Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

If you’ve ever wondered what curators really do, here’s a glimpse into the glamorous lives of some of the curators at the Nelson-Atkins.

Here we see Jan Schall and Leesa Fanning, curators of modern & contemporary art. They are working with a life-size cardboard mock up of Six-Foot Energy Void by Isamu Noguchi. The piece is one of seven that will be installed in the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court in the new Bloch Building.

The real sculpture weighs over 4,000 pounds. That’s why they leave the heavy lifting to our fabulous preparation staff. Here they are installing Noguchi’s Endless Coupling.

All of the sculptures will be on view when the Bloch Building opens June 9, 2007.

I’ve been poking around in the new Bloch Building again. Today was pretty quiet but that gave me time to capture some beautiful images of all the windows in the building.

On the ground level, most of the exterior is made of glass. Some of it is transparent to allow views into the Kansas City Sculpture Park and of the Nelson-Atkins Building, but most of it is translucent. Architect Steven Holl’s design creates soaring ceilings that let in ample amounts of light into the galleries below.

And then there is my favorite type of window, a store window! The new Museum Store on the lower level of the Bloch Building looks great. Wonderful books, unique lamps, gorgeous vases and other decorative items are just waiting for opening day next June 9.

If you’ve ever wondered where works of art go when they are not on view, here is a little behind the scenes look into the world of art storage at the Nelson-Atkins.

As well as increased gallery space, the new Bloch Building has a tremendous amount of art storage. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities provided for some slick new cases and fancy hanging racks. Of course, I am oversimplifying the whole thing (I’m a writer, not a conservator).

A recent tour of the new facilities with the director of conservation and collections management was quite enlightening. It is quite an operation to track a piece of art from the time it enters our doors to the time it makes it on the wall.

Though the Museum would much prefer to share as much art with the public as possible, it is comforting to know that we have such quality storage.

By the way, that’s Willem de Kooning’s iconic Woman IV on that fancy hanging rack. It was very cool to see the labels on the back showing all the places it has been loaned.

In my opinion, the best time to visit Kansas City is the fall. There is still plenty of sunshine and blue skies. Temperatures are usually pretty friendly but who cares with all the beautiful scenery?

The Kansas City Sculpture Park makes the perfect fall outing. The trees are gorgeous with their leaves turning all shades of red, yellow and brown. If you're really into nature, you'll enjoy reading the new horticulture signs throughout the Park.

Of course, the 34 sculptures are the stars of the Park. They include works by Claes Oldenburg, Henry Moore and Tony Cragg.

There are many special areas in the new Bloch Building that allow for reflection and inspiration. One of them is the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court, a large, Zen-like space dedicated to the works of Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

One of the seven works by Noguchi featured in this space is Fountain, which was previously installed in Kirkwood Hall in 1999. For now, Fountain is covered with a sheet of plastic to contain the dust and dirt in the building.

Fountain is composed of two, asymmetrically sculpted basalt stones, similar in size but differing in subtle configurations of form. The top surface of one stone is concave, while that of the other is convex. The two stones gracefully rest on a bed of Japanese river rocks.

Water flows gently over the tops and sides of each stone, reflecting light, deepening the stones’ color and creating a meditative sound as it reaches the bed of river rocks below. In the Bloch Building, the bed of rocks continues from the inside of the building to the outside without interruption.