Internships at the LRMA

The LRMA offers internships in four departments: Curatorial, Marketing, Education, and the Library. We are happy to partner with colleges to help students meet the requirements for college credit.

For more information and the application, visit our website: http://lrma.org/about/staff/

Guest Blogger: Angie King

At The Museum: Jump into Fall Classes at the Museum

　

In September, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will start fall off right with some great art classes for everyone in the family. Beginning on September 8, After School Art Lessons will be offered every Wednesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. through November 10 in the Museum Annex. This ten-week class will introduce children in K5 through sixth grade to different kinds of artistic media, from paint to clay to metal embossing. Each child will take home a new project each week. The class costs $90 for Museum members and $120 for non-members. Call the Museum now to reserve your child’s spot at (601) 649.6374.

If your child wants to get messy and have fun, sign them up for our Kids’ Pottery Class on Tuesdays in September. The class will meet in the Carriage House Studio on Seventh Street beginning Tuesday, September 7 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Children in K5 through sixth grade will learn to create beautiful works of art in clay with hand building techniques and on the potter’s wheel. This class costs $35 for Museum members and $45 for non-members. Reservations are required so call today as this class fills up quickly!

Home School Fridays have begun again for the fall. This is a free, drop-in class that takes place in the Museum annex from 1 - 4 p.m. Once a month for home-schooled students in any grade. Each month participants can make a different art project and take it home. Come and create great artwork while meeting new friends. Fall dates for Home School Fridays will be September 24, October 22, and November 19. Reservations are not required - just come and have fun.

For adults, we offer an opportunity to make a unique piece of jewelry in Jennifer Myrick’s Precious Metal Clay Jewelry Class. The class will be held Saturday, September 25 from 10 a.m. Until 2 p.m. In the Carriage House Studio. Ms. Myrick is a local jewelry artist who makes her own creations from scratch. She will teach participants how to use precious metal clay to make totally unique pieces. Each participant will walk away with at least one finished piece. A light lunch will be provided with the class. The cost is $50 for Museum members and $60 for non-members. Call to reserve your space. For more information on this class, or on any of our great educational programs, please check out the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art website at www.LRMA.org or call the Museum at (601) 649.6374.



Angie King is the Education Outreach Coordinator at Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

Firefighters' & Police Tour

Once a year, we invite the local police and fire departments for the "behind-the-scenes" tour of the Museum. We like to remind them where the entrances, exits, gas shut-off, and so forth are. How do you get into the attic? Where's the electrical panel? What's in the basement? All those things, we hope, will help them do their job if we ever have an emergency. We certainly enjoy their visits, and we hope they do, too.

LRMA Guild Membership Coffee coming soon

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Guild of Docents and Volunteers will hold its annual membership coffee on Tuesday, August 24, from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. at the Museum.

The coffee offers an opportunity for guests to learn more about this integral part of the Museum. Guild members are actively involved in many facets of the Museum from assisting with annual events such as Heritage Festival, Gala Preview Party, and Rogers-Green House fund raiser to giving tours and assisting the Museum staff.

Patti Slocki is chairman of this year’s membership coffee and Lou Bankston is membership chairman for the Guild.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Museum and the Guild may attend the coffee. For more information call Holly Green at 601-649-6374.

For more information about the Guild.

School is back in session...

Summer vacation is over...now if only the summer temps would go away, too.

If you're a teacher, be sure and check out our educational resources at http://lrma.org/education/ and contact one of our education curators if you have questions. They have lots of activities planned for the school year, including Heritage Festival in October, Very Special Arts Festival for kids with special needs, a Spring Break Art Break, and more. Keep an eye on the website and the blog for classes and programs for kids and teachers.

If you're a parent, let your childrens' teacher know that we are here, ready and eager to partner with them.

In the Stairwell Gallery: "Our Favorite Things"

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art presents Our Favorite Things, on view in its Stairwell Gallery now through November 2010.

This exhibition was curated by members of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art staff. Each staff member was given the opportunity to visit the Museum vaults and choose his or her favorite contemporary work(s) from the American collection for this show. The exhibition also features labels written by staff members explaining why or how they made their selections. Jill Chancey, PhD, LRMA curator said "The goal of this exhibition is to remind visitors that every exhibition at the Museum is the result of a whole team of people behind the scenes working together."

Featured artists range from Mississippians Birney Imes and Walter Anderson to Fairfield Porter and Alice Neel, and works in various media including photography, lithography, painting, and woodblock print.

Image: Birney Imes, III, Girl and Dog, 1983.

Spike!

It has been my observation that people who grew up in Laurel remember, at the very least, two things from the Museum collection: the second-smallest basket in the world, and the suit of armor. The tiny basket is currently on display in the drawer full of miniature baskets in the Basket Gallery. The suit of armor, which was in the European Gallery when I arrived, has been moved to the Reading Room. (His sharp, spiky lance in close proximity to our European paintings made me nervous.)

Spike, the suit of armor, has been in the museum's collection for many decades, and is a relic of the time before the LRMA had a defined collections management policy. Today, we only collect items that fit into one of our five collecting areas, but when the museum was new, all sorts of things came into the collections from all over the world: Chinese snuff bottles, Baroque tapestries, Sevres porcelain, and, well, Spike. Although he doesn't really meet any of our collecting guidelines any more, we keep him on display because he is such a fond memory of so many Laurelites.

It's hard to get a good picture of him - he's both dark and reflective, and the Reading Room is a bit dim, but I did my best. Be sure and stop in the Reading Room and say hello to Spike next time you visit.