Posts Tagged 'Encountering Space'

Off the Wall: Garbage Disposal

In our Center for Creative Connections we ask visitors to reflect on their responses to the spaces they encounter in art, as well as those they encounter in their everyday life.

For one work of art specifically, Lee Bontecou’s Untitled, we ask visitors to respond to one of three prompts:

    • To me, sharing space with this work of art feels like…
    • The words or pictures that come to mind when I look at this work of art are…
    • If this work of art was part of something larger, describe what it would be.

Untitled (35), Lee Bontecou, 1961

We have gotten a lot of great responses from visitors and want to share a few with you. Once a month we will have an “Off the Wall” post featuring three responses left by visitors.

Next time you are in the Center for Creative Connections add your contribution to the wall and maybe you will see it on Uncrated!

The hole goes all the way down to space…

Lee Bontecou, Untitled (35), 1961, welded metal and canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, 1963.92.FA.

We spend a lot of time here in the Education Department thinking about works of art in our collection and how we can engage visitors with them in provocative, meaningful ways.  The fun part comes when we go out into the galleries to talk to visitors about what they see and what artworks mean to them. 

This past Tuesday afternoon, I spent some time in the Center for Creative Connections talking to a few visitors and one staffer about Lee Bontecou’s Untitled (35), an artwork in the new Encountering Space installation.  Next to Untitled (35), we have a metaphor response wall where visitors can leave their thoughts about the artwork, in response to a few prompts.  I asked visitors a variation of one of the prompts:  What words or pictures come to mind when you look at the work of art?  Below are their responses (look for visitors in the slideshow!). 

It looks like a well, an endless well.  It goes down deep in the ground, so deep you can’t see it.  Not even a flashlight would help.  If you keep imagining, the hole goes all the way down to space, you can see stars.
    
-Corinthia, 9 years-old

It looks like something’s in it.
     
-Kody, 4 years-old

It’s mysterious, and very intriguing.
     
-Brittany, Kody’s mom

Upon walking up, it looks like a carpet design coming out at you.  Like it used to be flat, but it’s coming out at you.  I thought it looked like a volcano, too.
     
-Victoria

From far away it looks like a stadium, but then I got closer, and it looks like a building.  It reminds me of the movie Inception–how the buildings come apart.
      -Ivan

It looks like it should be in the Nightmare Before Christmas.
     -Jennifer

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Readers, what words or pictures come to mind when you see this artwork?

Amy Copeland
Coordinator of Go van Gogh Outreach

Encountering Space in the New C3

Amy Copeland is the Coordinator of the Museum’s Go van Gogh outreach program to local elementary schools and a frequent blogger on the DMA Educator Blog. She has graciously agreed to share some of her experiences with the new exhibition in our Center for Creative Connections, aka C3. Last Saturday, more than 3,000 visitors helped us celebrate the opening of Encountering Space in the completely reconfigured C3 on National Museum Day. Stop by during Art in October, a monthlong celebration of the Dallas Arts District, for a chance to experience Encountering Space for yourself.

And now, here’s Amy . . .

One of my favorite things to do is poke around the Museum when exhibitions are being installed. I like seeing the bare walls pre-installation, and then watching as they get painted, and the vitrines begin to appear in the galleries, and objects are brought into the space, bringing it to life. I usually only catch glimpses of this process, but I’ve had a fun last few weeks walking through the Center for Creative Connections every day during the construction of the new Encountering Space exhibition. (My office is at the back of the space–lucky me!)

Below are pictures from the installation and a few from the opening day celebration last Saturday. They show just a fraction of this incredibly dynamic space, so I hope you’ll come explore it for yourself.

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Amy Copeland is the Coordinator of the Dallas Museum Art’s Go van Gogh outreach program

Encountering Space

One of my favorite things to do is poke around the Museum when exhibitions are being installed.  I like seeing the bare walls pre-installation, and then watching as they get painted, the vitrines begin to appear in the galleries, and objects are brought into the space, bringing it to life.  Usually I only catch glimpses of this process, but I’ve had a fun last few weeks walking through the Center for Creative Connections every day during the construction of the new Encountering Space exhibition.  (My office is at the back of the space–lucky me!). 

Below are pictures from the installation.  They show just a fraction of this incredibly dynamic space, so I hope you’ll come explore it for yourself. 

Opening Day for Encountering Space is tomorrow.  It will be a perfect day to stop by the Museum; performances, art activities, and artist workshops are scheduled throughout the day, and best of all, the Museum will be free.

Amy Copeland
Coordinator of Go van Gogh Outreach 

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