BRB: Getting Married

June 17, 2013 by umfablog

I’m getting married this week! This means you, my loyal fans and readers, must exercise some patience while I take a brief hiatus. I promise to be back soon, and I’ll be so excited to get back to exploring and learning together. … But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The wedding isn’t for a few days, which means I have plenty of time to investigate “The Wedding Party” by Philip Richard Morris from our European Collection. I took full […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, benefits of museums, collection highlight, painting, transparency, umfa, UMFA staff, University of Utah, Viewing art

Happy Father’s Day!

June 15, 2013 by umfablog

It was in 1910 that the governor of the U.S. state of Washington proclaimed the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” But it was not until 1972 (58 years after President Wilson made Mother’s Day official) that the day became a nationwide holiday. Perhaps my favorite quote from this article on the History Channel’s website is: The campaign to celebrate the nation’s fathers did not meet with the same enthusiasm–perhaps because, as one florist explained, “fathers haven’t the same sentimental appeal that […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: community, family, Father's Day, holidays

Rainbows in June (and in the UMFA)

June 3, 2013 by umfablog

June is LGBT Pride Month, and Salt Lake City lit up this weekend with a slew of Pride events. Since working in an art museum provides one with a rather intensive visual focus, one repeating image caught our eye (and curiosity): the rainbow flag. How did this become a symbol for gay pride, we wondered. The rainbow, or gay pride, flag in its current iteration consists of six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Each of these colors […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: art, community, events, holidays, LGBT, painting, Pride Month, University of Utah

We Invite You To Stop and Stare

May 30, 2013 by umfablog

A recent article in the Boston Globe draws attention to our propensity for distraction by our bustling, buzzing, electronic modern world. The article cites a study that found “students, when left to their own devices, are unable to focus on homework for more than two minutes without turning to Web surfing or e-mail. Adults in the workforce can make it to about 11 minutes.” (Ahem: are you supposed to be working right now?) But good news! There seems to be […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: benefits of museums, umfa, University of Utah, uofu, utenation, Viewing art

Textile Tuesday: The Wrap-Up

May 28, 2013 by umfablog

Our ongoing blog series for the month of May, Textile Tuesday, draws to a close today. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be checking in on the project throughout its duration (remember: it may last for a couple of years yet!) It just means that, for now, the weekly updates are winding down. Textile Tuesday has been a lot of fun for me. For one, it’s always exciting to visit the basement of the UMFA. For another, it was a […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: benefits of museums, conservation, museum job, navajo saddle blanket, preventative restoration, restoration, Textile Tuesday, textiles, transparency, umfa, UMFA staff, University of Utah, uofu

Textile Tuesday: Docent and Volunteer Edition

May 21, 2013 by umfablog

Welcome back to Textile Tuesday, where we’ve been following the fascinating goings-on in the basement of the UMFA. So far we’ve examined the why and the how–now it’s time for an introduction to the who. Every Wednesday in the basement of the UMFA, a number of people are hard at work. These include members of our staff (Jennifer Ortiz, Collections Manager, and Carol Fulton, Collection Assistant), some of our docents (Harsha Acharya, Bernadette Brown, and Maria Villa), as well as […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: behind the scenes, benefits of museums, conservation, docents, museum job, navajo saddle blanket, quilt, restoration, Textile, Textile Tuesday, textiles, transparency, University of Utah, uofu, volunteering, volunteers, working

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