"Conversation" now online!

On April 18, 2009, the UIMA invited donors and interested members of the public and UI community to attend a "Conversation about the Future of the UI Museum of Art" with UI President Sally Mason, Executive Vice President and Provost Wallace Loh, Senior Vice President and University Treasurer Doug True, and UI Foundation President and CEO Lynette Marshall.

We understand that some of you may not have been able to attend the event. If you are interested, you may visit the UIMA website to read more about the event and download the handout for the day, a typed transcript of the event, or an MP3 recording.

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

A couple random things: Michelle Obama's Speech on the Arts and Marcel Duchamp

The First Lady gave this speech a while back, but I just recently re-found the text of the speech on Lee Rosenbaum's blog.

I particularly like this quote: "From the beginning of our nation, the inspired works of our artists and artisans have reflected the ingenuity, creativity, independence and beauty of this nation. It is the painter, the potter, the weaver, the silversmith, the architect, the designer whose work continues to create an identity for America that is respected and recognized around the world as distinctive and new."

Also, just read about this exhibition on Marcel Duchamp and chess at the St. Louis University Museum of Art.* Sounds awesome! I hope to get a chance to go this summer. I'm huge Duchamp fan. Did you know that the UIMA has a work by him commonly called Boit-en-valise (pictured)? It has mini-versions of a lot of his other works in a little suitcase. Word is it will be on display in the UIMA's Richey Ballroom Gallery when it opens in the fall...

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

* A previous version of this post mistakenly listed the Duchamp exhibition as occurring at the St. Louis Art Museum.

UIMA Volunteer Reception

We here at the UIMA are incredibly gratefully to our volunteers, who spend hours helping us plan events, lead school tours, and much more! So, last Wednesday we hosted a gathering to honor those volunteers at the Iowa Memorial Union's South Room.
Seen here are Alan Swanson, who serves on the UIMA Members Council, Pamela White, UIMA Interim Director, and Barbara Eckstein, UI Interim Associate Provost for Academic Administration. More photos from the event are available on the UIMA Facebook page (search for Iowa Art to add us as a friend!), and will soon be posted on flickr (I'd do it now, but I've exceeded my monthy limit...)

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

Des Moines Register article

Michael Morain has a great article featuring the UIMA in this past Sunday's Des Moines Register. Make sure you check out the photographs on the right side.

Lee Rosenbaum has also been busy blogging over at Culture Grrl about her visit to the Midwest. For those of you who missed her lecture on daccessioning, look for a video posted to this blog sometime tomorrow!

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

e-newsletter note

If you're on our e-newsletter list, you may have noticed its abscense from your mailbox the past few weeks. We've run into some technical difficulties -- apparently, our header images have disappeared into cyber-space somehow, and we're on a mission to recover them. I hope to find them soon and get an e-newsletter out next week. Thanks for your patience!

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

Museum 2.0 blog

Drew Schiller, who's on the UIMA Members Council, recommended I check out this blog, Museum 2.0, by Nina Simon. I really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd pass it along. I thought this post on the intersection of physical museums and their new media technology was really interesting. After begin inspired by the Indianapolis Museum of Art's online efforts and a speech by director Max Anderson, Simon says she was disappointed to find the museum itself was, well, like any other museum. "I felt like I had met someone online, someone sexy and open and intriguing, and then on our first date that mystery museum turned out to be just like all the others," she says.

For the UIMA, the problem of cyber-space existence and physical existence is further complicated by our lack of a discreet museum building of our own. So our website, in many ways, becomes even more important: as a resource for scholars looking to learn about our collections and especially as a go-to place for updated information on where those collections are physically located at this time, how to access them, and where to go for events. But an online museum is never going to be a replacement for the real thing...What do you think? Have you ever experienced what Simon was talking about -- loving something online and then hating it in real life? What about the opposite -- a wonderful thing in person that had a disappointing online precence? What things do you like to see online? What things really annoy you?

-- Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

Video feature: "A Legacy for Iowa"

Here it is! I've been busy here at the UIMA learning how to use our new video technology. I'm excited to post the first video, a feature of the Museum's exhibit "A Legacy for Iowa: Pollock's 'Mural' and Modern Masterworks from the University of Iowa Museum of Art" on display now until August 2, 2009 at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. These shots were taken at the exhibit opening on April 19. If you haven't seen the exhibit yet, hopefully this will motivate you to head over there and see it yourself!

As we add more videos, you'll be able to see them all on the UIMA's YouTube channel. We'll also be adding a special place on the UIMA website for you to find them, as well as uploading them to the UIMA Facebook page and onto the Art Matters blog.

Over the summer, we plan on posting more video features on the exhibit, including spotlights on many of the paintings. Also, we'll be posting a highlight video from Lee Rosenbaum's talk soon!

--Claire Lekwa, UIMA Marketing and Media Intern

Not the most uplifting post for a Friday, but maybe it's cathartic

At the "Conversation" last Saturday, an audience member voiced her concern over the sign that was still hung on the side of the UIMA's former Riverside Drive building. She said the sight of the words "Museum of Art" on that structure, which will never house the UIMA's collection again, pulled at her heart, and she requested that they be removed. UI President Sally Mason agreed.

