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

In the book’s introduction, Peat begins by saying “This is the story of poor and simple people, who, for the most part, achieved neither fame nor riches…” Peat was concerned about documenting the state’s cultural heritage no matter the artists’ level of training.  He continues “As factors in our cultural evolution their activities should not be forgotten, and as authors of so large a bulk of our heirlooms their names should not fade completely from our memories.”  By looking through his files and notes, one can begin to understand Peat’s painstakingly detailed process of compiling information.  Below is a sample from Peat’s artist index cards:

Richard B. Gruelle index card, n.d., Box 008, Folder 60, Wilbur D. Peat Papers, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Indiana

Peat not only documented the lives of Hoosier natives.  He collected a vast amount of documentation about itinerant artists, as well as those who visited or passed through the region:

Correspondence from Wilbur D. Peat to Richard E. Banta, 1951, Box 003, Folder 21, Wilbur D.Peat Papers, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Indiana

In the introduction of Pioneer Painters of Indiana, Peat describes his research notes as a “large collection of letters, notes, transcripts of newspaper articles, and clippings deposited in the IMA’s library for researchers to consult.”  The collection is now housed and cared for by the IMA Archives and will soon be available online to researchers all over the world.   For the past year, the IMA and IUPUI Libraries have worked together to digitize this collection.   Peat’s unpublished notes are important because they provide second-person accounts and descriptions of the lives of early Hoosier artists, including how many of them earned a living.  In addition, the collection contains notes on artists that may not have been mentioned in the book due to lack of space or other considerations.

Please join the Library & Archives department  at The Toby on May 9 for the lecture The Art of Making a Living in Indiana, 1850-1950 where Martin Krause, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the IMA, Rachel Berenson Perry, Art History Author, and Laurette McCarthy, Independent Scholar and Researcher, will speak about the lives of Hoosier artists Wilbur Peat so thoroughly documented.

So what is blooming at the IMA today?

The witchhazels (Hamamelis species) keep powering on. It has been an incredible year for them. Simply weeks and weeks of good showy bloom. Most witchhazels have some fragrance but it does vary in intensity. You might want to take a walk about and smell the different cultivars to find the one you like best.

Hellebores of course are major perennial players this time of year.

Helleborus foetidus has looked even better than usual for months (thank you mild winter). I like the common name stinking hellebore over the recently promoted bear’s claw hellebore. Truly they do not stink unless you trap yourself in a small room with a bouquet.

That touch of red lipstick is so sexy.

Members of the Helleborus Gold Collection^® (HGC) have rapidly become favorites of mine.

Helleborus niger ‘HGC Josef Lemper’ starts blooming in November or December, some years October. The pure white flowers are striking against the gray and tan of winter.

Helleborus ballardiae ‘HGC Cinnamon Snow’ has been in bloom since December, a little earlier than usual. Incredible color and bud count on these ballardiae hybrids.

And my favorite of favorites of the HGC group, H. x ballardiae ‘HGC Pink Frost’.

And Helleborus x hybridus is in heavy bud and some bloom. I actually found a few open in December or January. Much earlier than normal and not in a particularly warm or bright spot. I was cleaning up some last week and there was freeze damage to some new growth. We have few of the new hybrids (yet) but I love all the colors and flower types being released lately.

Crazy daffodils were blooming in mid-December. Narcissus ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’ shouldn’t bloom before February but it is still soldiering on in March, if a bit beaten down.

Crocus! You never know where crocus are going to show up. Why? Because you never know where the squirrels and chipmunks have “transplanted” them and you never know when they are going to exhibit extreme control and only eat 99 of the 100 bulbs you planted. And yes I do know they are really corms and not true bulbs.

And Crocus sieberi ssp. sublimus ‘Tricolor’.

Some things are past prime but still showing color such as the winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) and snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis).

 
And fresh and new are the reticulated irises and their kinfolk – Iris histroides and reticulata and their hybrids.

Iris ‘George’.

Iris ‘Pauline’ (under Cercis canadensis ‘Pauline Lily’) and ‘Harmony’ (blue).

By my next posting it will officially be spring. I sure hope Mother Nature agrees. This is not the year for her to be upset. Not the year at all. Maybe she’ll be in a good mood like in 1983.

Time for a little research! I spoke to some of the founders of #drinkingaboutmuseums to see how their local “chapters” worked. Ed Rodley, of the Museum of Science, Boston, and author of the blog Thinking about Museums told me that in Boston, DAM:BOS meets monthly at a host museum for a presentation, and then moves to a bar for social time. Koven Smith of Denver Art Museum shared that the Colorado group meets irregularly, bar only, and uses Meetup.com to keep the group to museum professionals only.

Then I contacted the most social Indy museum person I know for a little backup, my IMA colleague Richard McCoy. Richard said that he had been having a similar conversation about building cultural community with Malina Jeffers of the Madame Walker Theatre Center. We met to discuss some ideas about hosting this kind of event in Indy: what were we trying to do? We know the museum and technology communities are small, but the greater arts and culture community is thriving. People are very passionate about culture in our city. We decided to expand the group from just museums to cultural organizations of all kinds and Indy’s #drinkingaboutculture was born. We also decided to meet only four or so times a year, keep it casual (read: at a bar), and with a short presentation about a local project to kick off conversation.

So, we hope you will join us tomorrow for a drink and to discuss cultural innovation in Indy!

Inaugural #drinkingaboutculture INDY

Tuesday, September 11, 5:30pm at Bourbon Street Distillery

Topic: Mali Jeffers of the Madame Walker Theatre Center will briefly introduce a collaboration with WFYI on a self-guided tour of the Theatre, led virtually by Mr. Ridley, a longtime docent. The fifteen minute presentation will be followed by a conversation/Q&A about the project.

A packed schedule of events

Sunday, I met up with several hundred #musetech friends as the Media and Technology committee announced winners at the 23^rd Annual Muse Awards. The winning entries in a dozen categories came from museums around the world and represented the most innovative and awe-inspiring digital projects happening in museums. The IMA won a Bronze Award in Public Outreach for our video XLVI Reasons to Visit the IMA.

These lucite awards are dang hard to photograph.

The sessions this year were really inspiring. The IMA is evaluating a lot of our mobile experiences (more to follow on this soon) and I feel so inspired by all of the thoughtful approaches presented at the conference. I have written down a couple thoughts and quotes from the sessions I attended- sorry if you saw a lot of these on Twitter already! I have tried to give credit where credit is due, but please let me know if I have taken credit for something you said!

Can Mobile Interpretation also be Social?:

• How does the social experience mesh with museum created material? – Peter Samis
• Mobile and social aren’t for everybody. – Peter Samis
• Know the digital habits of your target audience and make sure your digital plan targets the right audience. – Peter Samis via @artlust
• Presenters noted inspiration from artists using mobile social elements in their work. Relational aesthetics in contemporary art are informing digital experiences in the museum.
• Museums can use visitors’ opinions as opportunities to crowdsource first-person content about their collection. – Nancy Proctor
• A huge portion of visitors/users only want to view content – they are not creators/authors. These ‘lurkers’ are valuable as well and we should provide them with a means for engagement. – Nancy Proctor
• Mobile can provide opportunities for in-person social experiences that are valuable for different types of visitors.
• How can the IMA make our mobile tours more friendly to our visitors? What information are our visitors looking for but not finding? This seems obvious but I have been thinking about the implications: Mobile tours should be visitor-centric.
• How can the IMA use our mobile tours as an opportunity to interact with or listen to our visitors?
• What special experiences at the IMA could be supported with mobile technology?

Nancy Proctor discusses what to measure with Mobile

Engage on the Go: Mobile Content Delivery:

• What can we add to the mobile experience that will help visitors with their basic needs? Food, bathrooms, tickets, etc. – Layla Masri
• Opportunity to add social interaction – only do it if it works! Is it what people want or need?
• Mobile includes: Pocketable and portable, smart and dumb phones, podcasts and other downloadable material, bring your own device and rentables, mobile websites and large screen websites. – Nancy Proctor
• Mobile can mean at home or in the gallery; it can be for deep engagement or quick bites.
• Mobile can be used as a strategy for engaging with the visitor on their terms.
• How can we use mobile in the galleries that lets people engage with devices comfortably? Liz Neely discussed the roll out of iPads in the galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago and designing secure (yet comfortable) ways for the visitors to use them.
• Think about possible partnerships – how can we leverage other local institutions to build more content together. How does the IMA fit into the larger needs of a visitor’s life?

Liz Neely discusses multifaceted content

Museum as Prototype

• Museums can use prototypes and models as a way to test new ideas in the physical gallery.
• Do museums who are worried about polish and image need to have a space dedicated as “experimental” to allow themselves to use prototypes? Do visitors expect more polish and perfection from a professional institution than a prototype gives them?
• Can a prototype environment give a visitor more authority to question the voice of the museum?
• Prototyping allows me to think differently about what curating means. – Christina Chang
• In order to have an environment for creativity & prototyping, museum staff must have time to think and permission to FAIL.
• We should allow visitors to use the space in new ways that the museum itself does not organize. – Nina Simon
• Museums say certain objects are precious. What objects do our visitors say are precious? How can we help them relate to the objects or ideas being presented through ownership of ideas?

I have a lot more to think about, but hope to be back wowing you with inspirational new projects soon. Also, the current plan is to sweep the 2013 Muse Awards, so watch out Baltimore!

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

My favorite time to volunteer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art is on a Friday night when museum hours are extended to 9pm.  You know that feeling of peace that you have right before a soft spring rain starts to fall?  Or the sensation you feel the moment that you first see the ocean when you arrive on a beach vacation?  Yeah.  That’s my cheesy analogy for the feeling I get when I sit in a quiet, serene gallery on a Friday night.  As a volunteer of the IMA, I have the luxury of feeling like the permanent galleries of the museum are my private sanctuary.  My personal church.  I suppose I should pause for a moment and explain who I am and why I’m lucky to be blogging here…

My name is Jessica Hancock and I’ve been a volunteer for the IMA since the fall of 2008.  At that time, I was going through a particularly challenging time in my life.  It was a time when I felt like, even though I had a million friends and a million different options for a Friday night, all I wanted to do was be still.  One day I reverted back to my roots, so to speak, and I thought about the days when I used to strut around the old IMA galleries alongside my Busha (polish for Grandma).  Busha was a museum docent, post retirement, for over 20 years. She used to bring my cousins and me around the museum, educating us through every twist and turn we’d take through the galleries.  I remembered how proud I was of her, how I wanted to have that substantial knowledge about art.  So I walked right into the museum on a Sunday afternoon in November and started volunteering.

Hands down, it was the best decision I ever made!  Four years later, I volunteer once a month on the first Sunday of every month at the guest services kiosk.  The months that I do not volunteer, I feel anxious.  Art does something different for everyone.  One of my favorite questions that I get when I’m volunteering is usually from an eager parent asking, “Where do I start?  Which gallery would my kids enjoy the most?”  It’s an exhilarating and proud moment when I get to share my expertise and personal favorites in the museum!

To volunteer means to make yourself useful to others.  In whatever way you choose to do so, volunteering can be humbling and a reminder you of who you really are.  For me personally, there is an attracting element to knowing art and being able to share it with others.  Being present and giving my time to the IMA once a month was my way of feeling close to something I love.  I have the endless opportunity to educate myself and museum guests every time I’m there.   So if you find me still and in a “moment” at the museum on a Friday night, just know that I’m just enjoying my personal sanctuary.

Heather (on the left) and Elizabeth (on the right) receiving their ROSE Award nominations.

We have a host of staff, volunteers and docents that make the museum a wonderful place to visit and the ROSE Award nominations are a way for us to acknowledge those contributions to the museum. Two of our very own were nominated to receive the ROSE Award. Heather Hudson and Elizabeth Battson received letters of acknowledgment from Mayor Ballard and took part in a reception for all honorees on March 28th at the Indiana Roof Ballroom.

The mission of the ROSE Awards is to honor non-managerial hospitality employees or volunteers who exemplify excellent customer service. These industry champions, through one-on-one or behind-the-scenes contact, positively influence a visitor’s experience in Indianapolis.

Once an employee of the IMA, Elizabeth enjoyed the visitors and serving our community so much that she returned after retirement to volunteer.  Over the years, Elizabeth has stuffed hundreds of membership envelopes and assembled thousands of complimentary exhibition tickets. She does this all with precision, care and a wonderful sense of humor.  We often find that we need to remind her to stand up and stretch!

Heather serves as the receptionist at the museum, and while in this role, she has developed a wonderful working knowledge of the IMA.  This allows her to be extremely helpful to callers and visitors in providing them with the information they seek. Heather handles a high volume of phone calls, at times up to 150 a day.

Let’s be sure to applaud both ladies on their recognition of excellence!

In the Marketing offices

In 2006, the graphic design team worked in the marketing department. Exhibition design worked on the other side of the building. There wasn’t usually much crossover. The brochure you picked up was never part of the dialogue with actual exhibition design. We handled primarily marketing print work. No exhibition graphics. Since then, all of that has changed. Graphic design is part of the larger Design Studio. We collaborate every day, not only with each other, but with every other department in the museum. We still work on all print collateral, but also on exhibition graphics. We’ve had our growing pains, but it has been an amazing experience that has helped strengthen not only my own work, but the overall design of the museum and the visitor experience.

