GMOA Winter 2010 Newsletter

Winter 2010

EDITORHillary Brown

ASSISTANT EDITORMary Koon

PUBLICATIONS INTERN Aurelie Frolet

DESIGNKudzu Graphics

Georgia Museum of Art University of Georgia

90 Carlton Street Athens, GA 30602

706.542.GMOA • FAX: 706.542.1051 Exhibition Line: 706.542.3254

www.uga.edu/gamuseum

Mr. B. Heyward Allen Jr. Dr. Amalia K. AmakiMs. Frances R. AronsonTurner I. Ball, M.D.Mr. Fred D. Bentley Sr. Mr. Richard E. BerkowitzMrs. Devereux C. Burch Mr. Robert E. Burton Mrs. Debbie C. Callaway Mr. Randolph W. Camp Mrs. Shannon I. Candler, past chair Mrs. Faye S. ChambersMr. Harvey J. Coleman Mrs. Martha T. DinosMrs. Annie Laurie Dodd Ms. Sally Dorsey Professor Marvin Eisenberg Ms. Carlyn F. Fisher Mr. James B. FleeceMr. Edgar J. Forio Jr.Mr. Harry L. Gilham Jr.Mr. John M. Greene Mrs. Helen C. GriffithMrs. M. Smith Griffith Mrs. Marion E. JarrellMr. Paul R. JonesProfessor John D. Kehoe Mrs. George-Ann KnoxMrs. Shell H. KnoxMr. David W. MathenyMs. Catherine A. MayMrs. Helen P. McConnell Mrs. Marilyn McMullanMrs. Marilyn D. McNeely Mrs. Berkeley S. Minor

Mr. C.L. Morehead Jr. Ms. Jane C. MullinsMr. Carl W. Mullis III, chairMr. Donald G. MyersMrs. Betty R. MyrtleDr. John NickersonMrs. Deborah L. O’Kain Ms. Kathy B. PrescottDr. William F. Prokasy IV Mr. Rowland A. Radford Jr. Ms. Margaret A. Rolando Mr. Alan F. Rothschild Jr.Mrs. Dorothy A. Roush Mrs. Sarah P. Sams Mr. D. Jack Sawyer Jr.Mrs. Helen H. Scheidt Mr. Henry C. SchwobMrs. Ann C. ScogginsMs. Cathy Selig-KuranoffMr. S. Stephen Selig IIIMrs. Dudley R. StevensMrs. Carolyn W. Tanner Mrs. Barbara Auxier TurnerMr. C. Noel WadsworthMs. Kathleen E. WalkerMr. G. Vincent West

Ex-officioMs. Karen L. BensonMrs. Linda C. Chesnut Dr. William U. EilandMr. Tom LandrumDr. Arnett C. Mace Jr. Ms. Georgia Strange

BOARD OF ADVISORS

TABLE OF CONTENTS WINTER 2010

3 From the Director

4-5 Phase II Construction Update

6 Exhibitions

7 Family Days at GMOA

8 Event Photos

9 Calendar of Events

10 Museum Notes

11 Gifts

page 2 • GMOA WINTER 2010

ON THE COVER (Detail):Dennis O’Kain (American, b. 1950)Ironworkers, Georgia Pacific, 1984Gelatin silver print27 1/2 x 27 1/2 inchesPrivate collection

GMOA WINTER 2010 • page 3

From the Director

In the last quarter we welcomed new members to our Board of Advisors. Most aca-demic museums have such boards, not of governance, but whose members serve in an advisory capacity. The Georgia Museum of Art actually has three such groups: our Board of Advisors (BOA), our Board of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art

and our Decorative Arts Advisory Committee (DAAC). These groups have subcommit-tees devoted to the various goals of the museum at large. Thus, our Board of Advisors has committees devoted to development, community service, bylaws, membership, deaccessioning and acquisitions—all in an advisory capacity. The boards are bound by the practices and procedures of the University of Georgia, and, in accepting posi-tions in these entities, their members agree to follow the practices, both ethical and administrative, of the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the latter of which has a stricter code of conduct than the former. The Georgia Museum of Art is accredited by AAM and privileged to be a member of AAMD, which represents the 200 or so art museums in North America that follow and develop best standards and practices for the field.

