A Very Overdue Update

I know that it is cliché to say, but time sure does fly when you are having fun! This week is my fourth week interning at the DAM, and I am happy to report that I’ve been quite busy working on some very exciting projects. I’ve managed to now complete 4 artist files, the last one being Katharina Grosse from Germany. By the end of this week, I should have completed two more files (Nicola López and Shinique Smith), for a running total of 6 files. After a review of the work load, Sonnet decided to cut back on the number of files that needed to be completed—some artists are local, thus not needing much attention, and others are so well-known that the museum has had a lot of experience working with these individuals. In any case, I will be training another intern to complete the rest of the files.

I’ve also placed the “Talking with Visitors” papers on hold, given the fact that there are more urgent tasks that need to be taken care of as soon as possible. I’m really looking forward to these papers. It will be a great way to incorporate my knowledge of how visitors function in museums with my art history background. Last week, I even went on a Collection Highlights tour based upon these papers in order to get a sense of how the docents utilize the information educators have given to them. I found the tour to not be too far off from what I have generally experienced on art museum tours; however, I did notice the inclusion of quotes from artists, the informal atmosphere cultivated by the docent, and the focus on the visual. All of these things are imperative in creating visitor-centered dialogue with artifacts. Still, there is a lot of work to be done here.

Another exciting thing I have been dabbling with here and there is facilitating an interactive gallery experience within the current special exhibition The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-71. When the situation arises where there is no one to work the Side Trip interpretive area of the exhibition, I head over to the main building and assist patrons with making posters that mimic those seen in the galleries. This Side Trip area is an immersive environment that brings you back to the late 60s with the white cube of the museum gallery transformed into a colorful, comfy space filled with components such as lounge areas to watch TV and read magazines from the 60s, to write your own thoughts/comments/first/confessions from this era on rolodexes, music listening stations, etc. This is probably one of the coolest museum experiences I have encountered. Nina Simon, blogger of Museum 2.0, came to the DAM and then proceeded to blog about her experience. Check it out on the link below!

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/03/take-side-trip-to-denver-art-museum.html

I’ve also been briefed concerning various public programs that the DAM offers. More specifically, I have currently been exposed to Untitled, a public program that occurs once a month over roughly a six month period that serves to transform the museum into a more user-friendly environment. The DAM is currently using an IMLS grant to support this project, and I have been asked to assist in completing some of the goals of the grant for its first year. As a result, I will be researching how to measure advocacy within museum patrons, for that is something that the DAM wants to see develop through Untitled. I’ve also been asked to work on specific programming for upcoming Untitled experiences. This includes finding outside parties to come and perform various “Demo and Dos” relating to the museum’s collection and the themes of death, collaborative creation, and multiplicity. Lastly, I ended last week by attending an Untitled meeting with the other interns regarding how to market the next topic of the program…the problem was communicating the importance of the collection within the theme of “Old School.”

Now on to the meat of my internship (or at least what I want to be the focus of my time), the installation by Rupprecht Matthies. Last week, Sonnet, Emilie (education department’s administrative assistant), and I went to visit the two community organizations that we will be working with to generate content for Rupprecht’s installation: Emily Griffith Opportunity School and African Community Center. We reintroduced the project to them, I delivered to them a packet of images and essays about Rupprecht that I compiled, and we set up dates for the workshops. Those will happen in late July when Rupprecht is in town for 3 weeks. These groups were chosen because they both serve recent refugees, and Rupprecht’s theme for the words he will generate is arrival. We talked to Rupprecht via phone (he was in Munich), and so far our ideas about the pillow creation are on the right track (mentioned earlier).

Other than that I have sat in on NUMEROUS meetings concerning the interpretive plans for Embrace! , and we have made some progress on the lounge…floor plans, etc. I’m missing so much, but that is my update for you!

Oh, and there is a possibility that I am going to stay until November to document the process of the artists’ installations, assist in interviewing them, meet them (obviously), edit audio content from the interviews for the cell phone audio guide, etc. SO Exciting!!! We shall see…

Weekly Update

Another week has passed, and I am now beginning my third week on the job here at the Denver Art Museum. To catch you up to speed on what I've been doing over the last few days in the office, I've primarily been working on and FINISHING (YAY!) 3 artist files: Tara Donovan, Jessica Stockholder, and Matthew Brannon. They are extremely labor intensive, but for me—as an art historian at heart—I love it! Despite my excitement over this research, I was beginning to fear that I would be working on these files the entire time I'm here at the DAM, thus limiting the possible wide range of experiences I had been hoping for. Thankfully, Sonnet and I have weekly meetings, and I brought up this very fact. She agreed with my concern…thank goodness. I will now (at the most) have 5 files to complete, giving the rest to another intern to be here in August.
My time now will be divided between these files and writing the “Talking with Visitor’s” papers I have mentioned before.

An Image from the Garden of the Gods

A Fun Saturday Museum-Going

Today Victoria (a fellow intern) and I decided to visit a couple of museums in the downtown area. We were planning on going to the Museum of Contemporary Art, but for various reasons postponed that adventure for another Saturday. Instead, we went to the Molly Brown House Museum and the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art.