The Design Studio

So, what’s the point of all this? Tomorrow night, Wednesday February 15th, David Russick, our Chief Designer, and I will be giving a presentation for AIGA Indy about how our department functions here at the museum. It has been a crazy trip for us as we’ve looked back at all of the things we’ve worked on. Our accomplishments and our failures. Over coffee, we’ve remembered many of the amazing and ridiculous things that have happened with each project. We’d love to have you come out to the Indianapolis Art Center and learn about design at the IMA and help support AIGA. More info can be found here. Hopefully we’ll see you there. Oh, and I’ll try not to wait three years between blog posts next time.

Robert Indiana, "Numbers," 1980-1983. Gift of Melvin Simon and Associates; 1988.241. © Morgan Art Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The IMA is getting into the spirit by positioning 4 and 6 of Robert Indiana’s Numbers together on the 2nd floor, near the Welcome Desk. You can also check out one of the Super Cars (for the Carolina Panthers) near the entrance, outside the IMA’s retail store.

As Visitor Services Manager, I wanted to make sure we were prepared with as much information as possible for this huge event. One activity that we participated in was Super Service Training, which was set up to prepare our team with valuable tools and resources needed before the Super Bowl (and ensuing crowds) got underway.  We had an amazing time with our trainers! We played games, learned the history of the city, and absorbed valuable information that all customer service associates need to do their job at the highest level. After completing the training, all of us received our own “Super Service Pin” and certificate, pictured below. We will wear these with pride!

Come by and see us, and happy Super Bowl!

For those of you who have a taste for the technical and an appreciation of process, begin reading here:

Art Directed Photography

Unfortunately for me (and I would argue the patron), this is what I get to do the least.

Art Directed photography requires a fair amount pre-planning and time to explore an approach to photography of an object or setting.  It requires the input of multiple parties, is of high quality, and has a distinct “look” to the final image.  These images are generally intended for more targeted uses in magazine and catalogues.

The images below of Alberto Meda’s Light-Light chair were taken with a Mamiya 645D and a Phase One P45 digital back. The inspiration came from our Senior Curator of Design Arts Craig Miller, who wanted to focus on the texture of the material. The silhouette of the chair legs emerges from the darkness to reveal the back and the carbon fiber texture.

Alberto Media, "Light-Light chair (prototype)," 1988, carbon fiber and Nomex composite. Purchased with funds provided by James E. and Patricia J. LaCrosse.

Here’s another example of an art directed photo shoot:

Allesandro Mendini and Alessandro Guerriero, "Side chair from Ollo Collection,"1988, plastic, laminate. Frank Curtis Springer and Irving Moxley Springer Purchase Fund. © Alessandro Guerriero.

Publication Photography

Occurring much more frequently than art directed projects, publication photography is what you will typically find me doing day to day. It generally consists of high quality documentation photography, which requires more setup time and use of higher end equipment. The background may be white or gradated. Publication photography fulfills the need of catalogues and other external requests that require large image sizes.

Below are images of a more straightforward nature.  A generic gradient background is used rather than something more dramatic. Therefore the background or lighting does not become a distraction or a more obvious component of the image.  We have recently moved away from using the gradients.  Much of our work is shot on a plain white background to give all the attention to the art object.

Documentation Photography
This approach is similar to publication photography, however the intended results are more focused on a specific collection.  The drive behind this type of photography is to get a clear visual record of the object.

 Documentation photography is a systematic approach to photographing objects in the collection. The image is captured in a very generic setting (usually with a white background). Although quick snapshots can also be utilized as documentation, the goal of the Publishing & Media department is to acquire a clean, representative image of the work of art.  The resulting image can then be utilized for 80-90% of image needs (small press, newspaper, online, magazine, some catalogue uses).

We tend to create these images with Canon 5D Mark IIs and similar full frame digital cameras. A group of photographers are usually involved with any systematic documentation of the collection, along with staff from other departments coordinating the object movements.  See image below:

The role of the museum photographer is an exciting and rewarding one, and – as with many jobs in the museum – you frequently have the opportunity to get up-close with a variety of artwork.  And as a photographer, we get to see the work in its best light.  Future posts from me will be dealing with specific objects and how we shoot them, including images of our setup and some trial and error photographs, if I can get them by our editor.  Stay tuned!