CU Art Museum

Finding ‘Better Days’ through art

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:23:47 +0000

Finding ‘Better Days’ through art Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/20/2024 - 09:23

Rachel Sauer

New CU Art Museum exhibit highlights the ways in which art meets challenging times and finds the sometimes-elusive silver lining

It began not with the more known Confederate battle flag—the infamous stars and bars—but with the lesser-known Confederate flag of truce, a white linen towel waved on April 9, 1865, by Confederate troops when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, ending the U.S. Civil War.

In 2019, textile and social practice artist Sonya Clark made the flag of truce the focal point of her work Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know, recreating the “cloth that brokered peace and represented the promise of reconciliation.” The University of Colorado Art Museum recently acquired Clark’s 2022 print, Confederate, surrender, which reconstructs the historical artifact.

"From Me, All Things Proceed and to Me, They Must Return," by Hollis Sigler (1991) is part of the "Better Days" exhibition now open at the CU Art Museum.

It was this interpretation of a lesser-known symbol that got curators and staff at the museum thinking: “(Clark) is taking this ongoing moment in history and, in many ways, elevating it with an act of repair,” says Hope Saska, acting director, chief curator and director of academic engagement in the museum. “That started us thinking about how do artists take these times that may be challenging and then use art to respond?”

The fruit of those discussions is “Better Days,” an exhibition on view beginning today and open through Oct. 26, highlighting how artists “respond to times of uncertainty” with “work that can help make sense of the world.” In the works in the exhibit, drawn from the museum’s collection, “some [artists] imagine a better world, encouraging viewers to find silver linings, while others reveal hidden aspects of conflict, sparking conversation… Collectively, they offer ways to contend with a complex world, urging viewers to celebrate our shared humanity, witness injustice and work to repair division and inequity.”

These themes are especially timely as the U.S. presidential race speeds toward election day and as events worldwide seem to create tumult and fracture rather than hope and healing, Saska says.

“In some of these artworks (in the exhibit), artists are taking stands about racial injustice and political and social conflict, or they’re making artworks related to the AIDS crisis,” she explains. “For the museum, in the climate we have today, taking on these topics kind of feels risky sometimes. We were thinking about all of these things as we curated the exhibit, so hopefully it is thought-provoking even in its challenging aspects. Our goal is that what people really get out of it is positive and reparative. We want them to come away with hope.”

If you go

What: "Better Days" exhibition

When: Aug. 20-Oct. 26; reopening February 2025. Opening celebration from 4-6 p.m. Sept. 12.

Where: CU Art Museum

More information

Daniella Fairley, a junior who is studying art history and ethnic studies with a minor in creative technology and design, completed an eight-week Art Buffs Collective internship with the CU Art Museum during the summer. As part of the internship, Fairley helped curate and create “Better Days.”

“I felt like this exhibit shows the perseverance of the human spirit and how we cope with tragedy,” Fairley says. “In seeing a lot of these art works and learning how they were made, what they represent, their stories, I feel like it's important to show how humans struggle and how we still live through it. Art connects us more than we think, and I hope that people can feel that connection or thread when looking at this show.”

Lead museum attendant Bella Mahlerbe, a student in the bachelor’s-accelerated master’s in art history, also provided curatorial labor for the exhibit. Malherbe worked with fellow Lead museum attendant Riley Ramsay to create a visitor feedback wall where visitors can share responses to the exhibition.

Top image: "Party Picture," by Laurie Simmons (1985) is part of the "Better Days" exhibition now open at the CU Art Museum.

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Student-curated exhibit focuses on labor and the work of art

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:23:56 +0000

Student-curated exhibit focuses on labor and the work of art Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/09/2024 - 11:23

Rachel Sauer

‘(Art)work: Systems of Making’ opens with a celebration Friday afternoon at the CU Art Museum

As the 12 graduate students gathered around a long table discussing art, over several weeks their conversation eventually wound its way to labor. They were inspired by the labor movements happening in the United States and around the world.

“These movements inspired wage-related discussions for us as students at CU Boulder,” explains Rachel DeNagy. “We empathize with labor rights groups, because we feel both underrepresented in society and underpaid as student-workers for our labor.”

The conversations began as brainstorming the theme for an exhibition they would curate at the University of Colorado Art Museum and grew into “(Art)work: Systems of Making,” which opens with a celebration from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday at the CU Art Museum and runs through March 22.

"The Artist Eroticized (Alina)" (2020), an oil on linen by Jenna Gribbon that is included in "(Art)work: Systems of Making."

“(Art)work: Systems of Making” features artworks that offer different perspectives on labor and the workplace. Some of the featured themes include artist collaborations and networks of creation, the coding of labor according to gender and race, labor movements and the connections between labor and nationalism.

It is the culmination of a graduate-level curatorial practicum taught by Hope Saska, acting director, chief curator and director of academic engagement for the CU Art Museum.

“Our focus has been curating from a social justice perspective,” Saska says. “The students guided the discussion to topics and issues around labor, and I’m really impressed by how they took this key topic and expanded it in a lot of really innovative ways.”

Focusing on labor

In discussing how to approach the various issues and topics relating to labor, the students “felt there were a lot of ways to use the museum's collection, and the format of an art exhibit, to cover ‘labor’ as a theme, ways that would intersect the museum's collection with this broad concept from different angles,” says dani wasserman, giving as an example the labor of artmaking, “or hidden or underrepresented labor in society—what people might immediately think of as ‘blue collar labor.’ There's a lot of interesting interpretive and curatorial work that can be done around depictions of this kind of work in art, especially with a collection as broad and eclectic as CU Art Museum’s.”