On Wednesday, Melissa Hueting, UIMA Assistant to the Director for Special Programs, and I took a trip down to the arts campus site and noticed that the white, "Museum of Art" letters had indeed been removed, leaving only shadows as a reminder of the nearly 40 years they hung there. Melissa took a few pictures, which I've posted here. The image is a painfully clear symbol of the difficult times the Museum has undergone since the summer, but it is also a symbol of looking forward. The UIMA may never be the same as it was before the flood, but I think there are many of us out there who believe in the possibilities that the future holds.

Now, on a happier note, go out there and enjoy the sunshine on this wonderful weekend! I certainly plan to.

--Claire Lekwa, UIMA Marketing and Media Intern

Press Coverage and other updates

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all our wonderful supporters who came out to all the events these past two weeks! We REALLY appreciate your support.

The UIMA's been in the news quite a bit the last couple of weeks:

The Press Citizen's Rachel Gallegos reports on Saturday's "Conversation about the future of the UI Museum of Art" with UI Officials. Tyler Green, DC-based art blogger who wrote about last year's Pollock issues, links to her article on his blog, Modern Art Notes. The Des Moines Register, the Gazette, KCRG, and the Daily Iowan also cover the "Conversation," though I can't seem to find a link to the DI story. The Chicago Tribune also ran the AP story.

Most of the papers also cover our exhibit opening at the Figge last weekend. The Gazette writes "We're glad to see some of the flood-evacuated collection from the University of Iowa Museum of Art will come out of storage after 10 months and be available for public view." The Quad-Cities online writes "New Figge exhibit shines." KCRG has a video clip here, the Press Citizen has an article here, The Cultural Heritage News Agency carries our press release (badly) here, The Quad City Times cover the opening here, and Jeff Ignatius of the River Cities' Reader has a great story on the exhibit here.

If you haven't checked out Diane Heldt's great coverage of the UIMA@ the Figge, you should. Here are some photos, and here's a great article.

The Daily Iowan's Caroline Berg has a nice article it today's DI on the UIMA "Word Painters" reading with Cutter Wood and Bonnie Sunstein, coming up this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Capitol Museum's Senate Chamber.

Lee Rosenbaum, who visited the UIMA to talk about Deaccessioning issues last week, has a couple great posts on her blog, with more to come. The first is about deaccession legislation, and the second about the flood-devestated arts campus. She also writes briefly about her visit to the Figge, and includes a clip from the KCRG preview of the exhibit.

Claire and I hard at work trying to figure exactly how to use our camcorder software, but we're hoping tohave videos from Lee's talk and this week's Elliott Society event on education next week, as well as some footage from Sunday's opening at the Figge.

Some old business, but worth taking a look if you haven't seen it (and linking to since I have not yet done so!), is this Daily Iowan article on the Museum's return to campus.

I think that should cover it for now at least! Michael Morain will be writing an article for the Des Moines Register for this weekend, so as soon as I get that link I'll post it as well!

--Maggie Anderson, UIMA Marketing and Media Manager

Discussions on the UIMA's future

Photo by Brian Ray of The Gazette

The front page of The Gazette on Thursday featured a prominent story by Gazette writer Diane Heldt examining what the future might hold for the University of Iowa Museum of Art. The story ran as a preview to the upcoming event, "Conversation about the Future of the UI Museum of Art," a public discussion with UI President Sally Mason, Provost Wallace Loh, and other UI officials this Saturday, April 18 at 2 p.m. in the Bijou Theater of the Iowa Memorial Union.

Heldt interviewed a wide range of people for the story, from Doug True, UI vice president for finance and operations, to Museum supporters Linda Paul and Charlie Anderson, UIMA Interim Director Pamela White, and UIMA Manager of Exhibitions and Collections Jeff Martin. The article does a great job of covering the different aspects that must be considered when looking into the UIMA's future. Here are a few quotes that stood out to me:

"...what the museum's future presence on campus will look like, and whether any of the collection will return to the former building on the river's west bank, is still to be decided. It could be five years before the museum is back in a permanent facility, and numerous options are on the table.

'I certainly would hope to have a museum in the coming years that's second to none, a museum that's truly worthy of the fabulous collection we have,' said Doug True, UI vice president for finance and operations. 'How we get there, I don't know.'"

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"Supporters will be especially important in recovery for the Museum of Art, True said, because the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not contribute money if the UI decides to build a new museum at a new location. FEMA would contribute 90 percent of the cost to restore the former museum building, but that facility now houses temporary facilities for the displaced School of Music."

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"Options that UI officials will consider include building a new free-standing museum elsewhere or making the museum part of a new arts complex—if officials decide to replace flood-damaged Hancher Auditorium at a new site."

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"White does not favor storing art in a building near the river, given the difficulty of evacuating it last summer. Her job, she said, is to provide leadership in thinking about what the museum can be, as a steward of cultural resources and icons, without being site or place-specific right now.

'This is the time to think about all the ideas,' she said. 'We don't want to just react so fast to the tragedy that befell us by not looking at the opportunity we have to revitalize arts and culture on campus.'"

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It's certainly a large topic and there will be no quick solution, but it is an important conversation for the community to have. To learn more about the UIMA's future and give us your feedback, make sure to attend the event on Saturday. UI officials and UIMA staff members are interested to hear what you have to say, because, as we've learned in the Museum's absence over the past 10 months, a museum doesn't belong to just one person; it belongs to us all.

--Claire Lekwa, UIMA Marketing and Media Intern