Welcome to another Museum Monday Musings readers! Today is a special edition featuring the iSchool’s student conference, which was Friday and Saturday, March 6th and 7th. A lot went down in two days, and talking about all the great things would mean you would be reading a while, so here is the list of 10 things to know!
1. John Dalrymple from the National Ballet School started things off with a workshop focusing on ways to fundraise for arts organizations.
John Dalrymple and Sloth following John's event. Source: iSchool Student Conference Twitter account.
2. Keynote Speaker Davida Androvitch ignited minds at the conference on Friday evening with an excellent address about public history and her work at Historica Canada with the projects Heritage Minutes and the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Davida Aronovitch presenting.
Davida and Sloth!
3. Friday night the conference attendees, participants, volunteers, and committee members ate and enjoyed the ambience of the Faculty Club while chatting about the day’s presentations – there were even good natured lively debates about new ideas heard from the day’s presenters!
Part of the spread at the Faculty Club!
4. After breakfast on Saturday morning, conference attendees received some food for thought with keynote address by Andrea Fields from the Bata Shoe Museum who talked about the museum’s volunteer program.
Andrea Fields addressing audience members about museum volunteers. Source: Madeline Smolarz.
5. The conference mascot, Sloth, continued to work hard on promoting the conference, tweeting all the action from presentations to food.
Sloth in his bow tie, ready for the conference.
6. Conference attendees were very engaged with presentations, not only during them, but afterwards with conversations happening at breaks, even throughout this past week!
Part of the attentive audience.
7. Museums were a hot topic with almost half the panelists directly discussing cultural heritage institutions and issues. Make sure to check out their interesting work on theft, immigrant representation, value, oral histories, and more in the coming 2015 iSchool Student Conference publication.
The Museums and Value panel pose for pic with Sloth.
8. Museum Studies was also well represented on the conference organizing committee, with 3 of 4 co-chairs being MMSt students, and the Faculty Advisor a museum studies professor, Dr. Cara Krmpotich. We may be a small program but we are involved!
2015 Conference Committee: Cara Krmpotich, Catherine Lamoreux, Alex Somerville, Cady Moyer, and Robin Nelson.
9. Thanks go out to all who got involved by volunteering, attending, helping prepare, presenting, moderating, and opening and closing remarks by Dean Seamus Ross and Dr. Cara Krmpotich.
10. It all gets to happen next year! The iSchool Student Conference is a free event showcasing ideas and academics from the Faculty of Information. If you are a current, future, or former student with the Faculty you can get involved with the conference, presenting your work or volunteering at the next conference. Current students who will be at the iSchool next year also have the opportunity to organize the 2016 conference!
To get involved, e-mail ischoolstudentconference@gmail.com or track down any of the people in the above photo and let us know!
Hello Musings readers, and welcome to another Museum Monday. Today is Family Day and museums across the province are putting on special programs to connect with their community. Family Day coincides with that point in February where you either have to embrace the weather and push on, or just muddle through. Taking the ‘embrace it and push on’ approach is a tradition in my hometown of Penetanguishene where each February for the past sixty years the community has celebrated the season with Winterama. Winterama is a festival that focuses on local winter sporting events and highlights our community traditions such as puddle jumping, polar plunging, arm wrestling, local artisans’ goods, and the big Winterama parade.
Winterama Parade in 1959 going down Penetanguishene's Main Street.
During this year’s Winterama I paid a visit to the town museum, the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum and Archives which was participating in the festival as an official warming station and also hosting public programs. Advertised events at the museum were a luncheon at the museum’s replica Fire Hall put on by the museum’s Friends association, a travelling exhibit from the Ontario Archives A Lifetime – Day by Day, Five Women and their Diaries, and a display of hooked rugs organized by the Kindred Spirit Art and Antiques group.
The museum also had two other Winterama programs: one was a special exhibit of archival material about the festival, and the second was designing a Winterama badge. These activities offered ways way to connect not only with the museum, but also with the community. I heard stories of the town’s social fabric when speaking with the rug hookers about their work, I relished the smell of the town’s French Canadian heritage in the form of pea soup cooking in the Fire Hall, and I poured over years of Winterama archival binders on display.
Winterama badge collection at the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum.
The famous pea soup, a traditional French Canadian dish served every year at Winterama. Here it is being prepared in the replica Fire Hall at the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum by the museum's Friends association.
Newspaper clip on display at the museum of an advertisement for the 1969 Winterama.
The Winterama I saw in those binders was both the same and different from what it is now. It is still the town’s biggest community event each year, yet in the papers there looks to be more activities, focus, and participation than there is now. The museum itself was heralded in a newspaper clip from one of the 1960s binders as the hub of activity for the festival. As Winterama changed, so too has the museum’s role, but it has clearly played one and continues to.
1960s newspaper clip about the museum and Winterama.
So what’s next? I think the role of the museum’s community engagement could be more than programming. The museum could act as a source for information for the town to look at Winterama’s continuity and change and plan a sustainable way forward.
There is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to the relationship between communities, museums, and social events. For any museum, that three-part relationship is vital to really look at, and that goes both ways. Museums can offer their community its resources that are the springboard for effective social analysis and community action. So if you, museum lover, are out in a museum on this fine Family Day, take a look at what’s going on and ask yourself what is the value of these activities and what is their impact? You might get answers you didn’t expect!
Happy Family Day everyone!
A special thank-you to the following people for their help in the research for this article: Laura Walters, a recent graduate of Western's Public History degree who currently works for the Ontario Heritage Trust and is from Penetanguishene; Nicole Jackson, curator of the Penentanguishene Centennial Museum; and the Friends of the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum.
View from the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.
You can see the Canadian Museum of History to the left, and the National Gallery to the right.
Welcome to another Museum Monday! My name is Cady Moyer, and this is my most exciting post yet.
This past week, students and professors from the iSchool, mostly from the Museum Studies program, embarked on a whirlwind tour of Ottawa. Leaving Toronto in the afternoon on Wednesday, January 14th, and returning late in the evening on Saturday, January 17th, we went behind the scenes at museums big and small, visited national heritage sites, dined with program alumni, explored the tasty offerings of the Byward Market, and froze on the seasonally frigid streets of Ottawa.
In just two full days and two half days, we collectively managed to see:
the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian War Museum, The Museum of Nature, Parliament Hill, the Bytown Museum, and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
Through both special programs set up for us by museum staff, and through our own adventures, we got an in depth look at what it takes to be a museum in Canada’s capital.
The trip’s main events were the special programming put on for us at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) on Thursday, and the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) on Friday.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 15TH
Megan Richardson, Chief of Education and Public Programs at the NGC, and alumnus of our program, met us at 9am for a full day of talks and tours of the gallery. The day’s presentations included the museum’s innovations in programming and design, as well as function with social media, and making the most of statistics to guide a museum through the year. At lunch there was a guest speaker, fine art photographer Edward Burtynsky, sharing both the ideas and stories behind his work as an artist, and the photographs themselves. Our scheduled time wrapped up with a tour of the Biennial Exhibit, showcasing Contemporary Canadian artists’ works. Our tour guide did an excellent job of showcasing the qualities of a modern interpreter by being inclusive and sharing authority to create an engaging experience through participation. The rest of the day students to themselves to tour the rest of the museum, or retire to the hotel to rest for an alumni reception later in the evening.
Heading to the alumni reception.
MMSt students checking out the
Biennial exhibition at the NGC.
Edward Burtynsky at the NGC.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16TH
On Friday, we all bundled up against the bright chilly morning and crossed over into Quebec to visit the newly renamed Canadian Museum of History (previously the Canadian Museum of Civilization). We heard all about the new Canada Hall redesign that is opening in 2017 from both a collections, and project management standpoint. We also got to know a little bit more about the restructuring of the museum from the Director General, Jean-Marc Blais. There was time to explore the museum at lunch and for forty-five minutes after presentations. At the end of presentations, some students ran off to make the most of the afternoon with a special behind-the-scenes exhibit tour at the Canadian War Museum. I was drawn to CMH’s temporary exhibits—1867 Rebellion and Confederation; Canada’s Titanic—The Empress of Ireland; and Ni’N Na L’Nu—The Mi’Kmaq of Prince Edward Island—as well as a quick walk through the Children’s Museum which made me yearn to be five years old again.
Early morning to the CMH.
New name, same beautiful building at the CMH.
MMSt students hearing about dining
etiquette from a volunteer in the
Empress of Ireland exhibition at the CMH
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17TH
After the rigour of the previous two days, Saturday morning each person got to set their own pace at a museum, or museums, of their choosing. Some went to the Canadian War Museum, others to the Museum of Nature or the Aviation Museum. Myself and a small group of students headed off to the Bytown Museum, followed by a guided tour of the Parliament buildings. We had the privilege of a VIP tour with the Executive Director, and MMSt alumnus, Robin Etherington.
The museum was closed to visitors that day which gave our group the unique experience of having a tour that was concurrently about the museum’s content and its management. Robin gave us her undivided attention, establishing a professional dialogue with us and answering all of our very detailed questions. Of great interest to me, was the Bytown Museum’s community exhibition space, where cultural groups within Ottawa can apply to mount a temporary exhibition. I find this such a fantastic idea because it engages the museum directly with its community, it broadens its audiences bringing in new people to the museum, it makes the most of the small museum’s resources, and it breaks up potential museum hegemony by bringing in other perspectives.
Executive Director of the Bytown Museum,
Robin Etherington talking about the
community exhibition space.
MMSt students exploring the Bytown Museum.
MMSt students exploring the Peace Tower.
Inside the library on Parliament Hill.
As a museum studies student, the greatest value of the trip were times like these, when I saw, heard, or experienced a museum output that was a really great idea, one to be remembered. While “beg, borrow, and steal” is a saying that is often heard from museum professionals, as students, we have the opportunity to meditate upon these ideas and distill them into an essence of what works, what doesn’t, and why; and that can prepare us to innovate in our own careers.
Each of the nearly fifty attendees experienced their own trip highlights. My favourite moment was watching the trip’s organizer, MMSt candidate Alex Somerville, receive a thank-you gift from the group—it was a book about Marshall McLuhan written by Alex’s undergraduate degree supervisor. Alex shot out of his bus seat in excitement, with a look on his face akin to Jennifer Lawrence winning an Oscar, and with the same amount of charm. I wish I had caught it on camera.
MMSt students waiting to get picked up
by the bus to head back to Toronto.
The bus trip home to Toronto.
Museum Studies goes to Ottawa was jam packed and full of fun, but why take just my word for it? Hear it from those who went on the trip! During the bus ride back Jaime Clifton-Ross, Musings Editor, and I went around and interviewed a few people about their favourite or most memorable moments. Keep in mind that while filming it was dark, my camera was my phone in my hand, and The Princess Bride was playing on the bus T.V. sets (the scene where Buttercup is almost eaten by eels makes a dramatic appearance on a few of these clips), but all the same, the enthusiastic and excited spirit of the trip is easy enough to see.
That enthusiasm and enjoyment pervaded not only our experiences on the trip, but also beamed from museum professionals we met with in Ottawa. One professional cautioned us during her presentation, that if you’re not having fun, if you’re work is constantly making you want to tear your hair out, then make a change, find a new way, make it enjoyable again.
Happy Monday everyone, have a great week, and innovate your way to a better day.
Share Connect Discover: A Crossroads for Exchange, the sixth annual iSchool student conference, invites participants to make and explore connections between and beyond the confines of their own disciplines. The conference will take place March 6th and 7th and the call for papers is available here. As one of the co-chairs for the conference, I have decided to use this week’s research column to shamelessly promote it.
Introducing the newest member of the iSchool Student Conference team: Sloth. He wants you to get involved too! Be on the lookout for him and post on Facebook when you see him, or tweet #HiSloth @iStudentConfTO
This year, we are encouraging exchange. To that end, we have shortened presentations in order to provide more time for discussion and would really like people to consider conducting a workshop (Have an idea you want to work out? Or an issue that you think should be discussed? This would be the perfect opportunity!!!) or making a poster (This may be a good idea for some of the curating science research? Or to share some of the interesting work done as part of group.). We are also open to different presenting formats and welcome submissions of all sorts.
Details on last year’s conference, Information in Formation, are available here. The following are abstracts and pictures from last year’s MMSt presentations to give an idea regarding the wide variety of research that gets presented at the conferences (please note, the descriptions are either pulled from the program or given to me from the participants).
CADY MOYER
“Endless Interpretation”
Cady is also a co-chair at this year's conference. If you see her around and have a question, she is very approachable! Ask away!
Endless Interpretation is an online teaching kit that works in conjunction with an associated website. Together the website and teaching kit guide heritage educators through the process of developing the skills they need to make a program that connects real places with virtual spaces. This project focuses on designing self-guided hikes, or programs, for museum and heritage site visitors, using QR codes.
KRISTEN ATKINS, HOLLY DURAWA, AND RACHEL LEATON
“Oddjects at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library”
A screen shot from the participant's powerpoint.
The objective for the Fisher Rare Book Library online exhibition titled, “Oddjects” was in the creative re-imagining of artifacts as they relate to people and place. This was done by using a number of visual cues in creating an environment indicative of the physical location while maintaining a role of relevance in the lives of its users. By providing a platform with personalized encounters of the unusual holdings in the Fisher, we provided the user with not only the select oddjects standard history but also a personal account narrated by a staff member who discusses the objects significance to the Fisher collection.
Curatorially, the user was the central focus in determining how the objects were to be interpreted and also how the design could make a contribution in presenting the staff and collection. The primary purpose was to challenge linear narrative by composing bits of information giving the user a 'sense' of the Fisher as a personality. Although not a standard exhibition, it contributes to the advocacy and appreciation of the Fisher library in an intentionally innovative format.
Another screen shot from their very cool presentation!
“Oddjects” web exhibition project was developed over the course of Museums and New Media with Professor Dallas and in coordination with the Fisher library staff. The project resulted in a final group presentation for the Fisher Library in December 2013.
LAUREN WILLIAMS
“A Cyborg Walks into a Museum: Collections and the Changing Relationships between Mind, Body and Object."
How can museums accession, catalogue, care for, and exhibit objects that are intimately bound to human consciousness? As museums have been traditionally focused on the past, the concern has often been of preserving objects that have already been collected; however, the figure of the cyborg both in fiction and reality provide a reason for museum professionals to proactively explore how we will care for today’s and tomorrow’s objects in the future.
“Queering Museums: Negotiating Difficult Knowledge & Museum Structures”
Through looking at discussions about queer identities within museum spaces and highlighting connections that can be drawn between these negotiations and debates around ‘difficult knowledge’, this paper argues how queer representation is in fact ‘difficult knowledge’ and elucidates how museums can move towards a more transformative and productive structure through the lens of ‘queering’, a direction that has been discussed yet not concretely nor sufficiently solved.
A CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
http://imgur.com/mXk560u
There are many ways for you to participate in the conference this year. First, I would like to encourage you to make a submission to ischoolstudentconference@gmail.com before January 8th, 2015. Second, we are looking for volunteers. More specifically, if you are a first year and think the idea of co-chairing the conference next year sounds cool, email Catherine Lamoureux for details on becoming the Legacy officer. Third, you can also visit the Student Conference website, e-mail us at iSchoolstudentconference@gmail.com and holler at Catherine, Cady, Alex, or Robin when you see us with your questions!
Remember reading Winnie the Pooh as a child, watching the tv shows or movies, or playing with Winnie the Pooh toys? Sweet nostalgia. Recently, the Pavillion Gallery Museum in Winnipeg won a bid for a new acquisition--the only existing oil painting of Winnie the Pooh by Ernest Howard Shepherd, the original artist for the books by A.A. Milne. The price tag for this painting? $243,000.
The oil painting of Winnie the Pooh by Ernest H. Shepherd, 1879-1976,
that was recently acquired by the Pavillion Gallery Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
When I came across this news story I found it particularly interesting for two reasons:
1) the exciting world of museum acquisitions!
2) it makes me think about who’s heritage does a story belong to.
The most obvious question to me is how a museum in Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg came to be in the position of spending almost a quarter million dollars on an oil painting of Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh was written by a British author, A.A. Milne, who encountered Winnie the Bear at a zoo in London, England in 1927.
The story here seems to start in 2012 when the museum acquired a collection of 200 items of Winnie the Pooh paraphernalia through the efforts of an art dealer for Winnipeg, David Loch. The collection became the base for a new exhibit, The Pooh Gallery, as well as series of programs for children and families. The curator, Peter Heymans, spoke about how the collection could teach about this amazing history of a bear named after the city by the bear’s keeper--a veterinarian and World War I soldier from Winnipeg who bought the bear in Ontario on his way to training in Quebec and took it with him to England--that involved different parts of Canada, across the Atlantic, and eventually coming to include generations of people across the world.
Statue of Winnie the Bear with Lieutenant Harry Colebourn,
in the Nature Park beside the Pavillion Gallery Museum.
The story of how the museum acquired the painting is a little bit thrilling. The painting first came up for sale 14 years ago, and a group of Winnipeg citizens wanted to purchase it, and raised the funds through various efforts including the getting all levels of government involved. In pursuit of the artwork David Loch went took part in a Sotheby’s auction while on a trip to Toronto. The CBC commentary from the article mentioned above, paints a picture of the event: "[David Loch] made the winning bid over the phone while on a trip to Toronto. He was hooked up to Sotheby's as journalists hovered around him, waiting to find out if the painting would be heading to the Prairies." (Winnipeg outbids art lovers for painting, CBC, November 16, 2014).
As a museum enthusiast and student, this story of what a professional can get up to in their career, in the pursuit of telling a story inspires the imagination of what I could do during my own. This tale of Winnie the Pooh is not written by A.A. Milne obviously, but it is written by the community that strongly values this part of its heritage, and became a driving force for a relatively small museum to acquire a significant artwork.
This is only one story of an acquisition, but I know that readers of this blog probably have their own experiences with interacting with the intake of a new museum collection item. If you have a story about museum acquisitions that you would like to share, please post below!
It’s not just Monday today, it is Museum Monday! What better Monday could there be?
Let’s start the week off right with a little food-for-thought: did you curate this weekend?
Trick question - curate has only recently become a verb, meaning the activities of a curator.
The answer to the trick question is: yes, you probably did curate this weekend. Did you:
post on Facebook? Make an online photo album or a playlist on YouTube? Pin on Pinterest? These are all acts of collecting things, organizing them in ways that reflect something about us, and then putting them on display.
On CBC's Q, 'curate' is called a buzzword and that it is used so much that the term ‘curator’ has lost its meaning. Oh the irony.
Now how’s that for your Monday’s food-for-thought?
To help you along, listen to the author himself. Balzer was on Q earlier this month to talk about Curationism. Balzer defines curationism as an accelerated moment of curating an understanding of who we are, in which we impart value to objects and ourselves and perform that value in an anxious way. This act needs to be a performance, otherwise it does not mean anything.
The radio piece is fairly short and easy to listen to:
Cover of David Balzer's book, Curationism,
source: http://canadianart.ca/features/2014/09/02/david-balzer-curationism-excerpt/
After listening, does it make you wonder what the value is of museums and the curator in the museum? Does it help you understand how culture relates to, and frames museums? Will the general public experience a whiplash of consumerist self-curation and go to museums to look for their carefully selected exhibits?
So much to think about!
That interview leads me to reflection upon my museum studies here at the iSchool, where we are devoted to understanding, facilitating, and innovating how information is generated, provided, collected, and of course, curated.
For all you museum studies students reading and listening to this post, I hope that this post and the accompany interview is motivating in these last few days before Fall Reading Week; keep up your hard work.
Museums are vital in the Information Age, and it is their critically thinking and highly skilled professionals who make them meaningful.
That’s all from me today; short and sweet.
Have a marvelously meaningful Monday Musings readers.
Millennium Park, Chicago, with the Art Institute of Chicago visible at the far right. Photo taken by author.
Happy Museum Monday from the Windy City; my name is Cady, and this is my first post for Musings.
Coincidentally, I actually HAVE something exciting to share. This weekend I was fortunate enough to be in Chicago for work. It was my first time to that stunning city, and if you are into museums you can have a literal field day on Museum Campus.
My plan originally, was to go to the Field Museum; however, I was swayed by my colleagues and locals that I had to see the Art Institute of Chicago. So off I went on a hot sunny Saturday morning. It took me half an hour to walk there from my hotel, leaving me an hour and a half before my next meeting. This meant that I only had 60 minutes to see the Art Institute.
I knew I would have to be fast in order to see it all in that time. Now, I’m of the school of thought that believes luck is good planning carefully executed (I’m not sure why I still prescribe to this belief; ironically more often than not, this is the opposite of my reality).
With the help of an information staff person, I planned out a route on the museum's map:
My map. Here on the `first floor, you can see my route drawn out.
FIRST FLOOR
1. Chagall's America Windows
2. Byzantine Special Exhibition , Of Heaven and Earth
3. Greek Art
4. Roman Art
5. Etruscan Art
6. Byzantine Art
7. American Art before 1900
8. American Decorative Arts
9. Indian, South Asian, and Himalayan Art
10. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Art
11. Indian Art of the Americas
12. African Art
SECOND FLOOR
13. Chicago Architecture
14. European Art before 1900
15. Prints and Drawings
16. American Folk Art
17. Renaissance Jewelry
18. Arms and Armor
19. European Decorative Arts
20. And finally…Impressionism (saving the best for last)
If you read all through that list, 1-20, you're amazing.
If you didn't, because numbers 3-19 all blended into the word art then, you are amazingly normal, like me.
I completely gave up on seeing other special exhibitions galleries, and the sections on Modern American Art, Contemporary Art after 1960, as well as the entire lower level of miniature houses.
Not even a minute in and I deviated from my plan. In retrospect that should have been my first warning, but I felt great at the time. The Chagall Windows were just behind me, I'd go there next. Change of plans, not a problem.
In the Greek Art Gallery, I found this object particularly intriguing. I don’t know exactly what it is. Anyone else know?
Object from the Greek Art gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago. Comment below if you know what it is! Photo taken by author.
0:03:47 - Hellenistic and Roman Art
Okay still not Chagall Windows, but it was right next to the Greek Art gallery, so if I could get it done now, why not?
Roman Art Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago. Photo taken by author.
0:04:03 – Chagall’s America Windows
The space exhibiting these windows was quiet and contemplative, bathed in a beautiful blue light. I loved it. I was only four minutes into my hour and already accomplished 3 galleries, so I decided I had time to spare, and stayed with the windows a little longer than I should have.
Chagall's America Windows, Art Institute of Chicago. Photo taken by author.
0:07:44 - Etruscan Art
In this gallery I was excited to find a polished bronze mirror that I remembered admiring in one of my textbooks when I took a course on Etruscan Art and Architecture. Here in the museum, it also came along with an interactive iPad. With the iPad I could explore the object from multiple angles, as well as select related objects that together with the mirror offered different narratives. What a great idea!
Playing with the interactive program on the display for discovering an Etruscan bronze mirror. Photo taken by author.
0:11:45 - Byzantine Art and Special Exhibition Heaven and Earth
A little behind schedule at this point, but as long as I had no hiccups, my timing would be fine. Byzantines were champions of the mosaic, and this is the closest I ever got to one. I've seen the finest examples of Byzantine mosaic in Ravenna and Istanbul, but I never got to be so close to them as I did in Chicago.