The students delved into the CU Art Museum’s collections, as well as those of University Libraries, to curate an exhibit that includes works as varied as manuscript pages on vellum from the early Renaissance paired with inexpensive magazines produced by the Guerilla Girls activist and artist collective.

There are works that address how labor intersects with race and gender, posters for labor unions and works—such as Japanese wood block prints—produced by artist collectives.

"Henequenero" (1945), a lithograph by Alfredo Zalce that is part of "(Art)work: Systems of Making."

“Given my research focus on Japanese art, I was immediately drawn to the Japanese artworks,” explains Kat Bertram. “Collaborating with another art history graduate, Sam Hensley, who shares a Japanese focus, we centered our discussions around the theme and identified Ukiyo-e (a genre of Japanese art from the 17th-19th centuries; its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings) as a fitting subject. Our interest lay in exploring the collaborative dynamics within art creation, particularly in the context of Ukiyo-e, where the traditional emphasis on the designer overlooks the contributions of carvers, printers and publishers.”

‘More than a stroke of genius’

Because the exhibition is happening in a post-COVID-lockdown world, Saska says, a lot of the students’ discussion also focused on how labor does or doesn’t define people.

“I hope that, at best, people might leave the show with an impression of how labor is really central to our lives and our society,” wasserman says. “How through analyzing our attitudes about work, whether that be through art— that's just one way— we can ask some really interesting questions about how we got to this world we are in and maybe even start to consider how reimagining that relationship to labor and to work can help us imagine a different, more equitable future. At the least, I think people will leave with a new concept of how much labor goes into artmaking itself.”

DeNagy adds that another goal for the exhibit is for “people see how art is layered. An artwork that we see in a gallery is a product of hours spent ideating, planning, laboring and fine-tuning.

“Art is more than a stroke of genius,” DeNagy says. “I hope that people see art as a group effort. There is more to a painting, a sculpture, a poster or a print than what first meets the eye. Art is a collective process, between an artist and their work, or between multiple people working together to create a finished product.”

Top image: "Men of Steel" (1939) by Samuel L. Margolies; the work is included in "(Art)work: Systems of Making"

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‘(Art)work: Systems of Making’ opens with a celebration Friday afternoon at the CU Art Museum.

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Artists celebrate Black womanhood, presence and connectedness

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 23:43:58 +0000

Artists celebrate Black womanhood, presence and connectedness Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/06/2024 - 16:43

Rachel Sauer

New exhibition opening Friday at CU Art Museum created by socially engaged artists-in-residence to honor Black girls and women

Like the “Mona Lisa” whom she mirrors, “Lona Misa” is keeping her secrets. Her expression is unknowable, and a million thoughts could be swirling behind her calm eyes.

She is a testament to the growth and evolution of her young artist, Kiana Gatling of Denver—a recognition of talent and value, of being an artist whose work is deserving of gallery walls.

Von Ross (left) and Charlie Billingsley consider how best to display "Lona Misa" by Kiana Gatling.

That’s not always an easy evolution for women, and especially for Black women, says Charlie Billingsley, who recognizes the profound power in a woman declaring “I am worthy.”

“That’s one of our goals here,” Billingsley explains, “to tell Black women, ‘What you create is good enough. What you create is amazing. You are amazing.’”

The “here” is "We CU: A Visual Celebration of Black Womanhood, Presence, and Connectedness," a new exhibition opening with a celebration from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday at the University of Colorado Art Museum; it will be on view through July 13. “We CU” is created, curated and presented by Billingsley and Von Ross, founders of the Museum for Black Girls in Denver and inaugural artists in the Socially Engaged Artists-In-Residence program created by the CU Art Museum and University Libraries.

“When we say, ‘We see you,’ what we’re saying to Black women is ‘we see you beautiful,’” Billingsley explains. “We see you amazing. We see you talented. We see you courageous. We’re saying to Black girls and Black women, ‘We want you to see yourselves as we see you.’”

‘You don’t have to be what you see’

One afternoon last week, with the ingredients of the exhibit fully formed in their minds and on paper, but in progress throughout the exhibition space, Billingsley and Ross consider the “Lona Misa.” Her 4-foot by 5-foot canvas is propped against a far wall and the two women stand chins on fists contemplating her.

If you go

What: Opening celebration for "We CU: A Visual Celebration of Black Womanhood, Presence, and Connectedness"

When: 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9

Where: CU Art Museum

Learn more

“She needs her own space,” Ross observes, and Billingsley nods.

“But is that wall too big?” Billingsley asks, pointing to an expanse of blank-for-now wall, against which an assortment of empty frames lean. Some of the frames are very old and reminiscent of ones they came across in the University Libraries archives—one of the many benefits of being artists in residence, Ross says.

“We get to see all these amazing art works, go through the archives and have access to these collections,” Billingsley says. “And that’s another thing we want to accomplish with ‘We CU,’ because a lot of times Black people don’t have this kind of access, so we want to show people that they belong in these spaces.”

Billingsley and Ross are considering whether to hang “Lona Misa” by herself or to surround her with empty frames—the frames being a motif that extends from the Museum for Black Girls.

“The frames are empty because you don’t have to conform to what society tells you (that) you should be,” Ross explains. “Oftentimes, Black girls don’t feel that the way they are is OK. They feel like they have to change, like they have to be different, so we’re saying that you don’t have to be what you see.”