One of the tenets of both associations and of the museum’s internal code of ethics is transparency, and it is to that end that we publish our annual reports, publicize our lists of board members and provide regular reports to our boards and to the university. For example, a recent issue that the New York art bloggers are worrying is the notion of public museums adding value to private collections through exhibitions and publica-tions of such collections. Our manual on professional practices is clear on this question of curatorial integrity:

“The artistic and intellectual integrity of exhibitions is paramount, and their financial impact should not be the primary consideration in the selection of exhibitions.” (Paragraph 32, p. 12, Professional Practices in Art Museums, AAMD, 2001.)

The Georgia Museum of Art has been fortunate in having private collections available for display and study—and, most important, for advancing its mission. Works from these collections are now on permanent loan to the museum, on long-term loan or have been donated to our collection.

Another issue for art museums is conflicts of interest and the importance of avoiding their reality or appearance. Therefore, we are publishing the names of our new board members here. One, Frances R. Aronson, is a well-known, highly respected dealer and appraiser in Atlanta. She is also one of the founders and life-members of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art. Fortunately for the museum, she has been a loyal and committed supporter for many years. Her acceptance of a place on our board—for which I and the staff are grateful—means that her name will no longer appear on our list of appraisers and that she will recuse herself from any discussions or decisions that involve acquisitions in which she has an interest.

On our boards, we have lawyers, businesspeople, artists, scholars and, of course, collectors. All offer invaluable counsel and provide financial support. Just as it would be foolish to restrict collectors, who are the sustainers of museums, from the ranks of our advisors, so, too, it would be self-defeating to deny ourselves the advice, expertise and knowledge of artists, dealers and appraisers. In availing ourselves of such resourc-es, we are always aware of the need to be transparent, to avoid conflicts of interest (real or perceived) and to pursue our mission always cognizant of our obligation to the public trust.

William Underwood Eiland, Director

FROM THE DIRECTOR

“Just as it would be

foolish to restrict collectors,

who are the sustainers

of museums, from the

ranks of our advisors,

so, too, it would be

self-defeating to deny

ourselves the advice, expertise

and knowledge of artists,

dealers and appraisers.”

• GMOA WINTER 2010

CONSTRUCT ION UPDATEPhase II Construction Update

August 3The new gallery space begins to take shape! This week, Holder laid the sub-grade and asphalt binder, which show the new wing’s footprint. Demolition of the existing building’s main stairwell is almost complete.

August 7Holder erected steel beams and concrete footings, installed site utilities and began to raze the exterior portion of the main stairwell.

August 14Workers demolished the existing building’s ground-floor ceiling and began installing the gallery joists and decking.

August 21Holder continued to install roof joists and roof decking, poured retaining-wall foot-ings and nearly completed selective demolition on the existing building’s second floor.

CONSTRUCT ION UPDATE


August 28Concrete columns demar-cate the parking-lot area beneath the gallery. Workers began framing the skylights in the new wing.

September 4In addition to relocating the emergency power through-out the existing building, Holder formed the signage wall, which will announce GMOA exhibitions, and installed the skylight struc-tural steel support.

September 11The new wing is clearly visible from Carlton Street. Workers laid first-floor masonry and poured half of the signage wall.

September 18Holder completed the sig-nage wall and poured the gallery slab. Existing brick walls were removed in prep-aration for the erection of the connector’s structural steel.

View our live museum expansion cam and

get weekly construction updates at http://www.

uga.edu/gamuseum/support/phase2.html.

EXH IB I T IONS


Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the 16th CenturyOctober 17, 2009–January 24, 2010Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory UniversityAtlanta, Ga. http://www.carlos.emory.edu

Among the 130 objects featured in Scripture for the Eyes, the first major exhibition to explore the central role played by printed illustrations of sub-jects from both the Old and New Testaments in one of the most dramatic artistic and religious transformations in history, are two engravings from the

Georgia Museum of Art’s permanent collection: the Nailing to the Cross (1565) and the Crucifixion (1565), by Herman Janz. Muller. These and the other biblical prints featured here were a dynamic force both in the transformation of northern European art between Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn and in the intensified attention to scripture in the religious turmoil of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The exhi-bition is organized according to the diverse functions of the prints rather than accord-ing to a chronology of their production or a biblical narrative.

The expansion is well under way, and even though we are not in the physical museum, our curators are busy finalizing their choices for installing the permanent collection in the new galleries, and

our preparators are starting to arrange the objects and “hang” the museum.

This is an excellent time to learn a new software pack-age, and GMOA’s design and preparation department is doing just that with the updated exhibition-design software Vectorworks, a comprehensive, streamlined Computer Aided Design (CAD) application with superior 2D and 3D capabilities and a flexible design environ-ment. Within Vectorworks, the museum’s galleries will be created in a three-dimensional digital setting, allowing greater flexibility in planning and designing the layout of an exhibition.

Vectorworks will also provide a model of large-scale graphics and information text as they relate to the exhibi-tion as a whole and will expose potential problems so they can be worked out ahead of time. Any changes will be made in the CAD program rather than in the gallery, which saves a lot of time.

Todd RiversChief Preparator

Herman Janz. Muller (Dutch, 1555–1617), after Maerten van HeemskerckNailing to the Cross, 1565Engraving on paper8 x 9 1/2 inches Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of Alfred H. Holbrook and Museum Patrons, Purchased from David James GMOA 1965.1412

New Exhibition Software

Screen shot of exhibition design in Vectorworks.

Exhibition installation.


FAMILY DAYS AT GMOA

When families visit the Georgia Museum of Art for Family Days, they are greeted by smiling faces of volunteers eager to assist them with gallery activities and hands-on projects. This dedi-cated group, made up of high school students, UGA students,

members of the community and recent UGA graduates, helps the education department organize and conduct free family programs about once a month. According to Sarah Quinn, Family Day volunteer, education department intern and Louis T. Griffith Student of the Year, “I always have a great time helping the kids make their art projects and love seeing the creative masterpieces that they make. As an art student, volunteering with Family Days is the perfect combination of my passion for art and helping out the Athens community.”

While the Georgia Museum of Art is closed for construction, we are work-ing with the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Lyndon House Arts Center, Lamar Dodd School of Art and AthFest to continue reaching local families through these events. Our volunteers are a big reason we can offer a diverse range of educational programs and help so many families have exciting experiences with works of art. Lindsay Rowan, an art teacher in Athens who has volunteered for more than 4 years, thinks these events are also reward-ing for volunteers: “I love the experience of volunteering at Family Days at the Georgia Museum of Art. I enjoy seeing what the children create as well as watching them grow.”

In fiscal year 2008–2009, Family Days drew 3,182 attendees over the course of 18 events. The Georgia Museum of Art welcomes and encourages all families to attend these hands-on, free educational programs that serve a diverse and internation-al audience. See the calendar on page 9 of this newsletter for a schedule of events.

If you would like to be a Family Day volunteer, please contact Carissa DiCindio, associate curator of education, at [email protected] or 706.583.0111.

Carissa DiCindio Associate Curator of Education

Family Day volunteer Erin McIntosh.

Family Day volunteer Sarah Quinn.

Family Day volunteer Lindsay Rowan (left).

The department of education needs new or used slide projectors for its Senior Outreach Program. If you would like to donate one, please contact Cece Hinton, curator of education, at [email protected] or 706.542.0448.

