Today we have an amazing array of plants available for our gardens. Plants that once would have been available only to the super wealthy can be found at a small independent garden center, a big box store, or even the grocery store. The change may not be so noticeable to beginning gardeners but those of us that have been looking through catalogues for 40 years or so can see a dramatic shift. Many of these new plants are introductions from other parts of the world. Many are “newly discovered” natives (“newly appreciated”?). And many are bred by humans that are able to bring together species that would never meet in Mother Nature’s singles bars. One of those humans is Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries and one of those group of singles he’s brought together is coralbells, Heuchera.

Heucheras were once grown for flowers alone pretty much. And they are mighty fine flowers. Great in the garden and for cuts. I’m sure hummingbirds love them too. But the importance of flowers has changed beautifully in the last two decades, especially since Dan and Terra Nova started their incredible breeding program. Heucheras are better known for foliage now. And why not? The foliage is around much longer than the flowers. As in close to year round. Much as I desire colorful flowers I cannot forget foliage. And with Heuchera I get color from foliage so my desires are satisfied.

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Filed under: Horticulture

On April 5, Ai Weiwei: According to What?—the IMA’s latest featured exhibition—opened to the public. A major retrospective of the artist’s work, this not-to-be-missed exhibition includes examples from the broad spectrum of the artist’s practice, which encompasses sculpture, photography, video, and site-specific architectural installations, as well as the design for the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Walking past some of the works in the show, visitors may be inspired to learn more about the man who created these pieces and the circumstances that drove him to do so. In conjunction with the exhibition, the IMA is employing new in-gallery technology to facilitate these inquiries and help audiences engage with the work of this extraordinary artist.

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Filed under: Exhibitions, New Media, Technology

It is an uncomfortable truth that in showing you an artwork in a museum, we are potentially destroying it.  As a conservation professional, it feels wrong to admit that, but it is true.  Every photon, or packet of radiant energy, that strikes the surface of an art object has the potential to do damage, and we most often see that as a negative change in the artwork’s aesthetics: darkening, fading, yellowing, chalking, crosslinking, etc.  It’s an unstoppable phenomenon, but one that proceeds at a variety of rates.  Certainly color change is one of the most notable alterations that light can cause in an artwork, and so we must dole out the expected lifetime of an object using an informed and rational approach.  Conservators and collections managers go to great pains to protect artwork by limiting its exposure to light.  This can take the form of reducing light intensity, restricting its spectral output, or limiting the duration of an exhibition.  These stewards of the collection get additional insight and data from scientists who study the fading behavior of artists’ materials.

For the past several months the IMA has been conducting a condition survey of its photograph collection, over 800 objects that span the history of the medium.  This program is sponsored by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a wing of the federal government that supports museum and conservation activities.  In addition to the inventory and conservation assessment of each artwork, the grant has also funded a study of the lightfastness of the contemporary color photographs in the collection using a technique called microfade testing (MFT), or microfadeometry.  The goal of the study is to determine the susceptibility to color change for the highest priority color photographs in the collection and to determine patterns of lightfastness among the many photographic processes.  This data in turn informs our exhibition, loan, and lighting guidelines for the collection.

Figure 1. Watercolor paint outs after artificial light aging.

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Filed under: Conservation, Photography, The Collection

Everyone goes on and on about the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida. There are dogwood festivals and dogwood streets and dogwood subdivisions. Dogwood. Dogwood. Dogwood. Whatever. The flowering tree I think of as THE spring flowering tree is dogwood’s less lauded neighbor, Cercis canadensis – redbud.  If you want a glorious spectacle to enjoy take a drive south from Indy this time of year. Roadsides everywhere are brightened by the deep lavender-pink blooms of this native tree. My usual path is south on I-65 then west on I-64 to the old homeplace. But I’m certain State Road 37 down through Bedford would be gorgeous. I-74 to Cincinnati should be good as well. The redbuds seed into the open cuts made into forests when these roads are constructed and just keep spreading. When one gets cut down it quickly resprouts and in a few years is blooming again.

I’ve heard people complain about redbuds because they can get a canker that kills bits or all of a tree. They nearly always resprout and grow back into a lovely shaped plant again in short order so I don’t see the problem. The redbud is so much less fussy than the very nearly worshiped flowering dogwood.

Heaviest bloom does come in full sun but partial or even full shade is tolerated. I’ve seen them growing in the cut stone along an interstate. I’ve seen them growing in the yellow clay of a southern Indiana cow pasture. And everywhere in between.  Their naturally beautiful form makes them ideal trees for year round interest. Nice grey bark in winter is followed by the spectacular flowering. Deep green heart-shaped leaves deliver great texture through summer and come fall the lovely yellow foliage is one last reminder of how wonderful this tree is.

Redbuds are usually a good bright lavender-pink. I admit the usual color is not my favorite normally. But somehow it is different when the color is coming from the redbuds. Heavens though, do not plant them near anything with gold flowers. I don’t even like some of the different colored cultivars planted together let alone their shades of lavender, pink and “red’ with forsythia and the like.

Here’s a little collection of the different colors. You can see these Saturday and Sunday in the Deer Zink Events Pavillion at the Indianapolis Garden Club of America Show – Les Belles Fleurs. 

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Filed under: Horticulture

The state of Indiana owes much of the documentation of its history of art and artists to Wilbur Peat, artist, instructor, historian, and director of the IMA from 1929-1965.  Among his books are: Portraits and Painters of the Governors of Indiana, 1800-1943, (1944), Indiana Houses of the Nineteenth Century (1962), and Pioneer Painters of Indiana (1954).  This last title is well-known among those interested in early Hoosier art.  Peat spent years corresponding with people all over the country as he gathered small pieces of information about artists long dead.

Correspondence from Eli Lilly to Wilbur D. Peat, 1940, Box 004, Folder 28, Wilbur D. Peat Papers, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Indiana

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Filed under: Art, IMA Staff