a new group of docents, and I’m also excited about all of the possibilities we will discover together. The new docents will begin touring in early 2012, so you and your students may just have a chance to meet them when you visit the DMA during the coming year!

Shannon Karol
Manager of Docent Programs and Gallery Teaching

Back to School: Student and Teacher Programs By the Numbers

Published September 7, 2011 Docent , Education , Go van Gogh Closed
Tags: Dallas ISD, Dallas Museum of Art, Go van Gogh van

Even though it’s still warm outside, it seems like fall now that school has started. Those of us in the Teaching Programs and Partnerships department spent our summer vacation getting ready for the 2011-2012 school year. We were busy planning for tours, Go van Gogh outreach programs, and teacher workshops that relate to the DMA’s collection, as well as our upcoming special exhibitions. We thought it might be fun to share with you a “by-the-numbers” look at the different programs we offer for students and teachers.

66,661—Number of K-12 students from the DFW Metroplex who had a DMA experience (museum visit, Go van Gogh program, or special partnership) during the 2010-2011 school year

51,166 – Number of views accumulated thus far since launching the DMA Educator Blog in September 2009

Museum Visits

48,327—Number of K-12 students who received a docent-guided or self-guided tour of the DMA in 2010-2011

3,917—Number of higher education students who visited the DMA for a tour during the 2010-2011 school year

12,568—Number of Dallas ISD 4th graders who will visit the DMA this year for docent-guided tours

34—Weeks available to schedule a tour for your students

119—Number of docents who will give tours during the 2011-2012 school year

24—Number of Teen Docents who volunteered at the DMA this past summer

Go van Gogh Classroom Outreach

8,236 – Number of students in Dallas who experienced a Go van Gogh program in 2010-2011

32 – Go van Gogh visits to Dallas Public Libraries during summer 2011

128 – Days available to schedule Go van Gogh visits during 2011-2012

10 – Satellite and Site-Specific Go van Gogh programs in 2011-2012, including schools in Richardson, McKinney, and Waxahachie

40 – Number of Go van Gogh volunteers in 2011-2012

14,779 – Miles on the Go van Gogh van

Programs for Teachers

34 – Number of online teaching material units available FREE on the DMA website

578 – Number of teachers who participated in professional development sessions at the DMA during summer 2011

3.5 – Number of CPE credit hours teachers will receive for attending one of seven teacher workshops this year

$5 – Price of admission (half off) for teachers attending the September 16 Late Night

1 – Number of nights each week that teachers receive free admission. Show your school ID between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Thursday nights and gaze at art free!

$40 – Price of a teacher membership, which provides free admission and parking for you as well as discounts on shopping, dining, and attending teacher workshops!

All of our programs will officially begin the week of September 19, and we are currently accepting reservations for the 2011-2012 school year. We look forward to welcoming you and your students to the Museum soon!

Shannon Karol is the Manager of Docent Programs and Gallery Teaching.

Teaching for Creativity: Chairs, Frank Gehry, and Combinatorial Thinking

Published September 6, 2011 Teaching for Creativity Closed
Tags: Art, associative thinking, Center for Creative Connections, chairs, combinatorial thinking, creativity, Dallas Museum of Art, Frank Gehry, Magdalena Grohman, sketching, teachers

Time to nurture your creativity! Try this fun activity involving associative and combinatorial thinking by yourself or with a friend.

Step 1: Draw a chair. (any chair that comes to your mind)
Step 2: Interview this chair that you have drawn. What questions would you ask this chair?
Step 3: Imagine this chair that you’ve drawn has a GIANT ego. Look a second time at the interview questions you wrote. Which of the questions best fit an egotistical chair?
Step 4: Place the word “chair” in the middle of a piece of paper. Build a chain of associations, starting with chair. For instance: chair – leg – foot – walk – path – journey. Get it? Each word in the chain is an association with the word before it. Try to make one, two, or three more chains of association. Let your mind open up and flow with ideas!
Step 5: Circle the last word in each of your chains. For instance, I would circle the word “journey” in my chain above.
Step 6: Test your combinatorial thinking abilities. Take one of the circled words (example: journey) and combine it with chair. The goal is to make something new through the combination of two words/ideas. In this example, we are combining JOURNEY + CHAIR to create something new, and maybe even improved. What new associations, ideas, and creations can emerge from mixing together two seemingly different ideas?
Step 7: Draw the new object or idea that you created from the two words. Write an advertising slogan or jingle for this new product.

