In September, we did a Friday Photos post of The Mother Load Project installation in the Center for Creative Connections. Now that this interactive installation has been on view for a few months, we’d like to share some of the wonderful visitor responses. The Mother Load Project asks visitors to respond to the question:
In your life right now, what do you nurture, and why?
Visitors write their responses on small gray tiles and place their tile on one end of a balance marked for self or for others. I love coming in and seeing which way the balance is leaning on any given day and watching it change course over a matter of hours.
Here are just a handful of the thousands of responses we have received so far.
This time of year, it feels as if the city is overflowing with costumes, jack-o-lantern’s and trick-or-treaters! But in all the festivity, many of us tend to forget the origin of the holiday. Halloween, also known as All Hallows’ (Saints’) Eve, was historically a day for Christian worshipers to pray and prepare themselves for November 1, All Saints’ Day, a feast day dedicated to all the saints and martyrs of Christianity.
The DMA has a large number of artworks that depict saints, ranging in time period and media. I would like to take this occasion to highlight some of my favorites, from St. George slaying a dragon to St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters.
Albrecht Dürer, St. Paul, 1514, Dallas Museum of Art, Junior League Print Fund
Jusepe De Ribera, Saint James the Greater, 17th century, Dallas Museum of Art, The Karl and Esther Hoblitzelle Collection, gift of the Hoblitzelle Foundation.
Danube School, St. Sebastian, c. 1520, Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund
Albrecht Dürer, St. George on Foot, 1504-05, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of Calvin J. Holmes
Matthew Benedict, Saint Florian, 1997-98, Dallas Museum of Art, Mary Margaret Munson Wilcox Fund.
Miguel Cabrera, Saint Gertrude (Santa Gertrudis), 1763, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Laura and Daniel D. Boeckman in honor of Dr. William Rudolph
For more information on any of these saints or works of art, check out the DMA Collections webpage! And from all of us here at the DMA, enjoy your All Saints’ Eve and Day!
Liz Bola
McDermott Graduate Intern for Gallery and Community Teaching
In January 2014, the Center for Creative Connections (C3) launched a series of activities which take place at a large table in our gallery space. Each activity is related to a work of art in the C3 Gallery and offers resources to assist in visitors’ creative process.
The Hybrid Drawing with Light Boxes activity, which focuses on The Minotaur by Marcel Dzama, includes four large light boxes and printouts of works of art from the Museum’s collection so that visitors can combine human and animal figures to draw a hybrid creature.
The Patterns with Felt Triangles activity, which focuses on Starry Crown by John Biggers, includes 9×12 inch black felt backgrounds and a colorful assortment of small felt triangles that visitors can use to create patterns similar to those represented in the painting.
After each of the three activities had a one month trial period, we felt certain that they were successful, but wanted to learn more about why and how these activities were successful. As art educators, we know intrinsically that experiences with art make a difference in people’s lives. Yet, when we are asked to prove this it can seem an unattainable task. Proving the importance of art education is perhaps made even more daunting in an informal learning environment where visitors come for various reasons, but generally not to be quizzed about their experiences with art. So, we sought advice from our evaluator to determine goals, indicators, and potential interview questions for each activity and immediately set to the task of measuring the immeasurable. Since April, we have observed and interviewed participants at the gallery table each Saturday from 1:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. During that two and a half hour block of time we have found the following averages:
Portrait Drawing– on average 23, adults and 18 children participated; visitors spent about 13.8 minutes drawing with times ranging from 1 – 30 minutes.
Hybrid Drawing – on average 27 adults and 36 children participated; visitors spent about 10 minutes drawing with a time range of 1 – 50 minutes.
Patterns– on average 11 adults and 9 children participated; visitors spent about 7 minutes creating patterns with a range of 1 – 33 minutes.
Though these averages tell us a lot about how much time people spend and how many people engage in our activities, the most interesting aspect of this evaluation has been hearing our visitors’ feedback and seeing the images they post of their work on social media.
Visitor Feedback:
“Well, it’s like… it’s fun. Like drawing before was so serious and it had to be perfect, cause you were doing it for a grade. But this is just for enjoyment.”
“I’m guessing this was made for children? It’s fun and different and I didn’t expect to see this here. Yeah, it’s like that spark of creativity, kind of… childlike. I didn’t think I’d spend as much time or get into it like I did.”
“People think patterns have to be rigid, like red, yellow, blue and then repeat, but by playing with this you can be more creative.”
“This is more interactive than other galleries. [In] the other galleries you’re just looking, but here you get to do something.”
“I like to do the activity because it gets the kids interested in art, and if I do it, they’ll probably want to try it too.”
“It’s nice to make everyone focus. I would have never gotten him [points to husband] to do this at home.”
Through this evaluation we have come to better understand our visitors’ habits and motivations. For example, we found that most visitors do not read instructions. If the instructions are read it is only the main text at the top of the document that catches a visitor’s eye. This could be because these activities tend to attract visitors who prefer some amount of active doing or making rather than passive looking. Furthermore, visitors will spend more time participating in activities that provide seating and social interaction. Regarding motivations, we found that visitors who participate in these activities are likely to have some underlying interest in the media or subject matter presented.
As we move forward and continue to develop activities for the gallery table we will take these lessons into consideration. We will make our instructions more concise, we will offer activities that involve a social component, and we’ll branch out to include a variety of media so as to appeal to visitors who are interested in diverse artistic processes.
Sophie and Chloe served as the first models for a photo backdrop that connects to Nic Nicosia’s photograph titled Vacation, currently on view in C3
Sophie:
Wow. I did not realize how fast eight weeks would fly by. My internship at the DMA has been amazing — art-filled and action-packed. Through the Mayor’s Intern Fellows Program, I got a behind-the-scenes peek into the day-to-day running of the biggest (and still expanding) art museum in town. What a thrill! As a high school art student, it was exciting just to be in the same building as some of the beautiful and breathtaking masterpieces housed in the Museum, not to mention the opportunity to enhance visitors’ experience with these works. Working with visitors in C3 and behind the scenes gave me the chance to assist and interact with regular art patrons and newcomers alike, as well as see firsthand the DMA’s commitment to art education and visitor participation.
A lot of my time spent as a C3 intern was, of course, spent in C3! C3 is a hotspot for most Museum visitors — nearly everyone who enters is excited by the relaxed and hands-on atmosphere, and leaves with their own Art Spot creation. An extension of the C3 atmosphere is the Pop-up Art Spot, a cart filled with activities that moves through the galleries on a weekly basis. It allows museum-goers a chance to participate with works of art more closely and see things they might not have noticed before. Both C3 and the Pop-up Art Spot were a lot of fun because I was able to chat with visitors and learn their thoughts and perceptions on art pieces and the DMA. I met people who had been going to the DMA for the past twenty years and people who had never visited an art museum before. But it wasn’t all conversations — there are always plenty of supplies to be prepped!
One of my favorite projects was the July Late Night Creations activity, the “Curious Case of the Mystery Painting.” Chloe and I made and designed the materials for the activity and wrote (not to mention re-wrote) the instructions for this mystery-themed collaborative art project. We chose the two “mystery” paintings that would be recreated and then, after much multiplication, we gridded out the artworks into two-inch squares, which would be “clues” that participants would recreate on bigger pieces of cardboard. Slowly, piece of cardboard by piece of cardboard, the paintings would be revealed. The hardest part of creating this project was writing the instructions. Chloe and I quickly learned the value of one word instead of two, realizing that the shorter and more concise, the better. We wrote and rewrote numerous drafts until we eliminated all extraneous details and arrived at the instructions used during Late Night Creations. When I came to work the next day and saw the final masterpieces, I was astounded. The visitors did an amazing job in recreating the mystery paintings! Below are the activity instructions; scroll down to see the activity in progress and completed.
Gather materials
Grid out your clue and your cardboard
Draw the image on your cardboard
Paint it!
All too quickly these past eight weeks have sped by. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned, how much I’ve seen, how much I’ve done here at the DMA. My experiences have been widely varied—I now know both how to write a set of instructions for a community art project and the most efficient way of cutting cardboard for the Art Spot. I helped individuals with Alzheimer’s discuss pieces of art in Meaningful Moments and went behind the scenes to see exhibits go up and come down. I became an old pro at screenprinting T-shirts through assisting with the Design Studio summer art camp and listened as teens made soundscapes based on The Museum is History exhibition during a UA Maker Club workshop. I am so appreciative and thankful for my internship—the DMA, specifically C3, gave me a wide and varied experience in a field of work I would love to pursue. I learned so much this summer and I’m looking forward to volunteering in C3 soon!
Chloe:
My internship experience at the DMA this summer has taught me so much about different ways in which we can enhance our appreciation of art.
I first spent two weeks assisting the New World Kids 2 summer art camp. The classes encouraged children to create art books and stop-motion clips as well as develop back stories behind why their characters lived where they lived and the motivations behind what their characters were doing. It was exciting for me to see how the program inspired children to construct elaborate plots and plan out each scene as if they were budding directors or playwrights. I believe that walking children through the process of creating a story is an effective way to introduce them to the appreciation of art. In thinking about how they would design film sets, direct the acting, and develop the characters and sub-plots, children open their minds to a wider breadth in their interpretation of art.
All great artworks have a background story, a history to the subject matter, and a thought process behind the composition. This was illustrated in the European gallery, where I had the chance to admire the art alongside our visitors, thanks to the new Pop-up Art Spot. There, visitors have fun dressing up in costumes, making gesture drawings and writing dialogues for characters using magnetic words. Each painting presents a narrative, and the visitors participate in this narrative by coordinating their facial expressions, clothing, body pose, and setting with the artwork’s composition. At this Pop-up Art Spot, I saw how these activities enlivened the experience of visitors viewing the art pieces and inspired them to imagine the story behind the art. I see that art is not only to be admired, but to be experienced in full immersion. We are not only audiences, but participants.
Speaking of participation in art – at July’s Late Night, Sophie and I were excited to see visitors’ reception to the “Curious Case of the Mysterious Painting” activity we worked on together. We were thrilled that people enthusiastically lined up for their turn to contribute a clue by taking a section of an artwork poster and enlarging it on a piece of cardboard using paint. The next day I saw the mystery artworks that were recreated with the public’s contribution – the mosaics of the pieces came to life, with a beauty that can only come from a community of “artists” collaborating together for a night!
The grid for one painting with a few squares to get it started
Visitors add to the grid
The other painting grid, in progress
Gerald Murphy’s Razor, created by visitors
Gerald Murphy, Razor, 1924
Maurice de Vlaminck’s Bougival, created by visitors
I have discovered that telling a story is core to the purpose of art. An artwork is a mode of communication across time, even across dynasties and cultures, and artists create an extension of themselves and share with us a part of their being.
I am really grateful for the opportunity this summer to intern at C3! The department was very welcoming, and the staff took care to educate us while giving us leeway to express ourselves and take initiative. I loved meeting diverse people, from the speakers to the audience and members of the museum – everyday was a pleasure, and I have fond memories of my interactions and experience to bring home with me back to Hong Kong!
Thank you, Sophie and Chloe, for your very hard work this summer! We will miss seeing your smiling faces every day.
It has been my great pleasure to work in the education department at the Dallas Museum of Art for the past three years. My position as the Program Coordinator for the Center for Creative Connections (C3) has been such a huge opportunity to expand my K-12 art education and museum studies masters degree. I have had the great challenge to expand my knowledge in the classroom by leading the hands-on adult workshops in C3, working with local artists on the development of programs, leading programming for hundreds of people, mentoring young artists, and working with amazing people who have helped me grow as an educator. And now, I am thankful for a new opportunity to teach K-6 art for Richardson Independent School District and will forever be grateful to the DMA for my experience.
C3 Adults
To close, I would like to say goodbye by remembering some of my favorite times at the museum. There are far more experiences to remember, but thought I would count just thirty-six–one experience per month of working at the DMA.
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My top thirty-six (my three years x twelve months) memories from the DMA:
Meeting many artists and working with them to create dynamic workshops in C3.
Co-teaching a creativity program for adults.
Becoming friends with Meaningful Moments attendees John and Sue, and receiving my very own squirrel foot necklace!
Coming up with crazy Creativity Challenges for Late Night.
Working with studio art students from the University of North Texas to train them how to expand their practice by teaching workshops for adults.
Being the loudest one in the Center for Creative Connections office.
I loved being part of the Urban Armor graffiti camp with our teen specialist JC Bigornia and guest artist IZK Davies.
Doing yoga after hours in the Cindy Sherman exhibition with Melissa Gonzales!
Meeting so many talented adult visitors who have helped mold me into a better educator.
$1 coffee
Leading Creativity Challenges for J.P. Morgan; making them create a love story between two works of art and crafting what the baby would look like!
My incredible work-pal who brightened my day by leaving notes, gifts, and encouraging words on my desk weekly.
Giving impromptu tours to visitors of works of art in our collection.
Hosting Wayang Kulit artists in C3.
Holding Life Drawing classes in the DMA galleries.
Meeting Taye Diggs and helping Shane Evans lead a drawing workshop in C3 during the BooksmART festival to promote their children’s book Chocolate Me!
Hosting a poetry showcase with The Spiderweb Salon of Denton, Texas. I was able to hear many musicians and writers (many of whom were C3 visitors) respond through words and songs to an exhibition at the DMA.
Taking creativity breaks in the Crossroads Gallery.
Working with C3 Volunteer Robert Opel to create the vision for the C3 Adult Programs promotional flyer.
Receiving a phone call that Think Creatively changed one of my visitor’s lives and he will never be the same.
Having an incredible boss who took many chances by letting me run with my ideas!
Making new friends and being challenged by my colleagues.
Having access to see the Jean Paul Gultier exhibition anytime I wanted to.
Meeting many new people every day.
Working with Maria Teresa and experiencing how important art is to the community.
Working with Lesli Robertson and Natalie Macellaio on TheMotherload installation (opening September 2014) and the launch of parent and child summer camp called Side by Side.
Each summer, the DMA is lucky enough to have a group of wonderful interns to help coordinate the Museum’s numerous Summer Art Camps. This summer is no different; we have a fantastic group of ladies that have worked extremely hard the past thirteen weeks! The summer can be a bit crazy at times, but our wonderful interns always seem to keep their heads on straight. I invited them to be guest bloggers this week, and to share their summer camp experiences so far as well as some other interesting tidbits. Enjoy!
Wilhelmina Watts
Wilhelmina in the Terrific Textiles camp.
Interning at the DMA art camps this summer has been one of the best experiences I could have asked for. As an aspiring art historian, working in the same building where so many masterpieces are housed is already a dream come true; but even better than looking at the artwork is helping the kids interact with it. I believe that a passion for anything starts from a place of having fun, so my number one goal is always to make learning about art and creating works of art as fun as possible. Working with one of the classes in the contemporary gallery pushed me to find fun and interesting things about artworks that I had never had an interest in before. I know it may sound cliché, but the kids are the ones teaching me, and getting to know each new group of campers is always the best part of camp.
Denise in the Saturated: Dye-decorated cloths from North and West Africa exhibit.
Denise Sandoval
These past weeks at the DMA have been fantastic. I have enjoyed assisting the children and teachers during each camp. I find that helping one another is great and brings happiness to all, and that is what makes each week of camp a success. At times the work may be tiring, but it is so much fun to create works of art. I love that each week of camp is a different topic, because it gives me and the campers a chance to create difference types of art, which is really exciting. Personally, it’s a pleasure to not only see the children grow, but also the adults. The teachers and interns are experiencing success for their future by being involved in these summer camps.
