As a museum educator, I find most of my days at work to be wonderful, but, every once in a while, my job provides me with some truly extraordinary experiences. Like when eight Colorado Scholastics winners were chosen by the Denver Art Museum for an “artist encounter” with our current Native Arts Artist in Residence, Rose B. Simpson. The artist encounter on March 24 was a rare opportunity for these young sculptors to speak with Rose, tour her works on view, and spend a little time in her studio creating. (Photos in slide show below.)
On March 11, the DAM and Children’s Hospital Colorado hosted a painting party at the hospital campus in Aurora for patients, families, and staff. Participants created paintings in the style of Jackson Pollock to celebrate the opening of Modern Masters: 20th Century Icons from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Pollock is known for dripping, splattering, and pouring paint that created larger-than-life works of art.
The Shop at the Denver Art Museum is now featuring greeting cards from Art by Adelyn, a nonprofit organization benefiting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
We asked our staff to share their 2014 resolutions, aspirations, and inspirations. Check out the video below. As always, we want to hear what you’re up to. Share your inspirations and goals for 2014 using #DAMinspiration on Facebook and Twitter.
In part one of this series, we discussed assessing what needed to be done to conserve Big Sweep by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
Exciting news for anyone who loves designing, tinkering, hammering things together, museums, and people: The DAM is looking for Front Range area architects or artists to design a sculptural installation for Martin Plaza next summer. During the summer of 2014, the DAM will be showcasing several exhibitions and programs related to the idea of sculpture. This outdoor project is meant to complement the museum’s offerings, while also adding a knock-your-socks-off, interactive feature to the larger Civic Center complex.
The successful conservation of the sedan chair now on display in Court to Café relied on a collaborative approach with conservators providing expertise in the treatment of furniture, objects, paintings, and textiles. As presented in Part 1 of this blog, the leather, paintings, and textile components of the sedan chair all needed attention. The goal of the treatment was to stabilize and visually integrate these elements through minimal treatment and using stable and reversible conservation materials, as required by conservation ethics.
In August, a conservation project on the sculpture Big Sweep was completed. Big Sweep was designed by artists Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg, who worked closely with fabricator Carlson & Co. to realize the sculpture in its final form.
Court to Café, part of the Passport to Paris exhibition, includes eight period decorative arts pieces from the Denver Art Museum’s own collections—seven furniture items and one mantle clock. When conservators examined the objects several months before the exhibition to determine if they needed treatment prior to display, they were pleased to note that the objects were in fairly good condition, requiring only minimal cleaning and some other minor and localized treatment.
Perhaps no one will miss Nick Cave: Sojourn as much as five-year-old Pascal Spangenberg. On September 22, the final day of the exhibition; Pascal and his mother Tara were the last visitors in the gallery. As they were leaving, Tara reminded Pascal that this was their last visit. Pascal, though sad, remained positive and said, “there’s still one Soundsuit left- it’s me!”
At Nick Cave's June 29 Untitled performance young artist Pascal Spangenberg shared his very own Soundsuit and designs with the artist. I’m overjoyed to say that the story of Pascal and his Soundsuits does not end there.
Also part of the TEFAF was the conservation of the painting’s frame. The frame is "period," meaning stylistically it is of similar age as that of the painting, but not original to our Canaletto. This is not surprising since frames, historically, were not really perceived as works of art themselves and, indeed, the idea of placing a higher value on the “package” of both the painting and its original frame is a relatively new concept. Our frame is constructed of wood with hand-carved elements originally gilded using water and oil gilding techniques.
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