Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
Firefighters, doctors, policemen – heroes are all around us…even in art! In the August Arturo’s Art & Me class, visitors met some of the heroes of the DMA, including Vishnu, a Hindu god, and Takenouchi, a Japanese warrior. Then, the little heroes-in-training made heroic outfits to match their super personalities.
Check out the fun below!
Emily Wiskera
Graduate Intern for Family and Access Teaching
The zombie apocalypse hits the DMA.
Six months ago, I asked a few of our Teen Advisory Council members to suggest ideas for classes at the DMA that they would want to attend (be careful what you ask for!). The result was our first-ever zombie camp: a week-long series of workshops where the participants were asked to create an original zombie design inspired by a work of art. Secretly, it gave me the opportunity to make a fun, STEAM-based class with 21st century skill development sprinkled in. The primary goals for the camp were to incorporate art and science, and to connect students with local experts.
The camp was divided into three parts: learning, ideation, and creation. To help understand zombie behavior and morphology, Perot Museum of Nature and Science Educator Melinda Ludwig led a (sheep’s) brain dissection experiment focused on the centers of locomotion, smell, and speech; Meadows Museum Educator and medical illustrator Mary Jordan led an anatomical drawing session featuring the musculature and skeletal structure of the skull; and Mara Richards, Manager of Education Programs at the Dallas Theater Center led a movement workshop to think about how zombies inspired by works of art would move.
Melinda Ludwig, Educator, Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Mary Jordan, Educator at the Meadows Museum
Mara Richards, Manager of Education Programs at the Dallas Theater Center
During the ideation phase of the camp, participants sketched from works of art in the galleries that inspired a character of their own design, complete with backstory. Afterwards, they shared their concept designs as a group and offered feedback and suggestions to each other.
Artists Sarah Popplewell and Kat Burkett lead the group share session and discuss how an artist-to-artist critique works.
Sketch and notes for a Picasso-themed zombie.
Students then set about transforming themselves into their characters. Sarah Popplewell led them in a costume workshop while Kat Burkett demonstrated how to cast forms with tape in order to create limbs and other body parts. Mitch Rogers, sculptor, special effects artist, and owner of Brick in the Yard Mold Supply gave the teens a glimpse into the world of creating visual effects for film.
Mitch and his crew helped camp participants with their makeup and prostheses on the last day and, as an added treat, he brought along Stuart Bridson, Special Effects Supervisor for Game of Thrones, Emmy-winning series for Outstanding Visual Effects. The results were pretty amazing:
Mitch sets to work on a gruesome zombie wound.
And she wore this to dinner that evening!!!!
Figure of a woman, Roman, 2nd century A.D., Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Cecil H. Green
Ashes of Vesuvius-inspired zombie
Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, “Seaside Cemetery (Seefriedhof)”, 1897, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of J.E.R. Chilton
Lost-at-sea-themed zombie
On Friday afternoon, the teens put their zombie-ambulatory skills to use by interacting with visitors in the galleries. Photographer Teresa Rafidi took some fantastic portraits of each of the zombies, and a selection of images will be shared on our Flickr page soon. 
All in all, it was an amazing experience for everyone involved. In addition to the science and art crossover, students sneakily developed other skills such as creative problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking, iterative design, and more. I’m already getting suggestions for next year’s camp–aliens in the Museum, anyone?
Special thanks to Melinda Ludwig, Mary Jordan, Mara Richards, Teresa Rafidi, Mitch Rogers and staff, Kat Burkett, and Sarah Popplewell. Special effects materials provided by Brick in the Yard Mold Supply. No works of art were harmed during this camp (surprisingly).
JC Bigornia
C3 Program Coordinator
On Friday night we celebrated the exhibition From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith with a night of performances, talks, art making, and more inspired by Art Smith during the busiest August Late Night we’ve ever had, with more than 5,500 visitors! The Dallas Black Dance Theatre, along with the Stockton Helbing Trio, performed a premiere of a new work to a full house in a piece inspired by the jewelry of Art Smith. Visitors lined up throughout the evening to create their own jewelry in the Center for Creative Connections, there were plenty of human pretzels in Yoga for Kids, and the Atrium was alive all night with music from Mahogany the Artist, Rebel Alliance Jazz Ensemble, and The Funky Knuckles.
If you missed Friday night’s fun, you can still celebrate Art Smith throughout August (all for free!); check out the events online, including Thursday’s Jazz in the Atrium with Mahogany the Artist.
This large photograph by Nic Nicosia, titled Vacation, was installed in the Center for Creative Connections (C3) in early July. At first glance this appears to be a normal, everyday scene of a family picnic, but as you look closer it becomes apparent that there are some unusual aspects to this photograph. Is it a snapshot or is it staged? The children appear very natural, but the mother seems posed. The ground looks like real dirt and leaves, but the tree and sky are a painted backdrop. Then, between the branches you can see an airplane on fire and hurling to the ground. This is not your typical vacation.
