On Thursday of last week, my classmates and I from IUPUI’s Fall 2010 Collections Care and Management course, along with our instructor Richard, were honored by both the Indiana Senate and House of Representatives for the work we did in documenting the Indiana State House Public Art Collection.  Senator Jim Merritt and Representative Tom Saunders sponsored Concurrent Resolutions to recognize our work.

Representative Saunders presents the House Concurrent Resolution to instructor Richard McCoy and students of the IUPUI Museums Studies Program. Photo courtesy of Tad Fruits.

Senator Merritt presents the Senate Concurrent Resolution to instructor Richard McCoy and students of the IUPUI Museums Studies Program. Photo courtesy of Tad Fruits.

While we were in the House of Representatives to receive our Resolution, Representative Saunders said something that struck me.  He said, “I’ve walked past some of these statues for fourteen years, and I never knew the full story about why they were here.”

I think a lot of us have had a similar experience, and that idea got me thinking. How is it possible to walk by something every day and never really see it? Why are we content to know that something does exist, but not why it exists? Is there any way to stop ourselves from becoming so comfortable with our surroundings that we hardly notice them anymore?

The author standing in front of one the sculptures she researched, Colonel Richard Owen. Photo courtesy of Tad Fruits.

A lot of public art falls into the sad category of things we know are there but forget to notice.  This is one of the reasons why Heritage Preservation embarked in 1989 on the ambitious Save Outdoor Sculpture! program to get volunteers involved in documenting public art in their communities. The hope was that documentation would be the first step in caring for the art in our public sphere.  It was in that same spirit that the WikiProject Public Art was created by Jenny Mikulay and Richard McCoy for the Fall 2009 Collections Care and Management course. To pilot the project, the class documented all of the public art on the IUPUI campus. (A student of theirs wrote about her experience here.)

This past fall, my classmates and I participated in the second incarnation of this project. We researched 42 sculptures in and around the State House. When we started our work, the good folks at the State House Tour Office had almost no information on many of the sculptures.  Some of the artworks had been outside anyone’s notice for so long that nobody knew their real names.

Indiana Celebration. Photo courtesy of Tad Fruits.

That’s not the case anymore. One of the class’s best successes was from Alex Carrier, who discovered that the statue long known as Ceres is actually called Indiana (pictured above) and was featured at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of complacency with our surroundings, and it’s something we’re all guilty of. But the thing about public art is that it’s usually there because it represents something about us. It tells the story of a community. Think about it. For me, when I travel to a new city, the first thing I want to do is get acquainted with it. I wander, trying to get a feel for the place. More often than not, the art in a city tells me everything I need to know. Knowing whether its statues of past political leaders, informal folk art, religious icons, or avant-garde murals gives me a sense of a place’s culture. It helps me understand why it is the way it is. After all, those people put it there for a reason, so it must say something about them.

What does the art at the State House say about us? Why do we have a statue of Oliver P. Morton guarding the building’s doors? Why is there a bust of Colonel Richard Owen, who oversaw a Civil War prison camp, flanking the rotunda? Why is there a sculpture of a giant metal tulip tree leaf across the street?  Knowing the answers to these questions might just help us have a better understanding of ourselves and the community we live in.

Being recognized by the Indiana Senate and House of Representatives was a tremendous honor that my classmates and I won’t soon forget. We hope that the work we did will provide a starting point for further research and documentation of the art collection at the State House. We encourage anyone to view the results of our project (or, better yet, add to them!) right here and use the resources we created to discover more about the art, its subjects, and the artists who created it.

The truly dedicated IMA blog reader will know that Richard has been interested in putting information about art in Wikipedia for some time, and will also remember that the IMA has been interested in doing the same: from participating in the project Wikipedia Loves Art, to Max having lunch with local Wikipedians, to a number of folks from the IMA participating in the Wikimedia-sponsored event at Museums and the Web this year.

So, as a way to maximize collaborations, and kick off the final project for Richard’s Collections Care and Management course, we’ve arranged to have two rock stars of the Wikipedia world come lecture at the IMA next Tuesday night at 6pm.  The lectures will be free and open to the public.

Liam Wyatt, of Sydney, Australia, and Adrianne Wadewitz, of Bloomington, Indiana will discuss the importance of collaboration between Wikipedia and museums, libraries, and universities.

