Learn more on how you can Go for the Gold!

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!

The Big News

The IMA has been selected to represent the United States at the 2011 La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) and present the work of Puerto Rico-based artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. Often described as the Olympic games of the contemporary art world, more the 70 nations present the newest and best works from their respective countries every other year at the Venice Biennale. This year marks the 54th International Art Exhibition.

A Few More Details

U.S. Pavilion

The IMA will present the work of Allora & Calzadilla at the U.S. Pavilion in Venice, Italy from June 4 through November 27, 2011. The U.S. pavilion is presented by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, which supports and manages the official United States participation at selected international exhibitions. Lisa Freiman, Chair of the IMA’s Department of Contemporary Art, will serve as Commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion.

More to Come

More details about the Venice Biennale and Allora & Calzadilla’s work will be posted in the coming weeks and months.

Read All About It

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/arts/design/08arts-ARTTEAMREPRE_BRF.html?ref=todayspaper

Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/07/artist-pair-from-puerto-rico-to-represent-us-in-venice-biennial/

Indianapolis Star: http://www.indystar.com/article/20100908/LOCAL/9080348/IMA-picked-to-represent-U.S.-at-show-in-Venice

Artinfo: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35714/united-states-picks-allora-calzadilla-for-the-54th-venice-biennale/

ArtForum: http://artforum.com/archive/id=26356

The event is free, open to the public, and offered in conjunction with the IMA’s Educator Sneak Peek Program. To accommodate multiple audiences, the program will be divided into two sections (feel free to come to one or both parts):

Part 1 — 5:00 pm
We’ll discuss the roles of staff members in selecting, displaying and caring for contemporary art.

Part 2 — 6:00 pm
We’ll discuss in greater detail the process of commissioning new artworks, complexities of working with installation art, and the long-term care of contemporary artworks.

Joining me on the panel will be a friend and special guest, Jill Sterrett, Director of Conservation and Collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA); and

Lisa Freiman, IMA Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art;

Greg Smith, IMA Senior Conservation Scientist.

Here’s a link for more information about the program. I think we’ve got just about all the angles covered in this panel, but if you have any questions that you’d like us to address, please leave a comment and we’ll see if we can add it into the conversation.

Detail of Tara Donovan's Untitled (© Tara Donovan, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York)

Eden II

On Friday morning, November 20, I stood hard-hatted and slack-jawed beneath Tea Mäkipää’s ship, Eden II, as it hung from a crane far above 100 Acres, and couldn’t help but marvel at the process that turns conversations, emails, and artist’s renderings into an actual, physical, 47-foot, 8-ton object.

This rare pleasure is experienced by those involved with object– and place-making everywhere, but it was felt most distinctly by the crowd gathered for the ship launch in 100 Acres, a park first envisioned in an IMA strategic plan in 1996. While Eden II began its journey via two cranes, one barge, and one motorboat from the park’s central meadow to its resting place in the southwest corner of the lake, one could also see crews at work building the walls of Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments, hear the nearby construction of Marlon Blackwell’s visitor’s center, and observe the assembly of Andrea Zittel’s fiberglass floating island by LA-based fabricators The Barnacle Brothers. At long last, 100 Acres is really happening.

I came to the IMA in summer of 2007 and to Finnish artist Tea Mäkipää’s project in early 2009, after former IMA curator (and friend!) Rebecca Uchill left Indianapolis to pursue a PhD. Mäkipää had first travelled to Indianapolis in July of 2007 to conduct research for her commission, and the idea of developing a boat-based project surfaced early on. Having come across a warship when traveling in the United Arab Emirates earlier that year, Mäkipää was interested in thinking about the waterway system in Indianapolis and, in particular, the canal, river, and lake in and around 100 Acres. We had provided Mäkipää with information about the historic and ecological development of these waterways, and local volunteers took the artist on boat trips along the canal via pontoon boat.

She came to the museum with a proposal for a ship, Eden II, seemingly packed with emigrants from an unknown homeland and mysteriously present in the 100 Acres lake. Much research ensued over the possibility of finding a functional boat and transporting it to the park site, as Mäkipää had originally hoped to procure a ship in Europe and sail it to the United States as an extension of her recent project, 10 Commandments for the 21st Century, whose first rule is: “Do not fly.”

Although the voyage would have been a stunning artwork of its own, unfortunately cost, liability, and timing prevented this plan from proceeding. After searching high and low for suitable ships in the US that would fit the scale and needs of the project (thanks former IMA intern Lindsay Clark!), it became clear that a functioning boat would not only have unnecessary parts for our purposes (an engine), but would also be prohibitively expensive to purchase and transport. In the summer of 2008, the artist submitted a revised proposal to construct “a floating structure that resembles a ship”, and with her we embarked on the mission of devising a building plan.

In July of 2009, Icelandic artist Halldor Ulfarsson arrived at the IMA to work as Mäkipää’s assistant and begin construction of the skeleton of Eden II. The kind folks over at the Herron School of Art and Design, most notably Eric Nordgulen and Greg Hull, agreed to lend us their magnificent sculpture studio for a few weeks to accomplish some of the primary metal work for the project. Ulfarsson worked with IMA staffers, including Mike Bir, Brad Dilger, and Brose Partington, to finalize plans for the ship and construct its primary structure. In August, that structure was transported via truck to the central meadow of 100 Acres, and in September, Mäkipää arrived to begin the work of skinning and detailing the ship with Ulfarsson and noble IMAers Scott Shoultz, TJ Lemanski, and Toni Hook.

Herron students also joined the project: Jason Bord, Ava Larkin, Shi-Fen Liu, Wes French fabricated a menacing-looking harpoon and gun, and Amanda York and Kathryn Armstrong assembled a net of rubbish that hangs from the ship’s deck. All the while, a plan was taking shape for Eden II’s eventual launch into the 100 Acres lake, which would also entail the construction of a pontoon system, a keel with considerable ballast, and anchors that would be set in the bottom of the lake.

This narrative glosses over many details (you may now anxiously await my novel: East of Eden II), but we finally arrived at launch day in late November. After a week of waiting for rainy weather to clear, Mike Bir and much of the IMA’s installation crew assembled in the park early Friday morning with a tightly choreographed plan of action.

A smaller crane lifted the ship from the meadow (it stayed together!) and brought it to the shore of the lake (expertly navigating a grove of trees!). I winced as the crane tunneled enormous tracks into the park ground—under the watchful eyes of many from the Horticulture & Grounds crew who will no doubt have to address said tracks—but comforted myself by repeating my mantra for the day: Better now than a week before the park opens. After the ship was placed near the shore, we gathered for a quick group picture, which included the crew as well as the project’s engineers, crane operators, mighty 100 Acres project manager Dave Hunt, park director Lisa Freiman,

and IMA director Maxwell Anderson. In the absence of the artist, who sadly had to miss the event, and with Mike Bir’s support, I then said a silent prayer and broke a bottle of champagne (ok, ok, it was Prosecco) on the ship’s hull. Then, back to business: a second, enormous crane lifted the ship high enough so that the team could attach the keel and ballast, and the whole contraption was gingerly extended over the lake and placed gently in the water. A barge was then attached to the side of the ship, and it was ferried by motor boat over to its final location, where anchors attached by cable to buoys waiting to be attached. Enter Brad Dilger, IMA Multi-Media Designer and certified scuba diver, who helped set the keel and attach the anchors to Eden II.

By the day’s end, the ship was resting peacefully in its intended spot. There is still much work to be done to complete the stabilization of the ship. And there is still a guard shack to be constructed on the shore of the lake, which will house audiovisual components affording visitors views of what is supposedly transpiring aboard the mysterious vessel. However, my spirit is (forgive me) buoyed enormously by the success of Friday’s launch. Last I checked, museums aren’t in the business of building ships, or even independently floating sculptures that resemble ships. I’m awfully proud of what Tea Mäkipää has accomplished at the IMA, and it couldn’t have happened without the herculean efforts of the IMA staff and the Indianapolis community at large. Thanks, everyone.

To give you an overview of what someone who works in museum marketing does , I thought that I’d outline my typical day. In order to do that, I recorded my activities throughout the past Monday. While some of you were relaxing (or partying) on your Columbus Day off, I was hard at work with my fellow colleagues at the IMA.

Image taken from ugotbling.com

COLUMBUS DAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009*

8:27 Arrive at office. Plug in laptop.

8:35 Sip coffee and respond to emails sent over the weekend.

8:50 Research the 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park for IMA  Magazine article.

9:15 Write interview questions for article to send to Ed Blake, the  landscape architect for 100 Acres.

9:32 Email interview to Ed Blake.

9:37 Discuss signage in Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion with Marketing Manager.

9:42 Register for Next Audiences Summit.

9:52 Review marketing budgets from last 2 years.

10:22 Read NYT’s article about the Louvre’s attempt to ‘Loosen Up.’

10:34 Get distracted by Jamie Oliver article in NYT’s Mag.

10:39 Review Web site content. Put together work plan to present in the afternoon’s Web team meeting.

11:22 Read Geoff Von Burg’s blog entry.

11:31 Email this week’s TV schedule for Sacred Spain commercials to Max, curator Ronda Kasl, and Nugget Factory.

11:38 Check attendance numbers from the weekend.

11:39 Organize opening weekend debrief meeting for Sacred Spain.

11:45 Polish up communication pieces for potential Winter Nights and Summer Nights media sponsorships.

12:18 LUNCH (Lean Cuisine and Fage Yogurt).

12:38 Watch Gentleman Broncos movie trailer.

12:41 Send movie trailer to Dan Dark.

12:44 Change Twitter name from @IndyArtGirl to @MegLiffick.

12:50 COFFEE.

1:00 Catch up on emails from the morning.

1:30 Web Team!

2:50 Review and edit Group Tours corporate mailer for Sacred Spain.

3:15 Respond to email from Contemporary Curator Lisa Freiman about the prestigious national award that her husband received. Congrats, Ed!!!

3:17 Create an initial inventory of marketing materials that can include media/corporate sponsor recognition during 2010.

4:02 Continue to draft 2010 marketing plan for Public Programs.

4:48 Brainstorm about communication ideas for TAP.

5:21 Respond to remaining emails.

5:42 Leave office. Head to gym.

6:13 Check email while running on treadmill at gym. DANGEROUS!

6:16 Attempt to respond to an email while on treadmill at gym. EVEN MORE DANGEROUS!

8:15 Read IBM’s social media guidelines while watching Will Ferrell on Man Vs. Wild.

8:30 Close laptop. No more work for the day.

*Please note that I have left out some details such as phone conversations, specific email correspondences, bathroom breaks, and Facebook and Twitter checks.

Next up (Oct. 28), I’ll tackle the ginormous topic of branding a museum. Stay tuned.

In addition to Tyler’s post, Ms. Genger’s installation was also discussed in Interior Design and Ana Finel Honigman interviewed Ms. Genger over at Saatchi Online. Don’t forget Ms. Genger herself wrote a post for this blog back in December.

Almost the whole installation

Anyway, you might be surprised to hear that we actually considered the possibility of someone trying to climb one of the pieces, and more specifically the possibility of someone bumping into one and toppling it. Be warned, though, Ms. Genger is awfully clever and with the help of Larry Smallwood (a freelance project manager), an internal support system was engineered to prohibit this from happening. Without going into the details I can say it’s highly unlikely that one of these pieces will topple. But, please trust me on this one: don’t come over and “test them out” for yourself.

I bring this up as an example of how we spend a lot of time around here considering things that our visitor may not be aware of. We take seriously the representation and care of our artworks. In fact, to focus on complex installations like Ms. Genger’s this institution developed an interdisciplinary team dedicated to the care and representation of artworks that we consider “variable.” In short, we say that variable art is a term that defines art that possesses changing observable state.

While Ms. Genger’s artwork likely will not vary considerably while on view as part of the “Whole” installation, we’ve been thinking about what it will mean to separate our newest acquisition, “Len,” from this installation, and then represent it in a new location. Remember, we didn’t acquire the entire installation, just our new friend Len. You can see him in the picture above in the bottom right corner.

Anticipating the possibility of the IMA acquiring one of Ms. Genger’s pieces, Lisa Freiman and I sat down with Ms. Genger the day after her excellent Artist Talk. We excerpted a segment of what conservators call an “artist interview” to hear Lisa talk about one of the reasons she was drawn to Ms. Genger’s work; you can here that excerpt on the “Whole” web page. The excerpt picks up in the middle of the conversation in which Lisa is talking about why she let out a loud laugh during Ms. Genger’s Artist Talk.

In case you’re really interested in the artist interview, here it is in entirety:
Artist Interview with Orly Genger, Lisa Freiman, and Richard McCoy

In the interview I try to cover as many technical aspects of her work as possible. Art conservators are constantly researching from what and how art is made, and what better time to figure all of this out than just after art is made? Just think if there were recorded conversations with some of your favorite artists from the past. Those sure would help conservators out a lot.

But doing an artist interview is just one of the things we do to gather information about contemporary projects. While the project is being planned we’re constantly collecting information and images that describe and define it the process and final product. The hope is that this information will be useful the next time an artwork is installed, be that next year or 100 years from now.

Here’s something from the Genger project I find particularly interesting and helpful.

Artwork Installation Plan

It’s a plan drawing that illustrates the final placement of all of the pieces in the “Whole” installation. I won’t describe all of the details but it is important to point out that we worked hand and hand with Ms. Genger to make sure that the pieces were installed just how she wanted them, while at the same time insuring that we were providing proper access in the space for movement and egress. This is just a fraction of the information that the “Variable Art Team” collected during this project. In case you’d like to know more about this, I’d like to point you to a couple of great resources:

The Tate’s Media Matters project
The European Union project, Inside Installations
International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Artworks (INCCA)

So, finally, I’d like to say, please be nice to Ms. Genger’s installation while it’s here at the IMA. And, I’d like to suggest one way for Tyler to get his hands on his own and very portable Orly Genger. He can go here and get one of her necklaces.

When I started at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in the fall of 2004, the opening of the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park seemed so far in the future it was laughable to me that we even had meetings about it. Fall 2009 seemed like an eternity away. For God’s sake, I thought to myself, I’ll be nearly 30 years old when the park finally opens! Now with the recent proliferation of my first gray hairs, 30 doesn’t seem that far away, and with the plans for the park taking shape neither does opening day.

The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park has always seemed a bit ambiguous to me. With the solidity of the Museum and its galleries and history of Oldfields-Lilly House & Gardens, the Art & Nature Park seemed like the elusive Holy Ghost of the IMA’s trinity. Scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park has a history that goes well beyond my time at the IMA. Discussions about the use of the space have been ongoing for decades. However, over the last few months, plans for the park have really come together and as we get closer and closer to the opening date, I can now see more clearly the future of the 100 acres of woodland, wetland and meadows adjacent to the Museum.

Want to learn more about the Art & Nature Park?

1. I would suggest visiting the Art & Nature Park section of the IMA’s Web site to read up on the basics. Find out what has been done already. Learn about the inaugural artists commissioned for the park. And discover some of the goals and plans for the space.

2. I highly encourage you to come to the Art & Nature Park Public Forum tonight at 7:30 PM at the IMA. Here’s the official description of the event: Maxwell L. Anderson, the Melvin & Bren Simon Director and CEO of the IMA, will welcome the audience and give an overview of the vision for the Park. Mark Zelonis, the Ruth Lilly Deputy Director of Environmental and Historic Preservation, will present an overview of the nature found at the site. Lisa D. Freiman, senior curator of contemporary art and director of the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, will present an overview of the artist projects and the visitor center.

Following these brief presentations, those present will have the chance to ask questions of key players about plans for the park. Special guests will include representatives from neighborhood groups and representatives from environmental organizations.

3. I would love for you to share your thoughts on our blog. Let’s start an online dialogue about The Park. To date, what have been your experiences with The Park? What interests you the most about the space? What are your concerns and comments about the project? Please feel free to share your thoughts here.