Charlie Billingsley (left) and Von Ross partner on creating the exhibit "We CU: A Visual Celebration of Black Womanhood, Presence, and Connectedness."

‘We honor you’

The theme of authenticity runs through the exhibit, which Billingsley and Ross envision as a home. The various rooms and artifacts of home are represented “because home is where you’re your most authentic self,” Billingsley says. “You don’t have to talk a certain way or dress a certain way. With this exhibit, we’re inviting you into our homes.”

Against one wall, there’s a low green couch encased in plastic, because it’s the good couch and the plastic is how you keep it from getting dirty, Ross says. Against another wall is a salon chair with a clear plastic dryer hood, the kind under which many women have spent many hours.

“As Black women, these are the artifacts of our lives,” Ross says. “We want there to be that recognition and we want to say that these things have value. They matter.”

The exhibition highlights words and quotations that contextualize and exemplify the countless ways to be a Black woman in the world “and to show that words matter,” Billingsley says. “We want to show how impactful words are on Black women.”

The flow of the exhibition will take visitors to a dining room, on which places are set for some of the many, many roles Black women fulfill, and then to a room filled with flowers.

“That’s our ‘thank you’ to Black girls and women,” Billingsley says. “This is our garden, and as they come through this is how we say, ‘We honor you.’”

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New exhibition opening Friday at CU Art Museum created by socially engaged artists-in-residence to honor Black girls and women.

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CU Art Museum earns first-time accreditation

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 17:42:22 +0000

CU Art Museum earns first-time accreditation Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/15/2023 - 11:42

Rachel Sauer

Following a rigorous, five-year process, the museum joins peer institutions with a recognition of its quality and credibility

The University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum recently joined an elite group of peer institutions when it received first-time accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums.

This distinction recognizes “a museum’s quality and credibility to the entire museum community, to governments and outside agencies, and to the museum-going public,” the American Alliance of Museums notes, adding that the accreditation program ensures the integrity and accessibility of museum collections, reinforces the educational and public service roles of museums and promotes good governance practices and ethical behavior.

“This is an important milestone,” says Sandra Q. Firmin, museum director. “It increases our credibility as a trusted resource and partner on the CU campus and in the community and also among our peer institutions. It applauds the work we do to fuel imagination and collaboration through art.”

Top of the page: "Pool" by Sandra Kaplan is featured in the current Lush: Prolific Nature exhibit. Above: Sandra Q. Firmin is director of the University of Colorado Art Museum and led the successful accreditation process.

Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, more than 1,099 are accredited. The CU Art Museum is one of 26 museums accredited in Colorado. “We are thrilled to join this esteemed community of museums in Colorado and nationwide,” Firmin says.

Reflecting on purpose

The road to accreditation traversed a winding five years, extended by a global pandemic that saw the museum close from March 13, 2020, to Aug. 17, 2021. “We knew the process was going to be rigorous, but that added a whole new dimension,” says Maggie Mazzullo, head registrar and collection manager. “It really gave us an opportunity to reflect on our role and our identity.”

The accreditation process began in 2018 with submitting key operational documents for evaluation, then completing a more in-depth self-study. The first prompt in the self-study was deceptively simple: “Briefly describe what stories and messages the museum wants to convey; and the museum’s interpretive philosophy, educational goals and target audiences.”

“That was a whole-museum effort,” says Hope Saska, chief curator and director of academic engagement. “It was so much more than asking whether we’re good stewards of the collection, which is a great strength of this museum. It was looking at how we create learning opportunities and partnerships with faculty and students. Reviewers recognized our student-centered perspective and noted the excellence of students in our Museum Attendant Program.”

Maggie Mazzullo, CU Art Museum head registrar and collection manager (left), and Hope Saska, chief curator and director of academic engagement, helped guide the five-year accreditation process.

In the self-study, museum staff noted, “We are a collecting institution with artworks representing 10,000 years of human history. Because of the historical depth and geographic scope of the collection, the museum is able to mobilize the collection to relate a wide range of stories and messages. Our exhibitions are designed to contextualize our collection, make visible campus research through collaborative projects, and present new artistic productions.”

Saska highlights as an example the recently opened Lush: Prolific Nature exhibition, which brings together artworks from the museum’s collection that focus on the natural world. Not only are different geographies and time periods represented in many different media, but several pieces are on display for the first time.

One such piece is “Volcán” by artist Fernanda Brunet, a fiberglass, wood and metal sculpture abundantly blooming with vibrant migajón flowers made from a bread-based clay. “We’re really excited to be displaying this for the first time,” Saska says. “We’re thinking about so many things as we’re envisioning our exhibitions, and an important aspect of that is the idea that any faculty member can find an artwork here that relates to what they’re teaching in class, and any student can come here to see what they’re learning about.”

In-depth peer evaluation

Another important aspect of the accreditation process is a multi-day, on-site evaluation completed by peer reviewers. These reviewers considered not only practical aspects of museum operations—such as whether environmental conditions are appropriate for the collection and whether the interpretive materials are accurate, informed and professionally presented—but also how well the museum encourages and facilitates community discourse and how it asserts its public service role.

In their final evaluation, the peer reviewers note that not only do museum staff take pride in the power of strategic planning to guide the museum to new heights, but also ground their work in student-centeredness and a commitment to the museum’s educational mission.

Tim Whiten: Tools of Conveyance was a featured exhibit in 2021.

