“Life has been rough with me, how it been with you?” Thornton Dial questions me through headphones as I enter the first room of Hard Truths. “Well, pretty rough too.” I think to myself, hoping Mr. Dial and myself can find more things in common. “Life is rough with everybody,” he says. “We all have had a hard time. If you got a million dollars you still got a hard time in life because it ain’t nothing easy.” I agree with Dial, but I still want a million dollars.

A visitor to "Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial" using the TAP tour.

Today I’m trying out our hand-held TAP tour. The TAP tour is a mix of audio, video and picture content on an iPod Touch. It guides patrons through the exhibition, giving them additional information to enhance the experience. I did my best to read every label, give every painting a sufficient amount of time, and listen to each sound bite, but that’s not necessary. If the exhibition is laid out well (just as this one was) then you flow through it, feeling a slight current supporting you the entire way.

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Filed under: Exhibitions, New Media, Technology, Thornton Dial

It was one year ago today that we launched the current version of IMAmuseum.org. We are admittedly still proud of our website as it took a large group of IMA staff six months of dedicated work to create what you see today. In a blog post, we introduced the world to the new set of features of the site. Today, we thought we would take a brief look back at those features and see what worked and what needed a little adjusting throughout the year.

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Filed under: New Media, Technology

I’m Daniel Beyer, the Senior Media Producer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  We are premiering our documentary, Type A, on ArtBabble today.  Scroll to the bottom of this post if you just want to watch the video.

It’s easy to notice that Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin are funny.  Watch the first 45 seconds of this interview for proof.  But if you pay attention, you’ll discover they are also serious and profound thinkers.

Adam and Andrew are artists who focus on collaboration, competition and masculinity.  The first piece they did together, Dance, was a video of Andrew physically dominating and humiliating Adam during a wrestling match.  Dance made me afraid to be a part of their team building project.  I didn’t want to end up humiliated.

Adam and Andrew – or Type A – were commissioned by the IMA to create something for 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.  They decided to work within the basic methods of Experiential Education and create a team of IMA staff (at least one member from each department of the museum) to team build.  The sessions included games, discussion, and a high ropes course.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Film, New Media

A lot of things have happened since ArtBabble was born (launched) in April of 2009. I can’t believe it has been close to 2 years! There are two main things that have improved drastically since we launched: content and technology. To the future…

You're looking at the future of ArtBabble.

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Filed under: New Media, Technology

If you were to Google “2010 Top Ten”, you would see a variety of lists from Halloween costumes to songs, films, and even an attempt to be all-inclusive with The Top 10 Everything of 2010.

Top 10 lists are actually one of my guilty pleasures of the New Year, especially when the list pertains to popular culture. After a visit to Google Analytics, I pulled the top 10 most read IMA Blog posts of the past year (according to pageviews). Some of these were actually written before 2010, but our readers kept them popular. So, in case you missed any of the original posts, here are the favorites of the past year…

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Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Design, Film, Guest Bloggers, IMA TV, Interviews, New Media, Polls, Technology