SECOND YEAR KNOWLEDGE PART TWO

Museum (Studies) Mondays | Katlyn Wooder

---

October has come and gone, it went by so fast. But that is because around week 6 is when school starts to get really busy.

Source.

_________________________________________________

Exhibition Class

This month is where you to start planning your exhibit project in earnest.

The most important part of the assignment is to figure out your scope. It’s something I have trouble doing.

As a masters student, I want my exhibit to be amazing. To be frank, sometimes it's hard to know what parts of the project are the most important to prioritize. You need to concentrate on these details to ensure that you're not wasting time. No one, and I mean no one, wants to waste time when you're in graduate school. Eventually your friends and family will storm the gates, and demand attention.

Source.

If you can narrow down your scope at the beginning, it will save time and effort, and help you succeed at 'The Pitch'.

The Pitch is where your group gives a three minute presentation on your exhibit project, and a panel of professionals will decide if you receive some of the $10 000 class budget. You are supposed to cover what you are doing (the big idea), how you are doing it (such as the design, the budget and schedule), and what you need to succeed.

It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it's good practice for later in life when you have to convince your superiors of your projects' worth.

Source

_________________________________________________

Museum Planning and Management: Projects and Fundraising

There were two distinct parts of class this month. The first part was guest lectures, and the second part was the Charter Project.

Our class had the pleasure of having a guest lecturer Katherine Molineux, Principal Consultant, Lord Cultural Resources. She shared with us her experience of working as a project manager on multiple projects. She went over all the tools needed for success. Molineux really stressed the importance of communication. If you do not communicate, the people involved in the project waste time, and feel unimportant and demoralized. The second guest speaker was Maria Piacente, Vice President, Exhibitions, Events, and Project Management, Lord Cultural Resources, who covered what happens when things go wrong. These two experienced museum professionals shared their experience, knowledge, and problem-solving skills.

The Project Charter was an interesting project. We separated into about ten groups and were assigned situations. My team was given a fictional ROM project where we had to plan a permanent exhibit about bugs. Other groups needed to plan a new lobby at the AGO, or a membership drive at the Science Centre.

We all drafted Charters, where we figured out the goals, outcomes, schedule, risks… of the different projects, and then in class presented the work we’ve done. One of the things I learned was that people responded very well to colour and charts. A pie graph with the budget made some swoon, but not as much as the extensive RACI chart. They help to establish authority, and give the air of competence to your project.

Source

We’ve had our final class on Project Management tools; six weeks is an intensive period to soak it all up, but there are Certificate programs out there if you're interested in this part of the museum world.

The second half of this course will concentrate on economics. Yay.

Source

_________________________________________________

A piece of advice from a Second Year: there’s a lot of team work in the second year. Figure out who you work well with, and who you don’t. It will help save headaches later on. Don't feel bad if people spontaneously start to cry, people are just very stressed.

All the best,

Katlyn Wooder

Write to you in a month.

MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

 Wow this video's dramatic music and special effects are going are going to be hard to live up to.

At the end of winter I can't help but think of next year, and one of the things that I don't expect to find in a profession that historically has been about history is a Museum of the Future. In 2019, this 200 million pound museum will open in Dubai. The futuristic focus of the musuem's collection will be on invention. They are set to emphasize the trends of tomorrow rather than inform people of the past. They are also going one step further in their museum programming, in that they are planning to offer support, so that people can realize their ideas. This museum is set to be a place of international change.

The act of hosting a site where the best of international invention can be seen, and ideas shared, is not a new innovation. World expositions have been happening since 1851 in London. The 1855 Paris expo showcased the architectural marvel of the Eiffel Tower, the first ever building whose parts were constructed elsewhere and assembled on location. Canada itself has hosted world expos in Montreal 67 and Vancouver 86. But the expo is a festival, something that comes together and disperses after it's done. The Museum of the Future is interesting in that it has built itself a single, stationary location, and proposes that it won't stagnate.

I can't help but wonder how they are going to collect their collection, and disperse their collections when they are no longer innovative. Is this museum going to emulate some modern art galleries. Who have no permanent collection, instead choosing to showcase exhibits where the artifacts come from multiple points of origin? What does a futuristic collection look like? How are they going to curate it? Will they be experimental in their museum practices or will the use conventional museology practice to situate the unfamiliar in a familiar setting?

I can't wait to see how this museum of the future uses technology in new ways. Hopefully one of the applications is a database or web design that makes this museum - which exists on a different continent - accessible for us here in North America.

FUN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

Here is a list of museums from around the world that host fun collections. Places that all call themselves museums, but are vastly different from each other, and whose collection are the centre of their identity. I am tickled pink about Gopher's Fishing.