“Hat Trick” side chair, Frank Gehry (American, born 1929), designed 1992, manufactured by Knoll International, wood and bentwood, Dallas Museum of Art, Gift of the Knoll Group

Last night, I got my creativity on by participating in the DMA’s Thursday evening C3 Artistic Encounters program with creativity expert Dr. Magdalena Grohman and architect Peter Goldstein. After Magda led us through the thinking and drawing exercise presented above, Peter shared with us some provocative connections to the work of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry through a PowerPoint of Gehry’s ideas, drawings, chair designs, and architectural structures. Encouraging us to think about “collisions of spaces,” “forms crashing together,” and “the space between” when viewing Gehry’s work, Peter also highlighted an example of combinatorial thinking in Gehry’s work. Bentwood chairs created by Gehry are an exploration of forms inspired by bushel baskets. Gehry even took it a step further, adding notions of hockey and the flow of players’ movements on the ice to the combination of ideas reflected in these chairs. CHAIR + BUSHEL BASKET + HOCKEY = “HAT TRICK” SIDE CHAIR

"Hat Trick" side chair, Frank Gehry (American, born 1929), designed 1992, manufactured by Knoll International, wood and bentwood, Dallas Museum of Art, Gift of the Knoll Group

A viewing of Sculpting Space: 299 Chairs was next on the agenda. This installation of chair clusters, created by Peter’s architecture students at Skyline High School in Dallas ISD, invited a long look for collisions of spaces and forms. Just as he asked his students to think about the space between, Peter asked us to explore spatial intersections through sketching exercises emphasizing loose, flowing lines.

Throughout September, join us for more spatial explorations of art and architecture on Thursday evenings with C3 Artistic Encounters. Peter Goldstein will be back on September 15, and his Skyline High School colleague Tom Cox will be the visiting artist on September 8 and 22. These programs, which are FREE with paid admission, occur on Thursdays from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. And guess what? Educators receive FREE general admission to the DMA on Thursday evenings when they show their school ID at the visitor services desk. What are you waiting for? It’s time to get your creativity on!

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships

Seldom Scene: BBQ and Salad

Published September 5, 2011 Collections Closed
Tags: Bill Owens, Dallas Museum of Art, Labor Day

Have a safe and happy Labor Day!

Bill Owens, "Sunday afternoon we get it together. I cook the steaks and my wife makes the salad.", 1971, Gelatin silver print, Dallas Museum of Art, Lay Family Acquisition Fund

Membership Miles

Published September 2, 2011 Members Closed
Tags: Arts & Letters Live, Dallas Musem of Art, Jean Paul Gaultier

At the Dallas Museum of Art we are often asked, “Why should I join?” A membership allows you to enjoy all that the Museum has to offer all year long, while supporting your local arts. There are many reasons to be a member at the DMA, and one of the exciting perks this year will be tickets to the upcoming exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.

Because it’s hard for us to pick our favorites, we invited a few members to share their thoughts on what makes being a DMA member special. Do you see your favorite listed below? If not, we would love to hear from you!

• Free admission
• Supporting the Museum’s collection
• “It’s a place that I can take my grandson to; it’s fun for both of us.”—Shari, member since 2006
• Free lectures
• “The discounts to Arts & Letters Live. We loved David Sedaris.”—Kenneth, member since 1996
• “Free parking and access to jazz programs”—Stockton, member since 2009
• Discounts in the Museum Store and on dining (the store discount is most popular with children under 10, who can always find something they can’t leave without)
• Reciprocal membership to over 500 museums
• Subscription to the Dallas Museum of Art Magazine
• “I know about things before they happen and stay in tune with new things in Dallas”—Liz, member since 2008

Wendi Kavanaugh is the Membership Outreach Manager at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Friday Photos: Mystery Artwork

Published September 2, 2011 Creativity , Friday Photos , works of art 2 Comments
Tags: Mystery artwork, Online Collections, Teacher Membership, Thursday Night Live

How well do you know the collection?

Earlier this year, our intern Karen Colbert introduced the Mystery Artwork Photo Series, a three week series that presented a detail of an artwork and encouraged our readers to visit the Museum or go online with a handful of clues to find the mysterious object.

