I must admit I have watched very little. In part because I am very busy at the moment. In part because I am not strongly sports oriented (I was picked for the ball teams just before the ugly girls in grade school). And in part because I just can’t bear to watch some of the people lose. Oh, I’m not talking about the no-chance-in-hell-of-finishing-in-the-medals people. I’m talking about the for sure winners. The athletes that the announcers describe as the gold medalist favorite. The athletes that broke a record at the World Championships (insert your sport of choice). But for every Michael Phelps there is a Lolo Jones.

Here she’s gone and trained her whole bloody life for this moment. Foster homes. Working to get a scholarship. Actually getting the scholarship. Beautiful start on her run, pulling out ahead of the pack, on her way to gold…….and she clips the 9th hurdle. How many hundreds of times has she been successful? But on this most crucial moment a snafu finishes her and puts her out of the medals. It’s heartbreaking. It’s like reliving the Erica Kane woes all over again. I just can’t do it. I quit watching All My Children 20 years ago because I just couldn’t see her go through any more heartbreak. For me it all started with the hysterical pregnancy. Does anyone remember that? It’s just too much.

With the Olympics it’s especially bad when you can figure it is probably their last real chance. Sure some athletes are lasting longer but when you are in your late 20’s in 2008 it means you are in your early 30’s in 2012 and there is some younger whippersnapper chewing up the ground all around you. Yes, there is Dara Torres. But how many her age in total? So, no. While I enjoy watching many Olympic events (Some hardly seem like sports at all!) I won’t devote my life to them. Besides, I participate in the Horticulture Olympics every year. I know the thrill of victory AND the agony of defeat. This year it’s lots of defeat.

Each year it’s like having to go through all those preliminary rounds to get to the finals. And you hope for your best performance knowing anything can happen. Some gardening moments you finish in the medals, others you fall off the pummel horse. Talk about trying to stay on the balance beam. Some years you have a great mount. Your whole routine is just golden. How could it be any better? Time for the dismount. Oooooo. You slipped just as you pushed off. To put it in horticulture terms, who knew it could take that long for castor beans to take off? Normally they grow a foot a day. My whole design was to be anchored by the damn things. Oh, they’re starting to look pretty good now even though they are barely above the cannas.

But that’s like saying “I won $17 playing Bingo at the church picnic so I’m okay loosing the Olympic medal”. No one really gives a crap about the Bingo game. I mean with my love of, fascination with, and perhaps obsession for tropicals and annuals I think of myself as one of the ones about whom the announcer would say: “He’s definitely a gold medal contender in this year’s Horticulture Olympics. Remember the incredible performance he turned in a few years ago with the unbeatable red rice and papyrus combo? Let’s not forget the year of pink, orange, and yellow.” I trained. Really I did. I studied past performances. The damn purple heart vine should have filled in and not look like this.

Colocasia likes it on the wet side. So why are mine barely a foot tall?

I should have been within reach of the medal. But here I am. Nearer to frost with each passing day. Trying to catch up with the other Horticulturists instead of having them breathless trying to gain on me. Geoff’s pots at Garden Terrace are full and lovely.

Patty’s urns at the Formal Garden are all summery in blue and yellow and scented of rosemary.

Jim’s Annual Border is what a tropical/annual planting is supposed to be.

Katie’s pots are perfect.

And Chad’s Garden for Everyone has clever lush pairings like this one of parsley and fountain grass.

So where does that leave me? Lying under the pummel horse covered in chalk and blood? Hanging from the rings like a dead carcass? On my knees crying my eyes out in the tunnel waiting to be kicked out of the stadium? Hell no. I may be old but I’m not dead. I will be training. I’ll be studying those plant catalogues. I’ll be going through those images I took on the Perennial Plant Symposium tours. I’ll be taking mental notes when I visit other gardens. I’ll be writing down ideas as they come to me. Look out you IMA Horticulturists. That sound you here is me about to run past you faster than kudzu can cover a junk car in Mississippi. Game on, bitches.

Ask IMA CEO Maxwell Anderson about the price of freedom. He’ll tell you about the IMA’s successful challenge to a law passed by the Indiana legislature this year forcing any entity selling materials deemed “harmful to minors” to register with the State and pay a fee to do so. If Judge Sarah Evans Barker had not agreed with the IMA, Big Hat Books, and other plaintiffs and struck down the restrictive law, every school with a sex ed text book—or art museum gift shop with books featuring the nude form—would have had to pay up and be policed.

Ask Indianapolis educator Connie Heermann about the price of freedom. Connie is the Perry Township teacher suspended without pay for teaching the book The Freedom Writers Diary in her class last year without permission from the school board. The book, written by the students of California teacher Erin Gruwell, is a record of their daily lives, fraught with violence and racism. This work of non-fiction contains profanity and bloodshed–because that’s what these teens experienced.

Filmmaker Richard LaGravenese (Living Out Loud, Freedom Writers) turned the story of Erin Gruwell and herstudents into a film starring Hilary Swank. In a Huffington Post blog entry last month, LaGravenese makes a passionate defense of the liberty to learn.

In the spirit of the First Amendment, the IMA is hosts a screening of the film Freedom Writers and a post-film discussion with Connie Heermann. Come to the IMA August 21 at 6 pm to hear about an all-too-real struggle for free expression in Indiana. Dissenters welcome.

It’s been a good year so far. I celebrated my “golden birthday” this year when I turned 28 on March 28th, which supposedly brings luck (I can’t complain.) Many of my girlfriends’ male counterparts have turned 30 this year (mine included) which means lots of parties and duh, birthday cake. Another highlight of 2008? Obviously the release of the Sex and the City movie. I have inadvertently begun asking myself questions a’ la Carrie Bradshaw. What does it all mean? When it comes to time, is it really on our side? (Gazing out my imaginary NYC apartment window with my tank top and “Amber” necklace…)

Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” Well here at the IMA there is plenty to be busy about. Anniversaries, openings, and celebrations abound in 2008 and well into the figurative afterlife.

First, the Alliance is celebrating her 50th Anniversary. When Dwight asked Jim if he’d like to form an Alliance, Jim said “Absolutely, I do.”

Let me tell you about the IMA’s Alliance, which is a little different. The IMA is greatly supported by five Affiliate organizations and the volunteers. The Affiliates are support groups and collectors clubs that have varied interests ranging from Contemporary, Asian, Design, and Horticulture.

Then there is the Alliance, a group of over 300 women who have dedicated themselves to the museum for half a century. As with all of the affiliate groups, I’m their liaison to the museum - any and all things they need go through me. I love my job, primarily because I meet and work with literally hundreds of people who love and support the museum as much as I do. Perhaps none are more passionate than the ladies of the Alliance.

Jane Graham, Senior Editor, is writing a complete history of the Alliance that will be published in September. She has discovered all kinds of interesting facts in looking back over time. “I really have enjoyed the research—the Alliance kept such good records over the years. They were very meticulous about everything. I was able to finds lots of information that I thought would be interesting to the members.” Early day scrapbooking at it’s finest.

Beginning with the founder Jo Jameson, the story will be told about the Alliance’s successes and how they have always helped the museum through money, members and ever-changing images, and have served as ambassadors of the museum throughout the city and beyond.

The IMA is celebrating her 125th year this year, from its beginnings as the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1883. Another publication is being written called Every Way Possible: 125 Years of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and highlights the founders, donors, collectors, directors, curators and others who were key to its development over 125 years. Major art acquisitions and collections are also featured. On October 11th there will be a grand soiree fundraiser under a clear top tent that is sure to be talk of the town for years to come.

Egyptians believed that “death was an enemy that could be beaten through proper preparation.”

But I wonder, maybe the Egyptians thought there just wasn’t enough time in this life, which is why they continued the party on into the afterlife? And if the mummies of those times were anything like the mummies coming to rock the IMA on July 11th for the opening of To Live Forever, then maybe they were onto something.

Pink Floyd assures me “You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.” So eat the birthday cakes and toast the anniversaries, cause life is just to short and there’s just never enough time.

According to the report from the National Endowment for the Arts, there are about 29,300 professional artists in Indiana. This number is comprised of 13,000 designers; 3,300 fine artists, art directors and animators; 3,000 musicians/singers, 2,000 architects, 600 dancers/choreographers and 100 actors. These growing numbers are recognized by the local arts community.

