Thursday, May 27, 2010

Daddy Rich Blues Band to play at LRMA Blues Bash



The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will hold its 17th Annual "Blues Bash" Friday, June 4 from 6:30 - 10:30 p.m. on the Museum front lawn. This year’s event will feature The Daddy Rich Blues Band.

"Daddy Rich" (Richard Crisman) is a musician and songwriter hailing from Clarksdale, MS, and is currently an instructor at the Delta Blues Museum Arts & Education Program. The Daddy Rich Blues Band plays a mixture of original and popular blues numbers from the Delta, Chicago, and Hill Country styles and has released two CDs, both having received airplay on Commercial, College, Internet, and Satellite Radio stations. The band has also made television appearances on Gene Simmons Family Jewels on A&E, Little People Big World on The Learning Channel, and The Golf Channel.

Blues Bash tickets are $20 and include a barbecue dinner from The Smokehouse of Laurel. Tickets may be purchased at the Museum or by contacting 601.649.6374 or info@LRMA.org by Wednesday, June 2. Guests should bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy the fun. In case of rain, Blues Bash will be held at the Cameron Center.

Blues Bash is sponsored by Southern Beverage Company, BancorpSouth, Cellular South, Eagle Transportation, Ellis and Walters Dental Care, Gholson Burson Entrekin & Orr, PLLC, Kim’s Chrysler Toyota, The Koerber Company, Roy Rogers Body Shop, Coca-Cola of Laurel, Laurel Leader-Call, Rock 104, and WDAM-TV.

Proceeds from Blues Bash support the Museum’s education program. To purchase a ticket for Blues Bash or for more information, call LRMA at 601.649.6374.

For more info about Daddy Rich, visit his website: http://sites.google.com/site/daddyrichbluespage/

Monday, May 24, 2010

LRMA Guild of Docents & Volunteers Awards Luncheon

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Guild of Docents & Volunteers held their annual awards luncheon Tuesday, May 18, in the Museum's European Gallery.




Officers for 2010-11 are (left to right) Sharon Walters, Treasurer, Louise Welborn, Past President, Cynthia Sheppard, 1st Vice President, Allison Travis, Secretary, and Rosemary Norton, President. Not pictured: Janet Blouin, 2nd Vice President





Guild members who contributed 100+ hours to the Museum in 2009-10:
(seated l to r) Sharon Walters, Gay Morgan, Sarah Walls, Jean Holt, Catherine Nowicki.
(standing l to r) Faye Rogers, Louise Welborn, Allison Travis, Dianne Dudley, Patti Slocki, Cornelia Harrell, Mary Anne Sumrall, Lila Chancellor, Carolyn Mulloy, Cynthia Sheppard, and Becky Dalton. Not pictured: Lynn Busby, Margaret Ann Fortenberry, Sarah McMurry, and Sydney Swartzfager.


Guild members who contributed 50+ hours to the Museum in 2009-10.
(seated, l to r) Nan Abernathy, Jeanelle Smith, Lou Bankston, and Mary Beth Welch.
(standing l to r) Ellen Winter, Donna Applewhite, Billie Mapp, Peggy Melvin, and Susan Garrett.
Not pictured: Marilyn Biglane, Janet Blouin, Joan Brumfield, Jessica Carr, Pat Holifield, Jimmie Leone, Rosemary Norton, Sherry Shows, Ann Cameron Stone, Katie Sullivan, Dave Ann Wheat, and Debbie Yoder

Thursday, May 20, 2010

LRMA offers Free Family Art classes


Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will hold Free Family Art classes every Wednesday in June from 1 - 4 p.m. in the Museum Annex. Participants will create a different project to take home each week in this come-and-go class. This summer’s classes will feature guest artists Sean Star Wars, Mark Brown, and Terrell Taylor. The classes are free and no reservation is required.

For more information about summer activities at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art contact 601.649.6374 or visit www.LRMA.org.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Blues Bash 2010




The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will hold its 17th Annual "Blues Bash" Friday, June 4 from 6:30 - 10:30 p.m. on the Museum front lawn.

This year’s event will feature The Daddy Rich Blues Band from Clarksdale, MS. Tickets are $20 and include a barbecue dinner from The Smokehouse of Laurel. Tickets may be purchased at the Museum, or by contacting 601-649-6374 or info@LRMA.org by Wednesday, June 2. Guests should bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy the fun. In case of rain, Blues Bash will be held at the Cameron Center.

Blues Bash is sponsored by Southern Beverage Company, BancorpSouth, Cellular South, Eagle Transportation, Ellis and Walters Dental Care, Gholson Burson Entrekin & Orr, PLLC, Kim’s Chrysler Toyota, The Koerber Company, Roy Rogers Body Shop, Coca-Cola of Laurel, Laurel Leader-Call, Rock 104, and WDAM-TV.

Proceeds from Blues Bash support the Museum’s education program. To purchase a ticket for Blues Bash or for more information, call LRMA at 601-649-6374.

photo: Left to right: Ed Simmons (The Koerber Company), Rick Burson, Shirley Moore, and Noel Rogers (Gholson Burson Entrekin & Orr, PLLC), Cody McDonald (Southern Beverage Company), Ray Palmer (BancorpSouth), Debbie Blakeney and Tom Colt (Rock 104), Robin Holmes (Ellis & Walters Dental Care), Lisa Lowe (Cellular South).

Guest Blogger: George Bassi

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art has been under construction! For the past several months, we have been facilitating the construction of new public restrooms as well as the construction of a new museum website.

The completion of a new addition for public restrooms in the upper level of the Museum was much anticipated. The approximately 700 square foot space is located off the stairwell gallery on the Museum’s main floor and features large restrooms and a separate family restroom. I know that this space will be utilized by tour groups and visitors for generations to come.

Of course, adding to a building of historical significance like the Museum is always a challenge. The Museum’s Board of Directors took great care in making the addition appropriate while providing modern amenities for our visitors.

Special thanks go to Board members Mike Foil, Bill Mullins and James Wray Bush as well as LRMA Building Superintendent Todd Sullivan for their efforts in making this project a reality.

Also under construction this spring has been the re-design of the Museum’s website, www.LRMA.org, by Burton’s Computer Resources of Laurel. Under the direction of LRMA Director of Marketing Holly Green, the new, expanded site will be up and running by the end of May with numerous features and more information. Besides a new look, the site will include two new areas of interest, social networking and a searchable collections database.

The Museum will be providing regular updates through Facebook and Twitter as well as continuing the Museum’s blog, Live from LRMA. The LRMA website will provide options for viewers to become fans of the museum through these two social networking sites, and we will be providing current information on Museum events, activities and news.

As part of a two-year digitization project funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, our entire collection will soon be on-line and easily accessed. Under the guidance of LRMA Registrar Tommie Rodgers and Curator Jill Chancey, the museum employed Anna Smith beginning in 2008 to digitize the collection. The LRMA website will contain a searchable database with images of every item in the collection as well as basic information about each object. This search tool will be invaluable for teachers, students and the general public– truly bringing the LRMA collection to the world.

George Bassi is Executive Director of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

LRMA will show Discovery Channel video series


Lauren Rogers Museum of Art invites the public to view When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions on consecutive Tuesdays May 25; June 1, 8, 15, and 22 at 2 p.m. in the LRMA Reading Room.

In conjunction with its current exhibition NASA|ART: 50 Years of Exploration, LRMA will show the landmark series which details 50 years of the National Air and Space Administration. There is no charge to attend the series.

Narrated by award-winning actor Gary Sinise and presented by the Discovery Channel, When We Left Earth is the incredible story of humankind’s greatest adventure, as it happened, told by the people who were there. From the early quest of the Mercury program to put a man in space, to the historic moon landings, through the Soyuz link-up and the first un-tethered space walk by Bruce McCandless, this is how the space age came of age.

"The story of NASA is really America’s story. People coming together with grit, audaciousness and determination to go—quite literally—where no man had gone before," said John Ford, President and General Manager, Discovery Channel. When We Left Earth is a story of great human courage, innovation and groundbreaking science and technology. We are proud to have played a part in preserving NASA’s film archives so that future generations can celebrate this glorious past and dream and build an even brighter future."

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is a private, non-profit organization operating for the benefit of the public. The Museum is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street in historic downtown Laurel. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 - 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. For more information call 601-649-6374 or visit www.LRMA.org.

Photo: The mighty Saturn V rocket lifts off. It was and still is the largest, most powerful rocket ever built and launched.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Summer Studio Classes at the Museum





Pottery Camp for Kids will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays - June 15, 17, 22, and 24 from either 10 a.m. until noon or 2 - 4 p.m. in the Carriage House Studio. Children must be entering K5 through 6th grade in the upcoming school year. Participants will be introduced to wheel-throwing, pinch, coil, and slab-building. Cost is $35 for members and $45 for non-members. Pottery Camp for Kids will be led by LRMA Education staff.

A Found Object Sculpture Class will be led by Jones County Junior College art instructor Mark Brown on Tuesdays and Thursdays - June 8, 10, 15, and 17 from 6 - 8 p.m. in the Carriage House Studio. Participants (ages Junior high to adult) should bring string, twine, wire, wood, metal or fabric from home. Cost is $40 for members and $50 for non-members.

A Jewelry Workshop will be taught by jewelry artist Robbin Lee on Saturdays, June 12 and July 10 from 10 a.m. until noon in the Carriage House Studio. Participants (ages Junior high to adult) will learn basic jewelry-making skills and leave with a finished piece. Cost of $10 per session plus cost of materials can be paid directly to Robbin Lee.

Summer Art Camp will be offered in two sessions this year. Participants may sign up for either July 13 - 16 or July 20 - 23, both from 10 a.m. until noon. Children must be entering K5 through 6th grade in the upcoming school year. "Art Detectives" will explore metal embossing, impasto painting, figurative ceramics, and printmaking. Cost is $45 for members and $55 for non-members. Summer Art Camp will be led by LRMA Education staff.

To register for the classes contact the Museum at 601.649.6374 or info@LRMA.org. As class sizes are limited, reservation will only be held with payment.

Monday, May 03, 2010

At the Museum: Hester Bateman, Silversmith




One of the five collections at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is our British Georgian Silver Collection, which features silver objects related to the service of tea made during the reigns of the English kings George I, George II, George III, and George IV (overall, 1714-1830). During this period, the British began to import tea from China, and by the 1730s, it had superceded those other exotic imports, coffee and chocolate, as Britain’s favorite fancy beverage. By 1720, it had become the most expensive of all household goods due to enormous import taxes, and so it was kept locked away, carefully monitored by the lady of the house, and the serving of tea was a luxurious process requiring elegant equipment, from kettles to sugar tongs. By the end of the century, however, the taxes had been lowered, and the working classes’ usual afternoon drink, beer, had become rather more expensive. By 1800, nearly everyone in Britain was devoted to tea drinking, and it remains a staple of the British culture today.

The rise in tea’s popularity at first inspired its early adopters to buy imported Chinese tea equipment, but demand soon outstripped supply, providing Britain’s craftsmen and craftswomen with a considerable financial opportunity. Early British silver and porcelain was often inspired by Chinese designs, but soon British silver took on its own design vocabulary.

It was into this environment that the young Hester Bateman (née Needham) came of age. Born in 1708, she married a goldsmith, John Bateman, in 1730, and soon John Bateman’s workshop became a family business. The term “goldsmith,” at that time, referred to nearly anyone in the metal trades, from dealers to burnishers, regardless of which metal was actually being worked. It was in her husband’s workshop that Hester Bateman learned the trade and craft of silversmithing, as did all of her children but one. Little is known of her early life and work, as any work she did in her husband’s shop would have been marked with her husband’s trademark. If he sub-contracted to another, larger shop, that smith would then put his mark over Bateman’s. Because of the collaborative nature of the craft workshop, we know little of Hester Bateman’s creative development. Not until her husband’s death in 1760 did Hester’s creative vision dominate the workshop. She registered her own trademark in 1761; only widows of men with trademarks were allowed to do this. Single women and married women had to work under a man’s trademark. Because of this, it is uncertain how many women worked in the silver trades during the Georgian period. At least forty women registered trademarks during Bateman’s lifetime, but hundreds more worked in the trade without name recognition.

Bateman’s style tended to the Neo-Classical, the dominant style of the late 18th century. She borrowed decorative motifs from Greek and Roman precedents, and chose austere, elegant forms rather than richly decorated rococo forms, a popular style imported from the European continent. Her signature decoration of thin-line beading accented the forms without obscuring them. Within a decade of taking over the business, Bateman was tremendously popular, selling to the rising middle classes (as tea became more affordable) as well as to the usual silver patrons, the church and nobility.

There are sixteen pieces of Hester Bateman silver in the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art collection, ten of which are on display in the Silver Gallery. All exhibit her elegant, Classical forms and decoration and her attention to detail and craftsmanship. They include asparagus tongs, a sweetmeat basket, a very fine teapot, and a sugar basket. One might wonder about asparagus tongs at tea, but the British tradition of “High Tea” was something like a light mid-afternoon meal, and therefore included both sweet and savory items, such as soups and vegetables. The British Georgian Silver Collection came to the Museum in 1972 as a gift from Thomas and Harriet Gibbons, who once owned and published the Laurel Leader-Call.

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is open from 10:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. Sunday. For more information about exhibitions, tours, and programming, call 601-649-6374 or visit www.LRMA.org.

Jill R. Chancey, PhD, is curator of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.