What is an Art Museum? USA cluster. Please answer the following questions about your museum as a comment to this post. Do not forget to interact with each other. Due Monday, May 21. Have fun exploring!
1.
your name and the name of the Museum
you explored.
2.
Museum actual location.
3.
Date museum opened to public.
4.
Museum mission (or purpose. You may find this in the home page, or you
may have to look further).
5.
List 5 of the museum’s collections and 2 of it’s
special exhibits.
6.
List 5 of the museum’s significant pieces.
After “wandering through” the museum:
7.
Analyze, with a specific example for each: the
strengths and weaknesses of this museum’s site function.
8.
Analyze, with a specific example for each: the
strengths and weaknesses of this museum’s curated collections.
9.
Consider the location of the museum, and history
of the country in which it is located: how do the collections reflect this
history? Give a specific example.
10.
Would you want to visit this actual museum? Why, or why not?
11.
Respond specifically to at least one other post,
by addressing that person by name. How
to respond? Note where your museums have
things in common, or not. Note where
your perspective is similar to, or different from, another’s.
This is Ella Beaudoin: National Gallery of Art (NGA)
ReplyDelete1) location: 4th constitution avenue northwest Washington DC
2) date opened: 1978 was when the doors opened
* buuuttt, 1937 was when the NGA was created for the people of the united states by a joint resolution of congress
* in 1999 they added their outdoor sculpture garden
3) mission statement:
1. preserving- intact for the future generations and to pas them on in optimum condition. to carry this out, security is tight, the environment is controlled, keeping up tp date on maintenance and conservation
2. collecting- limited to paintings, sculpture, and works of art on paper from the late middle ages to present from Europe and the united states
3. exhibiting- collecting field is narrow is comparison to the worlds art, the gallery strives to supplement its own with exhibitions of material from other times and other cultures. balance is sought in balancing and reinforcing own collections.
4. fostering understanding: advanced study og the works the gallery is an educative institution
4) five collections and two special exhibits: they have, paintings, sculpture, works on paperr, photographs, decorative arts, architecture, and recent acquisitions. the special exhibits are, i spy: photographs and the theater of the street and 1938-2010 the baroque genius of giovanni benedetto castiglione
5) theorised most valued works: the Matisse cutouts collection and Leonardo da vinch, Ginevra de' benci and i am sure others but they have soooo many pieces!
6) web sight pros and cons: this is actually one of the best thought out websites i have ever visited. its so wonderful! one thing i like about is the constant changing covert art of the home page. also the home page is very sparse, it really only has that constant changing image so you don't get all confused. the way you can go to the collections and search artists and it lists all their works they have at NGA and then you can click on the name and it gives you the back story and the history of the painting, the style and all this other information. for example you can get a complete exhibit history. the only bad thing is that you cant just flip through theentire collection you can go to paintings, sculpture drawings, etc. you then pick one then pick what country of origin, then do an online tour of that specific section but i don't think everything is on there also though it is a really awesome set up for getting information, the pictures of the art are small even when you full screen it. but they have a kids section where you can zoom in on paintings which is really awesome! you see so much you might have missed. its definitely an institution more about education than anything else (that's apparent from just a glance at the website)
7) collection pros and cons: it seems very well balanced from specifically commissioned moder art (the biggest light display or something like that) to Leonardo da vinch's ginevra de' benci. the one thing they do lack, but its stated in their mission statement, is the lack of African and Asian art
8) what does the location add: the museum is in Washington DC which is really Americans face to the world. i think its based very much on the first colonies and the countries who majorly and directly shaped our future. also it seems like one of the finest collections in the states. which is good for any foreign pollitics who wants to take a walk about in DC and see some art. we must put our best foot forward.
9) do you want to visit: yes! i wanted to do the NGA because i will be libing in DC for college but what i didn't expect was to be so excited to be able to in the future just pop down to the NGA. the exhibits there sound amazing and just the vast collection in itself is a draw in.
10. I think by reading your posts it's interesting to note how my museum while extremely diverse in its areas lacks good sections of art that seem to be essential in other museums. Especially exhibits of Asia and Africa and the like. I'm not much of a modern art gal myself so SAM probably would not interest me very much but the Houston museum seems intriguing.
DeleteWho is that who replied above?! Ella, what a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the museum. It is a challenge for museums to show African and Asian art...though I wonder how African-American artists are regarded by the National Gallery?
