Experience Is Everything

Audience at the Toby

Audience at The Toby

We have a lot to offer at the IMA: permanent galleries, Lilly House, 152 acres of gardens and grounds, exhibitions, public programs, web projects, and community outreach. After a while, it’s easy to take for granted all of the ways that the museum serves its mission. Every week I write ads, print pieces, Facebook updates, and blogs that focus on the opportunities for visitors at the IMA, but I often don’t take advantage of them myself.

Just 30 seconds from where I sit, I have an amazingly impressive collection of the world’s art, and I rarely take the time to see it. I’m not sure if it’s my hectic schedule or laziness, but it’s shameful to me how little time I spend in the galleries or at the IMA’s public programs. As a marketer, I spend my day encouraging others to experience the IMA, but I wouldn’t be doing my job well unless I do it myself. Therefore, I have recently decided to attend two public programs each month and spend at least 30 minutes in the galleries each week. It’s still not enough, but it’s a start. Read the rest of this entry »

This Saturday, I Dare You to Come

Last Sunday, The Toby overflowed with thirsty fans lapping up the sounds of edgy string quartet Osso and Bloomington-based songster DM Stith, with his sweet voice and dark ideas. They also couldn’t stop watching The BQE, the first film by musician Sufjan Stevens, who jammed the screen with a triptych of imagery in homage to a crazy traffic artery in New York called the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. I had to be the one to stand at the Toby doors and turn people away for this sold-out show – I hated doing so and was very bad at it.

2009_ev-os013

A full house (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

2009_ev-os068

Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

2009_ev-os159

DM Stith and Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Archives by Subject:

Blog Your Art Out

Blog Your Art Out T-Shirt

Recent IMA Flickr Photos

  • the one and why
  • near flower
  • three words
  • helmet
  • figure in a landscape
  • painting real flowers
 

 

Play Art Loud! ArtBabble.org