Images of the House on 1340 Pennsylvania

Did you know that Molly Brown is actually Margaret Brown? The writer of the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown changed her name because he thought it was more lyrical. We had an amazing tour guide, whose theatrical personality and story-telling abilities made the tour come to life.

Below you will find images of the Kirkland Museum. Nestled in the studio of artist Kirkland, this museum is an aesthetic overload. Victoria and I discussed it's parallels to Cabinets of Curiosities, as well as it's use of visible storage. Not my favorite museum. Buck and Gilmore would have cried at the lack of an HVAC system, open doors leading to a patio, and paintings hung outdoors.




Kirkland's studio. Those straps were used to hold Kirkland as he was adding his famous overlay of dots to his canvases.

The Day Buck and Gilmore Died

Elee Would Be So Proud

A fellow education intern, Victoria from Toronto, is doing some research on audience evaluation. I gave her the book we used in Elee's Museums and Audiences course, Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and Other Informal Educational Settings, for research purposes. She was so thankful, and now wants to buy the book for herself!

A Little List of Fun Things Done in Colorado

1) Buffalo Bill's Grave and Lookout Mountain

2) Garden of the Gods (pictures to be added soon)

3) Rockies vs. Padres game at Coors Field

4) Historic Georgetown, CO (west of Denver)

5) The Big Blue Bear at the Denver Convention Center

Going to see this weekend:

1) Museum of Contemporary Art with some fellow interns. They have a Damien Hirst exhibit!

Artist Files Galore!

After a brief hiatus from blogging (my computer has been having some major Internet problems), I am back writing about the fabulous time I am having in Denver, especially at the art museum. Let's see...so after my first few days of adjustment as well as doing some standard intern exercises (gallery observations, etc.), I have finally started working on some major projects. Currently, I am working on 18 (one artist dropped out...it was the file I was working on...so add another to the pile!) files for the various artists to be displayed in Embrace! These files will be used for interpretive purposes as the project progresses, meaning that educators will pull information from these files for interviews with artists, for cell phone audio content, website material, docent training material, etc. I have to say it is a very tedious project, but who better to do it than someone who is super detail-oriented! My first file (which I have finished!) is on Tara Donovan, a sculptor who uses everyday objects to create works that resemble biomorphic forms and topographies. You should check her out at
http://www.acegallery.net/artistmenu.php?Artist=8.

To give you a general overview of the amount of work it takes to complete a file, I will briefly outline the process I've created.

1) Research, research, research. I need to compile as much information on these artists as possible, which is not easy for many of them are new to the art scene or rather unknown. Thank goodness for a wonderful library in house and the Denver Public Library next door.

2) Create a reference list. From these resources, I create an extensive reference list for my file.

3) Read through all the material and categorize it based on the following divisions: biographical information, artistic process/mindset, materials, themes (as I find them), etc.

4) Once I feel that I have a solid understanding of how the artist works, I stop compiling and sorting information. I then write a series of interview questions that could possibly be used for various interpretive material to be placed in the exhibition, as well as a fact sheet of quick notes about the artist and his/her style.

5) I go back to the resource list and highlight writings that I believe would be the most useful for docents. These will be their required reading assignments before they can begin taking visitors on tours of the exhibition.

6) I repeat that 17 times.

Needless to say, one file could really take a week or more. I just need to learn control, and focus on not overdoing things. I have shown my mentor my work so far. She was impressed by my organizational skills and some additional components I added to the project beyond what she had asked (reference list, fact sheet, etc.) We had a really great weekly update meeting... : ) I love talking to people about museum and art!

ANYWAY...besides that specific task, I will soon be working on some documents called "Talking with Visitors" papers. These are papers designed by DAM educators for docents, and they are specifically made to engage visitors in the formation of their experience within the gallery. Essentially, they are talking points based on the visual elements of the works (paintings at this moment) that will serve to spark conversation among visitors. This is a side project...one that I may or may not get to for some time. Sonnet thought this would be right up my alley, and she was right.

The rest of my time has been spent going to meetings about Embrace! A team of three of us are continuing to work with the artist Rupprecht Matthies on his installation in August. He apparently wants to create 250 word pillows using museum staff and community members...we need to find a way to make that logistically possible from a craftsmanship standpoint.

Anyway, that is all for now!

My First Two Days at the DAM!

Unfortunately, for the last couple of days my internet at home has been out; however, we are back in action! Both yesterday and today have been incredibly enriching days, as I have begun my internship at the Denver Art Museum. My first surprise of this internship has been the fact that the museum (comprised of both the old “North” building and the new Hamilton building) does not actually house its administrative offices. That being the case, I actually work in the “Tremont” building, an old school administrative office just a few blocks northwest of the museum. It’s a quirky building with large blue exclamation points positioned across its façade. Needless to say, I didn’t have a hard time finding the building! ! ! ! ! ! !