DeleteThe Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
ReplyDeleteHouston, Texas
It was established in 1900
Their mission statement is that art is for everyone and hey want to provide the materials to teach people about it. Some of their collection are "Arts of Africa," "Arts of Asia," "Arts of Europe," "Arts of North America," and "Arts of the South Pacific." An upcoming exhibition that they are excited about is "Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London." Another exhibit coming to MFAH is "Unrivaled Splendor: The Kimiko and John Powers Collection of Japanese Art." A few of their significant pieces are "Self Portrait" by Andy Warhol, "The Rocks" by Vincent Van Gogh, they have multiple drawings from Rembrandt that they are very proud of, "Cotopaxi" by Frederic Edwin Church, and "Grey Lines with Black, Blue, and Yellow" by Georgia O'Keefe. I found that the website was very easy to maneuver and use, but their "About" section was very odd and it was hard to actually find their mission statement, it took some digging. Other than that, the website is very easy to use and visually pleasing. This museum has all different kinds of art exhibited (such as films, paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts) which I think is both a strength and a weakness. It's nice that they have so many different styles and kinds of art so that people can learn about all different kinds of art. But I think that they would benefit from having a certain theme to their museum. Maybe it is much clearer in the actual museum itself, but it seems very mashed together on the website. I think that historically, since it was built in 1900, museums might have been popping up in America to bring a sense of refinement and history to the country and I think especially the southern states would have wanted that since there has always been a stereotype about the South. I would love to go see this museum in person, it seems huge and just filled up with so much. It would be interesting to see how everything is laid out.
Ella and I both had pretty easy museums to navigate, yet her museum seemed to have a good sense of categorizing their collections.
Great work Emily- if you do go and visit the museum, please tell me if it feels more harmonious than the website!
Delete1. Matt Jokinen, Seattle Art Museum
ReplyDelete2.1300 First Avenue Seattle
3.1931
4. "SAM Connects Art to Life"
"SAM provides a welcoming place for people to connect with art and to consider its relationship to their lives. SAM is one museum in three locations: SAM Downtown, Seattle Asian Art Museum at Volunteer Park, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the downtown waterfront. SAM collects, preserves and exhibits objects from across time and across cultures, exploring the dynamic connections between past and present." -Mission statement taken from Seattle Art Museum official website. This was a little hard to find.
5. 5 Permanent collections: European Art, American Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, Northwest Art, African Art. 2 Special Exhibits: SAM Next: Mika Tajima, Picturing The Artist.
6. Notable Pieces: -Alexander Calder's Eagle
-Richard Serra's Wake
-Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One
-Lucas Cranach the Elder's The Judgment of Paris
- Do-Ho Suh's Some/One
7. Weakness: It seams like they were in the process of setting up their online gallery and then just gave up half way through, the descriptions are short and some times the picture of the piece isn't at the top, instead its at the bottom in additional images, for instance on the piece Barcelona the description is one paragraph and the only picture is at the bottom in additional images.
Strengths: They did a very good job of telling you whats going on with the museum in terms of events and getting involved, also they give very good directions, for example they have directions on how to get there when you are coming from the north, south, and from I-90, also they have maps for walking or driving directions, biking directions and recommended bus routes.
8. Strengths: The museum has what most consider to be some of the greatest sculptures in america and they take good care of them, Olympic sculpture park is a beautiful place. Also they have a lot of world art, stuff from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Native American art.
Weakness: They focus too much on little stuff, there isn't a single piece accept The Judgment of Paris that I knew about before i started this project. Also they have very few paintings, and the ones they have are pretty much all modern art.
9. Considering the location of the museum in Seattle, which is an isolated city, I think the reason they have such small art is because of its isolation, which also explains why they have so much local art.
10. I honestly would never want to visit this museum, simply because they don't have anything I like, Its all too modern for me. If I were in Seattle I would much rather spend my time doing something music related, and if I wanted to see art I would go some where else.
11. I think both Ella and Emily had much better website and museum then me, and that they had much better exhibits.
Matt, my husband works in webstie QA- and he is often floundered by how little of an artist vision is able to translate to functionality in a website. It's hard to get a website that is navigational. Let's hope the museum offers a better experience, but you wouldn't know cause you'll be climbing the Space Needle and visiting the Aquarium while in Seattle, hey?
Delete1.My name is Cashay. The Museum i did was, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
ReplyDelete2. The location is in California
3.Date the museum opened was 1910
4.The museum mission is to serve the public
5A.The five lists of collections are African Art, Art of The Pacific, Chinese Art, Contemporary Art and Islamic Art.
5B. two exibits are Robert Adams:The Place We Live and Chris Burden:Metropolis II
6. five signifacant paints would probably be-ALONG TEH GHATS: MATHURA-BLUE CORAL:THE LITTLE BLUE BONNET- BOSTON HARBOR SUNSET-CYMON AND IPIGENIA-AND HOT SPRINGS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.
7. the strengths are:beautiful layout pretty much easy to access the site. i dont see many weeknesses except when you pick an art it doesnt share alot about the piece.
Maybe the museum is allowing you to do criticism?! Wish you had done the rest of the questions....do you want to visit the museum? ;-)
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