We were fortunate to host former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the museum recently during the opening of her exhibition, Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection. Known to be quite the shopper, we had everyone in the Museum Shop on high alert lest she make her way into the store. She not only found her way, but also made some fabulous purchases. The large selection of pins piqued her interest, but she was also curious about local designers and pins that represented our part of the country.
Stretch out your sides because the next Untitled is going to a funny one. Untitled #47 (LOL) on May 25 brings comedians, curators, and cartoonists together to examine the more playful side of art.
Even though their performance is the same night, we convinced the funny guys from the Grawlix comedy show to be part of the evening's events. Adam Cayton-Holland and Andrew Orvedahl will be taking the reins as tour guides, leading visitors on an unpredictable Detour of the collections.
Each and every year, we are blown away by the support and outpouring of creativity that the City of Denver's most creative branch of government, Arts and Venues Denver, supports and encourages. This year, AVD is throwing down a multi-day, multi-media party/creative conference/showcase called Create Denver Week. The event launched Thursday night at Battery 621! All the details about the week are on the denver.org website.
Symbolism, signs, and secret messages. Everything had a hidden meaning at this Untitled #46 (Cipher). Here is a round-up of the night's events April 27.
#46_Cypher_06.jpg
I have to say, one of the best activities of the night was the scavenger hunt. Visitors were asked to track down a very secret special guest, Kagen Schaefer, our MakeARTtalk creative. As people entered the atrium, they had to solve the puzzles and match the patterns found both in Kagen’s work and in the DAM collections.
The Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum marked its tenth anniversary in 2011. To celebrate, PIWAA enlisted 30 scholars to explore the western American art holdings in the DAM’s collection. Their research, covering everything from a portion of a New Mexican altarpiece to a magnificent Native American coat, is compiled in PIWAA’s most recent publication, Elevating Western American Art: Developing an Institute in the Cultural Capital of the Rockies.
Note: Karen Gilkey’s job at the Denver Art Museum is to ensure events run smoothly. Here, she shares her experience in working with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when she was at the DAM on April 14 for a member event for the opening of Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection. The exhibition is open through June 17.
Event Details
Florence Müller had the enviable job of curating the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective, on view through July 8 at the Denver Art Museum. She was able to sort through the entire archive of Saint Laurent’s designs and selected more than 200 outfits for the retrospective. Florence is a fashion historian, former director-curator of the Union Française des arts du Costume, curator of a number of exhibitions in France and abroad, and associate professor at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM).
Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective successfully opened at the Denver Art Museum on March 25. However, behind-the-scenes installation activities for this exciting exhibition began weeks before. An installation team consisting of Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent personnel with contracted specialists arrived from Paris on March 7th to begin installation on March 8th. The DAM provided its own installation team including registrars, collection managers, installation specialists, preparators, and conservators.
Families took full advantage of the many programs offered at Denver Art Museum for Best Spring Break Ever: Design Days on March 24-April 1.
Photos from our spring break programs such as the YSL Paper Doll Challenge: Interactive Family Tour are on view on the DAM's flickr page.
Join in more artmaking fun in the galleries on your next visit when you make an Egyptian inspired flower collar at our Flower Collar Hotspot or create your own tapa cloth at the Play with Pattern Hotspot.
Thanks to all the museum visitors who made Best Spring Break Ever so exciting this year.
The Denver Art Museum has teamed up with Google Art Project and 150 other museums around the globe to share some of our favorite works with you.
"The Art Project is part of our efforts to bringing culture online and making it accessible the widest possible audience," said Amit Sood, head of Google Art Project, in an April 3 blog posting.
The next time you board an airplane, take a minute to consider some of the interesting things that may be flying along with you as cargo. Down in the belly of the plane with your suitcase and skis are all sorts of other packages. From mail to pets to computer parts, cargo comes in all shapes and sizes. Among all those crazy packages occasionally lurks artwork traveling from one museum to another.
Here are some of our favorite items currently on the shelves in the Museum Shop.