Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
Even though our galleries had “the day off,” today the Museum hosted Art in Bloom, the Dallas Museum of Art League’s annual symposium and luncheon. The springtime event provides generous support for the League’s Floral Endowment and the Museum’s exhibitions and educational programs.
Photography by Adam Gingrich, Marketing Assistant at the Dallas Museum of Art
I look forward to spring for several reasons: warmer weather, hints of green and color coming out on trees and plants, and the National Art Educators Association Convention. Held in a different city each year, the Convention provides opportunities for us to meet museum and classroom educators from all over the United States, as well as other countries, and to learn what our colleagues are doing and thinking about in their respective cities. On the flip-side, DMA educators often lead conference sessions and share about the new and exciting programs that consume our daily lives.
The most recent Convention took place in Seattle during Spring Break. I took part in a session with Elizabeth Gerber and Sofia Gutierrez, educators from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We all work closely with afterschool programs, and evaluation and reflective practice are essential to the development and refinement of our programs. We led a session that not only described our programs but also encouraged our audience to share their practices. Meet our most distant Community Connections to date below:
Briefly describe your position at LACMA.
Elizabeth: In a nutshell, I aim to connect the art at LACMA with the lives of students and teachers throughout Los Angeles County. This includes working with multi-visit school programs where kindergarteners through high school students visit the museum multiple times; programs that take place in schools, libraries, and community centers; and professional development opportunities for classroom teachers. These programs occur during school, after school, in the evenings, and on the weekends. LACMA even creates an exhibition at a local elementary school each year!
Elizabeth Gerber
Sofia: I coordinate the out-of-school afterschool component for the Art Programs with the Community: LACMA On-Site program. We have a partnership with the Los Angeles Public Library, the YMCA, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The majority of the workshops happen at the seventeen partner libraries, where we hold weekly sixty- to ninety-minute hands-on art programs focused on developing critical thinking skills, creativity, and personal connections. I work closely with our teaching artists by mentoring, looking over lesson plans, collaborating on professional development, team teaching, and further developing best strategies for equal voicing opportunities for our participants, many who are English Language Learners. Each workshop has learning and social goals that were developed from our two-year participatory evaluation modeled after the Theory of Change. I also work closely with the librarians and other community partners and coordinators in our programs to ensure we are meeting the educational and life-long learning needs of their community, and to extend the hospitality of LACMA as part of their community.
Sofia Gutierrez
What was your favorite part of your Seattle NAEA experience?
Elizabeth: This year I really enjoyed the opportunity to think “big” about museums and the ways they connect with audiences and communities. This work encompasses everything from collaborating with living artists, to evaluating the work of museums, to articulating the ways museums have an impact on their visitors and program participants.
Sofia: I especially enjoyed hearing about all the inspiring work that is being done in the field of Museum Education and the nation’s libraries, and the call to action from our profession to ensure that the nation is aware of the crucial role and value of these public institutions, and that museums along with libraries, not just the sciences, are leading the way in developing 21st Century Skills.
If you could take any work of art from the LACMA collection home with you, what would you choose? (I know I ask this question of all our museum colleagues, but this is a great way to learn about the treasures of their collections!)
Elizabeth: It is tough to pick just one! Although my background is in contemporary art, I’d love to live with Copenhagen: Roofs Under the Snow by Peter-Severin Krøyer.
Sofia: I would choose Veiled Christ, a small 18th century Italian terracotta sculpture of Christ entombed with a shroud covering his body. And if that wasn’t available, I would take The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1638-1640, by Georges de La Tour.
Melissa Nelson
Manager of Teaching in the Community
Over the past few days, I have been thinking about the ways we communicate through words and images. In grade school, we are taught to look for contextual clues to determine the meaning of unknown words. We make the same application when we look at images that are both familiar and unfamiliar to us. Images are all around us – in books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, and museums, just to name a few.
To make sense of what we see, we often create events in our minds about what we think the image is about. For example, a work of art may suggest a story to us – the work could show the beginning, middle, or end of a story. Some artworks may be more narrative than others. Take a look at the following images by artists Charlie White and Gregory Crewdson.
In the photograph Untitled (boy with hand in drain), Gregory Crewdson encourages us to look closely at the scene of a young man reaching down the drain into a sinister-looking space below. Using a sound stage or working on location, Crewdson directs each photograph as if it were a feature-length film, placing his models exactly where he wants them. Everything in the photograph has a specific purpose from the Scope mouthwash on the sink to the soap in the shower to the light from the window.