This September, I challenge you to explore our galleries and investigate the clues given with each work in our new Mystery Artwork series. For the next four Fridays, I will post an altered photograph of the mystery artwork and give you a clue in the form of a rhyme. It is up to you to visit the Museum and search our galleries or practice your good research skills by searching on our online collections page.

The cryptic artwork will be revealed the following Friday, with the presentation of a new a mystery artwork. The winner will receive the best non-prize ever: complete bragging rights that you know the DMA’s collections.

Remember, Thursday Night Live offers free admission to Texas educators with their ID, or you could visit anytime with a teacher membership.

Ready, set, go!

His paintings reference color theory,
and his color palette is seldom dreary,
with three layers of squares,
this painting hangs across from a chair.

Best of luck,
Loryn Leonard
Coordinator of Museum Visits

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Published September 1, 2011 Museum Insight , People Closed
Tags: Summer Vacation

Back when I was in grade school, classes began after Labor Day weekend. I am still getting accustomed to the fact that students and teachers now return to school before the holiday. And, with temperatures still well into the 100’s, it is difficult to believe that summer is over.

Amy:

This has been a summer of unexpected things and exciting moments. A highlight for me is definitely the Mavericks winning the NBA title—go Mavs! I also got to see my kid brother graduate from college, scored some tickets to the Colonial in Fort Worth, and recently took a fun river trip in Austin with friends from college. Summer was great, but I’m definitely ready for some cool(er) temperatures.

Amy & her brother, after a very long day moving out of the dorms!

Loryn:

Despite the sweltering heat, this summer has been a monumental milestone in my life. Not only did I achieve a life-long goal and land my dream job here at the DMA, but my husband and I also bought our first house, which was the very home my great-grandmother lived in. Best of all, I spent most of my time in the galleries with students, teaching and learning about art.

Melissa:

I escaped the Dallas heat and spent ten days in the Pacific Northwest. Over five of those days, my friends and I hiked 47 kilometers (29 miles) along the Juan de Fuca Trail on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We walked through lush rainforests with huge ferns, scrambled over the roots of enormous fir trees, waded through muddy bogs, and climbed up and down rocky cliffs along the coast. Some of the scariest moments were crossing over bridges hewn out of logs and expansive suspension bridges. Afterward, we treated ourselves to a three-day weekend in Victoria and Vancouver, where we visited Granville Island Public Market and enjoyed the deliciously famous JapaDog!

Nicole:

This Summer I Learned a New Word…“extirpate.” It means to pull up by the roots; to totally destroy. Extirpated animals are those that no longer exist in the wild in a certain area, but may exist
elsewhere in the world. I learned this new word during my summer vacation trip to the Elkhart County 4-H Fair. It’s one of the largest county fairs in the world and it’s held in my Indiana hometown. I LOVED going to the fair as a kid and hadn’t been back in quite some time to see the chickens, rabbits, and goats; watch the harness horse races; check out the new tractors and other complex farm machinery; and sink my teeth into a sugary, fried-dough concoction called an elephant ear. I don’t remember what extirpated animal I am in this picture. Turkey? Hedgehog? I’ll have to return next summer to be sure.

Shannon:

Although I didn’t make it to the beach during my summer vacation, I did visit the Paris Plages. Each summer, sand is placed along the right bank of the Seine River in Paris, transforming the streets and walkways into a temporary beach. Each section of the Plage was decorated with different colored beach chairs, umbrellas, and cabanas. It was cloudy and rainy during my day “sur la Plage,” but I had a lot of fun walking through the sand along the Seine.

Tom:

Though I didn’t have the grand, romantic odyssey that Shannon had in France, my summer was full of travel and excitement. In May, I drove to Louisiana for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (also known as Jazz Fest). Jazz Fest features two of my greatest loves: fantastic music and copious fried food. In July, I flew into Chicago where my brother took me out for one of the most delicious hamburgers I’ve ever had. From there, I drove to Fall Creek, Wisconsin, home of the Fall Creek High School’s Fighting Crickets! Fall Creek is also home to my grandmother and my many, many precious great-aunts.

Creativity: My first encounters and my first discoveries

Published August 31, 2011 Artist Encounters , Center for Creative Connections , Thursday Night Live Closed
Tags: Center for Creative Connections, Creativity, Dallas Museum of Art

Magdalena Grohman leading a class in the Center for Creative Connections

Magdalena Grohman is a creativity expert who spends the occasional Thursday evening at the DMA helping inspire visitors participating in Thursday Night Live’s Artistic Encounters. But how did Magdalena discover her own creativity? She shared that journey with us below.