MUSA Underwater Museum of Art
Located at Blvd. Kukulcan, Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico

Founded in 2009, this a museum where you have to dive underwater (or go on a glass bottom boat) to visit monumental sculptures, and see how the sea life slowly consumes them back into the underwater landscape. It is a museum dedicated to conservation, the website is HERE.

Source.

Warrior Toy Museum
Located at St George’s Street (next to the Town Hall) | Simon’s Town | +27 (0)21 786 1395

In Cape Town you can go see a museum dedicated to showing off historic toys, it also functions as a shop where toy enthusiasts can purchase those missing pieces from their collections. A place where adults return to childhood. One of the reason why this museum drew my eye is because a caption from HERE, “Two impressive displays include a battalion of toy soldiers warding off Zulus attacking with spears in ox-formation and also a full Nazi parade with marching Hitler Youth and a small Adolf Hitler saluting his army…” I have to wonder how this museum is dealing with political correctness and racial tension in South Africa?


Romanian Kitsch Museum
Located at Strada Covaci 6, București 030094, Romania

A museum that remembers the 80s and celebrates it. Full of sarcasm, traditions, and local cultural knowledge that manifests through humor.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology
Located at 9341 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232, USA

A place that challenges what a museum should be, because all the objects reference real things but aren't always believable. It is a place full of curiosity and wonder, where exhibits are put on to intrigue and test boundaries of what you think you know and what is a curiosity. The website is located HERE.


Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station
Located at 115 Centre St E, Vulcan, AB T0L 2B0, Canada

Okay, so this one isn't so much about the collection, but really I couldn't resist it. I mean, who can turn down Spock? Not me. It is the Home of Spock. Seriously, it's in a place called Vulcan in Alberta. A town of 2000 have decided to present a Star Trek dreamland, where the information centre is designed to look like a space ship. The website is HERE.

Source.

Alberta also has the Gopher Hole Museum
Located at 208 1 Street South, Torrington, Alberta
This museum is dedicated to gophers, but not their life cycles. Instead the museum has multiple diagrams in boxes where gophers are fishing, curling, and preaching. A fun museum full of imagination and whimsy. The website is HERE.

Photo courtesy of Gopher Hole Museum. Source. 

If you're interested in other special museums (specifically food museums): Beijing Shi has the Daxing Watermelon Museum, Prince Edward Island has a Potato Museum, England has a Carrot Museum, and Italy has at the Museum of Tomato. People really do love food, and all the industries that rely on it.

Each of these attractions call themselves a museum; that is an identity, but one that is flexible enough that people can take an interest and best represent it to fit the community or the mission of the museum. From wacky to childhood to experimental, there is a place out there, and you can find it.

HAVE FUN BECAUSE THESE MUSEUMS ARE

IN THE BACK RIGHT CORNER

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

This time, for Collections Corner I decided to go literal. I went to five institutions in Toronto: The Onsite Gallery at OCAD, The Art Gallery of Ontario, the University of Toronto’s Art Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Gardiner Museum to see what they put in their back right corner (to find out what are the things that I might overlook when visiting one of these fine establishments.)

I was curious about the corners. When I think of a corner I think of something being stuffed in it. It’s not really a power position for artwork to be placed in. The back corner just highlighted this power position because it is the farthest from the entrance.

The Onsite Gallery (a Contemporary Art Gallery associated with OCAD)

The Sunshine Eaters, January 10 to April 15, 2018
https://www2.ocadu.ca/event/the-sunshine-eaters

Jessica Karuhanga being who are there is no other 2017 (a dual screen video produced with the work of Jessica Karuhanga , Xin Lio, Serene Husni and Aaditya Aggarwal, Joyful Joyful and Ahlam Mohammed).

 

                                                                         Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

                                                                        Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Art Gallery of Ontario (a Large National Art Gallery)

AGO’s Marvin Gelber Print and Drawing Study Centre, containing over EIGHTY THOUSAND prints, drawings and photographs.
http://www.ago.net/marvin-gelber-print-and-drawing-study-centre-overview
http://artmatters.ca/wp/category/prints-and-drawings/

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

The actual Artwork in the corner is Summer, 1878 by James Tissot from the Four Seasons

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

The University of Toronto Art Centre (a University Gallery Space featuring both ancient and contemporary work)

Figures of Sleep, January 17, 2018 - March 3, 2018
http://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/figures-of-sleep/
 

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.        

