Mindful in Iowa

We had a great crowd last night at Adam Gopnik's 2009 Bette Spriestersbach lecture. According to the University Athletic Club, approximately 370 people filled the space, making it a standing-room only affair.

UITV was there to capture the program, so it will likely be rebroadcast a few times in the coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on when this will happen, so if you missed the lecture you can catch on UITV!

If you saw the lecture -- what did you think? Gopnik presented a great message about what his ideal "mindful" museum looks like -- but he also recognized the particular difficulties the UI Museum of Art, currenlty having no museum bulidng to call home. He also touched on the reasons he believes Jackson Pollock's Mural should stay in Iowa -- and I have to admit, it was quite a morale booster!

A couple questions to start discussion:

1. Gopnik talked about the sense of time one gets from standing in front of a work of art. Have you ever experienced anything like that? Where were you at? What was it like?
2. Gopnik described several types of "M" museums -- the "Mausoleum," the "Machine," the "Metaphor," the "Mall," and the ideal "Mindful" museum. Which of these have you experienced in your own life? Or perhaps you've experienced a combination of them? What kind of a musuem was the UIMA? What kind of a museum should it strive to be?

I'll be back next week with more on when to watch the lecture on UITV -- have a great weekend!

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager