Posts Tagged 'special exhibitions'

Friday Photos: Canines vs Felines

Since the arrival of Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt, the DMA has been serving some serious cat-titude. We’ve spent the past few months celebrating these awesome animal companions in several different ways: families could enjoy our Friendly Felines family guide while others could really get into the spirit of the exhibition with the Divine Felines Spotify playlist.

However, as a dog person, I think man’s best friend could use a little more attention. Here are a few of our dearest dogs matched against some of our favorite felines from the collection. Which would you prefer?

Make sure you visit Divine Felines before the exhibition closes this Sunday, January 8!

Jessica Thompson
Manager of Teen Programs

Draw like Edward Hopper!

Hopper Drawing: A Painter’s Process, currently on view at the DMA, is the first exhibition to explore the drawings of American artist Edward Hopper. Hopper is most well-known for his paintings. In fact, Hopper’s paintings inspired some Alfred Hitchcock films! It’s not as widely known that Hopper was great with a pencil or pen and paper, and he often sketched to work out themes that interested him. Many of these themes later became the subjects of his celebrated paintings.

Hopper did not draw strictly from reality. The artist explained that he worked both “from the fact” and by “improvising,” or working from his imagination. Though he worked from visual observation, he would tweak elements of his composition. Perhaps he would remove a lamppost, add a figure, or slightly change the angle of perspective.

In this exhibition, you can learn about Hopper’s process not only by observing his drawings, but also by trying it out yourself. After entering Hopper Drawing, pick up a pencil and a clipboard from the wall in the first gallery. Be inspired by Hopper’s sketches around you and draw your own surroundings. This could be people, things, or the interiors or exteriors of buildings. Then, combine your observational sketches into one composition that incorporates elements from reality and your imagination, in the same way Hopper worked out compositions for his paintings through sketching.

We look forward to seeing what you create!

clipboards

Andrea Severin Goins
Interpretation Specialist

 

Late Night on the Streets of Paris

Last Friday, the Museum kept its doors open until midnight celebrating Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries. During this special Late Night, visitors went on tours of the exhibition, attended lectures about the Parisian celebrities featured on the posters, learned a few French words and phrases, and much much more! Check out some of the highlights of the evening below.

The Matt Tolentino Band created a Parisian ambiance with their French mussette style, getting couples on their feet dancing.

About every hour, an energetic and impressive crew of acrobats, contortionists, and circus performers from Lone Star Circus amazed visitors up and down the Concourse.

Throughout the night, the Poster Studio at the end of the exhibition remained packed with visitors creating their own posters to take home and display on the Poster Studio wall.

From art-making in the Center for Creative Connections to yoga with our resident yogini, there were plenty of activities available for kiddos. One of my favorite family programs is Bedtime Stories with the award-winning storyteller Ann Marie Newman. She always comes dressed in character with props, images, and incredibly creative interactive stories. On this occasion she based her stories on posters from the exhibition. While she animatedly told the tales, images were projected on the wall behind her and kiddos were invited to act out the stories all around her. It was quite a sight to see!

Did you miss all the Late Night Friday fun? Not to worry! The exhibition is open through January 20th and there are plenty more Posters of Paris inspired programs scheduled, including a City of Light free First Tuesday, Gallery Talks, and art-making activities for your littlest learners. We also have some ongoing activities available for anytime you visit the exhibition. As you enter, pick up a Posters of Paris Scavenger Hunt to guide your journey through the streets of Paris, then before you bid us “adieu” create your own poster in the Poster Studio. If you’re still feeling inspired after your visit, use our Culinary Canvas recipe to bake your own Sarah Bernhardt cookies or download our poster-making activity to try at home.

Amusez-vous, mes amis!

Hannah Burney
Community Teaching Programs Assistant

Friday Photos: Plumed Serpent Teacher Workshop

Last Saturday we kicked off the first teacher workshop of the fall: Cacao, Codices, and Cross-Cultural Connections. We explored  The Legacy of the Plumed Serpent in Ancient Mexico and considered the complex trade networks and the shared artistic styles between the multilingual societies in Post-Classic Mesoamerica. We also spent quality time with the Codex Nuttall, the Mixtec picture book that tells a story without the use of a written language.

Groups of workshop participants created their own codices of popular or historical events. Groups had to guess each other’s narrative, testing the difficulty of communicating without words. Would you have been able to guess what stories their codices were telling?

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Join us for a Saturday teacher workshop on October 6 or November 17!

Until next time,

Andrea V. Severin
Coordinator of Teaching Programs

A Look Back at the 2011-2012 School Year

School is out for the summer! It’s amazing how quickly this busy year flew by. We’d like to take a moment to celebrate some of the accomplishments of this year, and look ahead to some of the highlights for next year.

Museum Visits

  • During the course of the year, we provided docent-guided tours to approximately 37,352 people.
  • The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk exhibition brought in the most docent-guided and self-guided groups with a whopping 11,455 visitors.
  • This fall, we anticipate a large number of group tours for The Legacy of the Plumed Serpent in Ancient Mexico exhibition.  We begin taking requests for the 2012-2013 school year on August 1st, so don’t forget to sign up!

Loryn Leonard
Coordinator of Museum Visits

Go van Gogh Classroom Visits

Thank you docents, Go van Gogh volunteers, students, and teachers, for a wonderful year!

Hannah Burney
Go van Gogh Programs Assistant


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