Mosaic Icon of the Virgin Episkepis, late 13th century, from present day Istanbul, currently at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo taken by Author.
0:19:07 - Lost.
Despite my best efforts to stay on track, I managed to get lost. While my route looked good on paper, in reality it wasn't a natural flow between the galleries I had selected.
0:20:40 - and Found! American Decorative Arts and American Art before 1900
Due to my time delay getting lost, I should have really rushed through both the American Decorative Arts and American Art before 1900. Yet, there were so many unique objects and intriguing romantic paintings, that I just had to stop and share.
From the American Art before 1900 gallery. Alvan Fisher painted this scene out of author JamesFenimore Copper's 1827 book Prairie. Photo taken by author.
0:33:32 - The American West
The paintings in this gallery were quite narrative, and the sculpture very emotive. This piece stood out to me as the rest of the paintings in the gallery had to do with overt depictions of confrontation. This one though, made me think both about the subjects, and the artist. Considering the painter’s vantage point, was he really there? What was he trying to show? What does the painting’s title Historians of the Tribe mean?
Historians of the Tribe, Frederic Remington, 1890.
0:39:59 - Indian, South Asian, and Himalayan Art
While this was not a walk through gallery, the space was at least easy to navigate as it was a single large room instead of a series of small rooms to move through (and get lost in…). This gallery had lots of natural light, and vibrant wall paint in shades of red, orange, and yellow. Also...half way through my hour, and nowhere near half way through the museum.
Statue in the Indian, South Asian, and Himalayan Art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo taken by author.
0:45:25 - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Art
In all honesty, I wasn't going to go in to this set of galleries because I only had fifteen minutes left and had not even finished the first floor...but it looked so good! I couldn't pass it up.
Collection item from Japanese Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago. Photo taken by author.
0:52:39 - African Art and Indian Art of the Americas
The African Art collection on display was much more extensive than that of the Americas. I was really interested to see how the museum displayed their African art collection as I was in a class last week where we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario and learned about the development and display of its African Art collection. There are two very different sets of aesthetics and ideas about display between the AIC and the AGO...
Beaded mask from African Art Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago. Photo taken by author.
0:59:38 - 22 SECONDS LEFT!!!
Time for a quick impression of Impressionism!
A museum goer admiring Monet`s work up close.
And there you go, the Art Institute of Chicago in 60 minutes. If you want, you can see more of my visit by watching the video, THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO IN 60 SECONDS, below.
This blog post may leave you spinning a little, like I was after my visit. I've intentionally left a lot of my comments on what I saw open, in hopes that you'll have something you want to add or respond to.
Do I recommend trying to see it all in an hour? Absolutely not.
Did I have fun trying to do that? Yes, BUT I did miss getting to know a few pieces really well, or developing any good ideas or thoughts.
My method of taking on the museum in such an ordered fashion didn't go to plan, and in my rush to stick to my route I ended up spending a lot of time trying to figure out if I was where I was supposed to be instead of seeing more of what the museum had to offer in the time I had. I did, however, stay longer in the Impressionism gallery than 22 seconds. I had to, they had 2 rooms full of Monet's work, and he is my favourite painter.
The list of things I missed in an hour is as long as the list of things I saw, but did I ever see a lot. In one hour, I was so fortunate to see a richness of the most beautiful and incredible things that humanity has ever made. Whether the art was created for love, for war, for pride, for passion, for faith, and for reasons unknown, what came into focus during my whirlwind tour in the Windy City, was simply that humans, across time and space, medium and method, are capable of such greatness.
I hope you feel energized, inspired, and full of ideas. You are part of the human race, whose art demonstrates and reminds us that we are all oh-so capable of ingenuity and beauty. So what great thing will you do today, or this week? Perhaps it will start with your comment at the end of this post. Like me stumbling across two rooms full of my favourite painter's works at the end of my marathon of a museum visit, you just don't know when or where you're going to come across your life's greatest wonders--until it just happens.
