Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
North Texas Giving Day is right around the corner–September 22 to be exact! To get in the giving spirit, visit the Center for Creative Connections this weekend and participate in a community project all about giving.
Make a button about how or why you give back to your community. Leave your button to inspire someone and take another that inspires you!
Jessica Fuentes
Manager of Gallery Interpretation and the Center for Creative Connections
The year 2016 marks the 35th anniversary of the DMA’s Concentrations series, which was inaugurated in 1981 with paintings and monotypes by Richard Shaffer.
Concentrations I: Richard Shaffer, March 1–April 12, 1981
Initially planned as a series of five exhibitions exploring the work of living artists, Concentrations has grown into a long-running series featuring emerging and international artists working across a range of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film and video, assemblage, and site-specific installations. Over the history of the series, nine curators have organized Concentrations exhibitions: Sue Graze (21), Steven A. Nash (1), Joan Davidow (3), Dave Hickey (1), Annegreth Nill (1), Charles Wylie (4), Suzanne Weaver (22), Jeffrey Grove (2), and Gabriel Ritter (5).
In celebration of the anniversary, I’ve pulled together some fun facts about the series with installation photos to illustrate them.
1. How many Concentrations exhibitions were held primarily outdoors in the Sculpture Garden?
Answer: Four, although there were a few exhibitions that had work in the Sculpture Garden in addition to the works in the galleries
Concentrations 8: Dalton Maroney, October 10, 1983–February 19, 1984
Concentrations 9: Richard Long, March 31–July 8, 1984
Concentrations 11: Luis Jimenez, February 17–March 31, 1985
Concentrations 51: Mark Handforth, March 23–September 23, 2007
Concentrations 8: Dalton Maroney was also the first exhibition held at the new Museum building downtown. It opened with the Sculpture Garden a few months before the Museum building.
2. What two exhibition series are related to Concentrations?
Answer: Projects and Encounters
Projects I: David McManaway, March 19-April 27, 1975
Projects was a series of three exhibitions in 1975 curated by Robert Murdock, Curator of Contemporary Art. The three exhibitions in the series featured work by David McManaway, Bruce Cunningham, and Raffaele Martini. The series inspired the creation of the Concentrations series in 1981 by Curator of Contemporary Art Sue Graze.
Encounters was a series of six exhibitions held between 1992 and 1995 that were presented in place of Concentrations. The series, created and curated by Curator of Contemporary Art Annegreth Nill, paired the work of a regional artist with that of an artist from the national or international arena to increase potential dialogue.
Encounters 1: John Hernandez and Rainer Ganahl, February 23–April 19, 1992 – John Hernandez
Encounters 1: John Hernandez and Rainer Ganahl, February 23–April 19, 1992 – Rainer Ganahl
3. Concentrations exhibitions have primarily been one-person shows, with a few duos (Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Jane and Louise Wilson, and Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla) and one collective (Slavs and Tatars). How many have shown the work of two or more artists working separately?
Answer: Six
Concentrations III: Betsy Muller/Andrea Rosenberg, June 21–August 2, 1981
Concentrations 23: Texas Figurative Drawings, May 19–July 15, 1990
Concentrations 24: Continuities of Concern, June 2–August 5, 1990
Concentrations 32: Anne Chu and Bonnie Collura, October 15, 1998–January 17, 1999
Concentrations 54: Matt Connors and Fergus Feehily, April 3-August 14, 2011
Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage, Visualizing the Self After the Internet,
April 10-December 6, 2015
4. How many artists have been part of a Concentrations exhibition?
Answer: 81 – This includes the twelve artists in Concentrations 23: Texas Figurative Drawings and counts the collective Slavs and Tatars from Concentrations 57 as one artist. Concentrations 24: Continuities of Concern is not included. About 40% of the artists are women.
I will close with a few more images from past Concentrations exhibitions to show the variety of work over 59 shows. More information on these and all Concentrations exhibitions can be found in Past Exhibitions on DMA.org. Concentrations 60: Lucie Stahl will open on September 16. Admission is FREE.
Concentrations IV: Alain Kirili, Recent Sculpture, October 18–November 29, 1981
Concentrations 14: Pat Steir, The Brueghel Series, November 1, 1986–January 4, 1987
Concentrations 16: Mary Lucier, Wilderness, October 10–November 22, 1987
Concentrations 17: Vernon Fisher, Lost for Words, January 23–April 17, 1988
Concentrations 20: Kiki Smith, January 14–April 16, 1989
Concentrations 25: Harry Geffert, November 23, 1990–January 20, 1991
Concentrations 26: Celia Alvarez Munoz, Abriendo Tierra/ Breaking Ground, May 4-June 30, 1991
Concentrations 30: Mariko Mori, Come Play with Me, September 17–November 9, 1997
Concentrations 31: Patrick Faulhaber, June 25–September 13, 1998
Concentrations 40: Maki Tamura, November 7, 2001–January 27, 2002
Concentrations 47: Jim Lambie, Thirteenth Floor Elevator, May 20–August 21, 2005
Concentrations 48: Charline von Heyl, October 28, 2005– January 8, 2006
Concentrations 49: Miguel Angel Rios, “A Morir (’til Death)” January 29-May 14, 2006
Concentrations 55: Karla Black, October 19, 2012-March 17, 2013
Hillary Bober is the Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
If you asked me what the most popular art supply was in camp this summer, my answer wouldn’t be paint. It wouldn’t be clay, it wouldn’t be paper – it wouldn’t even be hot glue. It would be…
… shaving cream!
You read that correctly. Not just one but SIX of our summer camps had a day when they made masterpieces using shaving cream. Our teachers this year were certainly inspired by this unconventional material! What other material could you use to marble paper, mix your own textured paint, make the freshest smelling foam dough, AND clean everything up afterwards?
As for what the campers thought, let me offer this quote overheard in carpool:
“Mom, we made art out of SHAVING CREAM today!!!” (Extra exclamation marks included.)
What you need:
When coming up with the plan for my print, I looked to a piece of art that’s inspired cookie decorating (twice!) and marshmallow peep art made by DMA staffers: Odalisque (Hey, Hey Frankenthaler) by Lynda Benglis. The twisty poured latex shapes were fun to recreate by swirling paint through the shaving cream.
You can see how I made my print in the slideshow below:
Once you’ve scraped the foam off your print, lay it flat so it can dry. Your paper may start to curl up at the corners, but that’s not anything a little time under a heavy book can’t fix. You can continue to make prints using the remaining shaving cream in your cookie sheet with the paint already there or by adding more paint and swirling with a craft stick again.
When you’re all done, admire your finished prints as they are or turn them into thank you cards, backgrounds for imaginative drawings, or anything else you can think of!
The neat part about this technique is that it can be used on more than just paper. Try using acrylic or fabric paint to print cool rainbow bandanas. Even food coloring can be used to dye Easter eggs! For more fun, check out these other shaving cream ideas:
What crazy craft can you come up with?
Jennifer Sheppard
Teaching Specialist
September is already upon us, which means it’s once again time to meet our new McDermott Interns. Each year we offer nine internship positions—four in the Museum’s Education Department and five in the Curatorial Department—to talented individuals who are interested in exploring museum careers. Established in 1974, the McDermott Internship Program allows interns to work closely with staff throughout the Museum and provides opportunities for individual contributions. Below you’ll find some brief background information on our brilliant new bunch, along with their official positions.
Grace Diepenbrock
McDermott Intern for Family and Access Teaching
Grace completed her BA in Studio Art at Mars Hill University in North Carolina. She most recently served as the Family Programs Assistant at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where she led programs for families and early learners. Grace has also held positions with the EdVenture Children’s Museum and the Madison County Arts Council, where she developed the curriculum for an art-based afterschool program.
Kelly Filreis
McDermott Graduate Intern for Contemporary Art
Kelly received her BFA in Print/Paper/Book from Minneapolis College of Art and Design and recently completed her MA in Art History from the University of California, Riverside. While at UCR, Kelly served as the Art History Graduate Student Association Vice President and coordinated the 2016 Art History Graduate Student Conference. She has also worked with multiple galleries in Minneapolis to coordinate exhibitions and special artist projects.
Sara Greenberg
McDermott Graduate Intern for Adult Programming and Arts & Letters Live
Sara completed her BA in Art History at the University of Denver and recently earned her MA in Art History from the University of California, Riverside. As a collections intern at the California Museum of Photography, she initiated a print viewing program to provide increased accessibility to the collection. While in Denver, Sara held internships at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Denver Art Museum, where she helped organize their monthly late night program, Untitled Final Friday.
Angela Medrano
McDermott Intern for Gallery and Community Teaching
Angela recently earned her BA from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in American Studies. During her time at Dickinson, Angela founded a program for university student volunteers to learn and teach American Sign Language to early learners at the Dickinson College Children’s Center. Angela also worked with the university’s Trout Gallery to facilitate art-based wellness programs and programs for K–12 visitors.
Dana Olesch
McDermott Intern for Ancient American Art
Dana recently earned her BA in Anthropology and History from Beloit College in Wisconsin. During her time at Beloit, Dana served as a teaching assistant for multiple courses and worked with the college’s Logan Museum of Anthropology to create teaching materials for high school and college students based on the museum’s Andean and North American collections. She has also participated in archaeological excavations of domestic sites in Virginia and Peru.
