Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

When I visited the Nelson-Atkins as a kid, I thought that the only people who worked in the Museum were the ones that protected the artwork in its galleries and sold books at the Museum Store. As an employee, I quickly learned that it takes hundreds of people performing a fascinating assortment of tasks to keep the place running!

Because one of my favorite things to do in the Museum is treating myself to dessert in Rozzelle Court, I took some time to chat with Judy Garver who spends a lot of time there.

What do you do at the Museum?
Administrative Assistant for Food Service [now contracted through American Food and Vending], which includes the weekly payroll, invoices, maintaining the department calendar, maintaining and updating the kitchen event work clipboards with event worksheets, counting the daily cash receipts and completing all deposit documentation, plus secretarial functions, helping with cashiering in the dining room, Point of Service programming, and a hundred other things too boring to a normal person to mention.

How did you get your job?
Been doing it for many years…so many years I don’t remember really when I first started doing it. Aspects of it have evolved over the years, with some parts of it getting easier or more complicated as the years went by. Now that I’m with American Food and Vending, the payroll and the invoicing parts of my job are a lot less complicated than they used to be.

You’re redecorating your place and the Museum offers you one piece of artwork. What do you choose?
The large limestone relief, Winged Genii Fertilizing a Date Tree. I just love that piece. I’ve walked past that piece for so many years I already feel like it’s mine.

Why is art important to you?
Art can be a snapshot of the creator’s soul. And to have a glimpse at his joy or misery, or his emotional vision, whatever, is what is interesting to me. If I can share his moment for just a second, then it matters to me. I’ve never been able to “go” there with a giant soup can or the Shuttlecocks.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Who's Who @ The Nelson-Atkins!

Breakdown/Breakthrough: A Sobering/Uplifting Consideration of What’s Next

While waiting in anticipation for last week's TEDxKC, organized by VML and hosted by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, I was overwhelmed with excitement and curiosity – and suddenly noticed a fantastically designed tent tucked behind the main screen. From that moment forward, I knew I was in for quite the evening.

So, what’s TED all about? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers share what they are most passionate about. In the spirit of “Ideas Worth Spreading,” TEDx (x=independently organized TED event) was created to deliver local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. In other words, TED events and related presentations offer new ways to understand and think about the world. It’s very exciting that Kansas City is taking part in TED’s global community.

TEDxKC included four dynamic presentations. John Gerzema, author of The Brand Bubble, jump-started the evening with his presentation titled, “The Great Unwind.” Encapsulating today’s consumer climate, Gerzema candidly spoke about the rise of mindful spending – thrifty is now in-style; consumers are looking more towards quality rather than quantity. Attentiveness to local products and corporate transparency were also highlighted as upcoming trends within our current economic climate. So, What’s Next about Gerzema’s presentation? I chose a question posed at the beginning of his talk: “Has the consumer moved from a state of anxiety to action?” You decide.

Following Gerzema’s talk, the Atkins’ stage was swiftly transformed into an avant-garde installation - reminiscent of an illustration from Dr. Seuss or a childhood fantasy (that’s when they pulled out the tent I mentioned earlier). Mark Southerland and the Urban Noise Camp created a beautiful multi-sensory installation/performance. It was truly an amazing experience watching art, design, music and technology rhythmically combine and unfold on stage. Click here to view pictures on Facebook and video shorts from the performance. I found the What’s Next factor evident in the performers’ ability to reinterpret and reinvent the division between musician and artist; designer and performer.

As the avant-garde fantasy was tucked away, Adam Johnson, Head of Interpretive Media and Resources at the Nelson-Atkins, took the stage to discuss how museums reconcile potentially conflicting missions of exhibiting a work of art vs. physically protecting the piece for future generations. He used the Nelson-Atkins masterwork, Guanyin of the Southern Sea to exemplify this point. Johnson eloquently reminded us how the meaning of art objects, like the Guanyin, transform over time. Moreover, art objects engender different stories as museums adopt diverse interpretive methods. For example, Johnson highlighted an upcoming web interactive that considers the Guanyin both as a spiritual object and as an art museum object. The What’s Next factor? Using modern technology as a lens into discovering the past lives of art objects; this understanding will inform interpretation for future generations.

Lastly, activist and TEDtalk veteran, Majora Carter discussed in her presentation titled, “No More Single Purpose Anything,” solutions to environmental justice and detailed connections between ecological, economic and social change (view a past TEDtalk by Carter here). I particularly enjoyed her memories specific to Kansas City – how she loves the area, people, and sense of community. In Carter’s powerful talk, I found the What’s Next component evident in her discussion about the interrelationship between social equality and environmental sustainability.

The energy, confidence and visionary tales of What’s Next imbued by each presentation made the evening a force of change. Click here to see a TEDxKC flickr photostream. Keep in touch with TEDxKC fans and related TEDxKC events on Facebook here.

One of my favorite parts of working at an art museum is discovering new interests. Today, I finally walked all the way over to the Museum (about two blocks from my office) to see a new exhibition of works on paper.

Nature Morte/Still Life is part of our rotation of 19th and 20th centrury prints and works on paper. Side note: It is called a rotation because it is part of our collection but we change (or rotate) the works in the gallery on a regular basis. Works on paper are rotated every six months because they are so sensitive to light. Once they go back into storage, they remain there for five years before they can be exhibited again.

The exhibition contains around 12 works on paper with one half devoted to the 19th century and the other half representing the 20th century. The 19th century focuses mainly on prints of flowers. As the public became interested in botany, artists decided to get in on the trend. The result was gorgeous floral prints.

The beauty is obvious but what I thought was even more interesting were the added details. Artists used their backgrounds to give connections to the flower's habitat or cultivation or give clues to the flowers' characteristics. For instance, dutch canals and windmills imply a tulip's heritage from The Netherlands.

Other artists use the background as a way to create mood and mystery. Richard Dunkarton's The Night-Blowing Cereus from 1800, includes a clock tower in the background. The minute hand shows 3 minutes past midnight. The hint of a bright, full moon and misty clouds would have added to the mystique of this exotic flower that blooms in Cuba and Jamaica for English viewers of the early 19th century.

The second half of the exhibition covers the 20th century and includes artists such as Manet, Chagall, Leger, Braque and Picasso. My favorite print would be Chagall's Basket of Fruit and Pineapples because of it's happy, vibrant colors. It is the story that goes with it that makes it even more meaningful. After having endured wars, persecution, and personal loss, Chagall created this delicate composition. He is quoted as saying, "in our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love."