Hello all, I hope this finds you doing well and staying out of the heat as best as possible.  There are definitely some drawbacks to being a motorcyclist, and I'm really getting an intimate knowledge of them over this summer!  Riding back and forth from Denton in the often times crazy traffic with the constant construction going on has been quite an experience.  It makes me feel at times like I'm taking my life in my hands and somewhat leaving it to chance, what with those around me eating or texting or putting on makeup or any number of other things people are doing besides driving!  Oh well, when you have a bike, you gotta take the good with the bad.  That being said, everything here at the Kimbell has been going very well.  I've been working on writing a lesson plan for the Pictures and Pages activities that we do here, these center around children 4-6 years old and one of their parents.  This go around I have chosen a Matisse work entitled L'Asie (Asia), a beautiful oil on canvas with bright, vivid colors and a beautiful female figure with shoulder throw and fancy beaded necklace.  We will read a children's book about Matisse as a boy, view the painting along with other figurative works, then return to the studio to create a mural using cut and torn paper in the "drawing with scissors" manner that Matisse developed towards the end of his career.  I believe the activity will be very fun for the children and their parents and instead of doing individual pieces we will be creating a mural of sorts on a piece of white paper that is 5' wide by 10' long, we will use red, blue, green, yellow, and black colored paper and glue sticks to attach the pieces once cut.  There will be a focus and positive and negative space and the participants can mix and match their pieces, overlap, and pretty much do whatever they want to create and interesting work of art, I'm very excited to see the end result!  I have also been working to develop two architecture activities for high school students focused around a tour of the Kahn and Piano buildings conducted by an architect, then an art-based activity in the studios.  One activity will be to get together in small groups and take the concepts of scale and proportion along with square, cubic and linear feet and design a new purpose built building for the Fort Worth area.  The other activity will have the students take those same concepts and design their own tiny home to be built behind their parents home, what teenager doesn't want to get out of the house and into their own space?!  My time here is winding down, I have about 4 weeks to go until I finish with everything and it's been really great spending the summer here.  We are getting the shop in great order at the university and I have also been spending my time in our new FabLab learning how to use the laser cutters and CNC machines, making furniture, laser etching on glass, making art, it's great!  Thanks for listening and I hope you all are having as good a time as I am.  I will look forward to seeing you all on campus soon and I suggest we all get together for drinks one Friday after class and talk a bit about our experiences, I'm sure we all have a story or two to share!  Take care all and see ya'll soon!

E

July at the DMA

Hello everyone!

This month at the DMA I've been working on finding contextual images for the 'Content Chunks' that the Digital Content Coordinators (D3Cs). Content Chunks (CC) are basically pages that tell about an artist/designer, a culture, a historical period, a process/material, or a term. The images help illustrate the person, idea, etc. We've been in charge of finding non-copyright images that best represent the CC so that the public/educator can best understand the concept we are trying to provide information on. It has been a lot of fun to work on this project, albeit a bit difficult at times because we have to find public domain images. This means that I've had to learn all about what public domain is and how to find copyright information on a variety of images. It has also been difficult to choose the best image to illustrate some concepts that we tend to take for granted; such as materials, historical figures, mythical figures, etc. that may or may not have some political and/or culture ramifications attached to a particular depiction. It has also been a challenge to work with the technological side - the DMA, the D3Cs specifically, use Evernote which has come with a whole slew of technical issues that are not always anticipated.

I've also been working on Teaching Ideas (which is a specific 'Content Chunk' related to Art Education) to create questions and lesson plans for individual objects in the collection. This has been a lot of fun, as well, because I've been able to sort through all kinds of education files that date back to the mid-70s! We've been adapting these lesson plans and customizing what the DMA has used in the past to make it applicable to a 2016 audience. This has come with a lot of tech issues, too! Both projects have helped me learn how to work with large groups of people who are often time just as picky as I am on how we all like to do things! Overall, it has been a great month at the DMA and I can't believe it has gone so quickly!

I hope everyone had a wonderful July!
Megan

3 Day's before I become unconnected from civilization...

This is not my last will and testament, but if I don't come back try to remember me fondly.  I am heading off to Jackson Hole WY for a 6 night/7 day hike in the Grand Teton National Park this Friday.  I just wrapped up a collaboration between Big Thought, Love Field Aviation and the Frontiers of Flight Museum, where approximately 1200 kids and family-members visited us.  It is our third year hosting this "Turn Up!" event and while it get's a little easier it is still a stressful time.  I logged in a few hours at The Museum of Biblical Art (MBA) where I am working as a registrar and checking in on 50 pieces that came back from on loan.  I have a healthy respect for registrar's and realized that this is not the job for me.  While seeing new artwork was fun, I didn't get to enjoy it since I had to put on the "documentation" hat and make note of every scratch, ding on the frame and color variations on the prints themselves was noted.  I still have to transcribe my notes into the database once I return. You can cross this off my list of potential jobs in the future.  I hope everyone is having their own "adventure" and look forward to reading some journal entries when I get back.

peace and love,

Guy

What's up at the DMA

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are doing well! I wanted to take some time and share with you guys what I have been doing and something I have learned about myself.  The Dallas Museum of Art is currently working on a few exhibitions, the ones in which I have helped are called Divine Felines and a show of their Batik’s in the permanent collection. The Education department likes to call small tasks, “One offs”. So I have done a few for both exhibitions including finding pictures for the scent bar, looking up videos on how to make a mummy, and finding pictures for a timeline all to be used as contextual information for the Divine Felines Exhibitions opening in the Fall. On the other hand, for the Batik’s I have researched about them and have written a gallery guide for the “forbidden” patterns. 

I have spent a considerable amount of time working with the D3C team, which is a team of professionals researching objects in the permanent collection. Their work is part of a grant that was given to the DMA and will be uploaded online for scholars and researchers to find more information. It is a really large and nice project. It will be the only one like it in the country after it is finished. The information the team is in charge of finding is basically everything the DMA has written or said about the object ever! As well as teaching ideas, web resources, all sorts of stuff! I have been working on the Keir Collection of Islamic Art, which is in a weird place because it is on a 15 year loan to the DMA and the museum is going to consider it as part of their permanent collection. Therefore, it is outside the scope of the project but the Interpretation division desperately needed someone to create contextual information for the collection that people can find online when looking at it. I have created what is called content chunks that will be tagged with the objects in the collection ranging from what the 5 pillars of Islam are to Islamic Metalwork’s. I knew little to nothing so I have learned a ton of information.

So there you have it, some things I have been working on! On a different note, I have learned that I am not a person that can come into work and do the same thing every day for years on end. I cannot do it. My complacency kicks in and I have zero will or drive to get anything done and become bored out of my mind. I need a job that is changing all the time, which could be why I like scholarship so much. I am not sure yet if a job in a museum would change enough for me. It would obviously change year to year with the different exhibitions that are rolling through, but within the large institutors. I look forward to continuing my investigation into museums and if they are the place for me!