Baskets on tour!

The traveling version of our exhibition, "By Native Hands: Woven Treasures from the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art" will be opening soon in Portsmouth, Virginia. Here at the museum we have about 225 baskets on display; the traveling show consists of 60 baskets from all regions of North America. For more information, visit the Portsmouth Museums website and scroll down the exhibitions page.

new blog feature

The Google Calendar feature is new, and I haven't got all events added yet, but it is usable. Click on the "Google Calendar" link to the right, and you can find out what events are coming up at the Museum. I'll be working on adding events and dates, and you can always check our main website as well: LRMA Programs.

interviews with artists

I just found this on the Mississippi Arts Commission website:

Interviews


Here you can find archived radio interviews with artists, musicians, storytellers, and more from around the state of Mississippi.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Made in America

We have had a great week here, unpacking and hanging Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Made in America, which is our next exhibition. The work is terrific, it looks great, it's humorous, it has pointed political commentary, references to spirituality, history, pop culture. I'm really looking forward to spending even more time in the gallery than I have already.

We have two events scheduled for this show:

The Opening Reception is Thursday, February 8 (that's a week from today) from 5:30 - 7 pm.

Even more exciting is a lecture by the artist herself on Wednesday, March 7, at 1:30 pm. This is a great opportunity to see an internationally renowned artist speak about her work, and that of other contemporary Native American artists.

Both of these events are free & open to the public.

Garden Lecture tomorrow!

We still have a few tickets available for our annual Garden Lecture tomorrow (Friday, February 2), featuring Mary Palmer Dargan:

Mary Palmer Dargan is author of The Early English Kitchen Garden: Medieval Period to 1800. She has served on the National Advisory Committee of the Garden Conservancy and is a former garden editor of Charleston Magazine. The Dargans first received national attention in the mid-1980s for their re-creations of 18th and 19th century gardens in Charleston, South Carolina. Their projects, as well as their own garden in Atlanta, Georgia, have been featured on CNN and Home & Garden Television and in several prestigious publications, including the New York Times.

The lecture begins at 10:30 am, with a luncheon afterwards at the Rogers-Green House. Tickets are $45. Call our front desk for more information: 601-649-6374

Art Talk last week

We had a great crowd for the first Art Talk of 2007. Since our current exhibition, Views from the Vault, includes a number of works by Gulf Coast modernist Dusti Bongé (1903-1993), we invited David Houston to come tell us about her life and work. David is curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Julian Brunt, director of the Dusti Bongé Foundation in Biloxi, brought a selection of artworks owned by the estate to show the audience.

Here's David (who is actually flanked by two Maltby Sykes prints):



And here's Julian showing us a rarely-seen work from the foundation's collection:



David also updated us on the ongoing recovery efforts at the Ogden and in the New Orleans art community in general. The Ogden is open three days a week, is within walking distance of the World War II Museum (the former D-Day Museum), and well worth the trip.

Views from the Vault

We are holding over "Views from the Vault" for a few days; you can still come see it on Tuesday, January 23.

Mississippi Arts Commission town hall meetings

SAVE THE DATE!

The Mississippi Arts Commission is coming to your community!

We hope you will join us to share your thoughts and ideas as we plan for the future. These valuable public networking opportunities will help improve the services offered by the Commission.

We are still in the planning phase, but we want you to mark your calendars now

To participate in one of these "town hall" meetings call 601/359-6030 or email info@arts.state.ms.us. There is no charge to attend and lunch will be served.

January 12 – Laurel ( Facilitators: Kim Whitt (Leader), Judi Holifield, Diane Williams)
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, 5th Avenue at 7th Street


January 23 – Brookhaven (Facilitators: Allison Winstead (Leader), Kim Whitt)

January 26 – Booneville (Facilitators: Kim Whitt (Leader), Malcolm White, Judi Holifield)

January 30 – Clinton (Facilitators: Lee Ann Powell (Leader), Judi Cleary, Maureen Donelly)

February 5 – Cleveland (Facilitators: Judi Cleary (Leader), Diane Williams, Kim Whitt)

February 6 – Oxford (Facilitators: Diane Williams (Leader), Judi Cleary, Judi Holifield, Morrie Warshawski)

February 6 - Louisville (Facilitators: Larry Morrisey (Leader), Kim Whitt, Judi Cleary, Morrie Warshawski)

All meetings will take place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. with the exception of the Louisville meeting. It will take place between 6-8 p.m. Meeting locations are still being established, but please feel free to contact any one of our program directors/leading facilitators for more information.

Morrie Warshawski is the consultant that is working with the Mississippi Arts Commission and the townhall meetings. Arts Commission board members will also be in attendance.



For more information, contact:

Diane Williams
Arts Industry Program Director - Accessibility Coordinator
Mississippi Arts Commission
501 North West Street
Woolfolk Building - 701B
Jackson, MS 39201
(601) 359-6529
(601) 359-6008

baskets on tour!

A selection of our Native American baskets are now on display at the Booth Western Museum in Cartersville, Georgia (north of Atlanta). I'll be speaking about the collection & the baskets on Saturday night at the members' opening.

Click here for more info.

HOLIDAY HOURS

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will be closed for the holidays on:

December 24
December 25
December 31
January 1

Otherwise, our regular schedule remains the same:

Tuesday - Saturday 10 am to 4:45 pm
Sunday 1 pm to 4 pm

Happy holidays!

I can't wait to read this!

Rescuing da Vinci

The link goes to an article about a new book about the "Monuments Men" (which included some women, of course)... these are the people who helped recover art from Nazi strongholds after World War II. This book will make an excellent companion to the other two great books on the topic of Nazi-era art thefts, The Rape of Europa and The Lost Museum

For information on how Nazi-era art thefts affect museums today, including the Lauren Rogers Museum, click here

Christmas class!

Last week we had a holiday art class for kids aged 6-12, and they had some fun:





The kids got into the holiday spirit as they made gingerbread men, silly Santas, and artsy angels.

Art Historians' Guide to the Movies

Art Historians' Guide to the Movies

Ever wondered what those paintings are at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Where Jason and the Argonauts was filmed? Is that really Robert Rauschenberg in Vanilla Sky? This website is the definitive guide to art in the movies; it's constantly being updated by the website owner and his many contributors.

U B U W E B :: Film & Video

U B U W E B :: Film & Video

Artier and Weirder than YouTube: UBU's archive of film and video of and by some of the most important artists of the century. Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Kiki Smith, and dozens more. If you've got broadband and some spare time, this is the place to see video you'll never find at your local rental place. Richard Serra! Vito Acconci! Rachel Whiteread! Seriously, check this website out.

We love Very Special Arts Festival

Last Friday, at least 150 kids and their teachers joined us at the Cameron Center for a Magical Very Special Arts Festival. The students enjoyed art stops, free balloons, a magic show, and lunch in the park on a beautiful fall day. We are, as always, grateful for the assistance provided by volunteers from the Laurel Arts League and Laurel's Junior Auxiliary.

Authors, Books, Pens: Tuesday, November 28

During our Museum Shop Open House, we have four authors coming in to sign books:

John David Williams and Catherine Strange will be signing Fearless Entertaining from 10 AM to 12 PM.

Wyatt Waters will sign his latest, The Year of the Stars, from 12 - 2 PM.

Robert St. John will be signing Deep South Parties from 12 - 2 PM

Holidays are coming up!

We've got a lot going on here in preparation for the holidays.

The museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day but open the rest of the holiday weekend, so if you're in the area or have out-of-town visitors, don't hesitate to stop by.

The Museum Shop is holding its holiday open house on Tuesday, November 28. We've got authors signing books, lots of great deals, and as always, excellent tasty treats. Lots of people (including staff!) do their holiday shopping at the open house. We've got a lot of great gift items, from kids' toys, books, and art kits to Choctaw baskets, Mississippi-made pottery, books, and one-of-a-kind jewelry.

We will be closed Friday December 1 through Sunday December 3, due to our annual Gala fundraiser on December 2nd. We've got some exciting auction items coming in for both the live and silent auctions, and I hope to have some pictures of some of them to post in the next week or so.

As always, details about all of our programs can be found on the main website: Lauren Rogers Museum of Art

Time is running out!

Saved from the Storm is closing this coming Sunday, November 12, so if you haven't had a chance to get here, November 12th is your last chance.

The following week, Miniature Worlds: Art from India will be closing down. November 19th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, is the last day.

Once these shows come down, there will be no exhibitions in the Stairwell Gallery or the Lower Level Galleries until December, but our permanent collection galleries will still be open to the public.

last collections workshops coming up soon

The final opportunity to attend a Collection Recovery Workshop for institutions led by conservators from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation is scheduled for Thursday, November 16. The subject is "Furniture and Wooden Objects."

There are openings remaining and anyone interested in attending should email
epope@mdah.state.ms.us. The Collection Recovery Workshops for Institutions are held on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Gulfport. The workshops, which begin at 9:00 a.m. and end around 4:00 p.m., focus on responding and stabilizing water-damaged objects.



The final Collection Recovery Workshop open to the public is scheduled for Natchez at the Historic Natchez Foundation, (Commerce and Main Streets), Saturday November 18, Furniture and Wooden Objects.

Public Workshops are from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. Registration is not necessary for the public workshops.

Trick-Art-Treat!

Last wednesday a lively group of young artists got ready for Halloween in our Trick-Art-Treat class, taught by Education Curator Mark Brown. The students painted pumpkins, made treat bags, made masks, and, along the way, made a mess! Fun was had by all:

Art Talk follow-up

Rolland Golden and John Kemp spoke to an enthusiastic audience in our Lower Level Galleries on October 19, and followed up with a book-signing in the lobby/gift shop area.

Our next Art Talk is October 19th

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will present painter Rolland Golden as its next Art Talk speaker on Thursday, October 19 from noon to 1:00 p.m. in the Lower Level Lecture Hall.

Rolland Golden’s career as a professional artist began in 1957. Known for his portrayals of the rural South including his native New Orleans French Quarter, Golden brings a certain sensitivity to his landscapes that only a Southern artist with long ties to the land can bring. He is a three-time recipient of the National Arts Club First Place Award, a two-time winner of the Thomas Hart Benton Purchase Award, winner of the Winslow Homer Memorial Award, and many others. He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally, including a one-artist show that toured the Soviet Union in 1976 and 1977. His paintings appear in numerous private and public collections, including those of Columbia Pictures, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the National Arts Club, and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

John R. Kemp’s book “The Journeys of a Southern Artist” features Golden’s work and will be available in the Museum Shop for purchase and signing by the artist immediately following Art Talk.

Art Talk, sponsored by West Quality Food Service, Inc., is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to bring a sack lunch. Desserts and beverages will be provided. For more information, call LRMA at 601-649-6374 or visit the website www.LRMA.org.

Heritage Festival 2006

Saturday, October 7th was a lovely fall day for an arts festival with musical performances, art activities, art demonstrations, and free pizza. Several hundred kids & adults enjoyed the day on the LRMA lawn.

The Cowboy Blues Band provided entertainment:














... a mustachioed blues"man" in training took the stage for "Ride, Sally, Ride":



















Artist Charles Crossley helped young artists do their own collages & paintings:



































Local woodcarving artist Ben Morgan demonstrated woodturning on his lathe:





And, apparently, kids and their parents weren't the only ones enjoying the fine weather and entertainment:



Who knew doggies dug the blues?

Art Talk

"Art Talk" is one of our ongoing programs here at LRMA. The third Thursday of most months (excluding December and summertime), we have a brown-bag lecture at noon. We provide drinks & dessert, you can bring your own lunch. Last month, we had Penny Kemp from the Riley Performaing Arts Center speak.





Kemp is Marketing Director of the Mississippi State University Riley Performing Arts Center located in the heart of downtown Meridian. She will discuss the $25 million renovation project that includes a broadcast studio, 30,000 square foot conference facility, and the Grand Opera House of Mississippi, which has been fully restored to its 1890s grandeur. I for one am excited about the ambitious programming at the Riley Center, and am looking forward to visiting it. I may even have to borrow some children so I can go to some of the kids' events.

Looking for more information about conservation?

One of the best online resources for information on conservation & preservation of all kinds of materials is the National Park Service's Conserve-o-Gram series.

Collections Recovery

This past Saturday, approximately twenty people learned all about collections recovery after a disaster (large or small) from three trained conservators. In the course of an afternoon at the Rogers-Green House, the conservators covered preparation, immediate response, stabilization, and assessment of a variety of paintings & painted surfaces.

They also discussed materials for storage & shipping, care & handling, and gave pointers on how to select a conservator. The guest speakers, Brian Baade, Joanne Barry, and Mary McGinn, also looked at damaged works brought in by workshop attendees and offered their opinions on whether their artworks were repairable.

Here, conservator Mary McGinn shows workshop participants what happens when a painting gets wet and is taken off the stretcher: it curls up. If you leave a wet painting on the stretcher or in the frame, it'll stay flat:



Below, Brian Baade explains that a painting is made up of many layers of canvas, sizing, paint, and varnish, so microscopic examination of paint chips is necessary before treatment can begin. A conservator needs to know what he or she is dealing with before determining how to proceed.



Below, McGinn, Barry, and Baade explain that the painting in question is wrinkling because the frame is a little too tight for the painting.

Wednesday, September 27 gallery closure

On Wednesday the 27th, the lecture hall portion of the Lower Level Galleries will be closed to the public until about 4 pm. This encompasses approximately 1/3 of the Miniature Worlds exhibition. The rest of the galleries will remain open.

Collections Recovery Workshop - update

Following a late-summer break, the next series of Winterthur Workshops begin September 21, with a Collection Recovery Workshops for Institutions scheduled. The topic of the September workshop is Paintings and Painted Surfaces. There are a few openings remaining and anyone interested in attending should email epope@mdah.state.ms.us . The remainder of the schedule is October 12, Objects (Glass, metal, ceramic, leather, archaeological artifacts) and November 16, furniture and wooden objects. The Collection Recovery Workshops for Institutions are held on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport. The workshops begin at 9:00 a.m. and end around 4:00 p.m.

Collection Recovery Workshops open to the public are scheduled as follows:

Laurel, Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Saturday, September 23, Paintings and Painted Surfaces;

Columbus, Columbus/Lowndes Public Library, Sunday October 15, Objects (Glass, Metal, Ceramic, Leather);

Natchez Historic Natchez Foundation, (Commerce and Main Streets), Saturday November 18, Furniture and Wooden Objects.

Public Workshops are from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. Registration is not necessary for the public workshops.

Art Talk thisThursday...

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will kick off its 2006-07 Art Talk Series on Thursday, September 21 at noon in the Lower Level Lecture Hall. The speaker will be Penny Kemp, Marketing Director for the Mississippi State University Riley Performing Arts Center in Meridian, Mississippi.

Kemp will discuss the 25 million dollar renovation project that includes a broadcast studio, 30,000 square foot conference facility, and the Grand Opera House of Mississippi, which has been fully restored to its 1890s grandeur.

Kemp is a native of Meridian with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s in business from Mississippi State University. She has worked with nationally-recognized marketing and branding firms throughout the southeast and has a strong interest in community development and downtown revitalization.

Art Talk, sponsored by West Quality Food Services, Inc., is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to bring a sack lunch. Desserts and beverages will be provided. For more information, call LRMA at 601-649-6374 or visit the website www.LRMA.org.

A new grant program for artists...

A new charity, United States Artists, will give $50,000 grants to 50 artists. - New York Times

This is good news! Very few grant programs exist for individual artists, and even fewer provide no-strings-attached money to help them just get on with their artwork.

it's been busy here at LRMA,

Which is why the blog has been quiet for a few weeks. After Blues Bash, we installed "Saved from the Storm: The Sarah Gillespie Collection of William Carey University." This exhibition features works that were on the Gulf Coast campus during the storm last year, many of which needed conservation. It's up in our Stairwell Gallery through November 12.

We are also working on "Miniature Worlds: Art from India," which opens this Friday, September 1. We'll have a lecture & opening on September 7 at 5 pm.

AND, we put together a loan of a small show of World War I and World War II posters for the Saenger Theater in Hattiesburg. It'll be up for another few weeks. Here's a sample:



And, last but certainly not least, we lent an exhibition of Japanese ukiyo-e prints to the Mississippi State University Art Gallery in Starkville. For more info, click here.

too much sweet tea at Walker's...

and a few days of intense painting packing, can sometimes lead to things like this:



and this:



In keeping with the attempt to be educational, those blue gloves are made of nitrile, not latex. You may have seen them at the doctor's office. We use them to handle art because they are not powdered (like latex) and aren't likely to leave fibers or threads (like cotton gloves).

Blues Bash is tonight

I think we still have some tickets left - come on out for beer, barbecue, and the blues, $20/person.

Grandma Moses exhibition....

The Fenimore Art Museum Reconsiders an American Idol Named Grandma Moses - New York Times

Why am I linking to a review of an exhibition in Cooperstown, NY? Because the Lauren Rogers' very own Grandma Moses painting, "The Daughter's Homecoming," is one of the thirty-eight pictures in the show. Alas, we didn't rank a mention in the Times review, but we are happy to be participating in an exhibition that will be seen by thousands (probably tens of thousands) of museum visitors. The show travels from Cooperstown to four other venues over the course of the next few years.

Here's a link to the museum for more info:

Fenimore Art Museum

ALWAYS call an expert!

Civil War relic collector hurt in shell explosion | ajc.com

If you like to poke around and look for old stuff, don't assume anything weapon-like is spent. The collector in question had lots of experience handling old munitions and still managed to blow himself up.

Of course, poking around and looking for old stuff should be left to the experts if you run across what seems like a substantial stash of old stuff. Location, context, layering, position are all important aspects of an artifact's history.

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.

African Art Collection at SUNO

NOLA.com: Search

I didn't even know SUNO had an African art collection, and now that I do, I hear it was left to molder for nearly six months after it was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. The brand-new curator - she'd been there four months - was halfway through cataloguing the collection when the hurricane hit. Finally they are managing to decontaminate & begin the recovery process, but all of their textiles are lost. It's tragic. These stories just keep coming, and keep coming.

support museums in Mississippi...

