Category: Museums

Be Like MLK, Give Back to the Community!

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The arts non-profit for which I work is currently having an Indiegogo to help raise money for our Emerging Artists Grant program, and I would LOVE for you to contribute to it.  Money raised during the Indiegogo will go directly to the sixteen artists who received the award this year.  Here is a bit about the program:

“Durham Arts Council seeks your partnership and investment to help launch and develop the careers of highly skilled and promising artists who have mastered the basics of their discipline, and are at a critical development moment in their artistic lives where they need funding, encouragement, and recognition of their work.  The DAC’s Emerging Artist Program serves artists in visual, performing, literary, and media arts in five North Carolina counties in the central Piedmont area and has been a vital part of developing artist careers for 29 years.

Each year, 12-16 grants are awarded to artists selected from a highly competitive applicant pool of over 100 artists who apply from Durham, Chatham, Orange, Granville and Person counties.  Each grant of approximately $1,500 funds a project pivotal to the advancement of the artist’s work.”

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To learn more about the program, including this year’s winners and also PHOTOS and VIDEO and PERKS, please go to the Indiegogo site.  If you care about the arts AT ALL you’ll want to contribute to this program.  A city without art is not a city, and these artists make our cities awesome in so many ways.  Also, please spread the word around your own communities, we need all the help we can get!

And here is one more link to that Indiegogo site, please go check it out! 

 

Liberty Arts Grand Opening

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I’ve posted about Third Fridays in Durham before, they are always happening events, especially down by Golden Belt.  This past Third Friday was the Liberty Arts grand re-opening.  Liberty Arts is a metal foundry and iron-working studio that was a Durham institution, until a set of violent storms last year caused its roof to collapse.  Liberty Arts decided to move from its location near Central Park to a fantastic new space in the Golden Belt facilities.  Their grand opening celebration on Friday drew a huge crowd.

A number of food trucks, including The Parlour, Pie Pushers, and Only Burger, were on hand to keep everyone fed.  The weather was unbelievably nice for mid-March, so tons of people were sitting outside.

Lots was happening inside Liberty Arts: glass blowing, metal working, and other demonstrations.  The artists also had lots of pieces hanging around to look at.

I particularly liked this big wax mold of The Last Supper, I thought it looked like a big chocolate bar.

Durham’s own Luchadoras, the group of female masked wrestlers in the Mexican Lucha Libre style, were on hand in black evening gowns and sparkly masks.  I saw a bunch of them roaming around the Golden Belt area, they weren’t there to wrestle, I think they were just enjoying a night on the town.

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Why I am Thankful This Thanksgiving: I HAVE AN ART JOB.

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So, guys, after over two and a half years of searching and doubt and self-loathing and anger and sadness and misery at the state of the economy, I finally achieved my goal: I have attained a job in the art world.  I promised myself that this blog would not be a venting place for my fury at the universe during my job search, and I also promised myself that I could write a big, long, venty post chronicling my journey–but only when I achieved my goal of attaining a professional, full-time position in the art world.  So here’s my post.  I am glad to finally share it with you.

This is a big deal.  I have wanted to work in the arts since I was sixteen and I took Advanced Placement Art History with the amazing Pat Johnston at Pine View School for the Gifted.  I loved the course, excelled in the classwork, and got my well-earned 5 on my AP exam (I’m not still proud of that or anything).  After the class I decided that a job in the arts, preferably in a museum or gallery setting, would be my thing, and I behaved accordingly, so accordingly that I can summarize it in bullet points y’all:

-I majored in Art History and English at the University of Florida.  I wrote an honor’s thesis for my Art History major and graduated summa cum laude (I’m not still proud of that or anything either).

-I interned at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, the University of Florida’s art museum, for a good year and a half.  I spent one semester in the education department as part of a group initiative to plan programming for the undergraduate population at UF and I spent a year interning for the curator of contemporary art.

The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, a great museum, you should go!

-I then launched myself straight into graduate school in Art History, heading to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pursue my Master’s and eventually (I hoped, back then) my Ph.D.

-While at UNC I interned at the North Carolina Museum of Art, co-curated an exhibit at UNC’s affiliate museum the Ackland Art Museum, and secured a summer internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  This was the spring of 2009 and this, guys, this is where the bullet points need to end, because things get messy.

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30 Americans and Anthony Goicolea at the NCMA

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This weekend I was down at the RBC Center to attend Jon’s sister’s graduation from North Carolina State University (mazel tov Holly!).  After the three hour ceremony Jon and I decided to take advantage of our proximity to the NCMA and see the 30 Americans and Anthony Goicolea shows.

First, though, we had to eat, and we decided to try the NCMA’s restaurant, Iris.  I’ve had some good meals at the NCMA pre-renovation, during my internship.  The new restaurant space is like much of the new building: a mix of elegance and industrial in its spareness, bright, open, clean, and white.  I had an omelet with some sweet potato fries, Jon had a burger that he seemed to enjoy.  The sweet potato fries were actually crispy.  I love sweet potato fries in general but I often find them soggy.  Somehow Iris has managed to fix that problem.  Regardless, if you need a bite at the NCMA Iris is a good, classy, moderately priced option.

We then crossed into the old building, where the museum now holds their temporary exhibitions.  Two in particular are fantastic: 30 Americans and Alter Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea.

Kehinde Wiley, Equestrian Portrait of the Count Duke Olivares

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King Philip IV of Spain

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O hai Improv Everywhere, raising awareness of Velazquez the Father of Us All.

That random ginger Jew looking kid they found does look a bit like Philip IV doesn’t he?  And yes I am allowed to say ginger Jew that is not a mean comment.

Improv Everywhere also faithfully recreated the opening scenes of Star Wars Episode IV THE FATHER OF US ALL (I mean, A New Hope) on the New York Subway.  So if you haven’t watched that particular video then you should: