At the IMA, social media has become rather important. We use it to build relationships with you, our online audience, yes- but we also hope to encourage you to build relationships with each other and your community. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to tell the difference between my “personal” and “professional” social media interactions because the lines have blurred in so many ways just in the past couple of years. Yes, part of it has to do with passion for what I do, but even so- everything has become so intertwined, so to speak, when it comes to the ‘interwebs’.

This photo was snapped just this morning down in 100 Acres by Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Lisa Freiman and promptly tweeted by CEO Max Anderson:

Steel workers gather for a photo opp. on top of Free Basket by Los Carpinteros

Take for instance how social media has reshaped the world of journalism. “Citizen journalism” is the concept of members of the public “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information.” Examples of this can be seen through blogs, twitter, and camera phone images.

As a museum, we can employ this same idea. Staff, artists and visitors can capture events as they happen with their iPhone or a Flip Video. The following images were captured on artist duo Type A’s cell phones and then uploaded to Facebook:

The top ring of "Team Building (Align)" casts a shadow

Astronomer Brian Murphy of Butler U. and Andrew of Type A work out some calculations to place the second ring for "Team Building (Align)"

So, budding art journalists, here are some tips from caffienatedtraveller.com to get you started:

• Acknowledge the artwork and museum in the photo credits. It is time for bloggers to step up and put on a professional face.
• Post great images and not the family snap shots on your blog. Why discredit a good art exhibit.
• Flash photography? Don’t go there unless you have explicit permission from the museum. Not even when you think you’re alone.
• Leave the fanatical blogger psyche at the entry door. Spend some zen time in the moment, with the art and the space and then shoot.

In the meantime, I’ll be looking for your tweets, status updates and image uploads. And let’s continue to blur the lines together, shall we?

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Current Events, New Media, Technology

Practical shoes? (via boston.com)

This may have been our most treacherous episode of IMA TV yet. But we Nuggets strive to bring you the latest news from behind the scenes at the IMA, and gosh darn-it, we’ll get out hands (and high heels) dirty to do it.

Yesterday morning, we got the call with our assignment. So after donning hard hats, we trekked down to 100 Acres lead by intrepid project manager Dave Hunt. Adrenaline coursing through our veins, we entered the construction site for Los Carpinteros’ Free Basket. Surrounded by potentially threatening loud noises and up to our metatarsals in mud, we braved the elements to bring you this nice little IMA TV episode:

Los Carpinteros has developed a large-scale site-specific installation titled Free Basket for 100 Acres: The Virgina B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park that continues their interest in the juxtaposition of the practical and the imaginary. Free Basket draws on the form of the basketball court, turning it into an aesthetically surprising entity that also offers a site for the community to engage in recreational play.

A rendering of Free Basket

In developing their project, Los Carpinteros chose to draw on the rich history of sports in the city of Indianapolis. Their project seeks to bring together art, culture and sports, providing an interactive platform for the larger community that engages them in art. Free Basket will be Los Carpinteros’s first long-term public commission in the U.S. Click here for more info.

Los Carpinteros

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Current Events, IMA TV, Local, New Media

IMA TV chats with Sarah Green while installing Atelier van Lieshout’s Funky Bone Benches in the 100 Acres Art and Nature Park at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Joep van Lieshout, with his studio Atelier van Lieshout, will present a group of 20 benches with drawings of large bones that will together form the shape of an enormous, stylized human skeleton.

The work grows out of ideas about native heritage and cultural development, with bones iconically referring to artifacts and remains from previous occupants. The artist, who encountered visitors sitting on rocks and other natural perches on his visit to Indianapolis, wanted to create benches as sites for resting in 100 Acres.

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Current Events, IMA TV, Interviews, New Media

After a long journey to Indianapolis, Atelier Van Lieshout’s Funky Bones benches arrived last week and were unloaded on the grounds of 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

Last month, 22 benches were packed in a 40 foot ocean-going freight container at the artist’s studio in Rotterdam. After an Atlantic ocean crossing, U.S. customs clearance, and a few truck trips, the container arrived at the park.

IMA staff assembled on the morning of arrival ready to unload and unpack. We opened the container to find each bench thoughtfully packed and placed within the container. As is typical with artwork in transit, extra materials were used to pad and protect each piece. However, given the size of the work, these “extra materials” amounted to a huge pile of Styrofoam.

Feeling a little guilty about leaving the Styrofoam in a dumpster for trash pickup, I began to ask coworkers if they knew of any places in Indy where we could take the foam to be recycled. Sure enough, just up the road from the IMA, we found exactly what we were looking for. We threw the first of two loads into an IMA Horticulture dump truck and headed to our destination. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park

We took a walk around the Art and Nature Park Wednesday afternoon. There was some sun but it was surprisingly chilly. What a change from what it was several years ago before the Grounds Guys started doing all the removal of weedy shrubs and trees. Wildflowers like Anemonella were up in multiple places but the animals were far more attention-getting.

Saw several feathered and furred creatures on the river – a great blue heron (twice), mallard and bufflehead ducks, and three beavers. One beaver was quite unperturbed by my presence as I hung back to try to get some better shots. I started taking pictures when it was far out in the river. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture