At the Museum: Sculpture on the Museum Grounds

Now that the weather is getting better, it’s a good time to come visit the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and stroll around the grounds viewing the numerous sculptures on display outdoors. Five works are in the sculpture garden, and eight more are distributed around the building.

On the north side of the North Garden is the “Torso of a Young Woman” by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Rodin is perhaps the best-known figurative sculptor of the modern era. This small bronze torso was created in 1909, just a year after he moved to the Hôtel Biron in Paris, which is today the Musée Rodin. It was, like many of his sculptures, not cast until after his death; in this case the Torso was cast in 1959.




On the east side of the garden is “Eve”, by the American sculptor Laura Ziegler (b.1927). Ziegler clearly works within the figurative sculptural tradition she shares with Rodin. However, Ziegler seems interested in expressing a particular emotion on the part of the subject - the anguish Eve felt on being banished from the Garden of Eden. Rodin’s work, on the other hand, is expressive of the artist’s interest in form and content; in other words, it is more about the artist than the subject. In Eve the viewer is drawn into the emotional world of the subject, not the artist.




Nearby, the visitor will find Donald DeLue’s “Spirit Triumphant” (1971), a one-third size model from the State of Louisiana memorial at the Gettysburg battlefield. This bronze represents the survival of the spirit; the split laurel tree represents the South and the North, which are eventually united by the dove of peace spanning the two branches.





Recently, we added Atlanta artist Andrew Crawford's "Fiddlehead," a steel sculpture donated in 2002. It evokes both the curve of a violin and the organic quality of the fiddlehead fern.



Eight sculptures by David Hayes are on display outdoors at LRMA until August 31, 2008. Hayes has developed a unique formal vocabulary of biomorphic forms. The surprisingly organic-looking assemblages contrasts with the material: flat plates of unbending industrial-strength steel. The works in the “Screen Sculpture” series are painted solid black, while the rest of the sculptures on the Museum grounds are painted. The scale of the steel works is comfortably human; ranging from about 4' - 8' high. The works do not tower over and dominate the average person, but are not so small they can be deemed inconsequential. Repeated viewing over the course of the next year, in different seasons, times of day, walking or driving by, and under varying skies, will result in different experiences with the sculpture. Don’t forget to walk all the way around the back of the museum to see “Grenouille,” which faces 4th Street and the LRMA parking lot.

In the Museum Annex courtyard is Bruce White’s stainless steel “Untitled” (1972). White, a New Jersey native, now lives and works in Chicago. Bruce White's work has been described as "an elegant union of ancient symbolism and contemporary science." His preferred materials are stainless steel and aluminum, although he has created works in bronze and granite--essentially materials which lend themselves to permanance. In addition to sculpture for residential and commercial interiors, he has done numerous large scale exterior public works.

Finally, on the South side of the front lawn is Arthur Silverman’s “Cor-Ten Duo #3” (1981). Silverman is a New Orleans-based sculptor who has long been fascinated with the mathematical and aesthetic qualities of tetrahedrons. This sculpture may be familiar to mall-goers, as it was in display at the Sawmill Square Mall for several years. I’d advise giving it a second look in a natural setting, however, as the expansive space and natural light really work to the sculpture’s advantage.

The loan of the Rodin and Zeigler sculptures from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. 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. The Sculpture Garden is open during regular LRMA hours: 10:00 am to 4:45 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1:00 to 4:00 on Sunday; the rest of the sculptures are accessible year-round. For more information about museum programs and exhibitions, call (601) 649-6374 or check our website at www.lrma.org.

One step forward for LRMA-kind

We now have a Youtube account, thanks to Librarian and WebMaster Donnelle Conklin, and our first video is an interview with Thomas Jones, director of the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas. Our director, George Bassi, interviewed him about Spectacular Achievements: Audubon's Animals of North America, the exhibition featured in our Lower Level Galleries through March 23, 2008. The video was shot by WDAM for their Midday show, so thanks are due to WDAM.

Guest Blogger: Holly Dodd

AT THE MUSEUM: Calling All Gardening Enthusiasts

February is not only the time for valentines and candy but also an opportunity to look forward to warm days, spring planting, and all things that bloom. In celebration of that theme, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will host an event for those who are avid gardeners and those of us who wish we were.

LRMA will present its annual Garden Lectureat 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 7, in the Museum’s American Gallery. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Laurel Garden Club, a member of The Garden Club of America.

The speaker for the event will be Rebecca Frischkorn of Washington, D. C. A graduate of Princeton University, Frischkorn has designed gardens professionally for more than 30 years and lectures widely on landscape design. She is a trustee of The Cultural Landscape Foundation and the Shenandoah National Park Trust.

Frischkorn’s talk will focus on a ten-episode series for the Public Broadcasting System titled Garden Story: Inspiring Spaces, Healing Places, for which she is executive producer and host. The series explores how gardens create positive social change and explains the need for stewardship of our natural environment. Garden Story examines how community gardens reduce crime and renew cities, how gardening can promote healing, and how gardens teach children to care for the natural world.

The garden lecture will be followed by a luncheon at the Rogers-Green House. Tickets for the event are $35 per person. To purchase a ticket or for more information, call the Museum at 601-649-6374.

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street in historic downtown Laurel and is open 10:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00 until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free. For more information, call LRMA at 601-649-6374 or visit the Museum’s website, www.LRMA.org.

-- Holly Dodd is the Director of Marketing at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

Well, THAT was unexpected

We had a real snow here in Laurel last weekend! It stuck for a couple of days, kids built snowmen galore, and I, for one, had to dig deep in the closet for my winter boots, which are a relic of my years in Kansas at grad school.

At the left, you see two sculptures by David Hayes which are inhabiting the jasmine beds through August.

Guest Blogger: Donnelle Conklin

At the Museum: LRMA Library Offers Spring Activities


Beginning January 27th, The Lauren Rogers Museum will present the exhibition, Spectacular Achievements: Audubon’s Animals of North America. LRMA Library will offer a glass case exhibit showcasing the volumes of Audubon’s books from the Library’s collection, which will be located in the Museum Reading Room. The exhibit will run through March 23rd. During this time the Library will also present the video, John James Audubon: The Birds of America, a 30-minute video on loan from the National Gallery of Art. Using his journal writings and illustrations interwoven with nature photography, the video traces Audubon’s development as an artist and his efforts to publish The Birds of America.

In April, LRMA Library will host its annual Video Series featuring a new edition to the collection, Craft in America. The series is divided into three categories: “Memory”, “Landscape” and “Community”, and together they explore the variety and history of American craftsmanship through the work of artists working in a variety of media across the country.

One video from the series will be offered each week on Tuesdays, April 15, 22, and 29 at 2:00 p.m. in the Museum Reading Room. Each video lasts approximately 60 minutes. The Library will replay each week’s video by request for those unable to attend the Tuesday 2:00 p.m. sessions.

For more information, please contact Librarian Donnelle Conklin at 601-649-6374 or dconklin@lrma.org.

back from oblivion

Or, really, back from the holidays. We've all been in and out quite a bit over the last few weeks. We've recovered from Gala, installed paintings in the Stairwell Gallery and travel posters in the Lower Level Galleries, taken down the Christmas decorations, and had our annual staff retreat. skets.

So, it's back to work, where it's just one darn thing after another. Our Native American basket exhibition, which had traveled to nine venues during 2006-2007, came back, and now we have to find a place for a lot of custom-made crates, not to mention proper storage for the baskets.

My next project is installing Spectacular Achievements: Audubon's Animals of North America. We've got a lot planned around this exhibition: a visiting speaker & reception, the Audubon ZooMobile will be here during Spring Break, a teacher workshop, and more. We also have Board and Committee meetings coming up on the double, so we are hitting the ground running this week.

Until I have pictures to post, I thought I'd point interested parties to this useful tool:

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States

This chart lays out the extent of copyright and conversion to public domain for published works, sound recordings, and architectural works. When it comes to artworks, several copyrights are in play: both that of the artist (or her estate), and that of the photographer. If you wish to publish an image of an artwork, you must get permission from the artist and the photographer. Even if you take your own picture, you need the artist's permission. (Fair Use for educational purposes is exempt from this permissions process). Museums generally control access to reproductions of work in their collections, so if you are looking for a poster or print of a work of art you're fond of, find out who owns it and get in touch with that museum. The museum will have sorted out the reproduction rights already.

The LRMA Gift Shop doesn't do much trade in posters or reproductions, but we do have prints of several works available for sale: Millet's First Steps and Winslow Homer's The Fisherman's Wife.

Mommy & Me

The Education staff at LRMA had a free family art day on Thursday, December 6. Children and parents worked together to create original holiday wrapping paper and beautiful paper poinsettias. Our "Holiday Art Class" is going to be this Thursday, the 13th, where kids will create Santa cookie plates and other fun holiday crafts. The class costs $15 for museum members and $20 for non-members. Please call Pam at the museum at 601-649-6374 to register now!

At the Museum: Travel Posters

At the Museum: The Poster Collection
by
Jill R. Chancey, PhD

One of the little-known collections of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is our selection of travel posters and war propaganda posters of the 20th century. The first director of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Miss Ella Bradley, began the collection, which ultimately reached nearly a thousand total. War-related posters came to the LRMA Library from the government as a public service, and the travel posters were also sent out free to public organizations. Rather than using them and throwing them out, Miss Bradley saved them, and even stored many of the larger ones under the rug in what is now the Reading Room. Eventually this enormous collection was retrieved, moved to safer storage, and inventoried.

By 1999, a full inventory was completed with the assistance of Nicho Lowry of Swann Galleries in New York City, and the Museum determined to keep and frame a representative selection of those posters which were of high quality and in good condition. A number of duplicate copies and posters of lesser quality or worse condition were sold at auction to benefit the Museum’s Acquisitions Fund. These posters have always been part of the library collection, and are not accessioned into the art collection. The lesser restrictions on the library collection allow us to lend them to institutions that are not museums, such as the Saenger Theater in Hattiesburg or the Historical Society in Columbia.

Starting this week, a selection of the Museum’s travel posters will be on display in the Lower Level Galleries. In the wake of the first World War (1914-1918) and before the Great Depression, European nations had been left in a state of chaos and depression, while the United States had become one of the richest countries in the world. The following decade saw an industrial boom in America. The automobile became a symbol of prosperity and mobility, and a rapidly growing middle class had the means to travel for leisure. During this boom, posters were one of the most effective tools for selling travel. Art Deco, a geometric style of the 1920s and 1930s, quickly emerged as the most popular style for designers in the United States and Europe. The Art Deco style can be found in graphics, architecture, product design, and the fine arts throughout the period. Some graphic designers, however, were more strongly influenced by Cubism, which emerged in Paris around 1908 and continued to have an enormous influence through the 1940s. The Museum’s selection of posters reflect a variety of graphic design trends, and serve to remind us that travel was once glamorous and luxurious, particularly aboard ocean liners.

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Check the website for upcoming Summer events and classes. For information about LRMA exhibitions and programs, call (601) 649-6374 or check our website at www.LRMA.org.

Sugar Plum Gala 2007

A good time was had by all at Gala last week, and I think we are finally, mostly, recovered. For photographic evidence, I give you:

Sugar Plum Gala photos

Reminder for this weekend

The museum will be closed on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (November 30, December 1 and 2) for our annual Gala. This year's theme: The Sugar Plum Ball. We are awash in nutcrackers, gingerbread houses, and paper stars.

Guest Blogger: Tommie Rodgers

Come On In!

If you haven’t visited the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art lately, you’ve missed out on a variety of events, most of which are free to the public. In recent weeks, we’ve gone from rock n’ roll photos of the ʼ60s to string quartet and orchestra performances to art quilt constructions! The galleries were busy with daily summer crowd averages of 100 people a day.

This month has been equally busy with Third Grade Tours for all area third grade children. Instruction for these groups focuses on viewing the Native American baskets with discussions of how 19th century Native Americans lived, along with the opportunity to work on a weaving activity.

The Museum staff is excited to see the Star Reach Fifth Graders again this year. Their tours will focus on the non-objective sculptures of David Hayes. While you may see some of his sculptures on the grounds of the Museum, you are welcome to come in and view the maquettes and accompanying paintings that will be on display until November 11th. The Fifth Graders will also be viewing Quilt National and learning about art quilts, their fabrics, methods of construction and the interpretive meaning of some of the quilts.

All teachers and students are welcome to come for tours and specially-designed activities that will enhance your classroom needs. The Museum also has art videos that can be shared with area teachers.

Time is certainly ticking by this year and the Museum will be celebrating its 85th anniversary next May. It’s hard to believe we’re so close to yet another milestone in the Museum’s existence. Many changes have taken place in the 84 years of the Museum’s history, most of which are behind the scenes. It’s entirely possible that a visitor can walk in, view the art work, attend a lecture and leave without ever thinking of how it all comes about.

To make things happen, staff and Board members create and follow policies that govern the Museum’s operations. Policies such as the Collections Management Policy and the Ethics Policy guide the committees in their actions and planning for the Museum. Our Board of Directors compose the committees that make general decisions and guide the staff on issues that aren’t always clear cut.

The committees consist of Collections, Programs and Exhibitions, Property, Finance, Personnel, Development, Long Range Planning and the newly formed Audit Committee. These committees meet four times a year just days before the quarterly Board meetings. Staff members whose jobs parallel these topics meet with the committees and together work to follow and/or augment the policy each has to guide its decisions.