The Royal Ontario Museum (Michael Lee-Chin Crystal Entrance) (an Encyclopedic Museum)

Gallery of Korea: Ceramics
https://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/galleries/world-cultures/gallery-korea
 

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

The Gardiner Museum (a Ceramic Museum focusing on objects and art made out of clay)

Mesoamerican objects in the Ancient Americas
https://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/collection_type/mesoamerica/
On the Right Intellectual Accomplishments of the Classic Maya on the Left and Zapotec 500 BC-AD 800

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

The Onsite Gallery and U of T’s Art Centre had contemporary art videos in their corners. Both pieces focus on creating a visitor experience through the adoption of new media rather than traditional art practices. While the ROM and Gardiner, both museums, had ceramics (not surprising in a ceramic museum but still) both display exhibits of material culture, and humans' ability to transcend practically to develop aesthetic value. The AGO corner was a practical use of space (NO natural light that would damage the artwork) and presented a sampling of work that is most of the time locked behind the closed doors.

All the corners had something interesting in them, and by concentrating on the corners I spent my time with pieces that I would not ordinarily focus on. Thus I present you all with a challenge: look at what's in the corners. It’s usually something interesting and new, and it is a way of changing up your museum experience.

Many thanks to my Mother for agreeing to a mother-daughter day of visiting museums and gallery spaces in a blizzard! Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

CAMERA PHONE PHOTO CONVERSATION

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

Between June 27 and December 17, 2017, the Metropolitan Museum in New York City put on an exhibit: Talking Pictures: Camera-Phone Conversation Between Artists. Artists held photo or video conversations without text or captions. Check out videos of some of the conversations here.

In the spirit of this exhibit, Jessica Svenningson - a fellow Musings Contributing Editor, and writer of the Sew What column - and I, held a photo conversation from January 8th to 14th (some of you might recognize that as the first week back at school ;)). Here are the results of our photo conversation. On the right are photos by me (Katlyn Wooder) and on the left are the photos by Jessica Svenningson.

 

THAT'S ALL FOLKS

The photo conversation was fun but unusual. While in my texting, photos are becoming more common. Conversing through a set of photos without text is a new way of thinking. The total absence of traditional language ensures a level of uncertainty. I knew what stood out me was not necessarily why Jessica took the photo, but I responded to what stood out to me; be it a grid pattern, detail or lighting. (Side note: Jessica is scarily good at composition).

As unusual as conversing in images was, it is a liberating experience to not be reliant on the usual linguistic boundaries. When you're talking with words a similar level of uncertainty is present, the difference is the awareness of an assumption. The assumption is that when you are talking in every day conversation, you tend to be unaware that other people may interpret your word choice differently than you do. So you could be having two different conversations, and be unaware of it.

Jessica and I are both museum studies students in Toronto, and our conversation held moments of intentional or unintentional familiarity. I knew the last picture of the conversation was a picture of part of the Christian Dior Exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum as soon as I received it because I went to see the Dior exhibit in December. (It's a good show, you should go see it!) I would love to see what type of conversation two people could have, who live in different cultures, different geographic location, and who don’t speak the same language.

It's been fun.
Please leave a comment (maybe a photo comment, if you feel so inclined).

THE MET'S MICHELANGELO

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

As of Monday, November 13, 2017, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has produced a new exhibit for public consumption, Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. You have to make your way past some attention-grabbing art collections, the raw sculptures of Rodin and the image conversations taking place in the Talking Pictures Exhibit. The experience is, by necessity, a practice in patience as you wait for other patrons to take their pictures and move along so that you can take your own pictures. I know I probably was the source of multiple eye rolls.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was a high renaissance artist who excelled in sculpting, painting, poetry and architecture design. His vision enabled him to flourish in his field. He is known for his sculpture David, found in the Louvre, and his paintings that decorated the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, found in the Vatican. He was known as the greatest artist of his time, and remains one of the most recognized figures in western art.

Walking through an exhibit that is fundamentally based on a large collection of centuries-old drawings is an experience in behind-the-scenes decision making process. From the thematic and chronological order of the exhibit, to the props added to place the drawings in context, to the underlining story of a great, popular artist and a multitude of his relationships with other artists (such as his mentor Domenico Ghirlandaio); each decision is well calculated to build on the one before it to inform the visitor of the multidimensional figure of Michelangelo. Who his teacher was, who he influenced, and the legacy in architecture and marble that he left behind, as seen through his drawings. 

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

One of the highlights of the exhibit was the 1/4 model of the Sistine Chapel that hung illuminated above Michelangelo’s original studies. Situated halfway through the exhibit below the ceiling there are torsos twisting, legs extending, and faces drawn in red chalk. It is a moment where the exhibit showcases the celebration of the work that went into Michelangelo's final pieces, while treating each draft, letter, poetry, drawing as an individual piece of art.

The large space of the exhibit (with its towering grey walls, low lighting and white wall text) helps unify a collection that comes from multiple sources. Each 2D artwork is held within a different frame. Some are modern and sleek, and others ornate and decorative. The long procession of works had the potential to become disparate from each other, even though most were done by the artist's own hand. The uniformity of the mounting helped to create a story between them, one that I found easy to follow.