Upon arrival, I met with my internship mentor—Sonnet Hanson. We immediately began our introductions, and I received a quick briefing on what I would be working on over the summer. I found out that within the education department at DAM, there are over 20 interns working in various capacities. I am labeled “Intern M,” which is slightly ironic since I go by the nickname “Em” most of the time. The major plus to being Intern M is that I have a sweet desk away from the long line of interns’ desks in the room adjacent to mine. Little things like this make me happy.

I then spent most of the afternoon going through a pile of paperwork already at my station, while also managing to set-up each of my numerous computer accounts and stock up my desk with office supplies. Nothing too exciting as far as actual work goes, but I could tell by my interactions with Sonnet, her personality, and the details of my projects which I will outline further in this post that this summer is going to be an extremely worthwhile experience. I’m so glad that I ventured outside of Indianapolis! Oh, the work day concluded with Sonnet, another museum employee, and I having a meeting about the upcoming exhibition entitled Embrace!

As previously mentioned, Embrace! is a special exhibition the Denver Art Museum will open in November of this year, which focuses on using the architecture of the new Hamilton building as inspiration for artistic creation. 17 artists will be included in this show, including Rupprecht Matthies…more on him later. I’m amazed at how strikingly similar this show is to a show done at the Indianapolis Museum of Art with Adrian Schiess. Like the IMA’s show, contemporary artists will create site-specific installations throughout select portions of Hamilton. As for the scope of my internship, the majority (if not all) of my work will focus on Embrace! and its associated interpretive content.

Beginning my second day at the DAM, Sonnet took me on a tour of the Hamilton building, pointing out exactly where each artist’s installation will be placed. Since the exhibition is all about place and space, this proved to be a great exercise in catching me up to speed not only on the nature of the project but also on the major themes weaved throughout its composition. After this meeting, we were joined by another education staff member to iron out some details about the installation to be done by Rupprecht Matthies.

Rupprecht Matthies is a contemporary German artist, whose body of work centers on the human encounters he experiences within various communities. Upon bringing these communities together, Matthies prompts these individuals to generate words that describe their interactions with one another (or other themes). Using these words, Matthies creates large (approx. 40-ft-long) word sculptures, which he places within various communities as well as in highly-visible public settings. By doing so, he sparks conversations among community members; in other words, Matthies’ work serves as a catalyst for the exchange of ideas between community members as well as a tool in the construction of community building. In addition to these word sculptures, Matthies also constructs word towers, word windmills, and word mobiles. Underlying his entire creative process, Matthies’ work is more about the process and his inclusion/cultivation of human relationships than it is about a final product. As my mentor states, “Matthies’ work underscores the power of art as inexhaustibly generative, as viewers bring their own life experience and associations with words to their art encounters.”

In the meeting mentioned above, our team discussed the possibilities of Rupprecht ‘s installation in the current gift shop area of the museum (it will soon be relocating). We discussed primarily the quantity of works Rupprecht could/should have, as well as decided which types of works should dominate the space and where they could be located. Our main conclusions were the following:

1) Rupprecht’s mobiles should be the most numerous type of artwork in the space, as they are easy and cheap to construct as well as visually appealing due to the amount of glass/windows in the space.
2) 2-3 word towers should anchor the space.
3) Wall paintings should be located on the one large, extended wall so as to close in the space and bring some level of intimacy to it.
4) Limit the number of word pillows (literally pillows in the shape of community-generated words) to a minimum due to fabrication concerns. Create a “bowl” atmosphere.
5) Columns should be used for our visitor response areas. As anchors to the space, they convey a sense of how important visitor input is to the exhibit as well as the institution.
6) I was assigned to return to take pictures of the space, especially the intriguing nooks and crannies, so we could create renderings to be approved by Rupprecht. Done.

Another meeting I went to today focused on the interpretive area for the exhibit as a whole. “The Lounge” as we call it is structured in the form of a living archive, where patrons will be able to see and do 3 main things:

1) View time lapse footage of the installation of 8/17 artists’ works (video)
2) View photographic documentation of these installations (scrapbook)
3) Complete an interactive that deals with using the rendering of the Hamilton building as inspiration (under construction).

After this meeting, I went to a security briefing to obtain my badge. Upon completion, I set off to begin an assignment all interns have to complete: a gallery observation of all the spaces of the museum…perhaps more on that later. I’m not entirely excited about it.

There is so much to say! Let me conclude today by listing the major tasks I will be working on:

1) Coordinating aspects of Rupprecht Matthies’ community project, as well as components of his actual gallery installation.
2) Developing a facilitated, interactive gallery experience within Rupprecht’s installation that has to do with visitor word generation.
3) Assist in editing the cell phone tour content for Embrace!
4) Working on ideas for “The Lounge.”
5) Developing the biographies of the 17 artists in the show, so that the interpretive writer has content to pull from.

My life is pretty awesome right now.

Architecture, Psychology and the Visitor Experience

Check this out:

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/michael-cannell/cannell/your-brain-architecture?utm_medium=awe.sm-facebook-post

How does architecture influence the experience a visitor has with an artistic environment? Considering the project I am currently working on with site-specific installations that have been inspired by architectural forms, this article sheds some light on what might work versus what might fail.