Posts Tagged 'gallery interactive'

Friday Photos: Feline Good at the DMA

It’s been almost a month since Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt opened here at the DMA and it’s been purrfectly amazing how much our visitors have enjoyed the exhibition. In addition to over eighty ancient objects, the exhibition also features an educational space which offers interactive learning opportunities.

At the sound wall, you can listen to stories of deities in Ancient Egyptian mythology, courtesy of our favorite storyteller Ann Marie Newman.

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The goddess Bastet, whose head is cat-shaped.

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Images (left to right): Cat’s Head, Egypt, Roman Period, 30 B.C.E.–3rd century C.E., bronze and gold, Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 36.114; Sphinx of King Sheshenq, Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22–Dynasty 23, c. 945–718 B.C.E., bronze, Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 33.586; Standing Lion-Headed Goddess, Egypt, Late Period or later, 664–30 B.C.E., faience, Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.943E

You can also smell the perfumes, oils and incense that played an important role in Ancient Egyptian daily life and the afterlife. Experience the scents a Pharaoh might have encountered in an ancient temple, or those the embalmer might have smelled while preparing a mummy for the afterlife.

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Reading Area and Scent Bar

You can also find a selection of objects in this area that are part of the Museum’s own collection, so be sure to hunt down the felines we have present all across the Museum!

A selection of these works can be found in our Cats Across the Collection self-guided tour and our Feline Friendly Family Guide. And don’t forget to check out all the upcoming exhibition programs here. We’re not kitten around when we say a visit to the Museum is the purrfect fall activity for all our cat-lovers out there!

Marta Torres
McDermott Graduate Intern for Visitor Engagement

Community at LARGE

If you’ve visited the Center for Creative Connections (C3) within the last week, you may have noticed that the popular Art Spot is currently under construction. In addition to this redesign, we’re also installing a new work of art and related activity. Often when we plan these types of activities, we begin with the work of art as inspiration. This time, however, we started with the activity and found a work of art that fit.

Last summer during our July Late Night we hosted a drop-in program in the C3 Studio where visitors participated in a communal grid enlargement project. As visitors entered the studio they received a small image square and a larger blank card. Their task was to paint the image from their square onto their blank card and then display their painted card on a large grid in the back of the room. Over the course of the evening, the identity of the two paintings were revealed as visitors completed their cards and added them to the wall. The activity was such a success that we decided to recreate it in the C3 gallery this summer.

The question was, which work of art to choose? We had a few ideas that guided our decision. First, since this is an enlargement activity, we were looking for a relatively small work of art. Also, since the activity takes place in the gallery, visitors will be limited to using colored pencils, so we wanted a work of art that demonstrated that kind of mark-making. Originally we considered a drawing, but after consulting with our registrars, we found that lithographs or engravings might also be a good option. Finally, subject matter was of great importance; we wanted something bright and lively. All of these specifications led us directly to Progress Suite by Luis Alfonso Jimenez, Jr.

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Progress Suite exemplifies all of these qualities: it’s a colorful dynamic lithograph created by a Texas-born artist, measuring 23.5 inches x 35 inches. It will be enlarged by visitors to 300% of its original size. This mock-up illustrates just how large the activity will be.

c3 Protoyping Wall Elevation

Throughout the summer, as more visitors participate, the drawing will grow and evolve. Stop by the Center for Creative Connections to contribute to our scaled-up reproduction of Progress Suite and watch how this “living” drawing, made by our community, changes over time.

Jessica Fuentes
C3 Gallery Manager


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