Art of Matrimony Gallery

Posted on March 5, 2014 by admin

For more than two thousand years, the ketubbah, or Hebrew marriage contract, has been an integral part of Jewish culture. Found in the homes of married Jews, whether wealthy or poor, scholar or layman, in the West or in the East, ketubbot provide a wealth of information concerning the artistic creativity and cultural interactions of Jewish communities. As testimonies to the sacredness of marriage, works of art, and repositories of Jewish history, these magnificent treasures offer insights and delights in equal measure.
Our Art of Matrimony exhibition (April 1, 2014 – June 15, 2014) features diverse ketubbot dating from the twelfth through the twenty-first centuries.
Join our online gallery of ketubbot by uploading a photo of your decorated marriage contract to Instagram and tag it #CMAketubbah.

Can We Really “Study” the Visual Arts?

Posted on February 21, 2014 by admin

Cindy Foley, the director of education at Columbus Museum of Art, wrote an article for LearnNow.org asking the question “Can We Really ‘Study’ the Visual Arts?” In the article, she shares a unique perspective on what the visual arts can do for students—and why our kids need quality arts experiences now more than ever.

Here’s an excerpt:
At a time when politicians, policy makers, and educators are hand wringing over how we can develop creative thinkers who can begin to address the problems of our time, we can do something about it. Young children naturally think like artists, and with our encouragement, advocacy, and steadfast belief, we will help them develop lifelong habits that will sustain them into adulthood. Our future counts on it.

Read the full story.

(Pictured above: a creation made during Doodles, a Columbus Museum of Art drop-in program for adults and children 6 up who can experiment with fun materials and create art together.)

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Cindy Foley, Director of Education

Hearts for Art for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 10, 2014 by admin

Get into the spirit of Valentine’s Day and help spread your love of art with our HeartsforArt project, February 11-15.

o   Pick up a free felt/paper heart at the Admissions Desk
o   Place the heart on the floor in front of a work of art you love.
o   Take a picture of your heart placed next to a work you love, and post on Instagram or Twitter tagged with #heartsforart for your chance to win a Matthew Brandt catalogue and passes.

We’ll announce the winner next week on Twitter and Instagram.

Fun Fact: Four other museum crushes are playing along with us in some way: Oakland Museum of California, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Philbrook Museum of Art, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

(Please note: Hearts and photography are permitted in all CMA galleries except Toulouse-Lautrec and La Vie Moderne, and works marked with a no photography sign).

Artists Invoke Wonder at CMA

Posted on January 24, 2014 by admin

Eight Columbus artists contributed their talents, skills, and imagination to help us inspire awe and promote a spirit of play in the new Wonder Room.

We are proud and delighted that these artists took a risk along with us, that they shared our passion for the peculiar and the uncanny; that they embraced our vision for this quirky gallery that merges surprise and mystery, play and great art.

“It feels really good to be part of this community of artists who are working on this special project. To be valued by the Museum as an artist, is great!” – Susie Underwood, Columbus artist, pictured above

Early in the planning my colleague and collaborator Jeff Sims and I made a decision to partner with local artists for this project. Why? Because we value the way artists think, imagine possibilities, and take risks. And we value the depth of creative talent right here in Columbus. We believed that with local artists we could orchestrate just the right mix of eccentricity, wonder, and play.

These talented artists did not disappoint. Their diverse creations are critical to the unique Wonder Room experience. When you visit the space, you will discover:

a life-size, mixed-media Tree of Wonder by Zepher Potrafka
five meticulous, miniature installations created by Susie Underwood,Caitlin Lynch, and Sharon Dorsey
many phantasmagoric costumes designed and handmade by Heidi Kambitsch of Openheartcreatures
a captivating graffiti wall painted by Giovanni Santiago
an inventive Storytelling Adventure Game designed and hand-painted by Brian R. Williams
the most wondrous Spalted Maple Looking Glass and Marked By installations by Dorothy Gill Barnes

Storytelling Adventure Game by Artist Brian R. Williams

Some of these creations are designed to be touched, manipulated, and played with. Others – more fragile works of art – are placed strategically in places where visitors will discover them, unexpectedly. Their magic is experienced by peeking and looking and marveling.

Artist Dorothy Gill Barnes

Since the Wonder Room re-opened in December, I have been observing, conversing, and playing with many visitors in the space. I witnessed two adult woman engrossed for more than an hour with the Storytelling Adventure Game. I gather countless visitor drawings of the Tree of Wonder. And most recently, I watched as a very young boy bounced from one miniature installation to another with glee –pointing, remarking, and then very purposefully, photographing them.

Wonder Room installation at Columbus Museum of Art

Young boy photographs installation by Susie Underwood

If you haven’t had a chance to visit the newly designed Wonder Room, I encourage you to make time to check it out. Discover for yourself the awe-inspiring creativity hatched right here in Columbus.

Why Not Try

Posted on January 21, 2014 by admin

Why not try is a new mantra I’ve been trying to wrap my head around. I have a CMA visitor to thank for this statement. It was in the form of a tape creation at one of our in-gallery activities in the Center for Creativity, and now hangs at my desk as a daily reminder. I arrived one morning to see it hung among the dozens of other tape creations made over a busy weekend. It caught my attention immediately. I think I may have laughed at the pure simplicity and boldness of it. I said it aloud. “Why NOT try?”

We try lots of new things here at CMA. We try new materials. We ask visitors what they’ve tried during their visit to CMA that day on our Join the Conversation board. We try to make visitors feel welcome, comfortable, and give them permission to create, experiment, and have fun. As an employee who spends a lot of time in the galleries, I am particularly conscious of each of our visitor’s experience. I want visitors, of all ages, to feel that CMA is a place they can explore and try new things.

Sometimes I hear visitors get discouraged at an in-gallery activity, feeling they might fail. They’re hesitant to try something that is new and unfamiliar. Gavin and his grandmother came to CMA on a quiet weekday morning to explore the newly re-imagined Wonder Room. They joined me at an area where visitors are encouraged to draw a tree. The grandmother immediately began to try the white pencil on the black paper, making various branches. Gavin was hesitant. “I’m not a good artist,” he stated. “What makes you say that?” I asked him. “I can’t draw.” he replied. Grandmother and I didn’t take that as a good reason. We were encouraging and persistent. “Just try and experiment with the white pencil on the black paper,” we suggested. Grandmother and I continued to draw and doodle. Gavin slowly made a mark on his paper. Over the next 15 minutes Gavin tried numerous tree drawings, making different markings, sharing his wonderings out loud with his Grandmother and me; “This kind of looks like a shoe when it’s upside down…” Drawing and talking together became an enjoyable activity for all three of us.

I want all visitors to draw a tree, or put a puzzle together, or make a design using colored tape and note cards, or build something using only white LEGOs. Trying something creative can be scary, or overwhelming, or confusing, but that’s okay. There is no failure in trying. Something wonderful could happen while you’re trying it out! The important question is, why NOT try?

By Kelsey Cyr, Visitor Engagement Assistant

People’s Choice Awards

Posted on December 6, 2013 by admin

I’ve been thinking lately about the music industry People’s Choice Awards. In all honesty, I can’t say that I follow them. I can’t reliably name any recipient of recent awards, although I could probably guess a few names based on media banter. But the possibility of a people’s choice award in an art museum intrigues me. And even knowing that the very concepts of high art and people’s choice are somewhat incongruous, I set out this week to bring them together. A perfect opportunity presented for an impromptu people’s choice experiment at CMA. And I took advantage.

The focus of my people’s choice experiment was the objects in the large glass wall adjacent to the Wonder Room. The Wonder Room is currently closed for a makeover and will re-open with much fanfare on December 14. To align with the mysterious forest theme of this gallery, the objects in the glass wall will change, too.

Prior to the Thanksgiving weekend, we placed a selection of some of these objects on the floor of the glass case. Our designer included a sign indicating that this is an installation in process.

What a perfect chance to discover what our visitors like, what catches their eye, what piques their curiosity! I thought.

On Saturday, I approached several enthusiastic visitors for my experiment. The delightful family pictured here was visiting from Columbus, Indiana. “It’s just a three-hour drive so it makes a good day trip,” said father Sandeep. Perfect, I beamed. Any family who is willing to drive 3 hours to visit our museum deserves to be counted in my experiment.

Sandeep’s family favored a Lalique scarab vase, a Paul Manship bronze of Diana, and a sinuous Lino glass sculpture. Check. Those 3 works will make the final cut. Mother Sangeeta and daughter Meghali were especially curious about the story behind the bronze sculpture. Sangeeta wondered if I plan to share information and stories about the works. Sandeep suggested creating an app with more information. Duly noted. The “people” want some context and stories about the objects.

What I discovered in my brief, impromptu experiment is not entirely surprising. The jaw-dropping Lino sculpture is a definite people’s choice winner. But so is the quirky bird sculpture that, as one visitor described it, looks like a cat who stumbled upon a guard dog. I learned that visitors like the beauty and the beast; they’re captivated by what is stunning and they’re fascinated by the quirky and the peculiar.

We’ll be putting the final touches on the glass wall this week and next. And, thanks to several obliging visitors, it will reflect some of the people’s choice.

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