Family Days at GMOA

page <#> • GMOA WINTER 2006page 8 • GMOA WINTER 2010

Opening reception for Lord Love You: Works by R.A. Miller from the Mullis CollectionLyndon House Arts Center, Athens

1. Daura associate curator Deirdre Conneely, Drew Goodrich, Friends board member Michele Turner and Doug Harman.

2. Rachel Sleppy, Ashley Callahan (with son Copper) and deputy director Annelies Mondi.

3. Athens artist Harold Rittenberry Jr., R.E.M. front-man Michael Stipe and collector Carl Mullis.

4. Kids dance to music performed by Dale Wechsler and Noel Blackmon.

Artist’s Reception for The South in Black and White: The Graphic Works of James E. Routh Jr., 1939–1946Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

5. Visitors take a closer look at one of Routh’s Depression-era prints.

6. Artist Jim Routh talks to friends and patrons.

Family Day: Whirligigs Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens

7. Whirligig prototypes by Family Day volunteers.

8. Daisy Jacquet, daughter of Athens art-ist Jonathan Jacquet, proudly shows her work.

The Art of: MusicStan Mullins Studio, AthensGMOA would like to thank our sponsors, Stan Mullins Studio and The Athens Blur Magazine.

9. Paintings by Stan Mullins provide a backdrop for Art Rosenbaum and Earl Murphy’s performance of traditional American music.

10. Friends members John Ahee and Paige Carmichael.

EVENT PHOTOS

GMOA Events

1 2

3 4

9 10

65

7 8

SpeakeasySaturday, February 6, 7 p.m. The home of C.L. Morehead Jr., Athens This fundraiser for the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art will be the highlight of 2010. The evening will include dinner, an exclusive silent auction, tours of Mr. Morehead’s extensive collection and music by Atlanta jazz group Faith. Proceeds will benefit the museum’s educa-tional programs and services. $75 per person, $125 per couple. For more information call 706.542.GMOA (4662).

Family Day: Pop-Up Valentines Saturday, February 13, 10 a.m.–noon Lyndon House Arts Center Join the Georgia Museum of Art for a Valentine’s Day celebration. Use the works of art you see in the gal-leries to inspire your own pop-up Valentines. Heart-shaped treats will be provided. Co-sponsored by the Lyndon House Arts Center.

Black History Month Dinner and Performance Wednesday, February 24, 6–9 p.m. UGA Chapel and Visual Arts BuildingThe Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art will celebrate Black History Month with an exclusive dinner honoring leaders of the local African American community. The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. in the Visual Arts Building, and the performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel. $30 dinner; performance is free and open to the public. For

more information call 706.542.GMOA (4662). The Collectors Visit Thursday, February 25, 6–8 p.m. Private home, Athens $40 per person. For more informa-tion call 706.542.0437.

Seventh Annual Willson Center / Georgia Museum of Art Lecture“Franco-Mexican Artist Jean Charlot (1898–1979), His French Connections and His Mexican-Inspired Murals on the UGA Campus” Nina Hellerstein, professor of French and head, department of Romance languages, UGA Wednesday, March 3, 4 p.m.Sanford Hall, Rm. 314, UGA campusCharlot’s murals may be viewed in the lobby of Brooks Hall, next door to Sanford Hall. Co-sponsored by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and the Georgia Museum of Art.

The Art of: Brew Wednesday, March 17, 6–8 p.m. Terrapin Beer Company, Athens Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a tour of the world-famous Terrapin Beer Company and learn the art behind brewing award-winning beer. $20 Friends members, $25 non-members. To RSVP call 706.542.0830.

Family Day: Spring Festival Saturday, March 20, 10 a.m.–noonLamar Dodd School of Art Visit the art education classrooms of the Lamar Dodd School of Art to learn about animals in art. Look at images of works of art from the museum’s collection and then create your own real or imaginary animal to take home. Snacks will be provided. Co-sponsored by the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

Film and Panel Discussion “Who Does She Think She Is?” Wednesday, March 24, 4 p.m. Lamar Dodd School of Art, Rm. 151This film by Pamela Tanner Boll focuses on five bold female artists from a variety of racial, religious and artistic backgrounds. Pulled in different directions by mother-hood and work, they try to answer the competing demands of artistic fulfillment, family and economic survival. (2008, 84 minutes). This program is held in conjunction with Women’s History Month.

Fifth Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts “Neighboring Voices: The Decorative Culture of Our Southern Cousins” Friday and Saturday, January 29–30 Georgia Center for Continuing Education

Experts from across the Southeast come together to present their find-ings on the decorative arts in the American South related to Georgia. View the schedule of events and register online at http://www.uga.edu/gamuseum/calendar/green_symposium.html. $125 per person, $35 symposium only (no events),

$15 students. To receive a registration brochure by mail call 706.542.GMOA (4662) or email [email protected].

JANUARY


CALENDAR OF EVENTS

FEBRUARY

MARCH

Family Day programs are sponsored by Heyward Allen Motor Co., Inc., Heyward Allen Toyota and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art and are free and open to the public.

Films are generously sponsored by the UGA Parents & Families Association.

page <#> • GMOA WINTER 2006

MUSEUM NOTES

Museum Notes

Three GMOA publications won awards from the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) this year! The exhibition catalogue “The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection” and the festschrift “The Historian’s Eye: Essays on Italian Art in Honor of Andrew Ladis” each received

a gold award for content. “The Ring Shows: Then & Now and Putting the Band Back Together” received a silver award for graphic design. The winning entries were on display from October 13–17, 2009, at the annual SEMC meeting in Charleston, W.Va. “The American Scene on Paper” also won the award for Outstanding Exhibition and Catalogue of Historical Materials from the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC). Curator of American art Paul Manoguerra, who organized the exhibition and served as the principal author of the catalogue, accepted the award on the museum’s behalf on October 23, 2009, at the annual SECAC awards luncheon. If you didn’t get to see the award-winning exhibition in Charleston, S.C., or in Columbus, Ga., you’ll get a chance to see it at GMOA in 2011, after the grand reopening.

In other publications news, GMOA is pleased to announce a new distribution agree-ment with the University of Georgia Press. The press will market and distribute select new and backlist titles, reaching a much larger audience and more than 100 vendors, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Ingram and Bowker. All GMOA publications will continue to be available for sale on our Web site and in our physical shop, once we reopen, and our distributed titles will be more widely available online and in bookstores.

Bill Eiland (director), Annelies Mondi (deputy director), Tricia Miller (head registrar) and Christy Sinksen (associate registrar) attended the SEMC annual meeting in West Virginia. The registrars participated in sessions on collections database management, where they learned more about funding and installing an updated database, one of the goals here at GMOA. Eiland served as chair of various sessions, including one on research, an annual event that he initiated at SEMC some 20 years ago to encour-age discussions of scholarship in museums. Lynn Boland (Pierre Daura Curator of European Art) and Carissa DiCindio (associate curator of education) attended a work-shop on collaboration sponsored by the Georgia Art Museums Partnership (GAMP) September 9–11, 2009. Other participants were the High Museum of Art, the Telfair Museum, the Albany Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum. Representatives from the Musée du Louvre provided examples of their collaborative efforts with the High, focusing on the benefits of effective communication.

To liven up the lobby in our temporary quarters, Boland and Deirdre Conneely (asso-ciate curator) organized Staff Infection, an exhibition consisting of work pro-duced entirely by the staff of GMOA. The exhibition was on view in the Visual Arts Building on Jackson Street from October 5 to November 20, 2009. Free Press In Free Fall, an exhibition at ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, featured more than two dozen photographs of protests and major political events by GMOA’s own Ed Tant (security guard). The exhibition was on view from September 19 to November 8, 2009.

The museum welcomed its new Henry D. Green Curator of Decorative Arts, Dale Couch, in November 2009. Senior archivist at the Georgia Archives for 25 years, Couch has organized original exhibitions for the McKissick Museum of the University of South Carolina as well as for GMOA, where from 2002 to 2009 he served on the Decorative Arts Advisory Committee. Couch received the Governor’s Award in the Humanities in 2008. The museum staff is thrilled to have a new curator and is looking forward to working on future decorative-arts exhibitions with Couch.

Lanora Pierce (GMOA Design & Preparation)Ken, 2007Oil on board

Craig H. Brown (GMOA Security)Acorn, 1994Pencil on paper

“The American Scene on Paper” won awards from both SEMC and SECAC this year.


GIFTS

Friends of the Museum


The following gifts were made to the Georgia Museum of Art between July 15 and November 1, 2009: Alfred Heber Holbrook SocietyAnonymous Audrey Love Charitable FoundationMr. and Mrs. Harry GilhamMrs. M. Smith GriffithMr. C.L. Morehead Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Sanford OrkinMs. Kathy B. Prescott and Mr. H. Grady Thrasher III

Patron’s LevelMrs. Lidwina G. KellyMr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Myrtle

Director’s CircleAnonymous Ms. Karen Benson and Mr. Howard Scott

Ms. Catherine May and Dr. Paul IrvineMr. and Mrs. Carl W. Mullis IIIRobert S. Brunk Auction ServicesMr. and Mrs. Jason SchoenMr. and Mrs. W. Rhett TannerMr. and Mrs. Ian Walker The following gifts were made to the Georgia Museum of Art between July 15 and November 1, 2009:

In memory of Norman J. Johnson, M.D., by M. Smith Griffith

In memory of Lewis L. Scruggs Sr. by Mr. and Mrs. Cole H. Kelly

In memory of John H. Terrell Jr. by M. Smith Griffith

Mission Statement

The Georgia Museum of Art shares the mission of the University of Georgia to support and to promote teaching,

research and service. Specifically, as a repository and educational instrument of the visual arts, the museum

exists to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret significant works of art.

With the museum closed for the construction of Phase II, we must pause to congratulate and to thank several of our most loyal, most persistent and most valuable volunteers: the estimable “Library Ladies.” In honor of the work they have done to sustain our library, we have recognized them several times with various awards, but this has not been sufficient to thank them for their dedication and their cheerful perseverance in the face of sometimes unrea-

sonable obstacles. So, as is good and necessary at times in the history of an enterprise, we pay tribute to our gracious library volunteers over the past 20 years: Grace Eubank, Kate Howell, Anne Land, Jane Mullins, Jeffie Rowland, Bea Gomez-Martinez, Betty Spencer, Penny Commins, Jenny Knappenberger and Claire Swann.

We also must acknowledge two of our more generous donors to the library. Al Kingston contributed financially to the library’s success, and it is with affection and gratitude that we mourn his death. When I first came to the museum, I met Miss Ollie Mae Williams, who saved money from her housekeeping budget for our library, and, when she died, left enough funds to found its endowment. While the library in the new GMOA will be named after one of our greatest patrons and a long-time chairman of our board, Louis T. Griffith, I know that he would be proud to have his name joined with that of Miss Ollie Mae, Al and the Library Ladies in our shared history.

William U. Eiland

Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly.

The Council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations, and corporations provide additional support through their gifts to the Arch Foundation and the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is

ADA compliant; the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium is equipped for the hearing-impaired.

GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ARTuniversity of georgia90 carlton street athens, ga 30602 - 1419www.uga.edu/gamuseum

address service requested

non-profit org. u.s. postage

paid athens, ga

permit no. 165

GMOA Winter 2010 Newsletter

Documents

Transcript of GMOA Winter 2010 Newsletter