I received one of my very first lessons about creativity in elementary school. I was made to believe that creativity was only for those artistically or musically talented. You were born with it or you were not. I did not possess these talents, but at the same time I enjoyed writing in my diary, sketching (especially different layouts and arrangements for my dream room), creating collages, and so on. But that wasn’t considered creative. Only art, only music, and only if you were naturally talented.

The cracks in this belief system started to appear in high school when I met students and teachers who encouraged creative expression through other domains such as dance, movement, and theater. Suddenly, I realized I could express myself, share my state of mind, tell a story, and provoke others to think in new, creative ways. The true breakthrough came when a group of professors from Jagiellonian University in Krakow came to my high school to lead a workshop that taught creative thinking. With the workshops came a new wave of thinking about creativity and my first and foremost discovery about it: creativity was in everyone and could be enhanced.

This meant you could be CREATIVE in any number of ways, be it telling stories, designing birthday cards, finding new ways to teach, writing a song, formulating hypotheses, communicating diagnosis . . . the list goes on. This also meant that you could nurture creative potential at any stage in life. “But,” the professors warned, “You need to put some work into it.” What they meant was that creativity could be honed and developed by shaping core attitudes about creativity such as open-mindedness, self-discipline, and perseverance.

So, the first step to increase your creative potential is to liberate yourself from any belief system that is detrimental to creativity. The second step is to nurture positive attitudes toward creativity. These include (according to creativity researchers and educators) sticking to your creative endeavor no matter what and being open-minded, observant, curious, and self-disciplined. With this in mind, you will see that the next steps are much, much easier.

Take the next step tomorrow night when Magdalena will lead Thursday Night Live Artistic Encounters: Think Creatively with Tom Cox and Peter Goldstein at 6:30 p.m. in the Center for Creative Connections.

Shelagh Jessop is the Center for Creative Connections Coordinator at the Dallas Museum of Art

More Clips Than A Barber Shop (Audio Clips, That Is)

Published August 30, 2011 Art & Teaching , Resources , Technology , works of art Closed

If you’ve been by the Museum’s offices in the past few weeks, you might have seen me crouched over a laptop in a corner with headphones like two giant beetles over my ears. Why, you ask? I’ve been sorting through audio files from the DMA’s extensive catalog of lectures and interviews. Many of these audio files come from gallery talks and docent training sessions led by DMA staff members and guest lecturers. The experience has been illuminating. Every speaker brings thoughtful, entertaining, and challenging new ways to look at the art. So this week, I thought I might share a few of my favorite audio files which will be appearing in the new teaching resources this fall.

This first file comes from our very own Shannon Karol. In this file, extracted from her talk In Praise and Thanksgiving, she discusses the Janus reliquary guardian figure from the Kota peoples of Gabon (pictured below).

Janus reliquary guardian figure, late 19th or early 20th century, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.

During the lecture Heaven on Earth: Hindu Temples and Their Sculptures, Darielle Mason describes the origins of the Hindu temple. Below is an image of the Hindu goddess Durga from our collection.

Durga, 11th century, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Junior Associates

Finally, this audio file, extracted from a conversation between DMA curator Roslyn Walker and Phillip Collins, gives a brief biography of the artist John Biggers, and included a story about Biggers’ history with the DMA. Below is John Biggers’ painting Starry Crown.

John Biggers, Starry Crown, 1987, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum League

All of the works in this post will be featured in the new teaching materials, and these are only a few of the many audio files that will be available for streaming. You will also find video files, contextual images, maps, and other media when the materials debut this fall. Stay tuned to the Educators Blog for the official announcement of the materials’ debut.

Tom Jungerberg

IMLS Grant Coordinator

Seldom Scene: School Dais

Published August 29, 2011 Center for Creative Connections , Exhibitions , Installation Closed
Tags: Center for Creative Connections, Dallas Independent School District, Dallas Museum of Art, Skyline Architecture Cluster

With school back in full swing we thought we would showcase the students from Dallas ISD’s Skyline Architecture Cluster who created Sculpting Space: 299 Chairs. See the installation in person in the Center for Creative Connections on Level 1 through mid-November.