Laila Jiwani
Laila working with a camper.
It is amazing to see these campers unleashing their artistic potential and showcasing their personalities. As part of the New World Kids 2 summer camp, we had guest speakers come into the studio and talk about their jobs. By the end of the week, one kid decided she wanted to become a director when she grows up, another created his own stop-motion film, and another made a two-story model dollhouse inspired by a visit from our exhibit designer. One of the the greatest perks of this internship is that, in a way, we get to attend the camps with the kids. We are learning about instructional strategies while we experience them ourselves as we help with daily activities. I am also learning so much more about art and its history than I had expected! It seems like an adventure every time we explore the galleries with the kids for inspiration, especially in the early mornings when we have the museum all to ourselves.
Ashley Ham
Ashley in The Museum is History exhibit.
Living out of a suitcase and couch-hopping around Dallas is an adventure of the best kind. Normally, you will find me in a land of weird people in burnt orange (hook ‘em horns), but for this summer, I find myself learning from the best at the DMA! As an aspiring art educator, assisting with summer camps has been a recent check off my bucket list. Every week a new teacher steps in, bringing interesting projects and showcasing different techniques in classroom management, and I feel like a sponge soaking up as many great teaching tips as I can! While I am a proponent of any and all fine art summer camps, one thing that I have enjoyed immensely (and something that I believe sets these DMA camps apart) is the ability to take campers through the wonderful art galleries right outside our camp studios. The opportunity to stroll down a corridor and show campers the artists that inspire their projects is matchless. The drive up I-35 from Austin to Dallas isn’t always my favorite way to spend 3… or 4… or 5 hours, but for the DMA I’ll make it any time.
Miyoko Pettinger
Miyoko in the Never Enough exhibit.
During my time at the DMA, my awareness of art history has increased along with my understanding of children with various interests, backgrounds, and personalities. One of my favorite experiences has been accompanying teachers throughout tours in the galleries, which provided the children with historic context and inspiration from pieces held in the DMA’s collection. In addition to expanding my scope of art history, I also observed the children directly applying the artistic styles and techniques they learned. Whether dancing to music while creating quick-gestured, improvisational Jackson Pollock-style pieces or implementing Paul Signac’s meticulous method of Pointillism, the children brought an impassioned joy, focus, and energy to the studio. Additionally, I have enjoyed building relationships with the children, interns, and teachers, all of whom have been exceedingly kind, encouraging, and hardworking. Each week, the classmates quickly bonded with each other over various projects and group activities. The teachers and interns have shown to be some of the most supportive people with whom I have ever worked. They possess selfless, uplifting attitudes and created a warm and safe environment. Children were always encouraged and never told they were doing art “the wrong way.” Instead, they were given a success-rendering balance of structure and creative liberty. I have gained an indispensible understanding of art and children along with treasured experiences that will prove invaluable in my future career as an art therapist.
Many thanks to Ashley, Denise, Laila, Miyoko and Wilhelmina for acting as guest bloggers and being a part of the DMA Family Programs team this summer!
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to create a painting over eight feet tall and almost seven feet wide? If so, stop by our newest Pop-up Art Spot in the Contemporary gallery and get immersed in Richard Diebenkorn‘s Ocean Park No. 29. Visitors of all ages are invited to assemble a life-size puzzle of this painting with large pieces of felt. Just be ready to get physical as you bend over, stretch, and reach as far as you can to put it together!
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This Pop-up Art Spot engages other senses, too: use your sense of touch (unusual in an art museum!) as you explore the texture of oil paint on small canvas samples or pair different scents with the colorful paintings around you.
Below is our upcoming schedule for the Pop-up Art Spot. We change locations from week to week, so be sure to visit us between February 11-16 to engage your senses!
