Posts Tagged 'Denver Art Museum'

Friday Photos: To Denver We Go!

Each of the McDermott Interns here at the DMA have the opportunity to participate in an approved professional development opportunity. In early February, I took a trip up to Denver to learn from their Education staff and observe some of their Access Programs. I also connected with Access Gallery, a smaller local nonprofit. I had never been to Colorado and was blown away by both the geographical beauty and the warm welcome I received from each of the museum and art professionals with whom I was able to speak.

On my first full day, I met up with three different members of the Education Department at the Denver Art Museum, then observed their Art and About Tour, which is similar to the Dallas Museum of Art’s Meaningful Moments program that serves individuals with early stage dementia and their family members or caregivers. On this tour, we went to the Japanese art galleries and learned about Japanese tea ceremonies and Samurai.

Here are some photo highlights from my trip!

On day two, I met with the Director of the Access Gallery, who gave me a tour of their space and of their current gallery show, Stick’em Up Chuck, a show of artwork made out of donated stickers.

Take a peek at some of the students’ artworks, their work space, and one of the pieces hanging in Stick’em up Chuck!

The Access Gallery is a drop-in style art-making space where teens and young adults can learn about art, develop their skills, and gain economic opportunity. The students all have a chance to sell their individual art pieces in the gallery’s store, as well as contribute to the larger pieces that are on sale as part of the current gallery show. Through these opportunities, mentally or physically disabled students who may not be able to hold a traditional job gain access to valuable skills like teamwork, time management, and listening to a boss.

As a growing museum professional, this trip was truly enlightening and I’m so grateful to have gotten to experience the incredible programming going on in Denver!

Until next time!

Grace Diepenbrock
McDermott Intern for Family and Access Teaching

Teaching for Creativity: Two Cool Web Sites

One of the ways that I like to inspire and motivate my own creativity is to surf the web and see what’s happening at other places and museums in the world.  When I find something I like, I will periodically revisit a web site to see what is new and also reconnect with some of the creative sparks that caught my mind on the first visit.  For this post in the Teaching for Creativity series, I am sharing with you two art museum web sites that are quickly becoming regular stops on my web surfing adventures, and are particularly relevant to the themes of art, artists, and creativity.

Tate Modern: turbinegeneration
This innovative website is based on the idea of international exchange and collaboration. Designed for schools, artists, and galleries, the Tate’s Unilever Series: turbinegeneration project is an offshoot of their annual Turbine Hall installation sponsored by Unilever.  Each year, the Tate Modern commissions an artist to create an installation for this colossal space.  The most recent Unilever Series artist featured on the turbinegeneration website is Ai Weiwei.  The next artist to be featured is Tacita Dean.  The installation created by each artist serves as the catalyst for students, teachers, and artists participating in the turbinegeneration project.  Through basic social media, participants can connect and share ideas and artworks that are inspired by the work of artists featured in the Unilever Series.  An online gallery of artworks created in response to the work of Ai Weiwei includes participants from Brazil, United Kingdom, Korea, Portugal, and India.  How cool is it to see how students across the world respond to the work of this contemporary artist!

Denver Art Museum: Creativity Resource for Teachers
This website from the Denver Art Museum launched several years ago on the premise that the creativity of artists can inspire the creativity in each of us.  The site houses a wealth of resources that can be sorted by artwork or lesson plan topic and grade level. Each featured artwork includes information about the maker and the inspiration for the piece, as well as things to look for and multimedia resources that may be useful for teaching.  

What websites inspire you?  Which ones do you find yourself returning to over and over again for creative ideas?  Share your websites in the comment section below – I would love to hear about them and add them to my web surfing adventures.

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships


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