Don't miss the sculptures in the North Garden!

When you come to visit the museum, don't miss our North Garden, which is (go figure!) on the North side of the museum, on 7th street. The North Garden is open whenever the museum is open. The door that you will see there leads to the Lower Level Galleries, but is usually locked.

Laurelites of a certain vintage will recall that this door once led to the public library, which was located in the lower level of the building for many years. In our North Garden you will find two sculptures on loan from the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, a Smithsonian Institution museum in Washington, DC. These are the Torso of a Young Woman by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Eve, by the American sculptor Laura Ziegler (b. 1927) . A third bronze, Donald de Lue's Spirit Triumphant, is on loan to us from Childs Gallery in Boston.



The loan from the Hirshhorn was made possible by the Museum Loan Network - a national collection-sharing program funded by the John. S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by MIT’s Office of the Arts.

Art Camp 2006

This year's theme for Art Camp was Folk Art. Our young artists made face jugs, folk art fish, landscapes, decorated chalk boards, and more.

Working on landscape collages:



My favorite face jug, a blue elephant's face:



A school of folk-art fish swimming down our sidewalk:



And a clever use of yarn for the making of a jellyfish, to go with the aluminum-foiled green fish. (I do hope Green Fish is telling a secret to Red Jellyfish, and not trying to nibble on him) :

National Day of The Cowboy

Welcome to the National Day of The Cowboy

You may have heard of "Talk Like a Pirate Day," but did you know that this Saturday is the Second Annual "National Day of the Cowboy"? Yep, it sure enough is. Click on the link for more info, and dust off your cowboy boots & ten-gallon hat before the weekend.

recovering collections & artifacts: workshops statewide

RECOVERING COLLECTIONS & ARTIFACTS
Workshops for Mississippi’s Residents and Cultural Institutions

A series of free workshops will be held throughout the state, from May through November 2006, focusing on the recovery of water-damaged objects from public, private and family collections. Each will be conducted by a team of conservators and conservation graduate students from the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation who have been working with institutions on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina. Through lecture, demonstration and hands-on exercises participants will learn how to safely handle, assess, dry and clean damaged objects. Participants also will begin to form a statewide core group to respond to future cultural collection emergencies. These workshops are sponsored by the Winterthur Museum, University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


Workshops for Cultural Institutions
These one-day workshops are open to all individuals, paid employees and volunteers, responsible for the care of collections that are open to the public. These sessions will be held on the Jefferson Davis campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport; they will include a morning of lecture and demonstration followed by an afternoon of hands-on exercises involving wet and dirty objects. Sessions will include relevant handouts and lists of resources and contacts. Pre-registration is required. Lunch will be available for purchase at the college.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Gulfport, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
May 18 Textiles and Costumes
June 21 Photographs
July 13 Books, Manuscripts and Art-on-Paper
September 21 Paintings and Painted Surfaces
October 12 Objects (Glass, Metal, Ceramic, Leather)
November 16 Furniture and Wooden Objects


Workshops for Mississippi Residents
These half-day workshops are open to all Mississippians with a private collection or family treasures already damaged or at risk for future storm related damage. Participants may bring a photograph of a damaged item, but do not damage your item further by bringing it to the workshop. Each session will deal generally with all types of objects but then focus on a particular category. Through lecture, demonstration, and question and answer, participants will learn how to respond promptly and effectively to stabilize damaged objects and then seek further help as necessary. Sessions will include relevant handouts and lists of resources and contacts.

Biloxi, Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Margaret S. Sherry Memorial Library
May 20 Textiles and Costumes
June 24 Photographs
October 14 Objects (Glass, Metal, Ceramic, Leather)
November 18 Furniture and Wooden Object

Jackson, Sundays, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m., Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Winter Building
May 21 Textiles and Costume
June 25 Photograph
September 24 Paintings and Painted Surface

Oxford, Saturday, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m., Oxford Depot
July 15 Books, Manuscripts and Art-on-Paper

Cleveland, Sunday, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m., Capps Archives and Museum Bldg, Delta State U.
July 16 Books, Manuscripts and Art-on-Paper

Laurel, Saturday, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m., Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
September 23 Paintings and Painted Surfaces

Columbus, Sunday, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m., Columbus/Lowndes Public Library
October 15 Objects (Glass, Metal, Ceramic, Leather)

Natchez, Sunday, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m., Historic Natchez Foundation Commerce at Main
November 19 Furniture and Wooden Objects


Site Visits to Cultural Institutions
Site visits are available to any cultural institution including libraries, archives, museums, historical societies and historic houses open to the public. Members of the workshop team will advise staff on the protection and recovery of objects already damaged or at risk for damage by storms, leaks or other water related events. To minimize travel time, site visits will be clustered regionally. Dates for each region may be shifted depending upon requests from institutions. Use the space on the Cultural Institution Workshop registration form or contact Eleana Pope to request a site visit. PLEASE register early.

Coast & Southeast Region May 19, June 22, October 13, November 17

Central / West Region May 22, June 26, September 22, November 20

Central / East Region September 25

Northeast Region July 14, October 16

Northwest Region July 17


For More Information
Contact Eleana Pope 601-576-6850 or epope@mdah.state.ms.us

The Jungles of Paris

National Gallery of Art - Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, July 16 - October 15, 2006

New York Times review

This Henri Rousseau show looks like it may be worth a trip to DC. The first link goes to the National Gallery website, with lots of links on the subject. The second, to the new review of the show, which opens on Sunday the 16th.

Henri Rousseau is one of the so-called French "primitifs." He doesn't quite fit into any of the major movements of the late 19th or early 20th century in Paris, and though self-taught, was by no means naive. His work is luminous and weird, surreal before Surrealism, inspired by Africa before Picasso and his posse were, and reminiscent (as Roberta Smith notes) of the American "primitive" Edward Hicks:




Hicks, of course, lived much earlier and did not have access to the immense zoological collections of Parisian museums, but the strangeness, the (small-s) surrealism is there with both Hicks and Rousseau.

It's HOT out there, y'all!

...so we had our last Free Family Art Day (for now, anyway) in the Education Annex. Today's project: fish-themed collages. All things sparkly, shiny, puffy, and colorful were in evidence. I think everybody that walked into the Annex came out covered in glitter. Above, a few young artists are enjoying their collage projects.

The Most Difficult Journey - even more of it.

If you've already been here to see the exhibition "The Most Difficult Journey: The Poindexter Collections of American Modernist Art," you may want to come back to re-visit it. We had a dozen paintings that simply did not fit into the lower level galleries, and these are now installed in the Stairwell Gallery. This expanded version of the exhibition will remain in place through August 11, 2006.

Summertime Art Fun

Every Wednesday from 1-4 pm, our Education Department has been providing a free art activity for kids in the Education Annex - or outside, weather permitting. A few weeks ago, Mandy and Mark set up outside so kids could try their hands at "painting like Pollock." Painting without brushes on a canvas laid down flat (instead of leaning against an easel) was good messy fun.



We have one more Free Family Art Day scheduled on Wednesday, July 12.

Other summer activities here include the Summer Video Series (ongoing through July 18, Tuesdays at 2 pm) and Summer Art Camp for kids (July 18-21). Click on the link to the main museum website for details.