The Indianapolis Museum of Art is filled with amazing pieces of work. I know that because I’ve been here, a lot. In fact, a lot of people who have never been to the IMA know it’s filled with amazing works. Our challenge isn’t convincing the public there is art here; it’s convincing people there is art relevant to them here.

Meg Liffick is the Assistant Director of Public Affairs here at the IMA. Meg and her team tightrope a difficult role between the curator and the museum-goer. The curator, as I understand it, is the head-of-household in the gallery and the coming/going/hopefully staying artwork is his or her children. It’s the curator’s job to know the artwork inside and out. It’s Meg’s and her teammates’ job to translate that expertise to a viewer who doesn’t know anything about the artwork or any artwork for that matter.

So how do they do it? How can someone be motivated to come to an art museum? Well, they have a few tricks up their sleeve.  Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial is our most recent exhibition/huge marketing undertaking. Dial is an extremely bold artist. You won’t find political, social or historical commentary listed as any of the many materials Dial employs in his art, but they’re there. Because Dial’s work embodies such strong emotions, it’s the very kind of art some people are afraid of. It can make you uncomfortable—not because it’s vulgar or offensive–but because you might not know how to feel at first. We’re used to the art of the snap judgment, not the art of the deeply expressive Alabama welder.

Thornton Dial. Photograph by David Raccuglia.

All of our marketing materials (brochures, posters, radio spots, etc.) are designed here. “We do everything in-house. Everything.  That’s what’s special about the IMA—we all collaborate, no one does anything alone.” says Meg.

The marketing around the city for Hard Truths pushes the story or experience of the exhibition and Dial, himself. Meg explains, “Once they’re on-site we allow people to form their own perspective, but we need to give people a reason to come initially.  We wanted to communicate that these works were largely 3-D.”

"Stars of Everything," 2004, 98 × 101. 1/2 × 20. 1/2 in., Collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation.

The people involved with the IMA’s marketing have to create a way to honor and advertise the art, however, most -  if not all of them – don’t have formal art history training. Meg explains, “We don’t have art backgrounds, but we can communicate passion.” This exhibit is a completely different experience; one that not everyone would jump at initially. But it’s still relevant. It’s important to have some surprises in life, to (as our radio spots encourage) “Be amazed.” “Be inspired.”  I think Meg says it best, “Museums are here to fulfill the need that you have of finding spirituality, creativity and inspiration.”

Filed under: Art, Exhibitions, IMA Staff, Marketing, Thornton Dial

Last year, Madeleine Albright came to speak at my university. I did not go see her. Her book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewelry Box, was on sale in our campus bookstore. I didn’t pick it up. Her collection was on display at the IMA. I wasn’t interested. My boss made me go see it anyway.

I am neither knowledgeable nor affectionate toward brooches or foreign policy. This exhibition didn’t seem the one for me. When I flounced upstairs under my boss’s command I was more excited about flashing my new museum badge at the door than I was about swimming through Albright’s vast pin collection.  However, once I sat inside the exhibition to watch its looping video, Katie Couric started and concluded her interview of Albright three times before I felt good about moving on. She had me at hello.

The brooches seemed ridiculous at first, but became more and more intriguing as I made my way through, jotting down quotes, points of interest and trying to look particularly intern-y. Basically, the whole thing started when an Iraqi poem was published calling Albright an “unparalleled serpent.” Albright already owned a snake pin so she thought, “When we deal with Iraq, I’m going to wear the snake pin.” Once that gained attention Albright went out and bought more: butterflies, flowers and balloons for the good days; spiders, bugs and bees for the bad. Famously, President George H. W. Bush had just asked America to “read my lips” so Albright started telling people to “read my pins” when they asked what she was up to that day.

Serpent, designer unknown, circa 1860.

It was Albright’s ability to connect that won me over. She’s funny, tactful and bold. When negotiating with Russia over the anti-ballistic missiles treaty, Igor Ivanov looked at Albright’s arrow-like pin for the day and inquired, “Is that one of your interceptor missiles?” She replied. “Yes, and as you can see we can make them very small so you’d better be ready to negotiate.” In 1996 when two civilian planes were shot down by the Cuban Air force, she wore a bluebird pin with its head pointing down to honor the fallen pilots.

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Filed under: Exhibitions, Musings

There are many responsibilities as Chief Photographer at the IMA, but none more rewarding than the opportunity to document contemporary artists in the process of artistic creation, social interactions, and exhibition installation.

These moments of observation are significant in service to the mission of the museum, and can potentially provide a collateral glimpse into the inner workings of creative practice.

In the summer of 2009, I was fortunate to accompany Conservation Department colleagues, Richard McCoy and Kathleen Kiefer, on a visit to Georgia and Alabama. The purpose of my presence during the trip was primarily to create documentation related to the evaluation and condition assessment of Thornton Dial’s works prior to the Hard Truths exhibition.

We chose to drive down from Indiana, as I loathe flying with every fiber of my being, and it was an opportunity to immerse ourselves in all things Dial along the way…audio interviews, books for the non-driver, and music steeped in southern culture and history. Setting the proper tone and knowing your subject are so important for interviews and photography, and we spent our driving time together reflecting on one man’s life and how his art connects us all through his personal experiences and vision.

Our days in Atlanta, prior to the scheduled Alabama visit, were a great occasion to spend some quality time with Mr. Dial’s assemblages in person, and provided a precursory opportunity for us to experience the works of art that will inform the photography process.

The grueling temperature of the Georgian warehouse in July was a test of will, antiperspirant, and intellectual mettle, seemingly akin to a purification of the mind, body, soul, and spirit. The sweat lodge effect was less than ideal, but we clearly understood its role in the South and the appropriate lesson that was layered into our collective experience of Mr. Dial’s art.

The most provocative portion of our travel was the end of the week outing to Bessemer, Alabama to meet Mr. Dial…and the only opportunity we had to interview and photograph him at the Dial Metal Patterns facility.

There was no guarantee I would have the opportunity, but my hope was to photograph him in his studio for publishing and media projects related to the exhibition.

Accompanied by collector Bill Arnett, Kathleen, Richard and I made the three-hour drive with anticipatory glee, as this was the moment to apply our research toward meaningful exchange and content creation efforts.

Due to the heat, we spent fewer moments as a group in the main workspace of the open-air building, but I was able to capture images of Mr. Dial’s studio space, as well as details of his art supplies, studio floor, etc. – anything that speaks to the artistic process, the artist’s intent, and can inform a broader portrait of the artist himself.

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Filed under: Exhibitions, Photography, Road Trip, 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

To wrap up the year we thought we would highlight the many (web) faces of the IMA.  Below you will find our Top 10 list of websites that we have created in semi-chronological order.

Exhibition: Breaking the Mode

IMA Facebook Fan Page

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Filed under: Technology