In Inland Empire, Charlie White draws our attention to the lower left side of the photograph where a woman wields an iron pipe at a hideous monster. Although the scene appears as if it is from a science fiction movie, it seems strangely familiar, like an urban American landscape that we have encountered at some point during our lifetime. This computer-assisted photograph demonstrates the influence of special effects on the technique and process of photography and the motion picture industry.
The stage is set and ready for us to complete the stories. What do you think happens next in either Untitled (boy with hand in drain) or Inland Empire? Use all of the contextual clues in the photographs to aid in creating a new narrative.
To explore more photographs in the Museum’s collection, go to Picture This: 20th and 21st Century Photographs.
Until next time….
Jenny Marvel
Manager of Programs and Resources for Teachers
Artworks featured:
Gregory Crewdson (American, born 1962), Untitled, 2001-2002 Digital C-print, The Rachofsky Collection and the Dallas Museum of Art: DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund, 2002.45
Charlie White (American, b. 1972), The Inland Empire, 1999 Light jet chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas, Dallas Museum of Art, Mary Margaret Munson Wilcox Fund, 1999.180
It has been nearly twenty years since the Dallas Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of Native American art. All of that will change on April 24th when Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection opens. The exhibition features 135 works of art collected by Eugene and Clare Thaw, whose collection now resides at the Fennimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection will be arranged by geographic region, and will include works of art from the Northwest Coast, Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Arctic, California, and Great Basin regions. One of the artworks I am most excited to see in person is a horse mask made by the Nez Perce people. I am intrigued by the bright colors and intricate beadwork designs, and I can’t wait to include the horse mask on our summer tours. I’m also looking forward to learning more about the DMA’s collection of American Indian art through connections with the Thaw collection.
Horse Mask, c. 1875-1900, Nez Perce or Cayuse, Idaho, Oregon, or Eastern Washington, Thaw Collection, Fennimore Art Museum, photograph by John Bigelow Taylor
We have a very limited number of docent-guided visits to the exhibition available in the month of May. If you are interested in bringing your students to see the exhibition before the end of the school year, submit an Online Visit Request Form today! Students receive free admission to the exhibition when a visit is scheduled at least three weeks in advance. We will include the exhibition on our summer tours and are creating a Go van Gogh Summer Library Program around the exhibition. We look forward to sharing Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection with you and your students this spring!
Shannon Karol
Manager of Docent Programs and Gallery Teaching
Take a moment and imagine an African elephant at the Dallas Zoo. Now imagine an elephant at the Dallas Museum of Art. Were the images of the elephants the same? It would definitely make an interesting story (with a strong potential of damaging artworks) to see a live elephant in the Museum galleries! Although elephants are not allowed in the Museum, images and representations of elephants and other animals by living African cultures are.
On Saturday, January 29, twelve teachers from a variety of disciplines and grade levels joined the DMA and the Dallas Zoo for a full-day teacher workshop. Teachers spent the morning exploring animals from Africa in the DMA exhibition African Masks: The Art of Disguise and in the afternoon engaged with live animals in the Dallas Zoo’s Giants of the Savanna exhibition.
At the Museum, teachers considered the connections between the animals represented in masks and the living cultures that created the masks in response to their beliefs and surrounding environment. With a focus on antelope, elephants, and buffalo, Museum staff encouraged teachers to think about descriptive words that relate to each, observe the realistic and abstract qualities of the animal masks, and think about the context of each mask in relationship to the ceremonies performed by the different cultures.
The conversation continued at the Dallas Zoo as teachers discussed the location of the African Savanna, the animal habitats within, and the challenges facing animals in the different African countries. Luckily, the weather outside was extraordinary (the workshop occurred the weekend before the snow and ice), and the teachers were able to ride the monorail around the Zoo, participate in elephant observation studies, and feed the giraffes.
By the end of the day, teachers commented on their experiences with looking at patterns on the African masks and on the animals and made connections to the significance of animals within the cultures and countries in Africa.
We all had a great time and are looking forward to another collaborative teacher workshop with the Dallas Zoo soon! This workshop is one example of what the DMA offers to teachers of all grade levels and disciplines. Be sure to check the Teacher Programs website for new workshops later this spring.
Until next time….
Jenny Marvel
Manager of Programs and Resources for Teachers
We constantly encounter and use systems in our everyday lives – roadways, electricity, mathematics, language, and so much more. Although there are multiple definitions of a system, the one that seems to be the most universal is a grouping of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent items forming a unified whole.
An artist may employ a system in his or her creative process, in subject matter, or in concept. During the first part of the Contemporary Teacher Workshop (at the Dallas Museum of Art) on Saturday, February 19, participants will explore the theme of systems in select artworks from the 1960s through today in the exhibitions Re-Seeing the Contemporary: Selected from the Collection and Big New Field: Artists in the Cowboys Stadium Art Program. With a focus on language and systems within an artist’s process, educators will engage in interactive and interdisciplinary experiences that are applicable and translatable for the classroom. On Saturday, February 26, our conversation about the artist’s process will continue at The Rachofsky House as we view the current installation Process Imperfect.
There are a few spaces available for this two-part teacher workshop. If interested, please register online.
Here are a few artworks that may be a part of the conversation on Saturday, February 19:
We look forward to seeing you at the workshop!
Until next time….
Jenny Marvel
Manager of Programs and Resources for Teachers
Images in slide show:
Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park No. 29, 1970, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Meadows Foundation, Inc.
Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1990, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Friends of Contemporary Art
Sol Lewitt, Wall Drawing #398, 1983 (drawn 1985), Dallas Museum of Art, gift of The 500, Inc., Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Collins and Mr. and Mrs. James L. Stephenson, Jr.
Carl Andre, Pyramid (Square Plan), 1959 (destroyed) 1970 (remade), Dallas Museum of Art, General Acquisitions Fund and matching funds from The 500, Inc.
Usually, I interview artists, educators, and community partners with whom we partner in various programs. This month, I’m turning the spotlight on our own Shannon Karol. Shannon has worked at the DMA since 2005, with the exception of a short stint back in her home state of Michigan.
Tell us about your history with the DMA.
I first came to the Museum in 2005 as a McDermott Graduate Curatorial Intern, and I worked with Dr. Roslyn Walker, our Curator of African art. A big part of my intern responsibilities was working with scholars to gain permission to use their contextual photos in our catalog of the African collection. I did a bit of background research for the catalog, too.
I went away for a year to work at the Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State University, and returned to the DMA in August 2007 as Tour Coordinator.
Just last month, I was promoted to Manager of Docent Teaching and Gallery Interpretation. I’m now responsible for the Museum’s 108 docents, which includes training and helping them learn best practices for teaching in the galleries. I’ll also continue to work with some of our partner schools and school districts on their annual museum visits.
To what part of your new position are you most looking forward?
The most immediate thing I’m looking forward to is representing the Museum at the Super Bowl on Sunday. I’ll be there to talk about connections between the Cowboys Stadium Art Program and our Big New Field exhibition.
I’m also looking forward to training a new docent class and helping them get excited and prepared to be in the galleries with our student visitors.
On the field at Cowboys Stadium last fall with Molly and Amy
What do you miss most about Michigan? What do you like most about Texas?
I miss my family the most. But I do not miss the snow.
What I like most about Texas is having a part of my family here and spending time with my three teenage cousins, two of whom are teen docents. I also love the Texas weather when it’s seventy degrees and sunny in January.
What do you do in your free time?
I sew. I enjoy making purses and skirts, and I’m currently working on a dress that I plan to wear in Paris when I visit for the first time this summer.
How does your love for teaching with works of art extend outside the DMA?
Once a year, when I go home to visit my family in Michigan, I go to school with my sister to talk with her third-grade students about art. We look at images of famous works of art, including paintings from the DMA collection. I have them make up stories, write poems and tell me about what they see. We end the day with a “Pollock-ing” activity, which involves dipping marbles in paint and rolling them around in a baking tray lined with paper. Then, the kids make their own Andy Warhol-inspired self portraits. My sister takes black and white photographs of the students, and we give them highlighters to color in their portraits.
Shannon stands between the pillars of her two “home states” at the World War II Memorial in D.C.
Melissa Nelson
Manager of Teaching in the Community
This month the Museum celebrated its 108th birthday! The January Late Night is our official birthday party. Here’s a look at how we celebrated last Friday during the Late Night. We are THRIVING at age 108!
Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships
Full artwork image:
Jean Dubuffet, The Reveler (Le Festoyer), 1964, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Clark
As the new year begins, I encourage you to think about ways you can connect with with artists, artworks, and other K-12 colleagues at the Dallas Museum of Art. Here are two events that might prove to be inspirational, relaxing, or simply rejuvenating.
We look forward to seeing you at one or more of these events! Don’t forget, bring your educator ID on Thursday evenings to receive FREE admission to the Museum.
Until next time….
Jenny Marvel
Manager of Programs and Resources for Teachers
We celebrate the arrival of 2011 a bit earlier than most during the second annual Noon Year’s Eve with Radio Disney and over 4,200 visitors joined us. Families enjoyed a morning filled with games, give-aways, art, and a countdown to the new year at 12:00 p.m. We had to share some of our favorite moments from that day with you on Uncrated, enjoy!