   

Photos courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

One of my favorite details of the exhibit was that when the MET bolted artwork or frames down they painted the securing material to make it aesthetically noninvasive. It managed to erase the security practices from jostling the viewer experience.

 Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder,

Michelangelo is not only explored through his artwork, but also through his work in architecture, as well as the unusual and unexpected pieces, such as a wooden model of the dome of Fabbrica di San Pietro in the Vatican City. It is situated well within the architectural plans that demonstrate Michelangelo’s legacy, and his identity beyond a figure artist.

The exhibit was an experience. It was a unique perspective on the Michelangelo's work. It didn't concentrate on his finished product. Instead, it focused on the raw, imperfect work that demonstrates process and techniques. The exhibit didn't concentrate on the genius of Michelangelo, but on the man who toiled to create masterpieces.

PUBLIC TO PRIVATE: THE GARDEN OF THE GREEK GODS

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

This past September, I was privileged enough to be informed of a public event featuring 20 pieces of E. B. Cox’s works (1914-2003). After braving the public transport system and the frankly off-putting visage of exhibition loop on an unusually hot fall day down by the Gardiner Expressway, I made it to the private Muzik Night Club. Now called Toronto Event Centre, the site plays host to twenty of Cox’s sculptures. This event was hosted by his daughter Kathy Sutton. She regaled us about the history and circumstances of her father’s artwork; more specifically the Garden of the Greek Gods. I arrived at the event expecting to see a beautiful green garden, with artwork strategically placed. I was not prepared to end up at a Toronto Night Club. The event turned out to be surprisingly political.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

On the day a host of people gathered together to visit E. B. Cox's hidden work, migrating from one sculpture to another whilst wandering between deck chairs and low tables, trying to not fall into pools. The sculptures themselves are stunning in their bulging forms, and timeless, raw depictions. The collection's central theme is mythical Greek figures. These stone works capture Hercules, Narcissus, the Furies, the Minotaur, and other widely known characters of antiquity through Cox's particular style. Most of the sculptures are substantial, made out of solid pieces of limestone, and reaching anywhere from three to eleven feet high.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Kathy Sutton gave a history of the collection, from its original placement at Georgian Peak's Ski Club to it's eventual placement on the CNE grounds. In 1979, Arthur Carmen donated the sculptures to the City of Toronto to be on permanent display on the grounds of the Horticulture Building. The Horticulture Building is one of five heritage buildings located in Exhibition Place. In 2004, it was leased to Zlatko Starbovski by the City of Toronto for twenty years. The sculptures are placed on a patio as decorative feature of the club, encircled by hedges and a fence.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

In the construction of the club and the extension of the patio during renovations, the sculptures were damaged. There are dents and gouges on multiple sculptures caused by construction machinery. Furthermore, in an attempt to clean the sculptures, pressure washing was used on the artwork without authorization. It ended up blasting the surface off the limestone (removing the patina that helps to slow down the aging). This action permanently damaged the artwork; changing the colour and texture of the stone.

A group interested in preserving the public aspect of this collection found an alternative venue for the collection. The Rose Garden at Exhibition Place is an alternative grassy, open venue to host the sculptures, found by the Working Group for the Relocation of The Greek Gods. But because of the lease, the only way that the City of Toronto could move the sculptures would be if they had the permission of the owner to come in and remove the sculptures, which they don't have. In addition it would cost the city somewhere around $500,000 to move these sculptures. The Garden of the Greek Gods hasn't been moved yet.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Now in 2017, as I walked to the venue, I ended up walking along the fence (some of which had spikes along the top in what I can only assume as a deterrent to keep people from climbing over,) through the black, iron bars, sit enclosed five sculptures. What has happened, fundamentally, is that public art has been turned private. What is worse, is that it has been made private in direct violation of the artist’s intent. According to his daughter Kathy Sutton, Cox loved it when children played with or on his artwork. Truly, the artwork seems to be designed for this interaction as the broad forms and easy slopes of the curves of his artwork are easy to climb over.

To be honest, it is understandable that the business owners want the sculptures to remain on its premises. Multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of artwork in a night club improves it atmosphere and exclusivity, and admittedly, the city failed to move the sculptures before signing the lease. However, the enclosed space prevents public access to public art.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

As I was leaving the premises through the metal detector, I spotted a group of women from the event making their way to a series of other sculptures by Cox. Three limestone bears on full display, and interacting with the public, in their intended condition and space. They encapsulate what was lost to the public when the fence was erected around the Garden of the Greek Gods. A lesson I have learnt from this experience is to be aware of where public art is, who owns the land, and whether or not the art that serves the community is protected.