New Projects

Today I met the curator of Islamic art. I complimented her on the excellence of the newly-opened permanent Islamic art exhibit. Two days ago, I would have had nothing to say to this woman, I was happy that I'd had a chance to wander through that part of the museum.

Things on the third floor were pretty slow today. I send out a handful of emails, and was pretty much done for the day.

Around noon, I told Sondra that I was going down to the cafe to grab a quick bite and that I'd be back soon. She told me to grab a "slow bite" and to take my time and maybe check out a gallery or two.

So I took a long lunch and toured the new special exhibition: Through African Eyes. It was fantastic! One of the pieces reminded me of something I saw at the Harn not too long ago. It was a kente cloth made out of bottle caps and wine foils. The rest of the exhibition was great, as well. It was a little different from what I expected (truthfully, I don't know what I was expecting) but it was really interesting and very well put together. There were a few school groups with docents and I eavesdropped on their tours for a little bit, but I think I was making one of the docents nervous, so I left her alone after that. I don't know enough about African art or colonialism to dissect the exhibition much more, but I thought it was interpreted well, and provided a lot of contextual information. It was an interesting divergence from the VTS tour I observed yesterday.

Later this afternoon, I was offered two additional projects, which I promptly accepted.  One came from Sondra.  She has asked that in addition to my list of partners to be submitted to the AAMD, I create a synopsis of each program that could eventually be used in millage campaigns and grant applications.  For this, I will need to attend as many programs as possible, take some snapshots, and talk to some of the participants.  By combining my words and thoughts with those of the participants, the idea is that I will communicate the value of the program to the museum and the community.  I'm especially excited about this project because it means I get to GO to all of the programs that I'll be profiling.  I'm stoked!

 

The second project came from Larry, who is the head of Public Programs.  I was just headed out the door-- almost outside-- when he called my name and told me about this gem.  This year is the DIA's 125th anniversary!  To celebrate, they will be doing some guerrilla outreach that sounds pretty wild.  They're making reproductions of the most famous paintings in the DIA, framing them up in elaborate faux-gold frames and installing them all around the greater Detroit area.  I'm told there will be more than 40, total.  Once they've been installed, someone (read: an intern) then needs to GO to all of these locations to talk to people about  the art and why it's there.  The first painting to be installed will be Watson and the Shark, which I'm told is very popular with visitors.

 

Watson and the Shark, John Singleton Copley (1777)

On the whole, I'm really excited about these two additional projects.  Everything seems to be in line with my interests (which isn't hard to do, as I love pretty much everything about museums) and I'm thrilled to be involved with projects that will have a measurable impact on my community.