Of course, increasing attendance is always a topic for discussion and we work to invite groups whenever possible. We recently hosted tours for the Laurel Fire and Police Departments and would like to extend an invitation to other places of employment. If you find your office is getting a little slow, give your employees a boost and send them to the Museum for a visit. A person can easily tour the Museum in just under an hour and, as an employer, you’ll be teaching the community about the “gem” that out-of-towners already know about. Admission is always free.

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street and is open Tuesday - Saturday from 10 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. and on Sundays from 1-4 p.m. You can check out our web site at www.LRMA.org or call the Museum at 601-649-6374 for information about programs and events.

Tommie Rodgers is the Registrar at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

Guest Blogger: Mandy Buchanan

At the Museum
Mandy Buchanan, Curator of Education

This October, a new staff member joined the Education Staff at Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. Angie King is LRMA’s new Education Outreach Coordinator. Angie received a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from University of Southern Mississippi and has worked as a classroom art teacher. As Outreach Coordinator, Angie will provide art instruction and experiences for Jones County and surrounding communities. We are so excited to have Angie join the LRMA staff. She has arrived at a very busy time. Her first week, she jumped right in to help prepare for Heritage Arts Festival.

Heritage Arts Festival was held Saturday, October 6, 2007 on the front lawn of the Museum. The theme for the day was “Celebrate Mississippi”. The art activities and music highlighted the history and culture of Mississippi. The featured artist was wood carver and member of the Mississippi Craftsmen Guild, Mr. George Berry. The Sharon Community Quilters demonstrated and displayed their Quilts in the American Gallery.

Lauren Rogers Museum Education Department has many activities and events planned this fall. We will begin LRMA’s Third Grade Tours program this month. Third Grade students from Laurel, Jones County and surrounding counties participate in this program. The tour features the By Native Hands, Native American Basket Collection. Students also participate in a hands-on weaving activity.

November 2nd Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will partner with The Laurel Junior Auxiliary and The Laurel Arts League to present Very Special Arts Festival at the Cameron Center in Laurel. This fun filled day is for mentally and physically challenged students in Jones County and surrounding areas. Students will participate in a variety of art and musical activities and enjoy a picnic lunch in Daphne Park. The theme this year is FIESTA! I think the volunteers have just as much fun as the students each year.

The LRMA Education Department is offering some fun holiday classes for children this fall.

Trick Art Treat, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 in Museum Annex.

Mommy and Me Free Holiday Art Activity Thursday, December 6, 2007 1:00-4:00pm

Christmas Art Class for Kids, Thursday, December 13, 2007 in the Museum Annex.

If you have any questions about any of the LRMA Education Programs please call Mandy Buchanan or Angie King at 601- 649- 6374 or visit the Museum’s website, www.LRMA.org.

Linda McCartney held over!

The Linda McCartney: Portrait of the Sixties exhibition was scheduled to close yesterday (September 20th). However, we're holding it over through the 25th.

As a reminder, here are our hours:

Saturday, 10 am - 4:45 pm
Sunday, 1 pm - 4 pm
Monday, CLOSED
Tuesday, 10 am - 4:45 pm

More Birthday Tiaras!!

From top to bottom:

Our Fearless Leader, George (yes, that's cake in his teeth. on purpose. yes, we're all VERY mature here)

Donnelle, Librarian

Donna, Library Cataloguer

Todd had a birthday recently and wore the tiara over his John Deere cap. Unfortunately, nobody knows how to get the picture off of Jo Lynn's camera and onto my computer. (yes, we're also very, very tech-savvy here)

Fall Video Series

This fall, LRMA Library will host the Video Series, Egypt’s Golden Empire. A production of PBS, the series unfolds in 3 parts and follows the rise and fall of Egypt’s New Kingdom; its impact on art, science and politics on the ancient world. One part from the series will be offered each week on Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m. in the Museum Reading Room, September 4th through the 18th. Each video lasts approximately 60 minutes. The Library will replay each week’s video by request for those unable to attend the Tuesday 2:00 p.m. sessions.

In October, the Library will participate in a state-wide observance of National Archives Month. The theme for the month is “Faces of Mississippi”, and with that in mind, the LRMA Library will present a photograph exhibit entitled “Labor Pains: Hard Work Builds a Community”, a collection of rarely-seen images of the city’s workforce. The exhibit will run the entire month.



For more information, please contact Librarian Donnelle Conklin at 601-649-6374 or dconklin@lrma.org.

Sunday Concert Series starts next weekend

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art will host the Sunday Concert Series, presented by The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, beginning Sunday, September 16 at 2 p.m.

This year’s Sunday Concert Series will consist of four chamber concerts to be held at the Museum from September 2007 through April 2008. The first concert The Beatles: Music of an Era will feature a string quartet led by USM symphony violinist Alejandro Drago. The program was chosen to highlight LRMA’s exhibition Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era, currently on display in the Lower Level Galleries.

The concert is sponsored by Tim Lawrence of Smith Barney, Inc. in Jackson and is free and open to the public. The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street in historic downtown Laurel. For more information, call 601-649-6374 or visit the Museum’s website at www.LRMA.org.

Outdoor sculpture by David Hayes

We spent last weekend setting up the Museum's first-ever large-scale outdoor sculpture exhibition. The sculptures will remain on the grounds through next August. In addition to seven outdoor sculptures, we have an exhibition of maquettes and drawings in the Stairwell Gallery through November 11.

David Hayes website - photos of LRMA installation

Installation shot from the Laurel Leader-Call

In the installation photo - Wes Smith, David Hayes (son of the sculptor), and Todd Sullivan

At the Museum: Contemporary Art from the Collection

At the Museum: Contemporary Art from the Collection
by Jill R. Chancey, PhD

This summer, the LRMA Stairwell Gallery holds a selection of contemporary artworks from the Museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition features thirteen works by: six Southern artists; six women and six men; one Native American artist; one African-American artist; and ten European-American artists. The media used include birch plywood, aluminum, canvas, oil paint, acrylic paint, serigraph, lithograph, collage, etching, gouache, and pencil. What could these thirteen works possibly have in common? As a matter of fact, quite a lot. Each of these artworks is a response to the dominant mid-twentieth-century style, Abstract Expressionism.

Abstract Expressionism, as it originated in New York City, emphasizes improvisation, expression, gesture, color, line, emotion, nature and spontaneity. Abstract Expressionist artists rejected representation in painting: there are no representations of literature, religion, politics, poetry, narrative, landscape, seascape, or portraiture. Each artist who rejected these elements in painting sought to develop a new language of art-making, one that is individual, soul-deep, powerfully emotional, and possibly even sublime.

Several of the artists in the Stairwell Gallery began working in the 1950s during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gottlieb, Helen Frankenthaler, and Grace Hartigan were all early participants in the movement. Although each of these artists is best known for their paintings, they are represented in the Museum’s collection by prints. One, Grace Hartigan’s “Pallas Athene”, is a recent museum acquisition. The LRMA Guild of Docents and Volunteers provided funds for the purchase of this mulit-color lithograph, one of very few that Hartigan has produced in her career. The title refers to one of several names for the Classical Greek goddess Athena, the patron goddess of the city of Athens, of warfare, and of wisdom and learning. The print is, however, completely abstract, a meditation on the emotions invoked by the story and attributes of Athena.

Other artists built on the abstract developments of the New York School; these include Sam Gilliam (a Mississippi native); Ida Kohlmeyer (a native of New Orleans); and Sonia Sekula. Their formal explorations of the emotional impact of color, form, line, scale, and space was inspired by those first pioneers in the movement. Another recent acquisition, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s “Flathead Warshirt,” combines the spontaneous gesture of early abstraction with collage. The collage technique, invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 20th century, has been used with great skill and creativity by Robert Rauschenberg, for example. Quick-to-See Smith combines collage and painting to explore the contemporary meaning of a native “warshirt,” except the “war” is not so much a military mission as a struggle for cultural survival in a culture that does not necessarily understand or welcome Native American cultural ideas and traditions.

These works will remain on view in the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Stairwell Gallery through September 2, 2007. Be sure and stop in on your way to see “Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era.”

The Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. For information about LRMA exhibitions and programs, call (601) 649-6374 or check our website at www.LRMA.org.

Blues Bash tonight!

14th Annual Blues Bash - Friday, August 10, 2007

6:30 - 10:30 p.m.


Tickets $20 per person

Bring a blanket or lawn chair and join us on the Museum's front lawn for hot barbecue and cool blues from the Daddy Mack Blues Band.

I know, I know, it's about a million degrees outside. But look at it this way: being hot and sweaty will just make ensure that you relate to the blues.

The Birthday Tiara

Here at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, we take birthdays very, very seriously. There must be cake, and the birthday boy or girl must wear the Designated Birthday Tiara. Sometimes, the birthday boy will refuse to wear it (we will not speculate on why he is afraid of the tiara):



Others are entirely comfortable with the Birthday Tiara:



And then, once a year, we have a double birthday, so I have to home and get my Spare Tiara:



George and Todd have birthdays in late August. Stay tuned in and you'll find out who is brave enough to wear the Birthday Tiara.


Top to bottom: Mark, Wes, Mandy(l), and Pam (r)