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SPENCER
MUSEUM OF ART
Newsletter
SPRING 2011 vol. XXXII, no. 8 Newsletter is published by the Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas.
www.spencerart.ku.edu spencerart@ ku.edu Office Hours Mon– Fri / 8:30 AM–5 PM ph. 785.864.4710 fx. 785.864.3112
Cover image: Karen LaMonte, born United States, 1967; lives in Czech Republic, Chado, 2010, kiln-cast glass, Museum purchase: Gift of Hope Talbot and the Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund, 2011.0015. * *full image on page 39 Back cover: The Spencer’s annual Spring Arts and Culture Festival featured live music, dance performance, and art activities.
Gallery & Museum Hours Please visit our website for the latest information on the Museum’s open hours.
The Spencer Museum of Art is located at 1301 Mississippi St., on the northeast corner of The University of Kansas campus, just west of the Kansas Union. From I-70, take the West Lawrence exit and proceed south on Iowa St. to Ninth St., then east to Mississippi, and south four blocks. From K-10, go west on 23rd St. to Massachusetts St., proceed north to Ninth, then west to Mississippi, and south four blocks.
For the third year in a row, Quilter Marla Jackson worked closely with Central Junior High students to create and original project for display a the Museum. The Colored Troops of Kansas is on view through September 18 in the Lobby Gallery.
C O N T EN T S
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Dialogue: Conversations
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Calendar of Events
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Exhibitions
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The Spencer in Brief
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Friends & Contributors
For the second year in a row, the Spencer teamed with the KU Athletics Department to host the final week of its Athletics Bridge Class—a program that helps prepare incoming student athletes for college life. They concluded their work at the Spencer with personal presentations on favorite works.
DIALOGUE
Conversations
One of the great fortunes of my life is that I have had countless conversations with people about art. I can recall many extraordinary discussions – unique exchanges where artists, scholars, collectors, students, parents, and children all found that works of art stimulated knowledge, curiosity, and satisfying insights. For many of us, the joy of experiencing art magnifies as we share observations with others. As a university art museum, the Spencer provides an exceptional setting for memorable conversations. Conversations are one of the most interactive forms of human creativity, and they are an important factor in education. The Spencer has a responsibility to provide inspiration and questions for these exchanges, through the juxtapositions we present, the work we collect, and the artists we bring to the University of Kansas. In the museum setting, we deliberately try to create a milieu of meaning and pleasure where new concepts can resonate.
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FALL NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
However, conversations are always two-way streets. A conversation demands that we listen and remain open to new perceptions. Conversations about art, through art, and with art help us know and feel things that otherwise, we cannot apprehend. We invite you to make the Spencer Museum of Art part of your most memorable conversations. Bring a friend and spend some time together in our galleries—art can spark fresh viewpoints even in long-standing relationships. Another great way to begin is to dial 785.338.9467 to take part in our interactive, multi-layered audio tour of art in the Museum and around the campus — just enter 0# to record your thoughts and observations! For upcoming events and exhibits, check out www. spencerart.ku.edu. Also, don’t forget “Walk Ins Welcome” on Fridays at the Print Room.
— Saralyn Reece Hardy
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR FALL 2011 SE PTE MBE R 9.08 THU
Senior Session: SMA curatorial assistant Kate Meyer on Images from the Dust Bowl / 10 AM *
9.08 THU
Lecture: Patterson Sims / 6 PM / Auditorium / Visiting Artist Series sponsored by KU Department of Visual Art and SMA / Through his concentration in modern and contemporary art, Sims has focused on American modernism and contemporary art along with non-profit arts institution and museum management and administration.
9.11 SUN
Benefit Concert & Reception: Vocalist Genaro Mendez and Robert Hiller, Accompanist / 5 PM / Central Court / Sponsored by SMA / The Spencer Museum of Art invites you to attend a Benefit Concert & Soirée. A special performance by vocalist Genaro Mendez and accompanist Robert Hiller will celebrate music and art from the 16th to 20th century featuring composers Dowland, Beethoven, Liszt, and Tosti / Doors open at 4:30 PM / Donations will benefit the KU Voice Department and Spencer Museum of Art / Reception and refreshments to follow.
9.12 MON
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Performance: Liszt Collaborative Concert / 12:30 PM / Central Court / Sponsored by Reach Out Kansas, Inc.
SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
9.14 WED
Presentation: Information Session: Artist Projects / 3:30 PM / The Commons, Spooner Hall / Sponsored by The Commons / The Commons grants funding annually to members of the University community to create artistic interpretations of a theme based within interdisciplinary inquiry. In offering this opportunity, The Commons seeks to draw attention to creative possibilities strengthened by the perspectives of multiple disciplines. The theme for this year’s artist projects is Urban Palimpsest destruction and renewal. This informational meeting will allow potential applicants to ask questions and meet other interested colleagues. Applications for 2011–2012 Artist Project Proposals are due November 7 / www.thecommons.ku.edu
9.17 SAT
It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / **
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9.22 THU
Senior Session: SMA curator Nancy Mahaney on Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place / 10 AM / Gallery 318 *
9.22 THU
Film & Panel Discussion: The Rising Tide / 6 PM / Auditorium / Sponsored by Center for Global and International Studies and SMA, Department of Film and Media Studies, Departments of Visual Art, History of Art, Center for East Asian Studies / A documentary film by Robert Adanto on contemporary 10.06 THU Chinese art and artists. The Rising Tide investigates China’s meteoric march toward the future through the work of some of its most talented emerging artists. Film director Robert Adanto and invited speakers will participate in a panel discusstion following the screening. ***
9.24 SAT
It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / **
10.03 MON
Family Day: Material Madness and Process Pandemonium Family Fun Day at the Spencer / 1–3 PM / Spend a captivating and funfilled afternoon at the Museum discovering how artists craft works of art. Look at and learn about art, watch artist demonstrations, and participate in hands-on art activities. Free for all ages. In conjunction with the exhibition Crafting Continuities.
Gallery Talk: Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place / 5:45 PM / Gallery 318 / Sponsored by SMA and Kansas Humanities Council / Join Chris Howell, humanities consultant, for a brief introduction to the exhibition as it relates to themes explored in the Passages film series.
10.06 THU
Film: Passages film series / 6 PM / Auditorium / In conjunction with Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place / Co-sponsored by Kansas Humanities Council
10.08SAT
It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / **
10.13 THU
Gallery Talk: Senior Session: SMA intern Chassica Kirchhoff on Conversation XII: Crafting Continuities / 10 AM / 20/21 Gallery *
OCTOB ER 10.02 SUN
Adult Class: KU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Exhibitions Highlight Global Indigenous Arts at the Spencer / 2 PM / Central Court / Sponsored by KU Continuing Education and SMA / Please join Nancy Mahaney, Curator of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, for a special viewing of exhibitions featuring global indigenous arts. Enrollment required / $ / Contact Continuing Education, 785-864KUCE(5823), or kuce@ku.edu
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS 10.13 THU
Lecture: Marilyn and Jack da Silva / 6 PM / Auditorium / Visiting Artist Series, sponsored by KU Department of Visual Art and SMA / The da Silvas are renowned artists and educators who work in the San Francisco Bay area. Jack da Silva serves as professor and coordinator of the Jewelry and Metal Arts and 3D Art program at Evergreen Valley College, San Jose, California. Marilyn da Silva is Professor and Program Chair of the Jewelry/ Metal Arts Department at California College of the Arts in Oakland, where 10.19 WED she has been since 1987.
10.16 SUN
Workshop: Filmmaker J.T. O’Neal: Screenwriting for Artists / 1– 3 PM / Auditorium / Sponsored by SMA and KU Department of Film & Media Studies / Filmmaker, photographer and physician J.T. O’Neal graduated from KU with an honor’s degree in history of art. Designed for artists, O’Neal will lead a two-hour workshop on “Screenwriting for Artists,” followed by a screening of his latest feature film, Au Pair, Kansas, which among other awards won the prize for Best Low Budget Feature Film at the 2011 Cannes Independent Film Festival.
10.16 SUN
Film: Au Pair, Kansas, written, produced and directed by J.T. O’Neal / 3:30–5:30 PM / SMA Auditorium / Sponsored by SMA and KU Department of Film & Media Studies / KU alumnus J.T. O’Neal’s film Au Pair, Kansas took inspiration from O’Neal’s long-time interest in the Swedish immigrant artist Birger
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SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
Sandzén, who taught and practiced art in Lindsborg, Kansas. Shot in Lindsborg, the film combines drama and comedy with shades of European magical realism, to tell the story of a widowed woman who hires a Norwegian soccer player to be a male au pair and help her raise her two sons. O’Neal will introduce the award-winning film, as well as offer a question and answer session afterwards. / Reception follows. Presentation: DK Bhaskar The Eye of the Beholder: India through the Eyes of its Children / 3:30 PM / Auditorium / Sponsored by Center for Global and International Studies and SMA / This project is related to Bhaskar’s ongoing projects in rural India in which he works with children, giving them cameras and a bit of technical guidance. The children then produce their own work based on loose themes, such as “family” or “nature.” What is revealed is an intimate look at India through their eyes, one that an outside photographer alone could never capture.
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NOV EMB ER 10.19 WED
Panel Discussion: Revolutionary Art: Ledger Drawings Then & Now / 6 PM / Auditorium / Sponsored by SMA / Panelists include Denise Low, Chris Pappan and Joni Thompson. SMA curator Nancy Mahaney, moderator
10.20 THU
Reception: Fall at the Spencer / 6 PM / Central Court / Sponsored by SMA and Friends of the Art Museum
10.27THU
Senior Session: Meredith Moore on Enrique Chagoya’s El Regreso del Canibal Macrobiotica / 10 AM *
10.27THU
Lecture: Artist Mimi Smith / 5:30 PM / Auditorium / Since 1965, Smith has created innovative work in clothing art, feminist art, political, audio, and conceptual art installations. Steel Wool Peignoir, an early example of feminist art, hangs in the 20/21 Gallery.
10.27THU
Reception: SMA Student Night / 6:30 PM / Central Court / Sponsored by Student Advisory Board and SMA
10.29 SAT
It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / **
10.30 SUN
Performance: Spencer Consort / 2:30 PM / Central Court / The Spencer Consort plays on instruments like those in use during the 17th and 18th centuries. Its members include Baroque flutists John Boulton and Joy Laird, harpsichordist Elizabeth Berghout, and Baroque cellist Paul Laird.
11.03 THU
Gallery Talk: Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place / 5:45 PM / Gallery 318 / Sponsored by SMA and Kansas Humanities Council / Join Chris Howell, humanities consultant, for a brief introduction to the exhibition as it relates to themes explored in the Passages film series.
11.03 THU
Film: Passages film series / 6 PM / Auditorium / In conjunction with Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place / Co-sponsored by Kansas Humanities Council
11.05 SAT
Colloquium: The Eberhardt Colloquium in Honor of the Writing of Kenneth Irby on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday / 9 AM–5 PM / Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union / Sponsored by Department of English, The Hall Center for the Humanities and SMA / National and local scholars and poets will examine the life and work of this major poet who teaches at the University of Kansas. Main speakers will include Lyn Hejinian (UC-Berkeley), Pierre Joris (SUNY-Albany), Ben Friedlander (University of Maine), Denise Low (Haskell Indian Nations University) and Joe Harrington (University of Kansas). The event will be presided over by William J. Harris (KU English).
11.05 SAT
It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / ** 9
CALENDAR OF EVENTS for the Humanities / Louis Menand is one of the most important cultural critics and scholars of American studies, and his reflections on the state of American culture and the university demonstrate wit, accessibility, and insider knowledge of American intellectual trends. In his presentation, Menand will discuss a key moment in American self-definition, exploring how changes in film style and form reflect a broader Cold War story. Menand is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Metaphysical Club (2001). He is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard University. / Reception follows
11.09WED
Presentation: Azyz Sharafy Emerging Voices: Contemporary Indian Artists & their Work / 3:30 PM / Auditorium / Sponsored by Center for Global and International Studies and SMA / Azyz Sharafy, artist and Professor of Art at Washburn University, will speak about the strong contemporary visual art coming out of the Indian subcontinent. ***
11.10 THU
Gallery Talk: Senior Session: Don Lambert on John Steuart Curry / 10 AM / Sponsored by SMA *
11.10 THU
Gallery Talk: Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place / 5:45 PM / Gallery 318 / Sponsored by SMA and Kansas Humanities Council / Join Chris Howell, humanities D EC EMB ER consultant, for a brief introduction to the exhibition as it relates to themes explored in the Passages film series. 12.03 SAT It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / ** Film: Passages film series / 6 PM / Auditorium / In conjunction with 12.08 THU Senior Session: SMA docent Sally Passages: Persistent Visions of a Davis on the Presepio / 10 AM / Native Place / Co-sponsored by Central Court * Kansas Humanities Council
11.10 THU
11.17 THU
12.10 SAT Lecture: Louis Menand on A Man is Shot: The Cold War Meaning of a Cinematic Technique / 7:30 PM / Auditorium / Sponsored by Hall Center
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SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / **
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Activity: Midnight at the Museum Student Study Night / 4 PM–Midnight / Central Court / Sponsored by SMA and Student Advisory Board / The paintings and sculptures may not magically spring to life, but the Spencer Museum’s Central Court surely will buzz with brainpower during “(Mid)Night at the Museum”, when the SMA Student Advisory Board hosts a finals study night for KU students. Prep for finals, gaze at some art, and enjoy free refreshments and Wi-Fi! It Starts With Art! Children’s art appreciation classes for ages 5–14 / 10:30 AM & 1:30 PM / $ / **
E X TE N DED I N FO R MAT I O N *Senior Sessions: This popular series of informal gallery discussions is designed for senior citizens but open to everyone. ** It Starts With Art! Our entertaining, interactive programs for children ages 5–14 combine art education with handson creation. Each week, students explore selected artworks in the Museum
and make their own art based on the techniques, media, and traditions they discover. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Ages 5–8 meet 10:30 AM –12:30 PM and ages 9–14 meet 1:30 – 3:30 PM. Classes are $15 / $12 for Friends of the Art Museum members. Enroll in four or more classes and receive the FAM price. To enroll, contact the Education Department, 785.864.0137, smakids@ku.edu, or visit www.spencerart.ku.edu *** The International Focus Series is presented by the KU Center for Global & International Studies in collaboration with various KU Departments and Area Studies Centers within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This is an ongoing series of artsrelated events—from the visual to performing arts and literature— with global and international scope. The theme for this Academic Year is “Nations & Identities.” The 2011– 2012 series will explore the idea of Art & Artists as an extension or expression of this theme.
Please visit www.spencerart.ku.edu for a complete & updated Calendar of Events
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EXHIBITIONS
Glorious to View: The KU Campus Heritage Project July 12 – December 31, 2011 | Lobby Gallery Inspired by the Getty Foundation-funded Campus Heritage Project and the collective legacy of the KU community, the Spencer Museum of Art will celebrate Mount Oread’s history and traditions by highlighting connections among the many memories that are spread across the KU landscape. Glorious to View—a name culled from the beloved KU Alma Mater song—will present an array of artworks and archival photographs to share the history of the KU campus, focusing on four historic sites: Spooner Hall, Fraser Hall, Old North College, and Potter Lake. The exhibition will be installed in the third floor hallway of the Spencer Museum and all objects, which will be drawn from the collections of both the Museum and the Spencer Research Library, are on display as reproductions so that they may be accessible to a variety of audiences outside of formal museum hours. Glorious to View represents a collaboration between Spencer Museum of Art staff and advanced KU graphic design students enrolled in a course taught by Professor Patrick Dooley. The project was developed by Spencer Museum curators Susan Earle and Nancy Mahaney, along with graduate student intern Chassica Kirchhoff, who also penned the texts. Former director’s intern Olena Chervonik helped with initial research. To design the four panels, 21 students engaged with photographs from the University Archives, artworks from the Spencer Museum of Art, and the histories of each of the four sites spotlighted in Glorious to View. The students worked closely with Spencer Museum graphic designer, Tristan Telander. Through this partnership, Glorious to View not only provided students with valuable experience, but also incorporated the voices of KU’s present and future into a project intended to showcase the University’s past.
James Hess, active 1874–1884, View of Old North College, 1875, oil on canvas, Museum purchase: Friends of the Art Museum, 1967.0065
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FALL NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
JUNIOR STUDENT COLLABORATORS Tyler Adams, Columbia, Missouri Danielle Aldrich, Wichita, Kansas Andy Armstrong, Stuttgart, Germany Justin Bell, Gardner, Kansas Laura Cook, Olathe, Kansas Katie Curtis, St. Louis, Missouri Claire Dooley, Lawrence, Kansas Farah Firman, Malaysia Maggie Hirschi, St. Louis, Missouri Courtney Johnson, Baldwin City, Kansas Amanda Kilwin, St. Louis, Missouri Jenny Kondrasuk, Madison, Wisconsin Melanie McQuade, Lenexa, Kansas Katie Mehan, Olathe, Kansas Krista Perkins, St. Louis, Missouri Keri O’Brien, Overland Park, Kansas Lauren Schimming, Wichita, Kansas Alice Shrum, Eufaula, Oklahoma Morgan Stephens, Colby, Kansas Chelsea Stubbs, Topeka, Kansas Kenzie Tubbs, St. Louis, Missouri
from top: Campus panorama looking south, Spooner on the left and Fowler on the right, 1906, University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas
Spooner-Thayer Museum of Art, circa 1930, University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas
Student Activities, Potter Pond, 1926, University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas
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EXHIBITIONS
Pomp up the Jam: Splendor, Pageantry, and Performance in Art June 11 – September 12, 2011 | 20 /21 Gallery Conversation Wall Pomp (n.) 1. stately or splendid display; splendor; magnificence. 2. ostentatious display, esp. of dignity or importance. 3. pomps, pompous displays, actions, or things: The official was accompanied by all the pomps of his high position. 4. a stately or splendid procession; pageant. Pomp, pageantry, and splendor can have a broad range of socio-cultural meanings and take on many different forms. Rituals, processions, parades, and performances span nearly all cultures and these occasions tie the present to the legacies and traditions of the past, as well as to hopes and ambitions for the future. Artworks that record this pomp and performance through the eyes of both participants and spectators also serve to transform events, people and objects from the mundane into the splendid. Pomp up the Jam: Splendor, Pageantry, and Performance in Art will explore the various ways that rituals, parades, and other displays of magnificence are visually constructed, the roles that artworks play in their enactment, and examine the way performances can inform the identities of groups and individuals. Pomp up the Jam gathers together an engaging variety of objects from the museum’s permanent collection, including historic prints, glittering parade armor, elaborate ceremonial vestments, video, photography, and vivid contemporary artworks. The exhibition organizers are the 2010–2011 Spencer Museum student interns: Denise Giannino, Jordan Jacobson, Chassica Kirchhoff, Meredith Moore, Ellen Raimond, Sarah C. Schroeder, Natalie Svacina, and Amanda Wright. Peking opera masks, before 1983, China, cut colored paper, Gift of Nancy Loo Bjorge, 2007.3867.07
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FALL NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
The Colored Troops of Kansas July 21 – September 18, 2011 | Lobby Gallery
In the spring term of 2011 Marla Jackson, a Lawrence, Kansas, quilt artist, worked with Central Junior High ninth-graders in Michel Loomis’ English class to produce a collaborative quilt on the topic of the first U.S. Colored Troops of Kansas. The quilt that they created together portrays a specific group of soldiers from the first infantry of African American troops. The quilt is called Douglass’ Kansas Color Light Artillery Battery (Union) Soldiers, and it is the centerpiece of this exhibition. Twentyone students participated and helped to make the quilt under Jackson’s guidance. The exhibition includes additional quilts by Jackson alone that evoke related themes. In 1862, on the order of General James H. Lane, Kansas military leaders recruited a regiment of colored soldiers from within the state, an action that preceded the Union’s overall recruitment of such individuals. The response from Kansas was swift and substantial. Despite some opposition, 500 colored volunteers were mustered into service in January, 1863; indeed, they fought an October battle at Island Mound, Missouri, even before they were officially sworn in. The First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was the first black regiment from a northern state and served effectively in the Indian Territory-Kansas-Arkansas region. Over the course of 1864, they
fought a number of battles, most notably Poison Spring in April, 1864, when the regiment took serious losses in defending a Union supply train. Overall, a quarter of the regiment’s soldiers died during the war. The regiment was noteworthy in becoming the first Negro unit to fight alongside American Indian and white troops, foreshadowing military actions in the future. Marla Jackson is a nationally recognized quilt artist and teacher. Her story-quilts have been exhibited nationally, including at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. She is an active participant in the Women of Color Quilters Network. Her workshops with children such as those at Central Junior High School have been awarded external funding through grants she has earned. A filmmaker is currently creating a documentary about Jackson’s work. Michel Loomis is an award-winning teacher and longtime faculty member at Central Junior High School in Lawrence.
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EXHIBITIONS
Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place September 10 – January 15, 2012 | Gallery 318 Lying at the center of the country, “The Heartland,” Kansas became a historic corridor for people moving west to seek their fortune. It also became a place of relocation for Native people many of who were moved out and some of who were moved in from other places. The Sesquicentennial of Kansas statehood provides an opportunity to reflect on the socio-political nature of place through the lens of American Indian Culture. Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place will feature historic Native American objects interpreted from both classically academic perspectives and through the lens of Native oral traditions. The exhibition will feature educational materials that provide an introduction to the extensive land changes that occurred as the State of Kansas became a politically recognized identity. This highly collaborative exhibition is being made possible by a grant from the Kansas Humanities Council and will provide the historic background which will set the stage for the contemporary art exhibition “Heartland Reverberations” opening October, 15th, 2011. Passages was organized by Nancy Mahaney, curator of the arts and cultures of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. Principal funding for this program is provided by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization promoting understanding of the history, traditions, and ideas that shape our lives and build community. The program is funded in part by the Kansas Humanities Council, a nonprofit cultural organization promoting understanding of the history, traditions, and ideas that shape our lives and build community.
Kiowa peoples, three-hide dress, buckskin, cotton, plant fiber, deer hoof, brass beads, beading, dyeing, William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 2007.4192
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FALL NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
Conversation XII: Crafting Continuities October 1 – January 15, 2012 | 20 /21 Gallery & Process Space While the word “craft” is a loaded term that may imply hierarchical notions of artistic validity and cultural value, so-called craft media have played an integral role in the trajectory of 20th-century art. These materials, such as glass, metal, fiber, and ceramic, are themselves steeped in histories of labor, class, and gender, as well as regional and familial identity. Craft media therefore can embody layered content that conveys both the meaning of the specific piece and the deeper implications of the material. Crafting Continuities aims to inspire conversations about materiality, process, and their implications, exploring the ways that contemporary artworks made from venerable media can forge connections to the past, while the creative process itself looks to the future and expressive potential of those materials.
The installation will juxtapose contemporary objects from the collection with their historic counterparts and with remnants of the process, such as preparatory drawings. In this way, Crafting Continuities will engage with the deeper content found in the Spencer’s contemporary artworks in textile, blownglass, metalwork, wood, and ceramic, while highlighting the depth of the Museum’s collection of historic artworks in these media. The exhibition will incorporate a broad range of artworks, underscoring the legacies of these materials in different regions of the globe and revealing some of the cultural tides that have transmitted media and techniques across both time and space. Crafting Continuities was organized by Chassica Kirchoff, Andrew W. Mellon intern, department of prints and drawings.
Johann Theodor de Bry, 1561–1623, Knife-Handle Design with a Couple United in Marriage by Christ, early 1600s, engraving, Museum purchase, 1969.0007.02 and detail
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EXHIBITIONS
Heartland Reverberations October 15 – January 15, 2012 | Gallery 318 & Central Court Made possible by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, the exhibition Heartland Reverberations will provide an opportunity for artists from descendant American Indian communities that were relocated out of Kansas to present work that speaks to the issues of place, identity and relocation. In spite of the many “celebrations” of statehood that have occurred in recent years (e.g. Oklahoma, Arizona), few opportunities have been offered for Indian people to express their own sense of commemoration. The five artists invited by the Spencer for this installation have distinguished themselves through their unique and thought-provoking treatment of these topics. They are Norman Akers, Bunky Echo-Hawk, Chris Pappan, Ryan Red Corn, and Dianne Yeahquo Reyner. Heartland Reverberations is presented by the Spencer as part of the Kansas Sesquicentennial. Heartland Reverberations was organized for the Spencer by Nancy Mahaney, curator of the arts and cultures of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania.
Chris Pappan, Return to Sugar Loaf, Acrylic on map mounted on wood
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FALL NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
FEATURED ARTISTS Norman Akers utilizes iconic Osage symbols in his paintings and prints, overlaying them on landscapes both real and imagined. Road maps of the Kansas-Oklahoma territory that the Osage cultivated and roamed freely serve as the backdrop for Akers’ dreamscapes. State borders are removed and Osage place names are highlighted to emphasize the Osage origins that serve as the basis for the more prominent symbols. Akers will contribute three to five new works to the installation and provide an opening lecture and gallery talk to facilitate understanding of personal and shared concepts. Pawnee artist Bunky Echo-Hawk’s paintings are motivated by a sense of justice expressed in broad strokes of warm tones that communicate messages of environmental responsibility and historical reckoning. He utilizes irony and popular imagery to transcend stereotypes and communicate across cultural divides. Echo-Hawk will create an installation work addressing the legacy of Pawnee removal and provide a gallery presentation interpreting his work. Chris Pappan’s “displaced persons” series overlays historical images of Native peoples on contemporary road maps, thus serving as a visual call that aims to encourage people to return to their
homelands. His contemporary ledger drawings bring attention to the distortion of Native peoples in contemporary culture. Pappan will contribute three to five new works to the exhibition and will conduct a workshop on contemporary ledger drawing in collaboration with Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence. Ryan Red Corn has distinguished himself as a graphic and installation artist, working with museums and communities across the country to bring recognition to American Indian issues. Red Corn will serve as the graphic artist for the exhibition, creating dynamic visual imagery that gives voice to the collective creativity emerging from the group exhibition. This will include the design of all graphic materials associated with the exhibition, as well as graffiti installation art within the exhibition. Dianne Yeahquo Reyner is the creative force behind the American Indian Repertory Theatre. As a Kiowa playwright Reyner addresses issues relevant to contemporary indigenous people, confronting stereotypes through juxtapositions of imagery and ideology. Reyner will develop a solo performance piece that responds to the exhibition of a historical Kiowa ceremonial dress from the Spencer Museum of Art’s collection.
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EXHIBITIONS
Nature/Natural South Balcony Gallery | Long-term 人生到處知何似 應似飛鴻踏雪泥 To what can our life on earth be likened? To a flock of geese, Alighting on the snow, Sometimes leaving a trace of their passage. Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101) One pervasive characteristic of East Asian art is its enduring pursuit to illuminate the relationship between natural phenomena—such as the connection between humans and the landscape, the change of seasons, or even the cracks in an old bowl—and a totalizing concept of Nature. In the Euro-American tradition, the term “Nature” is derived from the Latin natura, and refers both to the innate disposition of something and the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals and other natural phenomenon. As in English, “Nature” in its broadest sense holds a rich spectrum of meaning in Chinese: tian 天 the omniscient force of “heaven” yin and yang 阴阳 literally “light and shadow”; a concept of balanced contrasts qi 氣 the vital life force inhabiting all things dao 道 the ineffable “way” which is everything in Daoism However, it was in the concept of ziran 自然, literally “being so of itself” also translated as “spontaneity,” that Chinese thinkers merged the totality of actions that constitute the universe with the direct perception and expression of the natural world found in poetry and painting. Artists looked at the landscape, found insight into the universe, and took up brush and ink as an attempt to convey this understanding. The 5th-century poem “Quaffing Wine”
artist unknown, active circa late 1810s, kushi (comb) with butterflies, Edo period (1600 –1868), lacquer, wood, mother of pearl, William Bridges Thayer Memorial, 1928.0212
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by Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (365–427) speaks of the “authentic intent” or “timeless, unmoving, conception” that nature reveals: I built my hut beside a traveled road Yet hear no noise of passing carts and horses. “And how is this possible?” you ask, With the mind detached, one’s place becomes remote. Having picked chrysanthemums from beneath the eastern hedge, I gaze wistfully at the southern hills, distant and changeless forever. The ethers rising from the mountains reach a perfect balance at sunset, And, as they wing back toward their homes, the birds keep each other company. A timeless, unmoving conception lies hidden in these phenomena, But just as one seeks to express it, the words are already forgotten. Rather than a mere “background for human action,” Nature is an integrated concept that includes humans as part of a seamless continuum. Encountering these concepts, Korean and Japanese artists appropriated, imbued and even departed from this view of the natural world, adding their own cultural perspectives. In the Korean Peninsula, shamanic traditions, a rich visual culture of Buddhism, and an austere Confucian simplicity were synchronized in new ways that expressed an abiding delight in the natural world. And in Japan, ideas from continental Asia merged with local animistic beliefs that stress balance between nature and humans. Through poetry and painting, the changing, yearly cycle of seasons became a predominate theme in Japanese art, embodied in this 9th-century poem: The hue of the cherry fades too quickly from sight all for nothing this body of mine grows old— spring rain ceaselessly falling. Ono no Komachi 小野小町 (circa 825–circa 900)
Nature/Natural was organized by Kris Imants Ercums, curator of global contemporary and Asian art.
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EXHIBITIONS
Roots and Journeys North Balcony Gallery | Long-term The new gallery of Global Indigenous Arts at the Spencer is intended to explore artistic inspirations gleaned from nature, heritage, and transcendent experiences. These arts speak to the connections of people to place, the importance of traditions and the essential creativity of the human spirit. Sculptural works from around the world, such as Abelam carvings from New Guinea, will serve as anchors for discrete segments of the gallery that will host rotations of arts and cultural works from the University’s former Museum of Anthropology ethnographic collections. These collections will be presented in dialogue with new acquisitions and rarely seen works from the Spencer Museum of Arts’ collections to create new synergies and thought provoking engagements. The first rotation, Markets and Migrations in American Indian Arts, will highlight historic and contemporary works from across North America, presented in visually stimulating pairings, in order to capture the imagination and illuminate the complexities of history made personal through artistic explorations. We are delighted to welcome these indigenous works to our galleries, and look forward to sharing our African and Oceanic arts in future rotations within this gallery space. Roots and Journeys was organized by Nancy Mahaney, curator of the arts and cultures of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, and Celka Straughn, Andrew W. Mellon Director of Academic Programs.
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Tesuque peoples, “rain god� figure, before 1899, ceramic, pigment, Gift of James K. Allen, 2007.2743
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Capstone gift completes Spencer’s $1 million Mellon challenge A capstone gift from the Dolph Simons Jr. family, of Lawrence, has enabled the Spencer to fulfill a $1 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish an academic programs initiative at the Museum. The final gift, received in early spring, allowed the Museum to meet the challenge months ahead of schedule. The Andrew W. Mellon Academic Programs Initiative is fueling the Spencer’s increasing involvement in interdisciplinary exhibitions and educational programs throughout the University. Nearly 80 KU alumni and friends provided gifts and pledges to meet the 2008 challenge grant. Included among these gifts were $200,000 from the Anschutz Foundation of Denver; $100,000 from John T. Stewart III and Linda Bliss Stewart, of Lawrence and Wellington; and $100,000 from Lavon Brosseau, of Concordia. Dolph Simons Jr. says his family has long appreciated everything Helen and Kenneth Spencer did for the University. His parents, Dolph Simons Sr. and Marie Simons, worked closely with Helen Spencer to have the Spencer Museum of Art built at KU. “The current Simons family members are pleased to continue this long interest by providing funds to help the Spencer meet the match for the Mellon Foundation,” says Simons. He notes the University and the community should be highly complimented that the Mellon Foundation selected the Spencer Museum for one of its matching grant opportunities. Hardy says she is thrilled and honored by the gift from the Simons family, which completes the challenge grant and elevates the Spencer
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Museum of Art among distinguished peers across the nation: “Not only have we met the challenge grant offered by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, but also—thanks to the decisive generosity of the Simons family and our many other donors—we have met this challenge early.” The Simons family gift is even more meaningful, Hardy says, because it reflects the continuing tradition of support offered to the Museum by multiple generations of the Simons family. In addition to the $1 million challenge grant, in 2008, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided $200,000 to support the program while matching funds were being raised. The Spencer used a portion of these funds to recruit Celka Straughn, director of academic programs, to develop the initiative and ensure that projects are relevant to interests of students and faculty. Straughn says that in many ways, the initiative expands upon the work that the Spencer Museum had been doing.
“It’s reciprocal in that students and faculty learn from the museum’s collections and staff, and we’re similarly learning from them, gaining new insights and perspectives on what is relevant and important to them,” she says. An example was last fall’s exhibition Media Memes: Images, Technology and Making the News. Michael Williams, associate professor of journalism, curated the exhibition, with assistance from Luke Jordan, lecturer in the department of visual art, and Straughn. The installation in the 20/21 Gallery looked at questions about photography and meaning making, particularly with 21stcentury journalism. It included displays and hands-on examples of photo-editing processes, select cameras, and the impact new and portable technology has made on the viewing of photos. “What is great about including exhibitions such as this in a museum is that it provides a space to make teaching and learning visible,” Straughn says. “The Spencer is open to the public and free of charge. We are able to share some of what happens in the classroom here in the Museum.”
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NEH awards Spencer $175,000 for cataloging and digitization Thanks to a $175,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Spencer will continue apace with its project to catalogue and digitally document several thousand objects of global art and culture. The grant is one of only 33 in the nation awarded by NEH this year through its Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program. The NEH grant will support the Museum’s efforts to fully integrate 9,000 items of global art and culture—collected continuously since 1890 as ethnographic objects by the University—into its existing permanent collection. Known as the Arts and Cultures of the Americas, Africa and Oceania Collection, the works were entrusted to the Spencer by KU in 2007 after the Museum of Anthropology was closed. With the NEH grant, the Spencer will continue working to assess, document, inscribe and accession each object in the collection; digitally photograph each object; and carry out limited research to further document provenance and contextual information for objects in the collection. These activities will increase the scholarly significance of the collection, enhance its research potential, and broaden the Museum’s ability to interpret and display, for the benefit of diverse audiences, exceptional, little-known objects that are representative of our global heritage. Key staff members implementing the project are Nancy Mahaney, curator of the Arts and Cultures of the Americas, Africa and Oceania Collection; Sofia Galarza-Liu, collections manager for the Museum; and Angela Watts, associate collections manager for the Arts and Cultures of the Americas, Africa and Oceania Collection; Museum Director Saralyn Reece Hardy serves as project director. KU Libraries also received a $70,939 grant through the same NEH program, and SMA prints and drawings staff will consult on its project to catalogue and digitize scientific illustrations from the collection of John Gould (1804–81), a notable 19th-century British publisher of illustrated bird books.
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Awards benefit SMA projects The Spencer is grateful for several recent gifts in support of various Museum endeavors. • An anonymous gift of $10,000 will support the SMA’s Project Redefine. • A $25,000 grant from the Carpenter Foundation will provide support for the Museum’s graduate student internship in Asian art. • A $30,000 grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation will provide support for the Spencer’s fall 2012 Vasari exhibition and international Renaissance sculpture conference. • A $10,000 grant from the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts will provide support for Kansas City-based programming in conjunction with the 2011–2012 International Artist-in-Residence Program. • A $2,000 grant from Target will support the Museums /Schools project.
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Spencer’s FY10 Register now available The Spencer’s FY10 Register, released July 14, boasts a new format and features Edouard Drouot’s Swords into Plowshares; The Sword and the Plow on the cover. New scholarship offers insight into works in the Spencer’s permanent collection, including Thomas Gainsborough’s Portrait of William Philp Perrin. The Register is now available for sale on the Spencer’s Amazon.com account. Friends of the Art Museum members may pick up their complimentary copy at the Museum. The forthcoming edition will present the following scholarly articles: “ William Philp Perrin, Thomas Gainsborough, & Italy: Reinstating an Identity”, by Hugh Belsey “Sense of Place in Robert Swain Gifford’s A Kansas Ranch”, by Mindy A. Besaw “Paper Medals: A Portfolio of Gypsographs by Pierre Roche”, by Stephen H. Goddard In addition to scholarship on the SMA collection and an overview of the artwork acquired by the Museum from July 1, 2009–June 30, 2010, the Register offers programming and exhibition details, and facts and figures about Museum activities. The Register was edited by Catherine Blumenfeld, Jessica Lea Johnson, and Bill Woodard. Lee Blackledge edited the scholarly articles. Tristan Telander designed the publication and Robert Hickerson, Jessica Pittel, and Ryan Waggoner provided photography.
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Wonder Fair collaborates with Spencer This July and August, Eric Dobbins, Lee Piechocki, Jason Barr, and Kelly John Clark—the four artists at Wonder Fair Art Gallery, Shoppe, and Studio—transformed the Spencer’s Museum Shop into an imaginative environment constructed nearly exclusively of found
objects. Our Tube presented a creative play on the “You Tube” culture, in which users from around the world create and share videos; the Wonder Fair team offered its own interpretation through a four-part series of events. Each Our Tube event shared four common themes: curating, re-working, critiquing, and advertising. In each episode of the series, one artist curated by selecting an existing You Tube video; one artist re-worked through the creation of a copy-cat video—in line with the video sharing community; one artist offered a video critique of the original video; and finally, one artist created a video advertisement. The four artists rotated through each of the roles, performing each task once throughout the project. Each episode debuted with a video premiere featuring the artists and enlivened by time-honored movietheater spectacle—and the requisite popcorn, candy and soda pop.
Saralyn Reece Hardy introduces the members of Wonderfair: Kelly Clark, Jason Barr, Lee Piechocki, and Eric Dobbins at the 2011 FAM Annual Meeting & Purchase Party.
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SMA Summer 2012 Travel: Florence and Tuscany Make plans now to join the Spencer Museum of Art for an in-depth exploration of 16th-century Florentine court culture, as seen through the eyes of Giorgio Vasari, the renowned Renaissance painter, architect, and artist biographer whose exquisite painting Christ Carrying the Cross (1953.0015) will be the centerpiece of a major fall 2012 exhibition at the Spencer. Accompanied by Saralyn Reece Hardy, SMA director, and Sally Cornelison, KU associate professor of Italian Renaissance art, travelers will follow Vasari’s life and work on an 8-day excursion to Florence and Tuscany. The trip will include a visit to the Palazzo Vecchio, a private tour of the Uffizi and the adjoining Vasari Corridor, the Medici aristocracy’s private path to the Pitti Palace across the Arno River, and the basilicas of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, churches housing some of the most celebrated examples of Italian Renaissance painting, which Vasari and his workshop renovated for Medici Grand Duke Cosimo I in the 1560s. Highlighting Vasari’s important role as one of Michelangelo’s two contemporary biographers, the trip will include visits to the Medici Chapel at San Lorenzo and the Accademia Gallery to explore several of Michelangelo’s most significant works of art and architecture, such as the Times of Day and the David. The group will also enjoy a day trip to Arezzo, Vasari’s birthplace, to view his stunning architectural masterpiece, the Piazza Grande, visit Vasari’s home, which the artist decorated with allegorical frescoes, and see several of his most important altarpieces. Group meals, a visit to a Florentine palace, and an optional musical performance will round out this stimulating art historical adventure. More details will follow; if you wish to learn more, please contact Margaret Perkins-McGuinness (mpm@ku.edu or 785.864.0141).
Giorgio Vasari II, 1511–1574, Christ Carrying the Cross, circa 1562–1565, oil on panel, Museum purchase, 1953.0015
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Spencer to welcome KU alumnus J.T. O’Neal for workshop and screening Filmmaker, photographer, and physician J.T. O’Neal graduated from KU with an honors degree in history of art. His latest feature film, Au Pair, Kansas, took inspiration from O’Neal’s long-time interest in the Swedish immigrant artist Birger Sandzén, who taught and practiced art in Lindsborg, Kansas. Shot in Lindsborg, the film combines drama and comedy with shades of European magical realism, to tell the story of a widowed woman who hires a Norwegian soccer player to be a male au pair and help her raise her two sons. At the Spencer on Sunday, October 16, O’Neal will conduct a special screenwriting workshop for artists from 1–3 PM, then from 3:30–5:30 PM introduce his award-winning film and answer questions following the Spencer’s screening.
Both the workshop and film screening are organized in conjunction with the KU Department of Film and Media Studies. Please note that times are subject to change, please check www.spencerart.ku.edu. For further information about O’Neal and Au Pair, Kansas, please see the film’s official website: http://aupairkansasmovie.wordpress.com/ The Spencer’s collection includes works by both J.T. O’Neal and Birger Sandzén.
Image from: http://aupairkansasmovie.wordpress.com/photos/
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Staff members present sessions, publish articles, and win awards Spencer education department members Kristina Walker, Amanda Martin-Hamon, and Natalie Svacina each presented at the 2011 National Art Education Association Convention this past March in Seattle. Walker, Martin-Hamon, and Liz Kowalchuk of the KU art department led a session on SMA’s “An Ear for Art” cell-phone audio tour program. Together with two colleagues from the University of Florida, Martin-Hamon presented on the role of university museums and art departments in contributing to the “creative campus.” And together with a colleague from the University of IllinoisChampaign Urbana’s Krannert Museum of Art, Walker and Svacina discussed the challenges of engaging and building student audiences for museums on university campuses. Susan Earle, Curator of European and American Art recently published a monograph on artist Mimi Smith. The article, “Mimi Smith: Fashioning Art and Life,” appears in the Spring /Summer 2011 issue of Woman’s Art Journal and traces Smith’s career, highlighting her use of “conceptual work with ‘images’ or forms that we recognize to create something powerful and unusual.” Smith’s Steel Wool Peignoir can be viewed in the Spencer’s 20/21 Gallery.
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Celka Straughn, Andrew W. Mellon Director of Academic Programs, coauthored with Harvard University’s Howard Gardner a chapter entitled “GoodWork in Museums Today…and Tomorrow,” in Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum. The chapter draws on the perspectives and findings of the GoodWork Project®, a large-scale research project investigating the ways leading professionals in a variety of domains perform good work. Ethics forms an integral component of good work. In addition to examining questions of museum ethics through the lens of the GoodWork Project, the article focuses on recent museum transformations and meanings of public service, directing particular attention to the changing roles, responsibilities and relationships of museum curators and educators.
Spencer Graphic Designer Tristan Telander and intern Jenn Scheer have been selected as winners of the American Association of Museums’ 2011 Museum Publications Design Competition. Within the category of “Invitations to Events” for institutions with budgets greater than $750,000, judges awarded first prize to the graphic design team for the design of the 2010 SMA Reflection /Projection: Friends of the Art Museum Annual Meeting and Purchase Party invitation. Winners were recognized at the 2011 AAM Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo in Houston, May 22–25 and will be featured in a special section of the November/December issue of Museum, AAM’s bimonthly magazine. For a complete list of winners, please visit the association’s website www.aam–us.org.
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SMA welcomes new graduate student interns for 2011–2012 school year Braden Heibner, Berkley Intern, Arts & Cultures of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania, second-year master’s student in museum studies and anthropology (Plains Indian culture & history) from Newton, Kansas Meghan Koza Young, Mellon Foundation/Loo Intern, European & American Art, doctoral student in history of art (modern & contemporary art; theories & methods of visual culture; medieval English architecture) from Gulf Shores, Alabama Takaaki Kumagai, Carpenter Foundation Intern, Asian Art, doctoral student in history of art (contemporary and transnational Japanese art) from Funabashi, Japan
Chassica Kirchhoff, Andrew W. Mellon Intern, Print Room, doctoral student in history of art (late medieval & early modern European) from Springfield, Missouri Annie Kroshus, Sloan Intern, Education, second-year master’s student in art history of art (modern & contemporary China) from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota Lindsey Waugh, Andrew W. Mellon Intern, Academic Programs, doctoral student in art history (17th-century Netherlandish art) from Collierville, Tennessee Jonathan Metzger, Andrew W. Mellon Intern, Collection and Print Room, MFA candidate in printmaking from Nodine, Minnesota
Anderson Studio Wahoo Nebraska, untitled, 1902, gelatin silver print, Anonymous gift, 1995.0002
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SMA intern Kirchhoff restores 15th-century jousting armor piece An elaborately decorated piece of 15th-century jousting armor recently underwent extensive cleaning, examination, and scholarly research by Spencer Museum intern Chassica Kirchhoff. The piece is on view through September 4 as part of the exhibition Pomp up the Jam: Splendor, Pageantry, and Performance in Art. This cuirass, or breastplate, was likely made in Augsburg, Germany, around 1480 and was used in a tournament activity known as the “tilt,� a type of joust that has been depicted in countless representations of the medieval period in pop-culture. From March through June, Kirchhoff worked in consultation with Paul Benson, objects conservator at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, to conserve the work. Removal of thick layers of beeswax, originally intended to protect the steel surface from rust, revealed the painstakingly wrought details and impressive craftsmanship of this functional work of art.
Artist Unknown, cuirass (breast plate), probably before 1600, steel, brass, source unknown, on view: 20/21 Gallery, Process Space, 0000.2840
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Smithsonian Institution, KHC fund Native American art exhibitions An $11,000 grant from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and a $7,900 grant from the Kansas Humanities Council will provide critical funding for two fall 2011 exhibitions at the Spencer Museum of Art that feature contemporary and historical Native American art, respectively: Heartland Reverberations (October 15, 2011–January 15, 2012) and Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place (September 10, 2011–January 15, 2012). “We are grateful for the support of the Smithsonian and the Kansas Humanities Council,” says Nancy Mahaney, SMA Curator of Arts & Cultures of the Americas, Africa & Oceania.
“Place and identity are the primary themes for these exhibitions of contemporary and historical American Indian Art, which will coincide with the sesquicentennial commemoration of Kansas’ statehood.Statehood presents a unique set of ‘memorial’ issues for native people, as it is often a reminder of loss of land and communal identity that is tied to place. We see these issues as potentially relevant to a broad cross-section of Americans due to the diversity of people who have passed through Kansas as a result of immigration and relocation.” Mahaney will curate the exhibitions, bringing to bear 20 years’ experience in museum and heritage management, including eight years working with indigenous nations in Arizona.
Cheyenne peoples, parfleche, rawhide, buckskin, paint, Gift of Forrest E. Jones, 2007.1812
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Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place will feature historical Native American art from the Spencer’s collection and serve as a companion and complement to Heartland Reverberations. The project has at its center American Indian cultural materials and accompanying public programs and educational materials to tell the story of the native tribes relocated into and out of the state of Kansas. The contemporary exhibition, Heartland Reverberations, will provide an opportunity for artists from descendant American Indian communities that were relocated out of Kansas to present work that speaks to the issues of place, identity and relocation. In spite of the many “celebrations� of statehood that have occurred in recent years (e.g. Oklahoma, Arizona), few opportunities have been offered for Indian people to express their own sense of commemoration. The five artists selected to participate in this exhibition have distinguished themselves through their unique and thoughtprovoking treatment of these topics.
