Great news for parents looking for some extra time this summer and teens looking for a little independence. The IMA has partnered with IndyGo to offer a Summer Youth Pass with added IMA perks! When purchasing an IndyGo Summer Youth Pass, children and teens—ages 18 and under—can hop aboard the bus and ride to museums, the zoo, the movies, a ball game, the mall and other destinations throughout Marion County from June 1 to August 31 for only $30. That’s summer-long transportation at a price lower than the cost of a tank of gas for most vehicles! A gas and money-saver, the Summer Youth Pass is also a great opportunity to discuss the environmental benefits of taking the bus while also teaching your children how to responsibly navigate through public transportation, a life-long valuable lesson.

So, where does the IMA fit in?

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Local, Thornton Dial, Travel

As you may have seen by now, the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale – organized by none other than the IMA! – was recently featured in the New York Times.  The article takes place at the Circus Warehouse in New York City as gymnasts rehearsed on mock-ups of the artwork they will perform on in Venice.  They’ll be performing within artists Allora and Calzadilla‘s exhibition Gloria, alongside an upside-down tank with a treadmill, a pipe organ ATM, a video projection, and a statue lying in a sunbed.  Yes, you read that all correctly!  I think IMA curator and Pavilion commissioner Lisa Freiman summed it up best when she said, “It’s all about making the impossible possible.”

A large part of what makes this project so complex (and fascinating to watch unfold) is the live performance element, a first for the U.S. Pavilion.  An athlete associated with USA Track and Field will run on the treadmill (atop the overturned tank) and gymnasts affiliated with USA Gymnastics will perform on replicas of business class airline seats on either side of the Pavilion. As Carol Vogel described it as she watched them rehearse, “…(she) bent her body in graceful movements over a seat: wrapping herself around the tray table, draping her body along the edge of the seats, limbs splayed, forming a perfect split, and finally alighting on the divider, a leg gracefully extending high in the air — Brancusi’s “Bird in Space” sculpture come to life.” Look for frequent updates from us and our partners at USA Gymnastics and USA Track and Field on next week’s big performances.

The Venice Biennale takes place every two years and features cutting edge, contemporary art that represents a record 89 countries this year, along with additional exhibitions throughout the city.  Along with the activities happening inside the U.S. Pavilion, we’ll also be documenting the Biennale at large to show Gloria within the larger context of international contemporary art.   So far, we’ve been hearing lots of glowing updates from IMA staffers as they are busy installing for next week’s opening.  Here’s the exhibition banner freshly unfurled on the wall:

Along with updates here, we’ll also be continuously adding content to our microsite - expect behind-the-scenes glimpses, video interviews, images of the installation, and much more.  And perhaps the most active place for updates will be our Twitter handle devoted to the project: USPavilion11.  Stay tuned!

Filed under: Art, Contemporary, Travel, Venice Biennale

[My husband, son, and I are in Amsterdam for 2 months this spring. John is a writer-in-residence with the Dutch Foundation for Literature, I am working/visiting artists/seeing art, and Henry is doing an exhaustive analysis of each of the city’s sandboxes.]

The other day I made an afternoon tour of a few art spots in Amsterdam—my list made manageable by the fact that it was a Tuesday and many galleries were closed—and wanted to give a brief report.

My stops:

1) Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (the museum’s project space) to see Alfredo Jaar’s The Marx Lounge, a reading room in which to peruse books by, about, or relating to Karl Marx, Marxist theory, capitalism, and post-colonialism. Jaar’s curated selection is laid out in a neat grid on a vast table, surrounded by red walls and carpet, along with couches, lamps, and neon lettering quietly humming the project’s title. As I do whenever I encounter a work by Jaar, I braced myself to be overwhelmed and to feel the enormity of that which I do not know, but should. You would think this would be a negative experience, but somehow, with Jaar’s work, it is not. I spent a while here, picking up books I wish I’ve read, browsing a few, making notes of books I plan to read, and feeling relief when encountering books I have read. Handily, the website provides a reading list, in case you’re feeling ambitious.

Another iteration of the lounge was part of the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, bringing to mind how site-determined the work is, that the reading list alters in each location, and that the social and political histories of each site, city, and nation come to bear on the interpretation of the piece. While the installation could have had a little more teeth for me if installed in a commercial gallery space, The Marx Lounge felt concise, sobering, and relevant—a plea for literacy and academicism in a time in which folks aren’t acting so literate or academic. Like all Jaar pieces, I felt like he was telling me to think and to remember. And I always appreciate that reminder.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Contemporary, Musings, Travel

Hanneorla has to be among the most prolific amateur art photographers of the 21^st century.  With more than 40,000 Flickr images that have been sorted into 517 distinct sets—each from a different location around the world, and mostly of art, architecture, and museums – Hanneorla’s photostream is one of the most important sources for art images in the 21st century, and why so many were excited about the potentials of  “Web 2.0.”

I first became aware of Hanneorla around 2007 when I was looking for Flickr users that were photographing artworks on the grounds of the IMA.  The set made for the IMA has 61 images in it and most of the contemporary outdoor artworks are documented. Although the sheer number of photos is impressive, what also interested me is the way the photos were taken: many of the works are shown from multiple sides, demonstrating that Hanneorla is skilled at looking carefully at art.

It was also around this time when Clay Shirky was getting a lot of attention for talking about how the Internet was ideally suited for us to spend our cognitive surplus doing something productive, rather than just watching television in the evening (Shirky estimates today this cognitive surplus is around a trillion hours a year for the adult population in the developed world).  Trying to harness but a sliver of a thumbnail of this surplus, we created the Wikipedia-and-Flickr-based project Wikiproject Public Art. While this continues to slowly grow, I’m always on the lookout for museum-based projects that tap into the cognitive surplus in a meaningful way.

So, to get to know the most productive art photographer in world better, I invited Hanneorla here for a discussion.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Around the Web, Art, Photography, Travel

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the United Nations have declared 2011 the International Year of Chemistry.  An entire year’s worth of programming across the globe will “celebrate the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind.”  National chemistry societies, universities, and corporations are recognizing the Year of Chemistry by hosting a variety of events that highlight the role of chemistry in our everyday lives.  The IMA, although regularly considered an arts-based institution, has recently added a state-of-the-art chemical research and analysis laboratory to its conservation department.  In recognition of the new role of science at the IMA, I accepted an invitation from the Turkish Chemical Society to conduct a weeklong speaking tour of research universities in Istanbul, promoting the role of chemistry in the understanding and preservation of cultural patrimony.

View from Galata Tower across the “Golden Horn” toward the Old City of Istanbul.

While in Istanbul, I presented three hour long seminars on various aspects of conservation science, including research on artwork authentication, the use of lasers in the study and treatment of degraded artists’ pigments, and the theory and technology of near-infrared imaging of artwork.  In addition to lecturing, I was also able to tour the myriad of Turkish cultural landmarks in Istanbul such as the Topkapi Palace, Galata Tower, Haiga Sofia, and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (photo below).

As a cultural crossroads for centuries, Istanbul is the home of many world treasures.  I was fortunate to get several “behind the scenes” tours of some of Istanbul’s top academic and government laboratories dedicated to the preservation and study of these objects.  Tours and consultations included the newly outfitted instrumental analysis labs at the Süleymaniye Library and the Directorate of Conservation Restoration Implementation and Supervision on Historic Heritage (KUDEB).  I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues in Turkey as they host the upcoming 2^nd International Congress on Chemistry for Cultural Heritage.

Filed under: Conservation, IMA Staff, Travel