As the summer comes to a close, the Dallas Museum of Art education staff has taken some time to reflect on our own unusual vacation experiences. We hope you enjoy our snapshots.
Jessica Fuentes
C3 Gallery Coordinator
I spent the last week in July in sunny California. Though I divided my time between walks on the beach, wandering the bustling boardwalk, and exploring the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), this was no beach vacation, but rather an intense seventy-two hours at Nina Simon’s Museum Camp 2014. Even with the itinerary, I honestly did not know what to expect as I walked up to the MAH, feeling like a true camper toting my loaded backpack and refillable water bottle attached to my purse. As a museum educator, this was a dream come true. Not only has Simon influenced the way we think about and create programs and interactives in the Center for Creative Connections (C3), but I also used her book in the literature review of my Master’s thesis. As relevant professional development can be hard to come by as a museum educator working in an interactive space, this Social Impact Assessment themed camp seemed to be what I was looking for to give me some direction in the evaluation of the C3 and specific activities within our space.
Overnight camp as an adult is a unique opportunity, so when I was offered the chance to attend Museum Camp and sleep over at the museum, I was all in. There is a special bond that is formed by spending that kind of concentrated time with a group of people. That bond is reinforced by going through certain trials and tribulations together, like searching for a comfortable spot to sleep, waking up and walking through a foggy Santa Cruz morning to the gym to take a shower, or late night revelations in the Confessional Tent. Though not all the campers opted to stay the night at the Museum, there were other opportunities for bonding, like karaoke night, mess-hall style dinners, swimming in the Pacific, and of course the fast-paced group research projects that were at the center of our camp experience.
We met our group members at the end of the first day of Museum Camp and, through a tumultuous game of White Elephant, our research locations were determined. Over the next few days we developed a research question, hypothesis, and indicators, then carried out our research and compiled our findings. The goal was to use unconventional methods of data collection to gather information regarding social impact. My group, the Metacampers, had a more sensitive location than most because we were attending a private rather than public event. The event was hosted by the Beach Flats Community Center for a small group of Latino families. Since we were all outsiders, we found it important to gather as much information as possible before engaging in our research. We visited both the community center that was hosting the event and the park where the event would take place. Yet, we still came to our project with a handful of assumptions both about the community and the location. We planned our methods so as to be as natural as possible at the event; our Spanish-speaking group members engaged in informal interviews with adult participants, our non-Spanish-speaking members made observations of both adult and youth participants, and towards the end of the gathering we asked the youths to each take a photograph of what they found most fun at the event. We expected to be greeted with some amount of skepticism, but were surprised to find the community was quite welcoming. The key to this was our Spanish-speaking group members; they were able to become ingrained in the event as participants, and holding informal interviews was a natural aspect of that.
This brings me to my biggest take-away from Museum Camp. While undertaking the research project and learning about the other groups’ methods was interesting and insightful, my biggest take-away has more to do with the idea of community. Time and again throughout camp, I was surprised by how immersed Nina Simon is in her city. Clearly, whether the camp was going on or not, Simon would have had dinner at India Joze or gone to karaoke at I Love Sushi or walked to the beach to go swimming in the Pacific. As a cultural and educational institution, connecting to the community is an important aspect of the Dallas Museum of Art’s mission. What I learned at Museum Camp is that rather than seeking to connect to the community we must be embedded in it; we must be active participants in our own communities.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Museum Camp 2014 experience, take a look at these resources from camp and reflections by other campers.
Jessica Fuentes
C3 Gallery Coordinator
From 1953 to 1956, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts had something few other art museums did . . . a planetarium.
![Planetarium equipment, circa 1953 [The Jerry Bywaters Collection, Southern Methodist University]](https://i0.wp.com/blog.dma.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dmfa_planetarium_1953-1956_001.jpg?ssl=1)
Planetarium equipment, circa 1953 [The Jerry Bywaters Collection, Southern Methodist University]
Shows were scheduled for the public on weekends and for groups during the week, for the low price of 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children and students. The State Fair was the most popular time for the planetarium, entertaining 4,000 people over 69 shows in 1954 and 5,665 people over 80 shows in 1955.
In early 1956, the planetarium was transferred to the Health Museum, which was later called the Science Place and is now closed.
Hillary Bober is the Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
As August heats up, you might find yourself retreating to cooler climes, and you can only spend so long at the pool before the kids shrivel up! Beat the heat and keep the kids busy with creative art-making using one of my most favorite unconventional art materials—contact paper.
Contact paper is most often used to line shelves in the kitchen, but take it into the art studio, and you can create some art magic. Here are some of my go-to projects using this surprisingly versatile material.
Texture Collage
Use a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) as the collage base, and encourage your child to create using a variety of collage materials—cotton balls, feathers, sandpaper, tissue paper, sequins, felt, and more. This project works really well for toddlers because they don’t have to worry about managing glue in order to get their materials to stick to the paper. Older children might want to use some glue if they build up layers of materials on top of one another. The finished product is a touchable work of art!
Beach scene created with sand paper, tissue paper, cotton balls, and foam shapes
Stained Glass “Windows”
One of my favorite art projects to do with kids here at the Museum is inspired by the Tiffany stained glass windows. We use clear contact paper and tissue paper or transparency film to create a stained glass window-effect. Cut two squares of contact paper and arrange pieces of colored tissue paper or transparency film on one contact paper square, sticky side up. The tissue paper and transparency film can be layered to create a variety of colors; tissue paper can also be crinkled and squished to add dimension and texture. When your window is complete, carefully stick the second contact paper square on top, sealing the materials in. Hang in a window to allow light to shine through.
Make Your Own Stickers
Contact paper comes in a variety of designs, making it the perfect medium for creating your own stickers. A few months ago in the Arturo’s Art & Me class, children made up their own imaginary creatures. They used permanent marker to draw the different parts of their animals on different kinds of contact paper. These pieces were then cut out, the paper backing removed, and the newly created stickers were stuck to a landscape drawn on wood. Contact paper stickers will stick to paper, wood, and glass.
Sand Paintings
Try your hand at “painting” with sand! Use a piece of contact paper as the base for the painting, sticky side up. Sprinkle colored sand onto the contact paper to make interesting designs and shapes. For more control over the sand, use small funnels. You can also draw directly in the sand using a dull pencil. Shake your painting around, and watch how the design shifts and changes. You can also add a piece of colored paper as a backing to add even more color.
Dry Erase Drawings
Contact paper can turn any printed image into a re-usable drawing board. Print out images of landscapes, faces, or objects on cardstock and then cover the image with clear contact paper. Give your child dry-erase markers and challenge them to add to the picture. They could add figures to a landscape, add accessories to faces, and transform everyday objects into crazy characters. Use a damp paper towel to erase the drawings and use again and again!
Find even more ways to use contact paper here and here!
Leah Hanson
Manager of Early Learning Programs
The Center for Creative Connections (C3) staff was fortunate to receive help from two high school students this summer. Sophie Anthony, a rising senior at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, spent eight weeks working with us through the Mayor’s Intern Fellows Program. Chloe Barreau will be a junior at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong. She worked with C3 during a month-long visit with family. Below are some of their experiences from this summer.
Sophie and Chloe served as the first models for a photo backdrop that connects to Nic Nicosia’s photograph titled Vacation, currently on view in C3
Sophie:
Wow. I did not realize how fast eight weeks would fly by. My internship at the DMA has been amazing — art-filled and action-packed. Through the Mayor’s Intern Fellows Program, I got a behind-the-scenes peek into the day-to-day running of the biggest (and still expanding) art museum in town. What a thrill! As a high school art student, it was exciting just to be in the same building as some of the beautiful and breathtaking masterpieces housed in the Museum, not to mention the opportunity to enhance visitors’ experience with these works. Working with visitors in C3 and behind the scenes gave me the chance to assist and interact with regular art patrons and newcomers alike, as well as see firsthand the DMA’s commitment to art education and visitor participation.
A lot of my time spent as a C3 intern was, of course, spent in C3! C3 is a hotspot for most Museum visitors — nearly everyone who enters is excited by the relaxed and hands-on atmosphere, and leaves with their own Art Spot creation. An extension of the C3 atmosphere is the Pop-up Art Spot, a cart filled with activities that moves through the galleries on a weekly basis. It allows museum-goers a chance to participate with works of art more closely and see things they might not have noticed before. Both C3 and the Pop-up Art Spot were a lot of fun because I was able to chat with visitors and learn their thoughts and perceptions on art pieces and the DMA. I met people who had been going to the DMA for the past twenty years and people who had never visited an art museum before. But it wasn’t all conversations — there are always plenty of supplies to be prepped!
One of my favorite projects was the July Late Night Creations activity, the “Curious Case of the Mystery Painting.” Chloe and I made and designed the materials for the activity and wrote (not to mention re-wrote) the instructions for this mystery-themed collaborative art project. We chose the two “mystery” paintings that would be recreated and then, after much multiplication, we gridded out the artworks into two-inch squares, which would be “clues” that participants would recreate on bigger pieces of cardboard. Slowly, piece of cardboard by piece of cardboard, the paintings would be revealed. The hardest part of creating this project was writing the instructions. Chloe and I quickly learned the value of one word instead of two, realizing that the shorter and more concise, the better. We wrote and rewrote numerous drafts until we eliminated all extraneous details and arrived at the instructions used during Late Night Creations. When I came to work the next day and saw the final masterpieces, I was astounded. The visitors did an amazing job in recreating the mystery paintings! Below are the activity instructions; scroll down to see the activity in progress and completed.
All too quickly these past eight weeks have sped by. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned, how much I’ve seen, how much I’ve done here at the DMA. My experiences have been widely varied—I now know both how to write a set of instructions for a community art project and the most efficient way of cutting cardboard for the Art Spot. I helped individuals with Alzheimer’s discuss pieces of art in Meaningful Moments and went behind the scenes to see exhibits go up and come down. I became an old pro at screenprinting T-shirts through assisting with the Design Studio summer art camp and listened as teens made soundscapes based on The Museum is History exhibition during a UA Maker Club workshop. I am so appreciative and thankful for my internship—the DMA, specifically C3, gave me a wide and varied experience in a field of work I would love to pursue. I learned so much this summer and I’m looking forward to volunteering in C3 soon!
Chloe:
My internship experience at the DMA this summer has taught me so much about different ways in which we can enhance our appreciation of art.
I first spent two weeks assisting the New World Kids 2 summer art camp. The classes encouraged children to create art books and stop-motion clips as well as develop back stories behind why their characters lived where they lived and the motivations behind what their characters were doing. It was exciting for me to see how the program inspired children to construct elaborate plots and plan out each scene as if they were budding directors or playwrights. I believe that walking children through the process of creating a story is an effective way to introduce them to the appreciation of art. In thinking about how they would design film sets, direct the acting, and develop the characters and sub-plots, children open their minds to a wider breadth in their interpretation of art.
All great artworks have a background story, a history to the subject matter, and a thought process behind the composition. This was illustrated in the European gallery, where I had the chance to admire the art alongside our visitors, thanks to the new Pop-up Art Spot. There, visitors have fun dressing up in costumes, making gesture drawings and writing dialogues for characters using magnetic words. Each painting presents a narrative, and the visitors participate in this narrative by coordinating their facial expressions, clothing, body pose, and setting with the artwork’s composition. At this Pop-up Art Spot, I saw how these activities enlivened the experience of visitors viewing the art pieces and inspired them to imagine the story behind the art. I see that art is not only to be admired, but to be experienced in full immersion. We are not only audiences, but participants.
Speaking of participation in art – at July’s Late Night, Sophie and I were excited to see visitors’ reception to the “Curious Case of the Mysterious Painting” activity we worked on together. We were thrilled that people enthusiastically lined up for their turn to contribute a clue by taking a section of an artwork poster and enlarging it on a piece of cardboard using paint. The next day I saw the mystery artworks that were recreated with the public’s contribution – the mosaics of the pieces came to life, with a beauty that can only come from a community of “artists” collaborating together for a night!
The grid for one painting with a few squares to get it started
Visitors add to the grid
The other painting grid, in progress
I have discovered that telling a story is core to the purpose of art. An artwork is a mode of communication across time, even across dynasties and cultures, and artists create an extension of themselves and share with us a part of their being.
I am really grateful for the opportunity this summer to intern at C3! The department was very welcoming, and the staff took care to educate us while giving us leeway to express ourselves and take initiative. I loved meeting diverse people, from the speakers to the audience and members of the museum – everyday was a pleasure, and I have fond memories of my interactions and experience to bring home with me back to Hong Kong!
Thank you, Sophie and Chloe, for your very hard work this summer! We will miss seeing your smiling faces every day.
C3 Staff
This week Art Everywhere US launched onto billboards, bus stops, digital screens, and more across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Keep your eyes peeled while road tripping and commuting for some of your DMA favorites, including The Icebergs and The Peaceable Kingdom, when you are out on the town. Check out some photos from across the country below and share your finds on Instagram with #ArtEverywhereUS. If you are ready for an art hunt, discover the locations on the Art Everywhere US interactive map.
We love seeing the creative photos that our visitors take with our collection, so we’re turning the spotlight on you. This summer, feel free to explore, and share your fun with us!
Now through Labor Day, visitors who submit their creative DMA photos will receive a chance to win a private tour of the DMA with curator Olivier Meslay, and everyone who participates receives a free ticket to Mind’s Eye: Masterworks on Paper from David to Cézanne.
Enter your own DMA snapshot here and enjoy some of the great photos that we’ve already received – even Chef Stephan Pyles got in on the action!