“We saw Harrison Center sales rise, more of our artists living off their art and more community support in general,” observed Joanna Taft, Director of the Harrison Center for the Arts at 16th and Delaware.

These numbers were part of a new report from the NEA called “Artists in the Workforce: 1990-2005″. The report, considered the first nationwide profile of professional artists, is a compilation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other arts organizations that chart the location and impact of the country’s 2 million artists. Artists are broken up into 11 categories including actors; announcers; architects; fine artists, art directors and animators; dancers and choreographers; designers; entertainers, musicians, photographers, producers and directors; writers and authors. The report also notes gender, minority and major metro area trends:

“The time has come to insist on an obvious but overlooked fact — artists are workers. They make things and perform services, just like other workers, and these goods and services have value — not merely in lofty spiritual terms but also in dollars and cents,” the report states. “Without denying the higher purposes of the artistic vocation, this report shows that artists play an important role in America’s cultural vitality and economic prosperity.”

The nearly 2 million artists in the U.S. earn about $70 billion annually. This is an important statistic. The report considered only people who identified their primary occupation as artist for the American Community Survey (see page 138 of the report). The first observation we can make is that this is a large number and surely has an important impact on our culture. According to The New York Times article on the study:

“If every artist in America’s workforce banded together, their ranks would be double the size of the United States Army. More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.”

A significant trend found in the report shows that the majority of artists are “designers”, made up of commercial and industrial designers, fashion designers, floral designers, graphic designers, interior designers, merchandise displayers and window trimmers, and set and exhibit designers. This makes sense in our digital world and one in which designers tend to resist globalization. It’s difficult to outsource this type of work. Copy editing may be done overseas, but you don’t often see U.S. Web sites or magazines designed halfway across the globe.

And it’s interesting to see how spread out these artists are geographically. While still focused in major urban areas in New York and California, artists are taking up residence in diverse cities across the country.

“It’s the impact of a kind of decentralized electronic culture,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia in an article by The Associated Press. “… Artists are no longer confined to living in the three to four metropolitan media centers. You can now live in Santa Fe and email your New York agent every day.”

While the number of Indianapolis artists is on an upward trend, why is the city ranking so low on the totem pole? Indiana ranks 15th on a list of U.S. states by population. Maybe it’s because our overall workforce is much smaller relative to other metro areas. Perhaps it is because the Indianapolis community does not have as many patrons of the arts as other cities? Or in part because of Indy’s tax policies? Please give us feedback if you have any insight on Indianapolis’s low ranking in this survey and share with us your ideas to make the city a more attractive home for artists.

How does Indiana stack up to our neighbors?
(total artists as percent of state’s civilian labor force)

• Illinois: ranks 22nd
• Michigan: ranks 24th
• Ohio: ranks 34th
• Indiana: ranks 40th
• Kentucky: ranks 45th

I’ve had a few brushes with fame and significant individuals in my lifetime. Through my work with the youth journalism program Y-Press, I met and interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. When I traveled to Northern Ireland with Y-Press, I interviewed Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness in his home. When we returned to the States, we interviewed his colleague Gerry Adams by phone.

Lately, my brushes with celebrity have been a little more close-to-home. Peyton Manning came into Harry & Izzys and ate dinner at the bar while my husband and I were having drinks there. (He is a part owner of the restaurant.) I saw his teammate, Jeff Saturday, having his car valet parked downtown a few months ago. And former Pacers star Reggie Miller was sitting discreetly in the corner of a popular restaurant I visited once this winter. Really, it’s pretty easy to run into athletes in this town. And, in my line of work, I tend to run into visiting artists pretty frequently too.

But my favorite brush with fame is my most recent. I got to meet my favorite journalist, Tim Russert at the IMA almost 2 months ago.

Long story short, I emailed a jpeg of a portrait in our collection by Hyacinthe Rigaud to one of his producers because our staff had joked for a while that Tim Russert looked so much like the “gentleman” in the portrait. You can judge for yourself. A couple of his producers sent me some kind emails back, asking more questions about the artwork.

Then, the political primary season continued to charge on, and for the first time in 40 years, Indiana’s primary was in the national spotlight.