The CU Art Museum “emphasizes its learner-centeredness through its interdisciplinary teaching, using its strong and developing art collection to educate audiences about subjects well beyond the boundaries of art and art history,” the peer reviewers observed. “Additionally, students and faculty learn through collaborative label writing for exhibitions and object writing for the newsletter, as well as exhibitions that they curate with staff guidance (these include thesis work for art students).”

Firmin adds that while the accreditation process was long and rigorous, achieving the distinction “is validating and acknowledges the expertise of our staff and all the ways the museum supports education and our partners in the community. It recognizes the museum as a dynamic and growing institution.”

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Following a rigorous, five-year process, the museum joins peer institutions with a recognition of its quality and credibility.

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Students seeking museum work experience get a helping hand

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 18:48:49 +0000

Students seeking museum work experience get a helping hand Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/07/2021 - 12:48

Clint Talbott

Dexter and Gina Williams, friends of the university and fans of art, establish fund to pay students to work in the CU Art Museum

When students work at museums while still in school, they gain experience that can boost their careers. But unpaid museum internships and volunteer work can exclude students who need a paycheck to finish college.

Catch-22.

At the University of Colorado Boulder, the newly established Dexter and Gina Williams Student Endowment Fund aims to square this circle. The fund will support paid student positions at the CU Art Museum.

At the top of the page: On the left is a student reviewing ancient points in an Art of Ancient Roman coins class at the CU Art Museum. Photo by Glenn Asakawa. On the right is Persuasive Prints (Installation view), CU Art Museum, February 6–March 12, 2020. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder. Above: Dexter and Gina Williams

“This helps set a more level playing field for everyone who wants to do the work and be involved in the museum,” said Dexter Williams, who earned a master’s in art history from CU Boulder in 1984. His thesis focused on photographer Robert Frank and the Beat Generation.

Williams also holds a BA in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine, and, like his wife, Gina Padilla Williams, enjoyed a successful career in finance. Since taking an undergraduate class in art history in the 1970s, however, Dexter’s passion has been art and art history.

In recent years, some observers have debated the utility of unpaid museum internships and volunteer work. Last June, the Association of Art Museum Directors formally urged art museums to offer paid internships, which the group said was “essential to increasing access and equity for the museum profession.”

The Williamses agreed that it’s important for students to gain museum experience, with a paid position opening the opportunity to a wider and more economically diverse audience.

They also believe that “while working in a museum is certainly rewarding, just as importantly, that experience gives students a little bit of a leg up” as they seek jobs in museums, galleries and auction houses.

Gina and Dexter hope that students working at the CU Art Museum not only burnish their credentials but also expand the museum’s institutional knowledge of its growing collection, “so they'll leave a legacy behind as well.”

When they interact with museum experts and mentors, students help to shape the museum’s in-gallery activities and exhibitions. CU Art Museum student employees also support art research, writing and business while working on programs and projects throughout the academic year.

Traci McDonald, visitor experience coordinator at the CU Art Museum, said the museum’s staff is dedicated to paying students for their contributions and to building a program in which students are trained in professional skills to engage meaningfully with museum visitors.

Students in this program learn the inner workings of museums and work directly with staff and faculty.

While working in a museum is certainly rewarding, just as importantly, that experience gives students a little bit of a leg up."

“We are so grateful and excited to have Dexter and Gina's support, as it helps us to achieve our goal to employ all our students while offering them the unique training experience that will help them throughout their careers and their life,” McDonald said.

“We recognize an overreliance on unpaid labor in museums presents obstacles for future professionals who wish to gain entry to the field,” she added. “We are committed to identifying and shaping new paths forward and are truly honored to receive this generous gift.”

Sandra Q. Firmin, the CU Art Museum’s director and chief curator, praised Gina and Dexter Williams as “stalwart supporters for the arts on campus.”

The couple has also funded a scholarship for graduate students in the Department of Art and Art History, and Dexter serves on the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board and the Art Museum's Community Council.

Firmin added that Dexter and Gina Williams’ “bequest of the Williams BEAT Collection is a transformational gift, featuring the cutting-edge literature, photographs and paintings of this important era in the history of Colorado and the United States and will enrich the educational experience of students.”

For more information or to support students in the Department of Art and Art History or the CU Art Museum, contact Associate Director of Development Amber Story.

Dexter and Gina Williams, friends of the university and fans of art, establish fund to pay students to work in the CU Art Museum.

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Math alum sows seeds of diversity in art

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 01:00:17 +0000

Math alum sows seeds of diversity in art Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/04/2021 - 18:00

Clay Bonnyman Evans

$25K gift establishes Diversity Acquisition Fund at CU Boulder Art Museum

In fall semester 2020, Hope Saska, decided to create a new collection plan for the University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum.

“It’s a document to articulate what we collect and why we collect it, and what our mission is,” says Saska, curator of collections and exhibitions at the museum. “It also is a history of the collection, so we can better understand past motivations.”

Started in the 1940s, the art museum’s collection accumulated over the decades in a broad, general direction. Saska thought it was a good time to sharpen the focus.

At the top of the page: Persuasive Prints (Installation view), CU Art Museum, February 6–March 12, 2020. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder. Above: Body Language: Picturing People (Installation view), CU Art Museum, July 18, 2019– March 12, 2020. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder.

“It occurred to me that we should be more intentional about charting a direction for the future, thinking about where opportunities might be to expand, and thinking about diversity was really important,” she says. “We needed to find a clear path, and if we were reimagining, why not be as broad and diverse as possible.”

Enter Ann Bateson, a long-time Boulder resident who earned a PhD in mathematics in 1977 and spent much of her career working at the Center for the Study of Earth From Space—now the Earth Science and Observation Center at CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science.

A current member of the museum’s collection committee, Bateson made a $25,000 donation as a seed endowment of the new Diversity Acquisition Fund, which will be used to acquire works by historically underrepresented artists such as artists of color, artists with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ artists.

Once fully endowed, the fund will spend 4% of its principal annually to purchase work for the collection.

“Ann’s seed gift will hopefully encourage others to donate, to help the museum develop this aspect of our collection,” Saska says.

“I’m very excited to be a part of it,” Bateson says. “I’m excited that the museum is creating a space that feels inclusive to all students and addresses issues of importance to them.”

I’m excited that the museum is creating a space that feels inclusive to all students and addresses issues of importance to them."

Bateson’s sister is an artist (“but I’m not at all!” she says) and she grew up in Dallas, a significant regional hub for the arts. She’s always been struck by the story of Emma Lee Moss, a domestic worker in Dallas who was able to build her career as an artist only after receiving a small trust fund from her former husband’s mother upon her death.

“She became an accomplished folk artist and built up a reputation,” Bateson says. “But she couldn’t practice and develop her work until she received that support.”

CU Art Museum Exhibition Gallery. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder.

Because the fund won’t be in a position to purchase art immediately, the museum has designated funds in its interim collection plan to bridge the gap, Saska says.

The museum has already begun developing a network of connections to curators and institutions across the nation to build on their expertise in creating a more diverse collection.

“We are able to have Zoom meetings with artists working in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, and talking to curators,” she says. “In a strange way, the (COVID-19) pandemic has allowed us to have these conversations; being isolated has encouraged this moment of network building and re-evaluation.”

But Saska says there is already one clear direction for acquisitions: works on paper, building on the $1.35 million 2018 acquisition of the “Sharkive”—750 original works and 2,000 related materials from the Lyons-based printmaking studio started by artists Bud and Barbara Shark in the 1970s, now known as Shark’s Ink.

“There are a lot of artists of color who are printmakers,” says Saska, who wrote her doctoral dissertation at Brown University on 18th-century graphic satire and caricature. “We will be able to acquire this kind of work, in terms of funding, and it’s also very easy to use in teaching. This provides a focus on something that is attainable.”

Works on paper are also easy to use in teaching, will facilitate the museum’s ongoing effort to expand interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching and fit into the university’s efforts to meet the needs of future students.

“Anchored by (the) study of, and interaction with, campus collections of material culture and natural specimens, this academy has the potential to impart skills across disciplines, modeling applications of ‘transfer learning’ where knowledge gained in one domain is applied to another,” Saska wrote with Jessica Brunecky, director of visitor experience and finance at the CU Art Museum in a 2019 paper for the university’s Academic Futures initiative.

While the museum’s diversity fund won’t be dedicated exclusively to works on paper, Saska says building on the Sharkive will make CU Boulder “a real center of gravity for this material, regionally.”

“Sometimes the rap on museums is that they are elite places for only certain types of audience,” she says. “But we’re hoping to get away from that, and this is will help us be more responsive to our community.”

Donations to the CU Boulder Art Museum Diversity Acquisition Fund can be made on the Colorado Giving Page.

$25K gift establishes Diversity Acquisition Fund at CU Boulder Art Museum.

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Sculpture class opened a door to art, and alum went all in

Anonymous — Wed, 01 May 2019 16:40:43 +0000

Sculpture class opened a door to art, and alum went all in Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/01/2019 - 10:40

Marysia Lopez

Rebecca Vaughan didn’t go to college planning to become an artist, yet she’s a successful artist and leader of an art nonprofit

Rebecca Vaughan never envisioned herself one day becoming a successful, Denver-based artist.

Rebecca Vaughan. At the top of the page is a photo of the installation "Not Exactly Love Garden." Images courtesy of Rebecca Vaughan.

A Colorado native who was usually more interested in math than the arts, Vaughan began her journey at the University of Colorado Boulder because her adoptive parents often hosted foreign exchange students in their home. Vaughan had a keen interest in studying abroad from a young age, and after living in the Netherlands for one year after high school, chose to study French at CU Boulder, with every intention of going back to Europe to live there.

As one of her electives, Vaughan took a sculpture class with Andrew Connelly, a graduate student at the time. The rest is history. Today, Vaughan splits her time between her role as art director of the arts-focused nonprofit PlatteForum and creating sculptural art and installations that, while successful, she later admits she is rarely pleased with.

For someone who had never taken an art class before and was intrigued by technical tasks, she appreciated the challenge that sculpture presented. It was this sculpture class that convinced Vaughan to stay at CU Boulder as a fine-arts major, eventually graduating with her BFA in sculpture in 1994.

At the time, Vaughan wasted no time getting involved with the BFA program. “Once I fell in love with it, I was deeply embedded in the community.”

She was an assistant for artist Linda Herritt, worked at the CU Art Museum, and never hesitated to seize an opportunity provided by CU Boulder. One such opportunity involved shadowing and learning from CU’s visiting artists, including internationally recognized artist Andrés Serrano, best known for his controversial 1987 photograph “Piss Christ.”

I understand things more by touching them and taking them apart and figuring out how to put them back together.”
—Rebecca Vaughan

But some of Vaughan’s most colorful and influential memories from her time at CU Boulder come from her late professors, Antonette “Toni” Rosato and Garrison Roots. She describes the two as having a good cop/bad cop interaction with their students; Rosato acting as the doting mother and Roots as the “tough love, kick your ass, call-you-on-your-stuff kind of professor.”

This dynamic, as well as the duo’s focus on interdisciplinary studies, shaped her into the inquisitive artist who later got accepted into Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious MFA program, she says.

At Carnegie Mellon, she dove into robotics and history classes, which helped inform her artwork. “I understand things more by touching them and taking them apart and figuring out how to put them back together,” Vaughan says.

This technical drive, combined with a desire to weave topics from history, women’s studies and social justice issues, is what influences her artwork most.

Being a successful, working artist in Denver for more than two decades, Vaughan is intimately familiar with its art community, and brings this knowledge to her second job as artistic director at PlatteForum.

The nonprofit is a youth-development and artist-residency program in Denver where under-resourced youth are able to create art alongside artists in residency. Artists working with PlatteForum range from local to international. In 2017, they hosted Kate Speer, a Denver based dancer with an MFA from CU Boulder. In her role as artistic director, Vaughan takes the same interdisciplinary approach that was instilled in her at CU.

“What I love most about PlatteForum… is actually being around youth and emerging artists.” At the nonprofit, Vaughan is able to help artists and youth find a way to merge art and activism, things that Vaughan says are “very specific to my art work. But when I came to PlatteForum, it felt like I actually had the rubber back on the road.”

It would be easy for Vaughan to immerse herself completely in one role—practicing artist or artistic director. Instead, she balances the two seamlessly while also letting one inform the other. At PlatteForum, where she is the only professional artist on staff, Vaughan sees herself as a representative of Denver’s arts community.

Many artists come to PlatteForum with a vision that they are unsure of how to execute; Vaughan is there to help make their vision a reality. And as a working artist, Vaughan is constantly inspired by the other artists who come through PlatteForum, allowing her to learn about new media and techniques that ultimately help to evolve her work.

Being around so many artist-activists at PlatteForum, Vaughan feels more emboldened as an artist to create work that’s focused on political and personal issues.

One such work is “Not Exactly Love Garden,” an installation from 2012 featured on her website. For the piece, Vaughan ruminated on the term “not exactly” and its possible implications. For Vaughan, the term “not exactly” is a way to be two things at the same time—not completely one, but not completely the other.

She focused on this idea while also exploring the themes of desire and repulsion, which Vaughan often explores in her work as an extension of the years-long search for her biological mother and her questions around being adopted. From this, Vaughan decided to create a “not exactly” garden.

The pink, ornate shapes on the wall are composed of 130 grow lights, and a lollipop crabapple tree is a stand-in for the human figure. The tree leans towards the grow lights for sustenance, in hopes that it will provide the light needed for its growth and development. Ultimately, however, the grow lights are not enough, and the crabapple tree dies.

With “Not Exactly Love Garden,” Vaughan examines what it means to nurture, or fail at nurturing, while also creating a vibrant and alluring environment.

After a three-year hiatus, Vaughan is ready to get back into creating and exhibiting work. Currently, she’s working on a collaboration with Jennifer Pettus, another CU Boulder graduate, set for summer 2020 at the Arvada Center.

When asked what motivates her to continue creating art, Vaughan makes a shocking admission: “I don’t like my own art.”

When pressed, it becomes clear what Vaughan means. She’s not a masochist, committed to creating art that she doesn’t love for the rest of her life. Rather, she’s a perfectionist constantly on a quest to manipulate materials in a way that synchronizes perfectly with the image and message she has in her mind.

Through laughter, Vaughan admits “I still haven’t matched it up perfectly… but I have had glimpses of it happening.”

These glimpses, the chance to create something that seamlessly synthesizes the materials and the concept, are what keeps Vaughan going.

Rebecca Vaughan didn’t go to college planning to become an artist, yet she’s a successful artist and leader of an art nonprofit.

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Students collaborate with CU Art Museum on new Roman coin exhibit

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Jan 2019 23:18:30 +0000

Students collaborate with CU Art Museum on new Roman coin exhibit Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/20/2019 - 16:18

Sarah Schleifer

One of Diane Conlin's goals is to encourage creative thinking among her students

In ancient Rome, coins were not just payment, but a form of communication and art.

The coins can tell wide-ranging stories about politics, resistance, religion, feminism and female sexuality in their contemporary world.

Students and auditors review ancient points in an Art of Ancient Roman coins class at the CU Art Museum. The students are studying the pictures on Roman coins as miniature works of art in the Collections Study classroom in the CUAM. Students, both undergrad and grad, work directly with the coins in small research groups to not only understand the artistic value of coins but to prepare proposals for an exhibition that will go up in the CUAM this semester. The coins they are working with are either CUAM objects or coins on loan from a local Boulder collector and CU donor. CU Boulder photos by Glenn Asakawa.

“The artistic exchange that took place between the anonymous creators of these coins, many of which were slaves, is fascinating to explore,” says Diane Conlin, associate professor of classics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Right now, the CU Art Museum’s Roman coin display is linear and chronological, she says. “I don’t know that our way is the most exciting way to tell that story.”

Students from Conlin’s cross-listed classics and art-history class, “The Art of Roman Coins,” are inserting their fresh perspective into the exhibit, set to open this spring. The exhibit will incorporate the Wink Jaffee collection of Roman coins—donated by a prominent Boulder resident and Roman-coin collector, the late Wink Jaffee—and a selection of coins owned by the CU Boulder Natural History Museum.

Conlin helped students analyze the coins and create proposals on how to best display them to engage museum-goers. One of Conlin’s goals is to encourage creative thinking among her students. “I want to be able to give them an opportunity to shine in a way they normally wouldn’t be asked to in a classics class,” she says.

In their project presentations, students gave an “extended elevator pitch” of their exhibition ideas and floorplans in groups of three. Some incorporated technology like 3D printing replicas of Roman vases and sculptures to engage their museum audience, while others used QR codes linking to high-resolution images of the coins online. Museum staff will review their proposals and come up with a new exhibition based on a combination of student ideas, says Conlin.

Her students also collaborated with Hope Saska, curator of collections and exhibitions at the art museum, and Britt Scholnick, associate collection manager and registrar, to learn the “nuts and bolts” of a good exhibition proposal, and how to properly handle the coins, access information through the museum’s database for their research and how to leave their “disciplinary jargon” behind.

“I think in general, students tend to think about their audiences being their professor or their fellow students,” Saska explains.

“In this context, they really had to think about their audience as anybody who walks in the front door of the museum. They may be people who have very limited experience with art, or being in a museum context.”

This project aligns with the museum’s aim to increase interdisciplinary relationships across campus and “make impact in curricular development.”

Saska explains that fostering “meaningful intersections between courses and the museum” is a goal of the project, and that these relationships will raise awareness about the role of museums.

The interdisciplinary work the class completed with the coins and the museum will hopefully reveal other possible avenues of collaboration, Scholnick says. Engaging with Women and Gender Studies about the depiction of women on coins, with economics about their monetary value, perhaps even with chemistry to explore their precious metals, are all potential areas of research.

As for the final exhibit, Scholnick says, “I don't know what the selection of topics is going to look like, but I do think this is going to enable us to be a lot more interdisciplinary.”

The CU Art Museum's exhibition of the students' "recuration" will go on display April 2 and is expected to be remain open for several years.

One of Diane Conlin's goals is to encourage creative thinking among her students.

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Anthropologist launches high-tech study of color in ancient art

Anonymous — Fri, 18 May 2018 22:30:04 +0000

Anthropologist launches high-tech study of color in ancient art Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/18/2018 - 16:30

Jeff Thomas

Project involves innovative collaboration between CU Art Museum, non-invasive spectroscopy and a CU Boulder expert in antiquity

It’s easy enough to marvel at a tapestry of color in your local museum, but University of Colorado Boulder students are getting a first-hand look at human history that only an ultra-close examination of color can provide.

Students and Gerardo Gutiérrez perform technical photography of Spanish colonial painting on loan from the Denver Art Museum to the CU Art Museum. Photo by Mariana Lujan Sanders. At the top of the page, Gutiérrez performs elemental analysis of pigments with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) of Spanish colonial painting on loan from the Denver Art Museum to the CU Art Museum. Photo by James Cordova.

The graduate and undergraduate students are working with Gerardo Gutiérrez, an anthropology professor who specializes in archaeology, and the Colors of History Project at CU Boulder. Together, they are bringing advanced atomic spectrometry methods to the CU Art Museum, where students in archaeology and art and art history are learning to use the equipment and process the data.

The project brings cutting-edge analysis to ancient pieces of art that are seldom analyzed this way, and it is an unusual collaboration that sheds light on ancient peoples.

“We are studying ancient societies through their use of colors,” said Gutiérrez. “Their preferences in what pigments they choose in their paintings create meaning by codifying the color as a language. We do not use color by accident. We use color to share complex ideas.”

How those pigments were manufactured tell an increasingly illuminating story about the cultures that produced them. But until fairly recently, the methods to specifically identify the materials selected in creating pigments and dyes were destructive and performed only in large laboratory facilities. As such, only a limited number of art and archaeological pieces have ever been studied because these objects rarely leave the museums and typically cannot be sampled given their incommensurable historical value.

This project, though, uses an array of high-tech, non-invasive methods, including hyperspectral and multispectral imaging, fiber optic reflectance, Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and XRF (X-ray fluorescence) spectrometry.

Each method produces distinct pieces of information on the chemical composition of ancient pigments and dyes. For instance, infrared spectrometry identifies different molecules by the way they vibrate in that light spectrum.

For Pre-Columbian artifacts, infrared spectrometry helps identify Maya Blue pigment, which represents an important step forward in ancient color technology. Artists began combining blue dye extracted from indigo plants with a specific type of clay, creating one of the most durable colors humanity has ever developed. Maya Blue is now considered a technological feat in the chemistry and physics of nanoparticles.

By using X-ray spectrometry and Infrared spectroscopy (which reveal chemical composition of matter through analysis of which parts of the electromagnetic spectrum , Gutierrez and his students can identify the primary elemental composition, trace elements and chemical compounds of the materials that were used in the creation of pigments. They have also been developing a color palette containing swaths of pure pigments and dyes, especially those recognized as frequently used by ancient cultures.

They compare the “spectral signatures” (indicating chemical composition) of known colors with those under study and identify unknown colors. The identification of ancient pigments and dyes helps scientists and historians to understand exactly where and how pigments were produced, what trade existed to secure the pigments, and even what ideological value was place on colors by these earlier populations.

We are studying ancient societies through their use of colors. ... Their preferences in what pigments they choose in their paintings create meaning by codifying the color as a language. We do not use color by accident. We use color to share complex ideas.”

For instance, both Aztec and Mayan cultures shared a common method of depicting living-thing representations, like humans and animals. In both groups, animated figures were depicted with black charcoal shapes; however, they were also outlined with an amazing red organic lake color produced from female cochineal insects.

“They did that only for humans and animal figures and not for numbers or calendrical symbols, which are instead painted with a mineral red ocher,” Gutiérrez said. “What that suggests is that the painters are, in a way, providing a soul and animating human and animal figures in their ancient documents.”

Funding to begin this initiative came from the National Science Foundation. The color laboratory originally focused on Pre-Columbian Art, but now is expanding into Spanish Colonial paintings of Latin America, Classical Mediterranean, Northern European, Asian and African Art.

Gutierrez and his team have been analyzing art and archaeological objects residing in the CU Art Museum, Olmec rock art found in Mexico, and, by collaborating with Professor James Cordova from the Department of Art and Art History, Spanish Colonial Paintings that were recently lent to CU by the Denver Art Museum.

“There are few places in the U.S. that are focusing on the analysis of ancient pigments and dyes, such as the Getty Conservation Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum and now the University of Colorado Boulder,” Gutiérrez said.

The initiative is supported by the dean of arts and sciences and the vice chancellor of research. The program counts on the interdisciplinary assistance of CU Professors Steve Lekson, James Cordova, Herbert H. Covert, Douglas Bamforth and Sarah James; the curators and staff of the CU Art Museum Sandra Q. Firmin, Maggie Mazzullo, Hope Clark Saska, Brittney Scholnick, and Pedro Caceres; and graduate students Mariana Sanders, Erik Jurado, Tom Hanson, and Devin Pettigrew, with “special thanks” to Diana Wilson, office manager of the Department of Anthropology.

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Coinciding exhibitions transform Visual Arts Complex into fine arts gallery for one afternoon

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 17:33:12 +0000

Coinciding exhibitions transform Visual Arts Complex into fine arts gallery for one afternoon Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/04/2017 - 11:33

Craig Levinsky

King Exhibition, Open Studios and the CU Art Museum create a synergy of art

Next Thursday, April 13, from 2 to 5 p.m., the University of Colorado Boulder Visual Arts Complex (VAC) will join its neighboring Art Museum and Boulder’s Open Studios in hosting a unique joint showcase of two annual Art and Art History Department events: The King Exhibition and Emerging Artists Open Studios.

The King Exhibition will feature artwork throughout the VAC hallway walls, doubling as both gallery exhibit and open scholarship competition for graduate and undergraduate students. Meanwhile, the artists’ creative laboratories will be open and on display for the Emerging Artists Open Studios.

That afternoon, the Visual Arts Complex, home to the majority of CU’s fine arts programs and faculty/student studio space, becomes the gallery. Photography, video, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, painting, drawing and more will all be on view throughout the event.

Each year, the King Exhibition hosts a guest curator to select featured work, as well as award graduate and undergraduate students first- and second-place prizes of $1,000 and $500, generously donated by the King family, longtime supporters of the Art and Art History Department.

Laura Smith, a second-year MFA student focusing on ceramics, takes a moment in her tool-filled studio. At the top of the page, Jenny Shenk, also a second-year student in ceramics, poses with some of her work. Photos by Craig Levinsky.

Mandy Vink, of the City of Boulder Office of Arts and Culture, will provide curating services this year to the event where many students have sold pieces in the past or been solicited to exhibit in other venues.

For the Emerging Artists Open Studios share of the event, the artists’ workspace is the exhibit. At the same time the King Exhibition takes over the hallways of every floor in VAC, attendees will be able to visit both the undergraduate and graduate students’ creative space, speak with the student-artists themselves and explore their creative practice.

The most exciting thing about Open Studios, said Catherine Cartwright, graduate coordinator for the Department of Art and History, “is that it’s really the only time the public has an opportunity to see what’s behind closed doors. If you walk through the building any other time of year, you can’t tell what’s going on in people’s studios, so it’s like seeing inside the mind of the artist. To be able to ask, ‘What does this mean? What are you working on?’ I think is the most interesting part of the engagement.”

“So we not only see the student’s work in the form of a polished group exhibition,” added Cartwright, “but we get to see the rawness of the studios. It’s an interesting combination, like the front stage and behind the scenes at the same time.”

In addition to merging the King Exhibition and Open Studios events, another aspect that makes this year’s show unique is the timing overlap with the CU Boulder Conference on World Affairs. “So there’s a lot of presence and excitement with arts panels on campus,” said Cartwright.

“I think Mandy did a fantastic job pairing work together,” said Megan Chase, second-year graduate student focusing on painting and drawing, of being featured alongside her colleagues. “There’s a conversation happening between Laura’s piece, my pieces and Melissa’s pieces. I would have never thought to put them together, but I think they work really nicely and have this interesting dialogue going.”

“Every curator does something different and has a different vision,” said Kirk Ambrose, chair of the Department of Art and Art History.

“I think that’s part of the value. As students go through the program over the years, they see the dynamic or dialogic relationship between the curator and student, and that’s a really important aspect of this. Mandy Vink is going to have a very different vision than previous curators and that’s all for the good, across all the different formats, so that’s what I’m looking forward to the most, just seeing how that relationship between the students and the curator unfold. It’s always exciting.”

The CU Visual Arts Complex will join its neighboring CU Art Museum and Boulder’s Open Studios in hosting a unique joint showcase of two annual Art and Art History Department events: The King Exhibition and Emerging Artists Open Studios.

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