Francesca Soriano
McDermott Intern for American Art
Francesca recently earned her BA in Art History from Colby College in Maine. While completing her degree, Francesca worked with the Colby College Museum of Art in various roles, including that of curatorial intern, student docent, and co-chair of the Student Advisory Board. She has also held internships with galleries in New York, Paris, and Berlin, during which she gained experience in development, communications, and exhibitions.
Marta Torres
McDermott Graduate Intern for Visitor Engagement
Marta earned her BA in Arts and Humanities from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey and her Masters in Art Education with an emphasis on Museology from Caribbean University. Marta has worked with multiple departments at the Dr. Pio Lopez Martinez Museum of Art in Cayey, gaining experience in education, collections, and curatorial research. She also held a position researching and organizing the archives of artist Antonio Martorell.
Amy Wojciechowski
Dedo and Barron Kidd McDermott Graduate Intern for European Art
Amy received her BA in History from Oberlin College and holds her MA in the History of Art from Bryn Mawr College, where she is in the process of completing her PhD. Amy curated an exhibition of special collections at Bryn Mawr’s Carpenter Library and has also held a curatorial internship with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she contributed to an exhibition on Fernand Léger. She has also served as a student docent and education intern at Oberlin’s Allen Memorial Art Museum.
Megan Zembower
McDermott Intern for African Art
Megan recently completed her BA in Art History and French at Denison University in Ohio. While at Denison, Megan held positions as a teaching assistant and as a research assistant, working with her professor to organize an exhibition of contemporary art at Kenyon College’s Gund Gallery. Megan has also conducted architectural research on the Simon Jude Chancognie House, a historic 19th-century home located in Charleston.
Sarah Coffey is the Education Coordinator at the DMA.
This month marks the arrival of the DMA’s new Eugene McDermott Director, Agustín Arteaga. Uncrated sat down with him in the Museum galleries to get to know him a bit better:
It’s Labor Day and while it is time to say an unofficial goodbye to summer, it is also the perfect time to recognize some of the staff that worked hard to make the Museum what it is today.
The Museum staff in the 1940s was small. Counting the names on the rosters in bulletins and annual reports, there were fewer than 20 people, including the teaching staff, which is about 10% of the people currently employed by the DMA. Some did multiple jobs covering both administrative and teaching duties, for example, or managing both the library and education programs.
This is Building Superintendent Jimmie Garrett in 1940. He joined the staff after working on the construction crew that built the Museum in 1936. Unfortunately, I can’t quite figure out what he is doing in the photo, maybe guarding an installation in progress, or maybe just pondering the small figures on the shelves.
Ed Bearden, in the coat and tie, was both the Museum’s Assistant Director and a member of the teaching staff. Here, he instructs a sculpture class with a live model in 1946.
The 1947 State Fair was an exciting time as the Museum secured a loan of Rosa Bonheur’s famous painting The Horse Fair from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and staff worked hard to promote the event.
Mary Bywaters (left) and Fran Bearden (right) use The Horse Fair to promote Dallas Art Association membership. The man in the center is unidentified, but it would be great to learn his name if you recognize him.
In addition to administrative and art class teaching duties, Ed Bearden also gave public lectures. Here he is speaking about The Horse Fair in 1947.
Standing left to right: Herb and Jett Rogalla, Ed and Fran Bearden, Mellville Mercer, Jeanette Bickel, Rusty Grimes, Barbara Mercer, Margaret Milam; seated left to right: Jerry Smith, Mary Bywaters, Tom Grimes.
Thankfully it wasn’t all work for our 1940s staff. Here are some DMFA staff and friends in what I like to imagine was a staff picnic-type outing, but maybe I am reading too much into the grass and trees in the picture. It would be quite a happy coincidence if the photo happened to be taken on Labor Day 1948.
Stay tuned next Labor Day to see Museum staff of the 1950s doing interesting things . . .
Hillary Bober is the Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The Center for Creative Connections (C3) is fortunate to have a number of amazing volunteers. From engaging visitors in conversations about art to maintaining supplies, volunteers play a key role in the C3 experience. Today we’d like to recognize four dedicated C3 volunteers: Mary Burkhead, Ryan Heerwagen, Briana Segarra, and Deborah Herring.
Mary Burkhead has been volunteering at the DMA for more than three years. She loves visiting museums and believes that being a volunteer has made her a more engaged and appreciative patron. When she is not volunteering, you can find Mary reading and attending theater, opera, and music performances.
Ryan Heerwagen has been a C3 volunteer for over two years. He enjoys having access to works of art and doing something that helps the community. When he is not at the DMA, Ryan can be found reading, playing video games, running a religious studies group, and consuming all of the knowledge the world has to offer.
Briana Segarra has been volunteering since December 2015. Volunteering in the C3 gallery satisfies her love for art and education. She also finds it nearly impossible to leave without a sense of fulfillment. In her free time, Briana can be found helping out at two local galleries, traveling, and educating future artists.
Deborah Herring began volunteering more than four years ago after retiring as an educator. She volunteers in order to stay connected to the creative world and to encourage visitors to have a worthwhile experience. In her spare time, Deborah loves knitting, playing Pokemon GO, and exploring places that encourage walking.
We are so thankful to have such a wonderful group of volunteers! If you are interested in becoming a Museum volunteer, please email volunteers@DMA.org for additional information.
Andi Orkin
Volunteer Coordinator for Programming
On August 1, Nicolas Party hopped off the plane at DFW and ever since it has been a Party in the DMA. It only took the Swiss artist two weeks to transform the Museum’s Concourse into an enchantingly surreal landscape. Unconfined to a static sketch, each day the former graffiti artist added richly hued flora that simultaneously recalls forest floors and ocean depths. Visitors were entranced as he worked to bring his imaginative vision of a sanctuary for the people of Dallas to life. Check out the progression of the site-specific mural below.
And tomorrow, let the long weekend begin. Come experience the wonder of Nicolas Party: Pathway on Thursday evening and throw your hands up because we’ll be playing your song when DJ Wild in the Streets takes over the DMA patio. You’ll be nodding your head like yeah as we start the weekend early with 20% off crepes from Socca, fresh retro pop, funk, soul, and great company. See you there!
Julie Henley is the Communications and Marketing Coordinator at the DMA.
This year is the 25th anniversary of the DMA’s literary and performing arts series Arts & Letters Live! We celebrated this great achievement with a fantastic lineup of award-winning authors and performers earlier this spring, and then decided to extend the celebrating this fall. We’ve scheduled six programs that strongly connect to the DMA’s collection, and one of them is a wonderful book about celebrating our differences.
The Australian author Robert Hoge was born with a tumor the size of a tennis ball in the middle of his face and short, twisted legs. The surgeons were able to remove the tumor and built a new nose using one of his toes! He survived, but his face would never be the same.
This didn’t stop Robert, though. He played pranks, got into trouble, had adventures with his big family, and finally found a sport that was perfect for him to play. Then he had to come face to face with the biggest decision of his life: undergo a dangerous surgical procedure that might make him look less different but potentially make him blind, or live with his “ugly” face forever.
His memoir Ugly, designed for middle grade readers and older, offers a powerful message about being yourself, shaking off bullying, and accepting your appearance–themes we can all embrace!
“We all have scars only we can own.” —Robert Hoge
Robert Hoge: Own Your Face
Sunday, September 11, 3:00 p.m.
Promotional Partner: TEDxSMU
At 2:00 p.m.: Join us for a pre-event tour of art that explores self-image and ideas of beauty, including Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait Very Ugly. Tour sign-up will begin 30 minutes prior to the start time. Tour space is limited and is first-come, first-served.
Madeleine Fitzgerald
Audience Relations Coordinator
Arthur John Elsley, Hard Pressed (Any Port in a Storm/Late for School), 1898, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Kim Jordan.
Calling all teachers! We hope your back to school experience bears no resemblance to Arthur John Elsley’s Hard Pressed (Any Port in a Storm/Late for School), so we’d like to help you start the year off on the right note! Check out our Teacher page to discover upcoming opportunities and helpful tips for incorporating the DMA into your lesson plan this year.
We offer a wide variety of resources for educators including information on K-12 Student Visits, Gallery-Guides, Teacher Resources, and more. Be sure to peruse the Types of Student Tours we offer, to get a better idea of the opportunities available to you and your students here at the Museum. As you’ll notice, we’re offering a new STEAM tour this year! You can also schedule a Docent-Guided Tour or a Self-Guided Visit of upcoming special exhibitions, Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt and Art and Nature in the Middle Ages. Helpful tip: be sure to submit your request at least three weeks in advance of your visit to see a paid exhibition for free!
Interested in visiting the Museum with your fellow teachers? You can schedule a Teacher In-Service here at the Museum, or register for an upcoming Teacher Workshop (more on that below!) We’re always looking for new ways to support and celebrate educators, so please be sure to sign up to receive our emails and check the box for Information for Teachers to stay connected.
Here at the DMA, we’re looking forward to the opening of the claw-some new exhibition Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt on Sunday, October 9, and we want educators to take part in the fun with a Teacher Workshop. The exhibition explores the role of cats and lions in ancient Egyptian mythology, kingship, and everyday life, featuring material from the Brooklyn Museum’s world-famous Egyptian collection. Our workshop on Saturday, October 22, will provide educators with the opportunity to enjoy the exhibition before public hours while learning strategies to teach, interpret, and use works of art in the classroom and Museum galleries. Register here–What more purr-suasion do you need? Space is limited, so sign-up right meow!
We look forward to seeing you and your students at the DMA this fall, and we wish you a smooth start to the new school year!
Lindsay O’Connor
Manager of Docent and Teacher Programs