My friend and colleague, Jyl called me on May 2 to say that she heard Meet the Press was going to be in town that weekend in advance of Indiana’s primary. I emailed one of the producers who I’d exchanged emails with earlier, and I invited their staff to come see the work in person. I figured it was a long shot given their presumably busy schedules. But that Saturday morning, I got back to my car after running the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, and I had a voicemail from his producer. By the time I called her back, they were on their way to the Museum.

I raced up to the Museum from downtown (still wearing my race number), and I got to take Tim Russert and his producer up to see the portrait hanging in our European galleries.

The experience was everything I could have hoped for. I always thought I had a lot in common with Tim Russert. He’s Irish American; I’m Irish American. His parents worked hard to send him to Catholic schools. My parents worked hard to send me to Catholic schools. He loved politics. I love politics. He loved sports. I love sports. He was from Buffalo. I have family in Buffalo. He worked for Mario Cuomo; I interviewed Mario Cuomo. He worked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I have a brother named Daniel and a brother named Patrick.

The 25 minutes or so that I got to spend with Tim Russert and his great producer, lead me to believe that everything that his been said about him since his untimely passing is true. We got to chat about Indiana’s presidential primary (and how my friends were divided in their support of the candidates). He commented on the beauty of the IMA’s gardens and grounds, and he said that everyone at our local NBC affiliate had treated him very well. His love of current events was evident, as he already knew the story of the “co-winners” at that morning’s mini-marathon – something I hadn’t even heard myself yet. And, I think he really got a kick out of seeing the portrait that he looked so much like.

I hesitate to pontificate about the death of someone who I met only briefly, but I will point to one of the best lessons I ever learned in school – something that I’ve been thinking about as I’ve watched and read coverage of Tim Russert’s passing. I had a high school teacher who wrote the following on his blackboard everyday: “Prepare through life for no regrets in death.” To me it seems that Tim Russert modeled this idea in the way he lived his life. What a great role model to have.

I’ve always been at the mercy of this terrible, wonderful flick.  My dad took me to see it, on the first day of summer after my fourth grade year.  We were late; I think we came in during the “Summer Nights” number.  We both liked the visual geometry of the dances, the buoyant froth of the songs.

My friends and I started going in packs.  We saw it at the drive-in, the way it was meant to be seen.  We staged sock hops.  One 9-year-old dressed up like a version of Sandy in fishnet hose and a leotard and rode around the neighborhood on her banana seat bike.  Years later my friend made me this kitschy Grease mirror, a true piece of folk art:

Don’t get me started on the centrifugal force of Travolta’s hips as he snakes around the white car during “Greased Lightnin’.”  Or the carnival Shake Shack scene, where John and Olivia shimmy in black against a colorful planar backdrop worthy of Mondrian.  I’ve always loved sad Danny and the phallic hot dog scene.  And the strange appeal of Crater Face.

Just two years after Grease arrived, MTV was born, and the Spandex Revolution began.  Children of the 80’s will also find much to love about this year’s Summer Nights line up, which includes The Goonies and Ghostbusters.  The movie schedule was built around four categories we conceived: Stylish Danger (i.e. Gilda); Alternate Universes (Dr. Strangelove), Dark Humor (The Big Lebowski), and Mad Musicals (Rocky Horror).

We also paid close attention to what cartoon goes with what movie.  I’m particularly looking forward to Rabbit’s Kin (1957), starring Pete the Puma, an underappreciated Warner Bros. character.  Watch for Pete before This is Spinal Tap on June 20.

Leave me your raves and rants about Grease—or Summer Nights ’08.

Using the DHL shipping service, Swedish artist Erik Nordenankar brought this global idea to light by orchestrating a 55-day trip across 63 countries. His Web site explains that a sealed case containing a GPS component was sent with specific instructions for its handlers. Nordenankar claimed he created the “biggest drawing in the world” which is also a self-portrait. I was taken in by the video diary of the process.

Seem unbelievable? After numerous blogger comments, Nordenankar’s project was revealed by DHL as a hoax to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper yesterday. DHL agreed to let the artist film inside their warehouse as part of his college project but stipulated that it should go no further. After creating a pretty fascinating Web site, with evidence to support his work including DHL delivery notes and photos of the case, Nordenankar apparently forgot to put up a disclaimer that his GPS case never actually traveled anywhere. (There is now a red disclaimer located at the top of the site.)