January 28-February 2: fourth floor landing, Modern American gallery
February 4-9: third floor, Indonesian gallery February 11-16: first floor, Contemporary gallery
P.S. – This Pop-up Art Spot was created by our wonderful intern Tyler Rutledge, who was featured in a blog post last month.
Throughout the month of January, our Early Learning program participants have enjoyed spending time with contemporary art here at the DMA.
January’s Toddler Art class focused on the colors found in Sam Francis’ breathtaking Emblem. The toddlers had a blast pretending to mix and splatter paint onto the giant canvas!
We also celebrated a successful launch of the DMA’s newest class, Art Babies, designed for children 0-24 months and their caregivers.
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Amelia Wood McDermott Intern for Family and Access Teaching
Artworks shown:
Mark Rothko, Orange, Red, and Red, 1962, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated
Sam Francis, Emblem, 1959, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated
Sam Francis, Untitled (Black Clouds), 1952, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, by exchange
Adolph Gottlieb, Orb, 1964, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase
Ashville Gorky, Untitled, 1943- 1948, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase, Contemporary Arts Council Fund
Clyfford Still, Untitled, 1964, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated
Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park No. 29, 1970, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated
With October just a few days away, the DMA is gearing up to participate in Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month.Art Beyond Sight raises public awareness of ways that individuals who are blind or visually impaired can take part in art-related activities.
One way that art can be explored beyond sight is through the sense of touch. Wandering the DMA’s galleries, it’s easy to find works of art that are full of interesting textures. Although we can’t actually touch the displayed works of art, it’s still fun to imagine how they might feel. Here are a few of my favorites:
I imagine that this pangolin skin hat has an extremely scaly texture. Unlike the smoother scales of some animals, the pangolin’s skin seems to be much pricklier, almost like a pine cone!
This Peruvian panel is covered in a thick mass of beautiful macaw feathers. I imagine that the lush feathers make this work of art extremely soft to the touch.
This Indonesian jaraik was once hung outside a house as a protective figure. Made from wood and metal, the lower portion of the jaraik is pointed at the ends, like a misshapen pitchfork. Because of this, I imagine that it would be sharp to the touch.
Brancusi’s sculpture, Beginning of the World, includes an egg-shaped form made from marble. I imagine that the marble figure has a smooth, sleek texture—much like the eggs that I purchase regularly at the grocery store!
What other works of art can you find that are smooth, sharp, soft or scaly? Can you think of any other textures that are found in works of art here at the DMA? Tell us what your favorite textured works of art are and be sure to visit us during the month of October to take part in one of our many Art Beyond Sight activities!
Artworks shown:
Pangolin skin hat, 20th century, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa, Dallas Museum of Art, Lent by Michael and Shelly Dee
Panel with rectangles of blue and yellow featherwork, c. A.D. 650-850, Huari culture, Peru, Dallas Museum of Art, Textile Purchase Fund
Protective figure (jaraik) in the form of an animal, 1900, Taileleu village, Indonesia, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Fund, Inc.
Constantin Brancusi, Beginning of the World, 1920, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. James H, Clark
Amy Elms McDermott Education Intern for Visitor Engagement
Have you ever noticed all the artful hairstyles in the DMA galleries?
William Wetmore Story, Semiramis, designed 1872, carved 1873, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Morynne and Robert E. Motley in memory of Robert Earl Motley, Jr., 1942-1998
Semiramis’ curls fall perfectly down her back.
Olowe of Ise, Kneeling female figure with bowl (olumeye), c. 1910-1938, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.
This braided style reaches amazing heights.
Christian Gullager, Portrait of a Woman, c. 1790, Dallas Museum of Art, The Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Collection, gift of Faith P. Bybee
By the late 18th century, wide hair was all the rage.
The President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy arriving at Love Field, Dallas, November 22, 1963, Courtesy of The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Dallas Times-Herald Collection
And Jackie’s 60’s flip is always classic. Catch it before Hotel Texas closes this weekend!
Happy styling!
Sarah Coffey
Assistant to the Chair of Learning Initiatives