Here’s a little background on our IUPUI project: Last year Richard co-taught my Collections Care and Management course with Jenny Mikulay as we pioneered an effort to document the public art on the campus of IUPUI.  From that class we developed Wikipedia Saves Public Art (WSPA); you can read Richard and Jenny’s blog for more information.  The project has received a lot of positive attention, from within the Wikimedia Foundation and in academia. We’re most proud of this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Scholars Use Wikipedia to Save Public Art From the Dustbins of History.

This year our Collections Care and Management course is working with the resources developed though WSPA to document, research, and publish information about the public artworks in and around the Indiana Statehouse.

While this lecture will serve as the kick off for our project, it is also being developed in collaboration with Andrea Copeland, a professor in the IU School of Library and Information Science.  Andrea’s Public Library Management course has been writing two articles in Wikipedia as part of their class:
•    Public Library Advocacy
•    History of Public Library Advocacy

We are excited to bring together two speakers who have made a name for themselves by advocating for a stronger relationship between Wikipedia and the cultural sector:

Liam has worked closely with the Wikimedia Foundation to promote Wikipedia collaborations with Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums (GLAMs). Recently, he’s been traveling the globe to help museums and libraries collaborate effectively with Wikipedia, most notably as the first ever Wikipedian-in-Residence at the British Museum, a project that was highlighted by a recent article in the New York Times.

Adrianne is a Wikipedia Campus Ambassador at Indiana University, Bloomington who is currently writing her dissertation on 18th-century children’s literature. She holds the distinction of contributing to over 30 Featured Articles, making her an authority on creating high quality Wikipedia articles. For years, Adrianne has used Wikipedia in her teaching and is an advocate for its use in academia.

Please note that following Liam and Adrianne’s talks there will be a workshop for using Wikipedia. Space is very limited! If you’re currently working in Wikipedia or interested in participating in the workshop, please email Lori Phillips at lorphill@iupui.edu.

Wikipedia & the Cultural Sector
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
6:00–8:45 pm
DeBoest Lecture Hall

6–7:30 pm Lectures
7:45–8:45 pm Workshop

Historic photograph of Sewall Memorial Torches

“Hey, I have a new project for you guys,” Richard greeted us as we came into the conservation lab one morning. “The museum owns a pair of bronze lampposts that have just been loaned to Herron High School and installed at their original location at 16^th and Deleware. The school is really excited to have them back. Since they are IMA property, we are responsible for taking care of them. That’ll be our job, so start researching bronze. Chop, chop!”

Thus began our first adventure into the world of outdoor bronze treatment and our blossoming knowledge of the subject. Our research fell into two categories: the history of the Sewall torches themselves, and the characteristics and treatment of outdoor bronze sculpture.

Bronze is one of the oldest and most important materials in human history. Its strength, beauty and other characteristics make it well suited to industrial, military, and artistic uses, giving it such prominence in the archaeological record that it lends its name to an entire stage of human technological and social development (the Bronze Age!) .  Check out the bottom of this post for more information about bronze!

The Sewall Memorial Torches are intimately tied to the history of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the arts movement in Indianapolis at the turn of the 20^th century. As the savvy blog reader will remember, May Wright Sewall was the founder of the Art Association of Indianapolis. Shortly after her death in 1920 the Association honored her contributions to society by erecting these torches outside what was then the Herron Art Institute, the city’s first art museum and art school (the school is now located on the campus of IUPUI).

When the museum component moved to the present location in 1970 and became the IMA, the torches came with.  They remained in storage (indoors and out) until this year, when they were returned to their original location.

Armed with this knowledge, the three of us boldly set out for Herron High. There we began our first official documentation project of the summer.

Conservation is full of documentation, and we had to learn how to do it the right way. Materials needed: camera, tape measure, pencil, and paper (and a good eye). We examined the torches, their installation, stability, and overall appearance, and then wrote a condition report complete with a thorough description and pictures of their pre-treatment state.

Conservation Treatment Report

The first thing confirmed was that the torches are structurally stable—the installation was excellent; new mounts were bolted into the limestone, not directly attached to the torches but merely holding them in place underneath. All evidence of the torches’ original patina bronze is now lost from decades of exposure to the natural elements.

Exposed surfaces showed the bright green of verdigris, and the sheltered areas were a crusty black. This splotchy appearance made the overall shape of the lampposts and the designs within the intricate bronze-work difficult to fully appreciate.

Sewall Memorial Torch before treatment

We decided that the best treatment short of a complete restoration of the patina would have two stages: 1) cleaning off the lose corrosion on the surface, and 2) coating the entire surface with a thin layer of wax, which would unify the appearance of the bronze by saturating the light green corrosion layer.  The wax would also protect the bronze from further weathering and graffiti.

Once we developed a satisfactory treatment plan, we gathered our materials. First, the white van, a monstrosity big enough to haul around the three of us and all of our necessary items, including:

1. Ladders—these torches are tall, standing 10.5 feet on their own, and mounted on limestone bases about 3 feet tall.
2. Power washer.
3. Propane tanks, torches, and lighters.
4. Brushes.
5. Wax.
6. Traffic cones.
7. Various tools.
8. Sunscreen!

Upon arriving at the scene of the assignment, we drove directly onto the sidewalk and scattered the contents of the van around to broadcast our official purpose.  A group of Herron summer school students stared on curiously while eating their lunch as we began taking turns blasting the torches with gallon upon gallon of high pressure water.

Katherine Langdon power washing

It was a hot day, but we didn’t feel it. Within five minutes we were soaked from head to toe from the water ricocheting off the bronze. This went on for hours. Even half-blinded by the force of the water in our faces, we could see patches of darker bronze emerging from beneath the verdigris. Finally the first torch was clean, revealing a much healthier surface.

Jessica Ford power washing

Richard meanwhile attended to many important cell phone calls and internet searches on his iPhone, which never seems to leave his side.

After the water we progressed to fire.

Hot wax treatments are ideal for outdoor sculptures because the wax used has a very high melting point and hardens into a rigid coat that lasts fairly well through the effects of the changing seasons. Richard formulated the wax compound we used on the torches earlier in the year.  The microcrystalline blend consists of 80% Microwax W-445, 17% Bareco 2000, and 3% Cosmolloid 80 H.

Application of hot wax requires the bronze to be heated with a propane blow torch, which makes the wax fluid upon contact and allows for a smooth and even coating.

Katherine and Jessica hot waxing

Swapping tasks between heating the bronze and spreading the wax, we began the arduous process of coating the lampposts. The wax had the immediately satisfying effect of unifying the color of the surface into a rich, dark greenish-brown. We vertically challenged interns took responsibility for the intricate crevices and detail-work on the lower portion of the torches, and Richard used his height advantage to coat the upper reaches.

Katherine showing the torch waxed half way

In detailed areas we also used Trewax, a commercially available paste wax (applied cold) made mostly of carnauba wax.

Richard applying Trewax

And so it was that after days of work, a little bit of sunburn, and a lot of learning that we brought the Sewall Memorial Torches to their more dignified current state. Their appearance now more closely reflects the originally intended aesthetic, allowing visitors and passersby to enjoy their design.

As we packed up to go, one of the first passersby to see our finished work was an elderly man taking a stroll with the aid of a cane. He stopped to admire the torches and then addressed us with an excited smile. “I’m so glad these lampposts are back. You know, I used to be a student here when it was still the Art Institute, and I was sad to see them go. I always loved these lampposts. I’m so happy they’re back!”

Whoa. That was the moment we realized that we’d done more than just re-wax some old bronze. We had helped return a fondly remembered piece of history to the Old Northside. As the former posh stomping grounds of a U.S. President and the blighted scene of countless crimes and drug deals, the neighborhood has seen multiple transformations since the torches were first installed, some for better, some for worse.  Another recent addition to the neighborhood is Indiana Landmarks, whose new headquarters is in the former Central Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, which is currently under major restoration.

The lampposts recall the most valuable contributions of the neighborhood during one of its most successful moments; back in their place of prominence, they are now symbols of the restoration of the community.

Sewall Memorial Torches after treatment

After we packed all of our supplies back into the van, we drove straight to Dairy Queen for a much-needed reward. We decided to enjoy our treats while taking the scenic route back to the IMA through the neighboring Crown Hill Cemetery.  Richard pointed out the many different bronze, limestone, and marble monuments that quietly reveal the development of Indianapolis. One of these is the elegantly heartbreaking homage to Albertina Allen Forrest created at the turn of the 20^th century. It features a bronze figure of a young woman in mourning made by Rudolph Schwartz, the same artist who sculpted the roundels on the front façade of Herron High School (next time you’re there, look up).

These objects, their relationship to their time, and their role in the progression of our city are history lessons worth preserving. Now we are equipped to assist in these efforts.

Finally, for those of you who like factoids, here are a few interesting ones we learned about bronze during our research:

• Bronze is an alloy usually containing 88% copper, 12% tin.
• It is used in sculptures for these reasons:
  • it is a hard but relatively non-brittle metal alloy;
  • it protects itself from damage to a certain extent by forming a surface layer of corrosion that seals and protects the rest of the bronze — this is called the patina;
  • it sets in detailed molds particularly well.
  • The final surface appearance of bronze is up to the maker, who controls the patina via various complicated chemical processes. For example, the surface can be patinated to appear black, brown, dark gold, green and many other colors. It can even be patterned.
  • The earliest surviving bronze artifacts date to the late 4^th millennium BC.
  • When bronze corrodes outdoors, the most frequent results are:
    • verdigris, the sea-foam colored powdery corrosion often seen on copper roofs, fountains, and other untreated copper-based alloy pieces. (Verdigris is also frequently used as a decorative patina.)
    • black corrosion (copper-sulfur compounds) that builds up as a result of air pollution and gathers on parts of the bronze that are sheltered from rainfall.

Artworks that are displayed outdoors face different risks than those that are kept inside. The pigeon, for example, is a dangerous bird to bronze sculptures; the acids in guano can actually corrode a bronze patina in a fairly short time. Another risk public artworks face is that we simply stop caring. When we stop noticing the artworks that surround us, their significance and cultural context is lost.

(via Flickr user travelbex)

Enter Wikipedia Saves Public Art (WSPA) which we created as part of our Fall IUPUI Museum Studies class (you might remember our student, Elizabeth Basile, blogged about her personal experience with the project back in December). The logic of this project is to put information about public artworks into Wikipedia so that people won’t forget or stop caring about them. Yes, there’s a lot of guano in Wikipedia, but with its millions of viewers a day and openness to participation, it’s a vital resource for the cultural sector.

Before we started WSPA, there were only a handful of articles in Wikipedia about public art in Indianapolis—not so good for a city that brags about having more monuments than any city other than Washington, DC. Through our efforts, there are now 57 articles (and more each week) about local public artworks on Wikipedia. Since we started WSPA, our articles have been viewed more than 66,000 times. Now we are thinking big about how WSPA can truly become a global project and how to get more people to make articles about public art in their own town.

Recently, we’ve had a lot of help from Lori Byrd Phillips (an IUPUI Museum Studies graduate student) and Sarah Stierch (a soon-to-be George Washington University Graduate student, who runs her own blog, Sarah – Your Favorite Museum Intern. Together, we’ve begun developing “The Process” to help Wikipedians and public art advocates translate information contained in public databases into Wikipedia articles. For example, did you know that volunteers working through Heritage Preservation’s Save Outdoor Sculpture! surveyed Indianapolis in 1992-1994 and found 205 sculptures? Information about all of them is available online through the Smithsonian’s public database.

Thanks to Magnus for making the application that allowed us to make this chart

But a lot has happened in Indy’s world of public art since the early 1990s. That’s why actually going out and visiting the artworks is important—to verify the information contained in the Smithsonian’s database, to make note of any changes, and to use the tools of 2010 to research and share information about those changes. In addition to finding artworks surveyed by the SOS! folks, you can research new artworks that have been installed across the city. We’re grateful to have our laptops, cell phones, and Web-based tools that have allowed us to create these cool things:

Here’s the Flickr map that we are using to plot the location of the more than 500 images we’ve taken of public art in Indianapolis. By mapping them in Flickr we also resolve their GPS coordinates.

Here’s the Google map that we’re using to plot the original 205 SOS! entries from the Smithsonian database. While the Flickr map is a lot easier to use, we are also experimenting with Google Maps because its satellite maps are so much better.

And here are two Gowalla trips we’ve made for Indianapolis:

IUPUI Public Art Collection Highlights Tour.

Top 10 Public Artworks in Indianapolis.

Gowalla is an iPhone-based app that has a lot of potential for helping to geo-locate and photo document public artworks. Look, for example, at the number of people that have checked in and taken a photograph at the Texas Rangers Monument in Austin.

These tools have helped us locate, document, and share information about hundreds of public artworks in just a few weeks. With this information we will continue making Wikipedia articles about public art in Indianapolis. As mobile technology spreads (particularly GPS-based technologies), opportunities to care for public art will also grow.

Wikipedia Saves Public Art. Logo designed in 2009 by Michael Mikulay.

With all of this in mind, we’re excited about travelling to Denver next Tuesday to participate in the one-day workshop, Wikimedia@MW2010. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to discuss how WSPA is an effective tool for documenting collections of public art that are not well known beyond their distinct local context. Also in Denver, we’ll be joining Rob Stein to listen to Max Anderson and Samuel J. Klein (Wikimedia Board of Directors) give the keynote presentations and then work through important issues and ideas raised by other participants. Our experiences with WSPA have given us a few ideas for the cultural sector that we’d like to share in advance of Wikimedia@MW2010:

* In the spirit of the Encyclopédie and in particular the Descriptions des Arts et Métiers, Wikipedia can become the central hub of information about the materials, tools, and techniques artists have used and are currently using in their practices. Likewise, Wikipedia can become the central hub of information for the materials, tools, and techniques art conservators use in their work. An ideal article about a public artwork would include a material and technical description that was linked to corresponding and accurate information within Wikipedia.

* Public art today is often made using “current technology,” which presents an entire new set of issues. For example, Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain in Chicago is comprised of thousands of LEDs. Many technologies used in art quickly become outdated or difficult to update after a few short years. What if we could develop a similar “Conservation Status” for technologies like what exists for endangered animal species like the Bengal Tiger?

* Cultural institutions and public repositories should be encouraged to share their out-of-copyright images of art and put them in Wikimedia Commons.

* Finally, wouldn’t it be cool if the article about Art21 and all of its seasons was as thoroughly detailed and researched as iCarly’s?

What WSPA really needs, though, is for more people to make articles about public art in Wikipedia. Why not try it? If you need some inspiration, check out the “Template”, “Showcase,”, and “Open tasks”. And be sure to use the “talk pages” to leave feedback, questions, or ideas so we can all work together to make the project better.

Everything we know about Wikipedia and the other digital tools discussed above, we’ve learned by using our computers to experiment and engage in dialogue with more experienced contributors. (Wikipedia even gives “newbies” a sandbox to play in!) If you care about cultural heritage, you’ll find many kindred spirits in Wikipedia. That’s why we’d like to see you on Wikipedia, where we can work together and maybe even enjoy some Wiki Love. In an effort to bring some of the energy from Wikimedia@MW2010 directly back to Indianapolis, we’ve invited Liam Wyatt (Vice President, Wikimedia Australia) to give a public lecture at the Herron School of Art and Design on April 19 at 1:30 p.m. in the Basile Auditorium.

Zephyr by Steve Wooldridge; Photo by Lauren Tally

What changed my mind about creating content for the Web? This fall, I enrolled in two courses devoted to contemporary museum practice: Collections Care and Management (CC&M), co‐taught by IMA Objects & Variable Art Conservator Richard McCoy and IUPUI faculty member Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, and Museums and Technology, taught by IMA New Media Director Daniel Incandela. My first assignment for both classes was to create user accounts for Wikipedia, Twitter and Flickr, and then start using them.

In CC&M, our major project was to formalize the artworks on and around IUPUI’s campus into a real collection. In the end, we identified 40 pieces that we dubbed the “IUPUI Public Art Collection.”  Didn’t know that much art existed on IUPUI’s campus? Take a walk around sometime to see an incredibly diverse representation of styles, media and condition qualities.   You’ll also find four sculptures on loan from the IMA: East Gate/West Gate, Mega-Gem, Portrait of History, and Spaces with Iron.  You might remember when East Gate/West Gate was moved to IUPUI early this year:

Our methodology for identifying and documenting these artworks was derived from the very successful Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) project that started in 1989 and was organized by Heritage Preservation: The National Institute of Conservation in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. A book published in 2005 by Indiana’s SOS! leader, Glory-June Greiff, was also an inspiration.

We set out to share our research and documentation using Wikipedia and Flickr. With that move, our academic project became a movement that we call Wikipedia Saves Public Art (WSPA). The primary goal of this project is to protect and preserve public art.