As I watched the story unfold, my first clue to the illusion was that the cost must be unbelievable for an emerging artist, let alone a student, to set something like this up. I give credit to Nordenankar for his idea and the realm of possibilities it opens up for both serious and recreational artists. Why not take a GPS device on your next camping trip and see what kind of forest animal your hike can create? I’m game.

Recommended IMA Work of Art:
In the contemporary galleries, on the third level of the IMA, you’ll find a large, orange, mixed media work on canvas by Argentinean Guillermo Kuitca. Entitled “Everything”, 2004, the piece appears to be an abstract blur of lines, cracks and patterns. Upon closer look, a disorienting mix of familiar streets, borders, cities and towns appears, connected in most peculiar ways!

There are all sorts of things going on in the world o’ new media these days. I thought I would tell you about a few of them. Tomorrow, I will spend the day with a few other IMA staffers, likely holed up in the IMA Cafe taking advantage of the free wi-fi in there to drink coffee and upload the majority of the content to our newly developed website for To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. If you look at it now, you will only find a taste of the design, but by this time next week, it will rock your world.

I received an e-mail from Shelley Bernstein giving a shout out to a project the Walker Art Center has going on right now called, My Yard Our Message. This project is a really cool and interesting one, inviting any artist to submit designs to this non-partisan competition and the winning submissions (selected by on-line viewers) will be made available for order as political yard signs. Want to submit? Get to it. You have until June 30th. Want to vote? Mark your calendars, voting begins July 1st.

Other IMA Nugget Factory news? Daniel and I need to get to work on our ISEA presentation for the upcoming conference. I think we have both forgotten this part after completing and submitting the paper a few weeks(or maybe months) back. The editing nuggets have really put together an amazing exhibition trailer for To Live Forever that you will get to see when the site launches. We are all very proud of this entire project and are so glad to have had such tremendous support from the Brooklyn Museum as we are creating it. I am sure you will hear more about that collaboration.

Well, that is all the news that is fit to print today. It has been a relatively slow weekend, but is shaping up to be a fast and furious week. So don’t forget to check back in!

Liberty Loan Parade by Arthur Clifton Goodwin

Angel of the Resurrection by Louis Comfort Tiffany

Untitled (Flag) by Laylah Ali

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/05/26/memorial-day/feed/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/05/26/memorial-day/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/IndianapolisMuseumOfArtBlogCurrentEvents/~3/376371540/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2008/05/25/dan-wheldon-racing-art-and-the-indy-500/#comments Sun, 25 May 2008 15:29:29 +0000 Dan Wheldon http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/?p=428 We asked Dan Wheldon to share a few thoughts as the Indianapolis 500 neared. Here is a pre-race update.

What a month it’s been so far in Indianapolis. My Target Chip Ganassi Racing team has performed flawlessly and put my teammate Scott Dixon on pole position, with myself close behind in second for our first ever one-two start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I’ve always been fortunate in my career to be in great equipment, and I hope to take the No.10 Target Honda Dallara to victory lane Sunday.

What a great feeling it would be to win a second Indianapolis 500. Winning this race in 2005 was the highlight of my professional racing career, and the highlight of my personal life came just a few short months ago in St. Petersburg, FL when I married my beautiful wife Susie. Things are going extremely well and I can only hope we have lady luck on our side when the green flag drops in a few short days.

I’ve always been a fan of the arts so in the spirit of good taste and with a nod to my heritage I’ll be sporting a new pair of PUMA racing shoes this weekend for the race. They are a very distinct blue, red and white pair that feature the British Flag…complete with a gold PUMA logo to accent the design. I also had a very special helmet designed for the race which shows off what its like to sip the milk at Indianapolis. I don’t want to give too much away so you’ll have to look for it on Sunday!

Finally, in starting on the front row for this year’s Indianapolis 500, my teammate and I were able to participate in a special visit to New York City on Monday at the new Sports Museum of America on Broadway in NYC. What a thrill it was to see a display showing off one of the helmets the team donated to the museum for the grand opening. That’s all the inspiration you need to close out the month of May in Indianapolis on a high note!

Here’s to another victory this weekend, and hopefully adding another piece of “fine art” to my personal collection!