Official Mississippi Travel Guide

Museums on the Gulf Coast need visitors! Lots of admission-paying visitors. If you can get down there and support the arts & history & other museums, you'd be doing yourself and the Gulf Coast a favor. The link above goes to an updated list of Mississippi "coastal area" museums, including information on which ones are still closed and which are re-opened.

what's open in New Orleans?

Gambit Weekly : Art Listings : May 30, 2006

If you're wondering what is open in New Orleans, art-wise, the Gambit Weekly maintains an updated listing of museums & galleries in the city.

The Outdoor Classroom

On Friday, May 19, Education Curator Mark Brown participated in the Education Day, an Outdoor Classroom project at the Laurel Sportsplex.

Here, he helps Jones County fourth-graders make a print from a wood-block:


For more information, click here

Battle for Biloxi - New York Times

Battle for Biloxi - New York Times

From the New York Times Sunday Magazine, what looks to me like a pretty thorough description of the rebuilding process in Biloxi.

* You must register to read articles at nytimes.com, but registration is free.

a little summer reading

Conservation Fiction

The link above goes to a list of fictional works that feature art conservators &/or restorers. The idea of restoring or conserving a painting, that then becomes central to an unfolding mystery, is pretty popular with novelists these days. I'm partial to Iain Pears' art history mysteries, as well. Arturo Perez-Reverte's "The Flanders Panel" is probably one of my favorite books on the list. This list is well-annotated, and you can find a lot of these through your local library.

Jonathan Harr's "The Lost Painting," about the rediscovery of a Caravaggio masterpiece, is non-fiction but reads like a really excellent mystery novel.

Got something cool?

Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Identification and Appraisal of Objects

Here's a link to information about identifying and appraising artworks and other objects. LRMA, like the Smithsonian, does not provide these services at all. This Smithsonian web page should point you in the right direction.

Just in case...

Harpers Ferry Center: Wet Recovery

Hopefully no-one reading this will need this information, but hurricane season is approaching, we just had a nasty rainstorm here in Laurel, and the time seems right for it. Click on the link for information on salvage, recovery, and stabilization of wet paper, artworks, and so forth. Ultimately anything of real value will likely need a professional conservator, but knowing what to do as soon as something gets soaked is essential.

The National Park Service provides a whole line of "conserve-o-grams" which will answer all manner of questions about how to take care of your important stuff.

Only one more week!

"Pinturas de Fe: The Retablo Tradition in Mexico and New Mexico" closes this coming Sunday - May 15. If you've been meaning to get to see the show and just haven't gotten here, your time is running short.

Jim Meade exhibition

On Sunday April 23, the exhibition "Curator's Choice: Jim Meade" opened. We started with a performance by Stephen Redfield (violin) and Theresa Sanchez (piano), who performed a few of Jim Meade's favorite Puccini works. Meade then followed up with a talk about his work and his career, and a walk around the gallery. The show is up through July 2 in the Stairwell Gallery.

Under the Tuscan Moon

On April 21, our Guild of Docents and Volunteers hosted a fundraiser for the Rogers-Green House, the family home of Lauren Rogers that now belongs to LRMA. We use the space for offices, museum events, and private parties. The house, built in 1904, is in excellent condition but of course always needs upkeep. Hence: an annual fundraiser. This year's theme, "Under the Tuscan Moon," resulted in Italian food and gorgeous floral decorations all over the house.

Here, a view of the dining room before the party got started:


Guests examine the artworks in the silent auction:

Recovering Collections & Artifacts

The Mississippi Department of Archives & History is co-sponsoring a series of workshops for Mississippi residents that might be of interest to many. I'll quote directly from the press release:

"These half-day workshops are open to all Mississippians.... 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."

The schedule is as follows:

Biloxi, Saturdays 9:30 am - 12:00 pm, Margaret S. Sherry Memorial Library
May 20 Textiles & costumes
June 24 Photographs
October 14 Objects (glass, metal, ceramic, leather)
November 18 Furniture and Wooden objects

Jackson, Sundays 1:30 - 4:00 pm, MDAH, Winter Building
May 21 Textiles, costume
June 25 Photographs
September 24 Paintings and painted surfaces

Single sessions will be held in Oxford, Cleveland, Laurel, Columbus, and Natchez.

I wish I had a website to direct you to, but I can't find the schedule anywhere online. The contact person is Eleana Pope at the MDAH. If they put the info online, I'll add a link.