Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

August can be pretty quiet at the Nelson-Atkins, and this year is no different. The summer exhibitions have ended and we are all getting prepared for the busy fall season.

I am glad for the respite so that I can tell you about the Museum's wonderful photography collection. The collection encompasses the entire history of photography from 1839 to the present. There are only two galleries dedicated to photography (thank you to the new Bloch Building) and one of them is currently hosting the Human/Nature exhibition. That leaves one gallery to show the rest of the collection (7,500 works). That gallery is L10 in case you are wondering. It is just off the contemporary galleries and right behind the African galleries.

Due to the lack of space, the photography collection is completely reinstalled on a regular basis. One reason is to protect the original prints from too much exposure to light. The other is to allow the public to see a larger share of the collection. I walked in last week to see what they were up to and the galleries were totally empty. When I got there this afternoon, everything was perfectly in place. It was like magic.

In this one little gallery, I was treated to a wonderful tour of collection highlights as well as a quick lesson on the history of photography. The tour starts with three strking daguerreotypes. One is the recently acquired image of John Brown.

The next section covers the entire 19th century and includes a gorgeous image of the Adirondack Mountains by William Henry Jackson. The photograph is one image printed from four individual negatives. Jackson achieved this in 1890, long before Photoshop was conceived. The image is seamless and even in black and white, it is a stunning scene of natural beauty. There is also a fascinating compsoite picture of the Class of '87 (1887, of course) for both Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.

The next section covers the 20th century through World War II. It was during this time that styles of photography began to develop. While some photographers were concerned with straight on picture taking, others began to experiment with techniques and composition. The Great Depression led others to concentrate on documenting social concerns. There are some beautiful images in this section that show how photographers dealt with light and composition including these images of Columbus Circle by William Fraser and the Brooklyn Bridge by Karl Struss.

The final section focuses on post World War II when photography finally became accepted as an art form. The highlights for me of this section were a stunning image by Irving Penn (similar to this one), a quirky photo by Ralph Steiner of cups and saucers with pocket watches (a little Dali mixed with a premonition of Thiebaud) and a sexy image from Man Ray of the lips of his former girlfriend, Lee Miller.

It only took me about an hour to view this wonderful gallery. I would definitely recommend putting it on your list the next time you visit.

The Spencer Art Reference Library has more than just books and magazines. Part of the collection includes the Museum Archives which contains some fascinating items. Some of these items are currently on view in the old library location (the ground floor of the Nelson-Atkins Buildign).

The one object that fascinates/creeps me out a little is the death mask of Mary Atkins. It is a photographic reproduction and I'm pretty sure it is not actual size. The face is rather serene but the whole concept is wierd to me. Next to it, is a photographic reproduction of a plaster cast of the right hand of William Rockhill Nelson. (In case you are wondering whose these people are, Nelson and Atkins are the two people for whom the Museum was named. You may read about them here.)

There are three documents in the case as well. One is a handwritten letter from Frederic Remington to J.J. Benson that is dated May 6, 1901. Another one is a letter from Eugene Delacroix to a French composer named Fromental Halevy. Bring your dictionary for this one because it is en Francais. Delacroix's Christ on the Sea of Galilee is on view in Gallery P29.

The remaining document is a typed draft of the final chapter of a book by Thomas Hart Benton called An Artist in America. The chapter is titled "And Still After" and it starts off indicating it was written some 16 years after the previous chapter. Benton sounds like his well-know cantankerous self complaining about the "turn" of the art world away from regionalism to abstraction. I guess I can't blame him. Things seemed to turn out positively this time as he mentions meeting the director of the Joslyn Museum in Omaha who requested Benton compile a retrospective of his work. Benton notes that since he had many unsold paintings at the time, it was not difficult to do. The exhibition was quite a success in Omaha and later in Wichita, Kansas.

It is amazing how the times change. The text was probably written sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The Nelson-Atkins hosted a retrospective of Benton's work in the 1980s (I believe it was the centennial of his birth in 1989) and it was immensly popular. Still today, visitors come from far and wide to view the Benton murals, especially the American Historical Epic which is currently hanging in Atkins Auditorium.

The original objects are kept in the archives and may be viewed by appointment.

The Museum's featured exhibition galleries are being transformed once more. This time the stage is being set for Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960. Even with paper mock ups in place, it looks amazing. This exhibition will take up the entire exhibition space in the Bloch Building. If you saw Developing Greatness last year, imagine that on steriods.

Installation will continue for about a week so I hope to be able to show you some of that. Security is pretty tight on this exhibition because there are works of art coming from museums all over the world including the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), the National Railway Museum (London), the National Gallery in both London and Washington D.C., Musee d'Orsay (Paris), the Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore), the St. Louis Art Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the National Gallery of Canada and of course, the Union Pacific Railroad Museum, all the way from Council Bluffs, IA.

For now, the art waits patiently in these crates that were shipped from the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool where the exhibition debuted in April. The exhibition opens Sept. 13 so its good to know that the wait won't be much longer.

In preparation for the re-opening of the American galleries next spring, the conservators are busy restoring, cleaning and touching up pieces of furniture that will be on display.

One of the pieces is this Chest-on-Chest that dates from circa 1760. The conservator told me this is one of the best pieces in the collection and it seemed to my untrained eye to be in excellent condition. The piece is actually two pieces that can be used separately. Many times, the pieces will be sold or given away to different people. Luckily, this one remains happily together.

When I stopped by, the drawer pulls had been removed minus one that was being stubborn. The conservator had cleaned one of the pulls and applied a clear coat.

The pulls are most likely the originals because when they were removed there were no additional outlines or shadows found on the wood underneath. The bottom drawer was a little suspect because the shadows looked odd until they realized that the pulls had been removed at one time, probably for cleaning, and when they were reattached, they were put on upside down.

It definitely made me think twice about changing the pulls on my dresser.

Marble craftsmen in Italy do final cleaning and inspection of the columns that will stand in the antechambers of Rowland Hall in the new American galleries. The columns replicate those in the American Rotunda on the second floor of the Nelson-Atkins Building. The columns will travel from Italy to Spain, and then by ship to an American port. From there, they will travel overland by rail, scheduled to arrive at the Museum in late August. The American galleries will be completed in November and open in spring 2009.

In the short time I have been a marketing & communications intern with the Nelson Atkins, just shy of three months, many many things have I learned. To name just a couple, I have learned that sometimes you have to be a little bit annoying to get things done. This is a lesson that was handed over to me again and again by the Mary Atkins Series brochure, for which I have worked on these past few months and for which I have made and sent what seems like hundreds of phone calls and e-mails to the same places looking for the same photos. Yes I did get all the photos I needed and the brochure is going to look lovely.

I have also learned how much work or, more specifically, workers go into running a successful art museum. To keep things in check, you have security officers and museum guards. To educate as well as entertain, you have museum guides and docents. To keep visitors nourished with delectable meals and snacks, there is a bevy of wait staff, chefs and restaurant managers. For the head of the museum, a director, and for its heart (the artwork hung or placed inside), you have an array of curators, fabricators, conservationists and the list goes on. Of course, I know I am leaving out a number of museum positions that aid in the day-to-day functions of the Nelson Atkins. But the point is that I now have a much stronger appreciation for all the work that goes into giving someone a happy and memorable museum visit. In the future, I know I’ll be very glad that I was once a part of that.

And here are a few of the things I have done as an intern: I have posted blogs, much like the clever one you are reading right now. I have escorted photographers, filmmakers and American Idol producers around the museum and its grounds. I have probably done irreparable damage to my feet by wearing extremely inappropriate footwear on all of these escort trips. I have utilized each and every one of the media-related skills I learned in college and have even picked up a few more. I have met some great people and have also found what I believe to be the best cupcakes in Kansas City.

So on this, my final week with the Nelson Atkins, I would like to say thank you to everyone for making this the best internship ever! My feet may never be the same, but if the last three months are any indication of how rewarding and fun my future career will turn out to be, the future looks very bright indeed. Thank you so much and have a great year!

The Nelson-Atkins Museum Guide program is an innovative new way to involve working adults and professionals who would like to be involved with the Museum as more than just a casual volunteer but are not able to commit to a full-time program such as training to be a docent. Museum Guides attend training sessions for two to three months to learn how to give introductory and highlight tours to visitors in the evenings and on weekends.

Our inaugural class of Museum Guides recently began giving their first tours to visitors. We have had many delightful reports by the guides about their early experiences. Here are just a few:

“The couple was a little concerned about the kids' attention span and wondered if they should go. Of course I told them about the "drop out" option and that made them feel OK. So we began. And of course we find ourselves in front of Woman IV (by Willem de Kooning) with the most noticeable indices of being a woman. Got by that without the kids or parents getting flustered. Yes, I was fine as well. From there, actually the Dad was the one who wandered around most. I thought he was going to "pull" the rest of them off into their own tour several times. But he kept coming back and listening/answering questions. The Mom was very engaged. The kids enjoyed a few of the paintings. It does help to direct questions and comments to them. The parents do like it."

- From Craig Anderson, Director of Human Resources for Black & Veatch Energy and the Director of Employee Relations for all Black & Veatch divisions. His interests include collecting guitars, trying to play golf and travel.

“It was so great. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it. They all said that they learned new things about the museum and the art. They all said that they had just passed by some of the tour pieces before without actually taking a close look at them, especially Woman IV, Beaded Throne and the Han House. As we were walking back to the Bloch Lobby, they all mentioned that the tour made them want to come visit the Museum more often. A couple of them have let their Friends of Art memberships lapse and they plan to renew. I did not have to prompt them to get these responses.”

- From Gerry Becker, a general contractor who formerly specialized in high end residential renovations and is now interested in contemporary cabinetry & furniture making. His interests include gardening, geology and canoeing.

"I arrived for my tour a little frazzled and distracted. But meeting my group brought me immediately into focus. The 7 ladies who attended the tour could not have been more fun and charming! They didn’t have a lot of experience with art, but they were amazingly open-minded and wanted to learn everything they could.

“We did have to stop twice to rest, and thank heavens there are benches in the European and Chinese galleries where they could sit while we discussed the art. I’m also thankful I had done advance reconnaissance to know where the elevators were! We had a great time, and I left the ladies in the Rozzelle Court to enjoy a lovely lunch."

- From Merry Quackenbush who is retired from the corporate world, having worked for IBM and JP Morgan as well as running her own marketing and strategy consulting firm. Her interests include art, music (singing and composing) and dogs.

Recruitment for the next class of Museum Guides is in full swing. If you are interested, please attend an information session. The application deadline is Dec. 22, 2008. Interviews will begin in January.

The Nelson-Atkins will celebrate its 75th anniversary on Dec. 11, 2008. As we prepare to document this historic moment, I'm sure we will spend a lot of time looking back and listening to those who have been here over the past 75 years.

We hear a lot of comments from people who visited the Museum as children and now are bringing their children or some who are just coming back for the first time since they were children.

If you have any great stories or memories about the Nelson-Atkins, let us know. We would love to hear from you.

For now, you can read this great article on the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association website.