Opening Tonight: Drawing Lab

May 17, 2013 by umfablog

A new hands-on, interactive exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) invites visitors to create the artwork themselves. Drawing Lab, which opens today, is inspired by the idea that mark-making is a fundamental human impulse and that there is no wrong way to do it. Museum visitors of any age or artistic ability are welcome to participate. The exhibition, which also features a collaborative drawing by University of Utah art students, will be on view until August 25 […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, community, contemporary art exhibition, drawing, events, exhibitions, family, interactive, museum events, Opening, umfa, University of Utah, uofu, utenation

Textile Tuesday: How do they do it?

May 14, 2013 by umfablog

Welcome to the second installment of Textile Tuesday, where we check in on the ongoing restoration project happening in the basement of the UMFA. Our first post introduced you to the project and its importance, and today I hope to explore the actual process. The cleaning, restoring, and documenting of the textiles in the UMFA’s care is such an important effort: our team is working hard to ensure a healthy future for these objects, and through this work, the UMFA […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: basement, benefits of museums, community, conservation, docents, museum job, restoration, saddle blanket, Textile, Textile Tuesday, transparency, UMFA staff, University of Utah, volunteers

Happy Mother’s Day from the UMFA: a self-guided tour

May 11, 2013 by umfablog

Mother’s Day was first celebrated in the United States in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia. That’s a pretty good Mother’s Day gift, the creation of a holiday in her honor. But we can’t all be Anna Jarvis, so allow me to make a suggestion: why not bring your mother to the UMFA? Not only is there beautiful art filling every gallery, but depictions of mothers are all around. Here we see […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, family, holidays, mothers day, museum, museum tour, Viewing art

Textile Tuesday: An Introduction

May 7, 2013 by umfablog

Welcome to the first installment of Textile Tuesday! Every Tuesday for the entire month of May we are going behind the scenes to witness an exciting project going on in the basement of the UMFA: the cleaning, preservation, and cataloging of our textile collection. Jennifer Ortiz, our Collections Manager, explains that a textile is defined as “any object that is woven of material, made with artificial or natural fibers.” There is no official definition that the UMFA uses to categorize […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: basement, behind the scenes, benefits of museums, cataloging, cleaning, conservation, history, history of UMFA, museum, museum secrets, preventative restoration, restoration, saddle blanket, Textile, Textile Tuesday, textiles, transparency, UMFA staff, University of Utah, uofu, utenation, working

Happy May Day!

May 1, 2013 by umfablog

Today is the first of May, also known as May Day. May Day can be marked in many ways, depending on where you live: with a maypole, a bonfire, or the exchanging of gifts. Have you ever wondered why the distress call (for ships at sea, for planes in trouble) is “Mayday“? I have, and I was inspired today to finally look it up. Turns out it is derived from the French expression venez m’aider, which means “come help me!”, and has […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, collection highlight, holidays, museum, Spring

National Poetry Month Ends

April 30, 2013 by umfablog

April is National Poetry Month, and as it draws to a close we thought we’d comb through our collection for something wonderfully poetry-themed. We found this wood engraving depicting the poet Saigyo Hoshi (1118 – 1190, Japan) as he looks toward Mount Fuji. I think this poem is perfect for any Utahn about to enter spring: Not Stopping To Mark The Trail by Saigyo Hoshi Not stopping to mark the trail, let me push even deeper into the mountain. Perhaps there’s […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, collection highlight, holidays, japan, japanese art, museum, national poetry month, poetry, Saigyo Hoshi, University of Utah, Viewing art

Museum Myth Monday: Museums are Cool

April 29, 2013 by umfablog

The first rule of cool is that you should never be the one to say you’re cool; you should let other people do that for you. In some ways, as an employee of the UMFA, I am totally about to break that rule. But perhaps instead we should consider me that “other person” that’s telling you why the museum is cool. So, let’s talk behind its back: We’ve spent the month of April showing how to walk into our doors, […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: anthropology, art, benefits of museums, Bierstadt to Warhol, chamber music, chamber music series, community, contemporary art exhibition, events, exhibitions, family, film, film series, free, Free admission, museum events, museum myth monday, myths in the museum, umfa, UMFA staff, University of Utah, uofu, utenation, Viewing art

TONIGHT: Utah Film Center Series, Grab

April 24, 2013 by umfablog

As a complement to “Bierstadt to Warhol: American Indians in the West” the UMFA is partnering with the Utah Film Center to present three films from Native American filmmakers, whose work represents an evolution of the Native American storytelling tradition. Tonight’s featured film is Grab.  Wednesday, April 24, 7pm – 9pm UMFA Katherine W. and Ezekiel R. Dumke Jr. Auditorium The website for the film offers this synopsis: Grab is an intimate portrait of the little-documented Grab Day in the villages […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: benefits of museums, Bierstadt to Warhol, community, events, family, film, film series, free, Free admission, museum events, Native American film, umfa, University of Utah, uofu

Museum Myth Monday: I Must Be Looking At It Wrong

April 22, 2013 by umfablog

According to Jack Donaghy, the fictional CEO on the now-syndicated NBC show 30 Rock, the only three appropriate subjects for a painting are 1) horses, 2) ships with sails, and 3) men staring off into the distance while holding swords. The joke, of course, is that these are common, safe subjects that are likely to be free of surprises and challenges. In many ways, it’s what we began with, from our earliest paintings on cave walls that featured horses, to our […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: 30 Rock on art, Annie Burbidge-Ream, art, benefits of museums, contemporary art, Jack Donaghy, Jack Donaghy on art, modern art, museum, museum job, museum myth monday, myths in the museum, painting, umfa, UMFA staff, University of Utah, uofu, utenation, Viewing art, Whitney Tassie

TODAY: Kevin Red Star Artist Talk

April 18, 2013 by umfablog

TODAY: Kevin Red Star Artist Talk Thursday, April 18 4:30pm-5:30pm UMFA Auditorium What a great way to spend time at the UMFA: Kevin Red Star will discuss his development as an artist and the themes in his work. Born and raised on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana, Kevin Red Star’s family, heritage, and abundance of visual experience serve as his palette. He is considered a visual historian and ambassador for his Native Crow culture. His work is […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: American art, American artist, American Indian Art, anthropology, art, Artist Talk, Bierstadt to Warhol, community, contemporary art exhibition, events, exhibitions, free, Free admission, Kevin Red Star, lecture, painting, University of Utah, uofu, utenation, Viewing art