Conducted largely in the Internet cloud, WSPA has earned the attention of many other museum professionals and some very particular Wikipedians. By contextualizing our academic exercise in the Wikipedia universe and utilizing existing social networks, our project has rippled out through IUPUI and into the larger debate about how public art is cared for and managed. Our scholarly research efforts will become an active part of institutional memory rather than just being papers graded and forgotten. By publicly conducting our research and publishing our articles in Wikipedia, we opened our academic exercise up to intense scrutiny by our peers and Wikipedians committed to protecting its policies and procedures.

With such a large public undertaking, we were grateful to have help. Herron School of Art and Design Dean Valerie Eickmeier,  Art Strategies consultant Mindy Taylor Ross and Smithsonian American Art Museum Head of New Media Nancy Proctor visited our class and helped place our efforts in a larger campus, city, and national context. We also had help from IUPUI University Archivist Brenda Burk, Indiana University Curator of Campus Art Sherry Rouse, and the staff at IUPUI’s Campus Center and Herron Galleries.

So many people were willing to work with us because Wikipedia Saves Public Art isn’t just a one-time class project. It has larger goals. We seek to demonstrate the ways in which Wikipedia can be used as a content management system (CMS) so that anyone in the world can follow the WSPA model to care for and protect public art.

Like every other CMS available commercially, the needs of our project did not exactly match the capacities of current technology. Wikipedia is a complex structure with hard rules banning original research and copyright infringement, and it is also a forum premised on negotiation and debate. Student run‐ins with Wikipedia editors intent on enforcing the laws of the system ran from polite reminders to harsh {{speedydeletion}} of hours of work. Condition reports and images intended to provide a factual record of the current state of the collection were deemed out-of-bounds within Wikipedia. However, we were able to upload and tag images of IUPUI artworks using Flickr, and these images are linked to our Wikipedia articles.

Also, I’m proud to report that three of our articles made it on to the Main Page of Wikipedia, under the “Did you know section …” (Zephyr, Untitled (Jazz Musicians), and Peirce Geodetic Monument.)

Now that I’m on the other side of having to create and manage 40‐plus Wikipedia articles, 375 images on Flickr, 1 Facebook page and countless Twitter micro‐blogs specific to this project, I am invested in the longevity of the WSPA project and will continue to participate and follow the work of my peers.

A memorable moment of the project was when a WSPA article about a contemporary artwork in the form of a bucket of rocks suspended from a tree near the Herron School of Art and Design spurred the classic question “Is it art?”.  My professors and peers engaged in the debate across social network platforms including Wikipedia talk pages and Twitter.

Even though many of our articles went through dramatic revisions, the great majority of the critical information that we collected in our research (who made the art, where it is located, what it is made of and who is responsible for its care) did make it onto the most recognized encyclopedia in the online universe. At last check, even our previously deleted article came back to life (just try Googling “IUPUI Bucket of Rocks”). Now that makes me chuckle, and then I send links to my followers and friends to make them chuckle.
Finally, we’d like to make a call for help.  After much research, one of the artworks on campus still lacks fundamental information and verifiable sources.  Do you or does someone you know anything about Carey Chapmen’s artwork  on IUPUI’s campus?  Please let me know here on this blog, or go and fix it yourself within Wikipedia.  For now, it’s titled “Unknown (Tall Metal)“.

Unknown (Tall Metal) by Carey Chapman Photo by Chrissy Gregg

MSTD A414 / A514: Museums and Technology (3 cr.) This course surveys the growing use of technology in museums. It examines applications for information management in collections, conservation science, and archives. It examines critically the use of technology in the service of education both in exhibit contexts and in the variety of educational programs and web-based dissemination of knowledge.

(I would normally put an image here, but I don’t have a good one.  Instead I’m going to plug our latest video, a trailer for our next major exhibition Sacred Spain: Art & Belief in the Spanish World).

Back to the real point of this post.

I’m working on the syllabus as we speak.  For some time, I’ve been mulling over the basic shell of the class and now is the time for action.  I’ve had plenty of ideas revolving around case studies, online publications, blogs, videos, and much much more.  But mostly, I’ve been struggling finding an acceptable balance between theory and execution.  I have respect for both sides, but I would definitely characterize myself as an implementer.  In plenty of blog posts I’ve mentioned launching or publishing incomplete projects (or rather, works in progress) and tried to communicate that mistakes happen, and it will be okay.  So I think one of my challenges will be finding the right balance between the two and communicating that effectively.

Without giving too much away, I do want to share some of the approaches I will be using in this class -

• Readings – online articles, publications, blog posts, tweets, you name it…
• Digital Case Studies – Online exhibitions, Web sites, blogs, Flickr, Twitter, videos, and more
• Usability Analysis – How well do some museum produced digital projects work?
• Live manifestation of class work (whatever that means) – something along the lines of what Nina Simon did for her Social Technology class.
• Guest appearances – Kind of like Arrested Development, but featuring experts from the field of Museums and Technology and content specialists from the IMA
• A Real Project – Students will create digital content proposals for a major upcoming IMA initiative.  If selected, students will get to work directly on that project, publish it and receive full credit for their concept.
• Internship! – That’s right, one lucky student gets to intern at IMA’s Nugget Factory (New Media).  Kind of like a reality show.

So, I’ve really not given anything away.  But if you think there is one site, article, video or project out there I MUST cover, please let me know. And, Museum Studies students, museum colleagues, blog readers, tweeters, and more – anything you’d like to add?

If you were out Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis and happened to see a sculpture flying mid-air across town, don’t worry — you weren’t imagining things.

The sculpture, East Gate/West Gate by Sasson Soffer took flight at around 6 pm and safely landed about ten minutes later. The work is one of four outdoor sculptures the IMA has loaned to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis — otherwise known as IUPUI. Three of the sculptures were relocated earlier in the year, but East Gate/West Gate was too big to transfer via truck. Measuring 24 x 40 x 30 feet, the sculpture could only be moved via helicopter.

The IMA mapped a route along the White River that allowed for the fewest traffic interruptions, and the sculpture made a smooth landing with a welcoming crowd on IUPUI’s campus to greet it.

I bet you wish we had video of that, huh? Well, here it is, straight from the Nugget Factory:

The four IMA sculptures will join newly commissioned works of public art to be located along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The trail will connect neighborhoods, entertainment amenities and Indianapolis’s five downtown cultural districts. The western corridor of the trail, to be completed in 2011, will pass through the campus of IUPUI along Blackford Street and will run adjacent to two of the four sculptures from the IMA collection.

Sculptures on loan to IUPUI include:

East Gate/West Gate, 1973
Sasson Soffer (American, b. 1925)
stainless steel
24 x 40 x 30 ft.
82.56

Spaces with Iron, 1972
Will Horwitt (American, 1934 -1985)
cast iron and bronze
54 x 84 x 68 3/4 in.
81.220

Mega-Gem, 1989
John Francis Torreano (American, b. 1941)
heliarch welded aluminum plate, 36 cast aluminum anodized rosettes
7’2″ x 11′ x 7’2″
1997.6

Portrait of History, 1997
Shan Zou Zhou (Chinese, b. 1952)
Bronze
100 x 24 x 30 in.
2001.388

I searched the web for other interesting stories of relocating large pieces, but had a hard time finding anything. If you know of any, please comment about them. And if you have video or imagery — even better!!

Phil’s Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

Groundhog.org – Bah! Six more weeks of winter. Like the “Saw” series of movies, I would like to see a “Groundhog Day” movie every year.

Digital Collections of IUPUI – A person could really “geek out” over some of this stuff. For example, some of us are interested in the architecture down in Columbus, IN. Show me all the blueprints. For those of you looking for a little more content after seeing  our Wishard Murals exhibition, check out this scrapbook. For our horticultural/bird watching readers, check out this publication. Thanks to all those involved in this project and keep up the good work. I could look at this stuff for hours.

Gigapan.org – Wow! Gigapan uses Flash to let users really take a closer look at images in the gigapixel range. This one, of Barack’s innauguration, is particularly interesting. Do you see anyone sleeping?

Drawminos.com – Take a break and pretend you’re learning about physics. Who had Domino Rally?

WIN TICKETS!

We are giving away tickets to “European Design since 1985: Shaping the New Century,” the new show about contemporary design opening at the IMA on March 8th, 2009.

Every Monday, until the opening of “European Design Since 1985,” we will post a picture from the exhibition website gallery as our profile picture on Facebook. Your job, once you become our Facebook fan, is to post funny captions or titles about the image on our wall. The following Monday, the fan with the best captions or titles will receive 2 free tickets to the exhibition.

Contest image for this week

Check out the online gallery for “European Design since 1985″ to get ready for the image coming next week.

Game on!

Rules:
Players can win only once. Captions and titles should be “safe for work.” We reserve the right to pick more than one winner if the captions are too awesome.

I got my bachelors from Pratt in Fashion Design, but I always knew I wanted to be more involved with the arts community as a whole and I’ve never had the cut throat mentality to be successful in that world. So, I moved back from Brooklyn (I miss it and yet, and I REALLY don’t!) I just started in the Graduate Museum Studies program at IUPUI and I have never been happier. I miss public transportation, but I love seeing real trees. So, course requirements led to my seeking out this internship. I went about getting it in a somewhat unorthodox way… and it goes to show what you can get just for asking.

I had a class with Dr. Modupe Labode called Museum Methods, and we came to the IMA to meet with Despi and Daniel and learn about all of the innovative and cool work they are doing in the IMA’s New Media Department. I was really impressed with their creativity. I think what they are doing here is sort of leading the way in something that will be commonplace in every museum and gallery in less than 10 years. So, I emailed Despi and asked if I could meet with her and possibly talk about an internship. I think they were shocked I was more than willing to work for free, but this is such an exploding area of museum work, I feel like my experience will be invaluable.

So, we worked out a schedule, Despi did some paperwork, and I started last week for the New Media Nuggets. I’m enjoying getting to know everyone, this place is pretty relaxed and you immediately get the sense that people enjoy being here. The Dans even took me with them to lunch today, with Zach, another intern who started today. He will be working more on the technical, production side of things with the Dans. I am going to be working on a mélange of projects that Despi conceives for me, including working on website content for upcoming shows, and some fun new developments for the blog. You will see more of that unfolding soon and I would appreciate lots of feedback so that we can know what you are thinking- so click on that little comment button!

In closing, just in case you’re wondering, I don’t mind if you call me Demily. As long as we all agree Zach is Daiquiri.

First check out Christina’s Wikipedia article on the Sutphin Fountain, which even has a link to a set of pictures of the fountain on Flickr.com. Nice work, Christina!

I asked her if she thought making a Wikipedia article was hard to do and she said that once she took a few minutes to figure out how to use the software that Wikipedia employs that it was “pretty easy and kind of fun.”

Christina is finishing up her bachelor’s degree in the Museum Studies program at IUPUI, and thought that it would be a good networking opportunity to have lunch with the IMA’s director (yeah, I agree, plus the food at Pucks isn’t too shabby either).

While I was thrilled to meet Christina and see her work, I’m a little bummed that she’s the only one that’s made an article so far. I thought for sure other folks would jump at the chance to have lunch with our director. Really, I kind of thought I would be over-run with undergrad & grad students interested in museum careers from nearby universities. I thought we’d already have something like the Wikipedia article: List of Sculptures in Central Park. But, then again, I’m an optimist.

I’m not saying I’m this kind of depressed, that I’m down here in a “glass cage of emotion,” but I’m beginning to wonder if Christina and I are the only ones around here that think this is a good idea. Here’s my way of finding out: the offer is only good until April 30^th, 2008. After that, I’ll move along.

But, listen, imagine for a second if the majority of artworks in the world had Wikipedia articles; it could be like a catalogue raisonné for everything, even new artworks as they are being made. I know Wikipedia isn’t perfect, but I think Jimmy Wales’ concept of an encyclopedia being “radical” is pretty much right on.

I admit, though, my hopes might be a bit far-fetched but that’s because I’m a believer. And this is where TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) comes in; I’ve been watching all sorts of videos over there, and have begun to buy into the whole “True Global Social Organization” notion.

I won’t go on about this for long, but if you’re interested watch the Howard Rheingold video and see him go from mastodons up to super computers “leaping off the desktops” and beyond. Or, better yet, watch Robert Wright tell How Cooperation Eventually Trumps Conflict. My point is that collaboration on a global scale is happening and it might just change the world. So, we play this back to the IMA: your making an article for Wikipedia not only will get you free lunch with our director, it might just help save the world. Okay, now that’s far fetched ….