Chris Pappan, Kanzaa/Osage, pencil on antique ledger paper
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SMA’s inaugural Brosseau Awards honor undergraduate creativity A haunting short story by an architectural engineering student and a proposal for a multi-layered sonic installation by a music composition and theory student are the inaugural recipients of the Jack and Lavon Brosseau Creativity Awards from the Spencer. Benefactor Lavon Brosseau established the prizes last fall to celebrate outstanding creativity among undergraduate students at the University of Kansas. The Brosseau awards provide cash stipends of approximately $500; awardees are featured here: http:// www.spencerart.ku.edu/education/ university/awards/brosseau.shtml
Barb Simpson, a St. Louis, Missouri, senior who will graduate in December 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering and a minor in English, received the Jack and
Lavon Brosseau Creative Writing Award for her short fiction piece “Locked Doors.” After her KU graduation, Simpson plans to pursue a master’s degree in structural engineering with an emphasis on seismic design. She says that she developed a passion for fiction and the arts at a young age, participating in everything from reading to writing to painting.
Shedrick Williams, untitled (housekeeping rooms), 1971, gelatin silver print, Gift of Shedrick Williames,1974.0056
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Jason Charney, an Overland Park, Kansas, junior studying music theory and music composition, received the Jack and Lavon Brosseau Creativity Award for “Sounding Circle,” a proposal for an interactive sound installation. Charney writes tuneful and triadic music for
vocalists and instrumentalists, as well as electroacoustic media. His music has been commissioned by several performers and groups in Kansas, including KU’s Helianthus Ensemble, which premiered his chamber opera Deep Blue in April 2011. He is particularly interested in the intersection of art, science, and experience. Jason won the 2011 Anthony B. Cius Award for Most Outstanding Student Composer, and the 2011 Edward M. Mattila Award for Most Outstanding Electro-Acoustic Composer. For his mentoring counsel,
Charney thanks his adviser, Kip Haaheim, associate professor of music theory & music composition.
Lavon Brosseau strongly believes in education and in the profound importance of teaching. “There is a deep and almost sacred beauty in literature and in art,” Brosseau says.
“Each may deal with the abstract and each may involve interpretation, but each has its own reality that permits the mind to explore and to soar.” The awards honor creative work that evidences risk-taking and reflection, provides new insights, forms a part of critical thinking, and generates new ways of understanding; award recipients were selected by an interdisciplinary review committee.
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New Acquisition Karen LaMonte, born United States, 1967; lives in Czech Republic, Chado, 2010, kiln-cast glass, Museum purchase: Gift of Hope Talbot and the Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund, 2011.0015.
Through the generosity of Hope Talbot, the Spencer recently acquired a monumental glass sculpture by Karen LaMonte called Chado. The sculpture, now on view in the 20/21 Gallery, was cast in a kiln in the Czech Republic just last year, heated to nearly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and then left to rest in the kiln for three months as the material gradually cooled and stabilized.
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Chado is part of a series of cast kimonos that LaMonte created in glass, bronze, and ceramic as a result of a seven-month research fellowship spent in Kyoto, Japan, in 2007. LaMonte spent four years making the kimono sculptures—working in four countries and on three continents. She studied kimonos in every possible way, from formal uses in tea ceremony and theater, to making one and wearing it herself.
Karen LaMonte has earned international acclaim for her striking cast-glass sculptures. Born in New York in 1967, she earned her BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990. She set to work in the medium of glass and created innovative pieces from the start, combining intellectual depth with masterful technique and stunning forms. Then in 1999, at the age of 32, she earned a Fulbright scholarship to study in Prague, Czech Republic, to expand her skills at making large-scale cast glass in one of the world’s top glass factories. She had very specific goal: to make a life-size, hollow, castglass dress. Although she is modest about this goal, and its eventual achievement, no one had ever done this before. She envisioned a completely new way of making kiln-cast glass on a large scale, and she is the first person to accomplish it.
Chado draws its name from the Japanese tea ceremony, and the sculpture portrays a kneeling Geisha in the act of offering tea. The artist wanted to convey the sensitivity of a Buddhist society to all that is ephemeral, creating an almost melancholic sense of beauty.
In order to do this, she had to figure out how to make two impressions, resulting in a colorless, translucent form that echoes headless classical sculptures. Beginning with a life-cast of a nude female figure, LaMonte then clothes the cast nude with a draping dress, which might be a nineteenth-century
SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
American evening gown, a stylish Art Deco dress, or, more recently, a Japanese kimono. In all cases the dress itself is what creates the form of the cast-glass sculpture, although the dress does not hang limply as it would in the work of some recent artists. Instead it has been filled with the life and contours of a real human form—albeit now notably absent: only the dress remains. The double casting of the glass parallels the way that clothing is like a second skin. The forms that LaMonte creates are life-size glass dresses that seem to float like ghosts or embodiments of memories, poignantly signifying the absent figure and the dress from which the glass gains its form. They are hauntingly beautiful, and evoke loss, mortality, and the sublime. LaMonte’s work defies categorization as either art or craft and influentially blurs those distinctions. Her craftsmanship and technique are exemplary, and they work
in concert with her thoughtful evocations of dresses as symbolic and sculptural forms, imbued with the history of art and also with the very personal presence of each woman who might have inhabited these flowing fabrics. She investigates light and space through draping the human form, considering the meanings of adornment, the history of art, and the dress as a cultural signifier. Inspired by Bernini’s elaborately draped 17th-century marble of the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, LaMonte seeks to create, as she states, “empowered femininity.” LaMonte has earned numerous awards and fellowships, has had several exhibitions, and already has garnered an extensive bibliography. Her first solo museum exhibition in the United States was at the Tacoma Museum of Glass in 2006. The artist currently lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.
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Loans from the SMA Collection
1996.0184
Works from the Spencer’s collection traveling to other institutions for display:
Money, Art, and the Art of Money The Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery, Lebanon Valley College, Annville, PA September 2 – October 23, 2011 James Stephen George Boggs, USA, born 1955, Adornment, 1990, engraving, Xerox, lapis, brass, silver, Gift of Ms. Carolyn Connerat, 1996.0187a–d (left) James Stephen George Boggs, USA, born 1955, Life Size & In Color!, late 1900s, canograph, Gift of Jeff and Peggy Pearson, 1996.0184
Shared Treasure:The Legacy Of Samuel Kress Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA October 14, 2011–January 15, 2012 Italy, School of Sassetta, Head of an Angel, circa 1430–35 , Tempera and gold leaf on panel, Gift from the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, 1960.0044
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SMA-KU Libraries collaboration report available on Spencer website Brian Rosenblum, associate librarian for digital scholarship, spent the 2010 fall semester at the Spencer Museum of Art as Keeler Family Intra-University Professor. Rosenblum devoted the semester to learning about the museum profession; exploring the convergence of libraries, archives and museums in the digital age; and identifying areas of potential future collaboration between the Spencer Museum of Art and KU Libraries. His final report is available here: http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/media/publications/library-museum-collaboration.shtml
The Commons sets theme for 2011–2012 In academic year 2011–2012, The Commons will explore the theme URBAN PALIMPSEST destruction and renewal. During the fall, Seed Grant opportunities are available for interdisciplinary faculty research projects. Based on the success of the Idea Café introduced this spring, The Commons will revisit this format through new speakers on the guiding theme for the year. The spring semester will feature a keynote lecture on URBAN PALIMPSEST destruction and renewal, as well as artist projects. For current details and more information, visit www.thecommons.ku.edu.
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Rocket Grants 2011–2012 project awards announced The Spencer and Kansas City’s Charlotte Street Foundation in June announced that 10 multidisciplinary art projects in the LawrenceKansas City area will receive 2011–2012 Rocket Grants. This is the second year of the awards, which support unconventional work by artists living within an 80-mile radius of metropolitan Kansas City. The scope of the awards includes several projects that artists have designed to support the growth and development of the regional arts community. Several projects involve events or performances, and audiences and participants range from senior citizens to drag queens. For the first time, Rocket Grants will fund a documentary and a related website, associated with a project that connects people to sites of local political resistance. Rocket Grants award up to $4,000 to individuals and groups of artists for high quality, innovative and public-oriented artwork that happens outside of typical galleries, museums, and arts districts. Artists are encouraged to address the community at large, to strengthen the arts community, or to choose a smaller, targeted audience. All the 2011–2012 projects applied for, and received, the full $4,000 award. The Rocket Grants program has recently been guaranteed another two-year cycle of funding by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Completed and in-progress projects from the first year of funding can be seen at rocketgrants.wordpress.com.
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Daniel Eichenbaum, Bob Riddle, Cheryl Melfi, Richard Johnson, Rebecca Ashe: Dark Matter presents “Ascent�. A community-built balloon will carry high-resolution cameras to the edge of space, connecting local artists and scientists in the process. Asma Kazmi: Playing Gender. This is a transdisciplinary art project celebrating the precarious fabrication of gender artifice and exaggeration. Caitlin Horsman: Resistant History. This project aims to reframe political reform as a local activity by collecting stories of progressive change in the Kansas City area and making them available via the web to educators, citizens and artists. Nicole Mauser, Cory Imig, Amy Kligman, Misha Kligman & Caleb Taylor: Plug Projects. This is an artistrun curatorial collaboration designed to nurture critical dialogue, expand the scope of art being shown in the area, and cross-pollinate regional and national artists in Kansas City. Judith Levy: NV in KC. Levy will work with videographers, actors, non-actors, artists and musicians in Lawrence and Kansas City to create a faux documentary that examines difficult subject matter with wit and humanity.
Elizabeth Lovett & Yair Keshet: Discrete Curiosities. The artists will build a mathematically derived display system that will act as a postmodern Cabinet of Wonders. Daniel Parks: Community Projection Week. Over the course of one week, Parks will facilitate the creation of a unique projection art piece on the outside of a different community center or secondary school across the Kansas City Metro. Eric Dobbins & Kelly Clark: Field Trip Publishing. This project aims to inspire eight emerging Kansas City area artists to consider experimenting with new art making practices, collaboration, and marketing. Amber Hansen: The Story of Chickens: A Revolution. This project features a nomadic chicken coop, designed to be both functional and beautiful and to be inhabited by five heritage chickens. Julia Vering: You Live Here Too. The project examines the ways in which we construct identities and meaning through storytelling, congregated living, and age-segregated recreation.
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FRIENDS & CONTRIBUTORS
THE 2010–2011 EXHIBITIONS
AND PROGRAMS ARE SUPPORTED IN PART BY: AAMD Educational Foundation Anonymous Adair / Dyer Fund Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts The Anschutz Foundation Avis Chitwood Fund Breidenthal-Snyder Foundation Brooking Fund for Interdisciplinary Research Docent Scholarship Fund Donald E. Sloan Intern Fund E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Enid & Crosby Kemper Foundation ExxonMobil Foundation Estelle S. and Robert A. Long Ellis Foundation International Artist-in-Residence Fund Joseph D. and Ester G. Berkley Fund Judith M. Cook Native American Art Fund Kansas Humanities Council Kress Foundation Conservation Fund KU Student Senate Mary Margaret Brett Fund Mary P. Lipman Children’s Education Fund Marybelle and Lawrence C. Bowman Memorial Fund Mitchell Art Museum Education Fund National Endowment for the Humanities National Museum of the American Indian The O’Connor Company – Piller Foundation Olin K. and Mary Ruth Petefish Charitable Trust Piersol Foundation Price R. and Flora A. Reid Foundation Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts Samuel H. Kress Foundation Target Foundation William T. Kemper Foundation
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SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
AMBASSADOR The Anschutz Foundation M. Lavon Brosseau The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Dolph C. Simons, Jr. John T. and Linda Stewart SPONSOR Estelle S. and Robert A. Long Ellis Foundation Arthur V. Neis Hope A. Talbot PILLAR E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation David and Gunda Hiebert The Enid & Crosby Kemper Foundation Samuel H. Kress Foundation Scott and Carol Ritchie Elizabeth Schultz Marilyn Stokstad Lee F. Young KEYSTONE Margaret M. Daicoff Kathleen M. Hall Saralyn Reece Hardy William T. Kemper Foundation Burdett and Michel Loomis Larry and Barbara Marshall Hammond McNish Brent and Melissa Padgett Lee E. Phillips III and Marlene Phillips Marynell D. Reece Valentino and Elizabeth Stella Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts Richard and Stephanie Surface Brad and Susan Tate CORNERSTONE Carolyn Dillon Reed and Stacey Dillon Barbara M. Duke Charles and Jane Eldredge The Estate of Gladys and Frank Burge
Don and Jene Herron Emily Hill and Burke Griggs Stephen and Cara Ingalls Michael and Dee Michaelis The Estate of Alice E. and Jim Gerstner Piersol Foundation Scott J. Jones and Mary Lou Reece Pete Rowland FELLOW Colette and Jeff Bangert Tom and Jill Docking David C. Henry and Matt Taylor Jean K. Francisco Mike and Cindy Maude Patrick and Mary Beth Musick Rob and Betsy Weaver BENEFACTOR Linda Bailey Linda and Jim Ballinger John Poertner and Edith Black The Breidenthal-Snyder Foundation Carol Ann and Clifton Brown Rose Bryant Brad and Bev Burnside Kay ,Tom, Tyler, and Jeff Carmody Bill and Barbara Carswell Brad and Ellen Chindamo Joe and Vicki Douglas Janet Dreiling and Doug Tilghman Mrs. Anne Foresman Chuck and Sandy Garrett Randy Gordon and Lori Shannon Dean and Ginny Graves John and Nancy Hiebert Nancy Jackson Bryan and Linda Johnson Richard and Laura Klocke Sacie and David Lambertson Gaye Leonard and John A. Leonard Virginia Nadeau Phylllis and Ronald Nolan Brent and Melissa Padgett
Spencer Museum of Art Friends and Contributors
* updated August 4, 2011
Margaret Perkins-McGuinness and Nathan Benjamin Petefish Charitable Trust Price R. and Flora A. Reid Foundation John and Deanell Tacha Mrs. Georgiana H. Torres A. Bret and Mary Lou Dooley Roger B. Ward
PATRON Ray and Nancy Smith Allen Dave and Mary Kate Ambler Ken and Katie Armitage Michael L. Aurbach Jane V. Barber Edith Clowes and Craig Huneke Landis L and Joan Dibble Marilyn Dowell Steve and Diane Goddard Ric and Ellen Goheen Lewis and Laura Gregory Leo P. Hallak Don and Sandra Hazlett Nancy Lindsey Helmstadter Marcia and Stephen Hill Raymond and Mary Lee Hummert Donald and Alice Ann Johnston Nora Kaschube Chuck and Mary Loveland Gerry Miller Jean and Bill Mitchell James and Virginia Moffett Charlotte Mueller Richard S. Paegelow Mabel L. Rice Reginald and Jane Robinson Frank and Judith Sabatini Mr. and Mrs. Dolph C. Simons III Rick and Betsy Solberg Jeff and Mary Weinberg Sue Grosjean Wilcox DONOR Leonard P. Alfano Sally Ashbacher and Deborah Sheridan Judy Billings Beverly A. Smith Billings, in honor of Bob Billings
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FRIENDS & CONTRIBUTORS 48
Ian Bottomley Robert Bowline Ralph and Alta Brock Michael L. Carnahan Joyce Castle Paul Coker and Rosemary Smithson John and Jan Conard William J. Crowe Candice Davis Sally K. Davis Mary Elizabeth and Giles Guiness John and Debbie Divine Eileen Drape Jerry and Mary Dusenbury Sam and Terry Evans Megan and Michael Grossman Donald and Carol Hatton W. Dean Henrichs M.D. Richard and Nancy Hernandez Louise M. Jarvis Jessica Lea Johnson Stephen Johnson and Debra Goldberg David M. and Sharyn Brooks Katzman Ted and Jane Kuwana Carol and Dave Kyner Susan and Stuart Levine Dr. Janey Levy Linda Lighton and Lynn Adkins Dee Anne and Forest Link Jane W. Malin Eli and Mary Lou Michaelis Barbara Nordling Lori Norwood Dr. James F. and Vickie Otten Judy and George Paley John and Ardith Pierce Letha Robertson Patricia Cain Rodewald Mrs. L. J. Rose Dan and Nicole Sabatini Gladys and Robert Sanders Richard and Barbara Schowen
SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
Bryan Scrivner Todd and Jeannot Seymour Tim and Julie Shaftel Roger Shimomura and Janet Davidson-Hues The Hon. Fred and Lilian Six Morton I. and Estelle Sosland Thomas and Edith L. Taylor Judith and Peter Thompson Glenda and Andy Tompkins Tim and Jerrye Van Leer Steven F. Warren and Eva Horn Arnold Weiss Judy Wright FRIEND Bob and Marcia Anderson Tom and Francie Arnold Janet Perkins and Jeff Aube Victor and Kathryn Bailey Price and Marge Banks Ofelia Baradi Lillian M. Barker Martha B. Barr Grace H. Beam Barbara and Frank J. Becker Chuck and Beth Berg David Bergeron and Geraldo Sousa Doug Bergstrom and Julie Battaglia Carolyn Berry Marlene and Greg Bien Nancy and Gary Bjorge Lee Blackledge and Thomas Hoffman Chuck and Dee Blaser Rolf and Laura Borchert David Brackett and David Quinn Jack Bray Jr, MD Anne Bray Mary Ann and George Brenner Lynn M. Bretz Dr. Mark J. Brodkey Mark and Susie Brooks
Patricia Brooks Elizabeth Broun Robert and Sharon Brown James A. Brundage Rex Buchanan and Mindy James Dr. and Mrs. Henry W. Buck Mark and Marsha Buhler Tim and Rachel Epp Buller Cord Burk John and Janet Burnett Huchingson George W. Byers Kit Carlsen Janet L. Carpenter Adam Carr Catherine Crice Carter, in memory of Steve Carter Peter and Rosalea Carttar Lois Clark Fred P. Conboy Warren and Mary Corman Sally Cornelison and Dan DePardo Jane A. Cotitta Susan V. Craig Ann Cudd and Neal Becker Judy Culley Peter and Virginia Curran Paul and Stephanie Davis Richard and Fern DeGeorge Bill Dentler and Kathy Suprenant Dorothy Devlin Patrick and Mary Dooley John and Mary Doveton Patricia Dubose Duncan James and Nancy Dunn Katy Eddy Steve and Chris Edmonds Hilda Enoch Kris Ercums Stephen Fawcett & Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett Elaine M. and Keith D. Fellenstein Pamela Fine Sherry Fowler and Dale Slusser Marci Francisco
Hank and Paula Frankel Dr. William Freeman Charles and Diane Frickey SuEllen and Harvey Fried Elaine Frisbie Larry and Jacqueline Gadt Ligia Galarza Sidney Ashton Garrett Norman and Helen Gee George E. and Ruth B. Gibbs Mrs. William Gilbert Dr. Helen Gilles Rich and Sue Givens Web and Joan Golden Marrillie C. Good Pat Graham and David Dunfield Lynne Green Brenda Groskinsky George and Susan Gurley Ted and Nancy Haggart Kay and Gary Hale Tom Harper Matt and Diane Henk Charles and Laurie McLane Higginson Dick and Sue Himes Ronald L. and Barbara J. Hinton Irv and Ellen Hockaday Nancy Hope Janet Howard Matt and Heather Hoy Harry and Mary Lou Hughes David Hughes Jeffrey and Sherry Ingles Kenneth Irby Wes and Joan Jackson Reinhild Janzen Ted and Mary Johnson Linda and Topper Johntz Theresa and George Jones Nancy Jorn Linda Josserand Maurice and Betsy Joy Mike and Elaine Kautsch John and Sangeetha Kelly W. Bradley M. Kemp Lesley T. Ketzel
Kathy Kirk Karen L. Koehler Karen and Ed Komp Liz Kowalchuk John and Margie Kuhn Betty A. Laird Thomas W. Laming Kristine Latta and Orlando Cachiguango Paula and Rusty Leffel Cheryl Lester and Phillip Barnard Judith Levy Jim and Carolyn Chinn Lewis Alice A. Lieberman Richard and Karen Lind Loraine H. Lindenbaum Dr. Loretta Loftus Stan Lombardo and Judy Roitman Jim and Larissa Long Allison Lopez Juliette Loring Lila Borgman Lothson R.W. and Cathy Lucas John and Linda Lungstrum Josephine A. Lutz Judith Major Robert and Anita Markley Mrs. Robert Marshall Rob and Nancy Marshall Jackson Martin Norman L. and Shirley J. Martin Cyd Matthey Stephen Mazza Barbara B. McCorkle George and Marily McCleary B. Kent and Janette McCullough Michael W. McEvoy Sally McGee Mary and William McGuinness Dr. and Mrs. Sidney A McKnight Jr. Genevieve T. McMahon Rosalie McMaster Vicki Meadows Ed and Marie Meyen
Susan C. Meyer Elizabeth Miller and William L. Eakin Allan and Sandi Miller Mary Miller Ross Nancy S. Mitchell Melinda Morris-Black and David Logeman Mary Mortensen Herman and Phyllis Munczek Bridget E. Murphy JoAnn Myers John and Carol Nalbandian Marge Newmark Virginia Ann Nichols Jerry and Judy Niebaum Steve and Marianne Noll SanDee and Jerry Nossaman Bill and Harolyn O’Brien Robert and Lisa O’Connor Dr. & Mrs. W. Ronald Olin David Oliver Dick and Georgia Orchard Dean and Doris Owens Sharon Graves Pace Dalton Paley Stephen and Marie-Luce Parker Pamela and John Peck Mr. William E. Pfeiffer Jr. Carolyn and Lew Phillips Charles and Kate Pohl Riz Preena Laurance and Johanna Price Vickie Randel Tom and Ann Raney Matthew D. and Jennifer Richards Richard and Joan Ring Steven Ramberg and Margaret Rose Beverly and Howard Rosenfeld Jean Rosenthal and Dave Kingsley Rosalee Roth Landon and Sarah Rowland James K. Rowland Tom and Janette Rudkin
Spencer Museum of Art Friends and Contributors
* updated August 4, 2011
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FRIENDS & CONTRIBUTORS 50
Jeannette Runyan Henry and Lynn Russell Neil and Leni Salkind Janet M. Satz Michael Schaadt Catherine Schwoerer Virginia Seaver Will and Margaret Severson Del and Carol Shankel Larry E. Shankles Carolyn and Bob Shelton Mary-Margaret and Greg Simpson Diane Simpson Geraldine Slater and James A. Slater, II Boyd and Heather Smith Eric N. Smith and Pat Roach Smith Glee and Jerry Smith Mrs. Margery W. Smith Terry and George Smith Karen Smoot Bill and Dona Snead Paul and Debbie Sokoloff Gary and Constance Sollars Rita Spradlin Clare E. Statham Denise L. Stone Patrick Suzeau and Muriel Cohan Evelyn Swartz Jennifer and Ryan Talbott Deborah and Ron Teeter Tom and Dixie Telander Lawrence Tenopir Sarah Chappell Trulove and James Woelfel Rud and Anne Turnbull Kathryn and Bill Tuttle Lorie Vanchena Mary Ventura Sue and Larry Wagerle Graham and Anne Walker Chuck and Karen Warner Marion Warriner
SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
Deborah West Darin and Shannon White Ann and Pete Wiklund Betty Wilkin Sheila Wilkins and Kim Kern Tom and Jan Wilson William I. Woods Jack and Judy Wright Norm and Anne Yetman Robert and Marilyn Zerwekh SENIOR Marnie Argersinger Robert and Jean Ayers Patricia M. Balsamo Frank and Betty Baron Rebecca Barton Maynard Bauleke Lynne C. Bodle Jean-Pierre Boon Ann Church Kathleen Collins Grace P. Cooper Hal M. Davison Douglas H. Dean Leola R. Doyen Clark and Helen Fisher Carol M. Floersch J. Robert Fluker Jane Fortun Dorothy H. Fritzel Katherine Carr Giele Mrs. Howard Gilpin Leo R. Goertz Margaret S. Gordon Susan Haley and Jason Franchuk Betty Austin Hensley Anita Herzfeld Richard C. Hite David and Diana Ice Dr. Howard and Shirley Joseph Edie Kelly Alice Leonard Bernie and Joan Levine
Pamela Loewenstein Ruth Matthey Donna McCain Paul J. and L. Jean McCarthy Linda and Doug McKay Marcus and Jeannie Merritt C. M. S. and Janet Mody Mrs. H. Tully Moss Mary Alice Pacey Jane B. Pearce Mrs. Al Pendleton Mary Lou Penny Ken and Rowena Pine Pat Roth Dr. Rosemary Schrepfer Brilla Scott Sammy and James Scott Al and Jane Sellen Ted L. Sexton Jr. Jane and Larry Smith Katherine E. Stannard Susan Suhler James B. and Thelma Taylor Luella G. Vaccaro Alice Weis George and Carol Worth Morgan Wright STUDENT Michael Agre Jessica Alexander Christina Baker Devon Bartel Annette Becker Sarah Bluvas Lily Boyce Chase Bray Yiming Che Xiaorui Chen Rena Detrixhe Guangye Dong Susanne Eberle James Farmer Tommy Finch Lauren Fulton Taylor Hovorka
Zhesha Huang Emily Jalinsky Alyssa Johnson Colleen Jones Sean Kramer Kirsten Marples Rebecca Martin Carla McBride Hallie McCormick Catherine McElhone Ellen McGivern Johanna Beth McSweeney Richelle Mechem Josh Meier Melissa Melling Bernadette Myers Lauren Nelson Taylor Newman Anna Paradis Sarah Rew Trent Richardson Rachel Roth Jessica Rudkin Chloe Seim Scott Sheu Richard Shie May Simpson Ryan Smith Vicky Stadler Jeanette Stauffer Maryann Stenzel Voranouth Supadulya Olivia Tedford Alyssa Thiel Kristofer Voorhees Adam Vossen Ruth Walters Lena Warren Bailey Wells Pauline Willison Laura Wittmer
CORPORATE CORNERSTONE The Emprise Financial Corporation The O’Connor CompanyPiller Foundation CORPORATE BENEFACTOR Black Hills Energy Target Foundation CORPORATE PATRON Kizer-Cummings Jewelers, Inc. CORPORATE DONOR Commerce Bank TCK Trust & Financial Advisors CORPORATE FRIEND Bartlett & West Engineers, Inc. First State Bank and Trust Intrust Bank Landmark National Bank Peoples Financial Center St. John’s Catholic Church and School
Spencer Museum of Art Friends and Contributors
* updated August 4, 2011
DONORS OF ART Anonymous James A. Bergquist Rebecca Blunk Ellen Burd William P. Carl Eric G. Carlson W. S. Cheng Harvey Dinnerstein Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Feld Suzanne and Verlin Gilbert Dean and Ginny Graves Dr. Gunther and Lyhn Haller Robert Alexander Hiller Harrison Jedel H. G. Jones Luke Jordan Ruth Lawson Cary Leibowitz Marilyn Murphy Arthur V. Neis H. C. Palmer Dan and Lia Perjovschi Valentin Popov Jim Sleeper Philip M. Smith Haskell Springer Barb and Russ Swenson Stephanie Teasley Lilly Tsubaki Sam Francis Foundation Lucinda Stevens Foster and Ben Foster
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FRIENDS & CONTRIBUTORS 52
{
The Spencer Museum of Art wishes to thank supporters who are helping to launch the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation / Spencer Museum of Art Academic Programs Initiative campaign.
Ray and Nancy Smith Allen The Anschutz Foundation Ken and Katie Armitage Tom and Francie Arnold Michael L. Aurbach Linda and Jim Ballinger Ralph and Alta Brock M. Lavon Brosseau, in honor of Jeff Weinberg Carol Ann and Clifton Brown Rose Bryant Bill and Barbara Carswell Margaret M. Daicoff Carolyn Dillon Reed and Stacey Dillon Tom and Jill Docking Joe and Vicki Douglas Janet Dreiling and Doug Tilghman Barbara M. Duke Charles and Jane Eldredge The Emprise Financial Corporation The Enid & Crosby Kemper Foundation The Estate of Gladys and Frank Burge Mrs. Anne Foresman Chuck and Sandy Garrett Kathleen M. Hall Saralyn Reece Hardy David C. Henry and Matt Taylor Don and Jene Herron David and Gunda Hiebert John and Nancy Hiebert Emily Hill and Burke Griggs Marcia and Stephen Hill Raymond and Mary Lee Hummert Stephen and Cara Ingalls Harrison Jedel Donald and Alice Ann Johnston Sacie and David Lambertson Burdett and Michel Loomis
SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
}
Robert and Anita Markley Larry and Barbara Marshall Mike annd Cindy Maude Hammond McNish The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Eli and Mary Lou Michaelis Michael and Dee Michaelis Virginia Nadeau Arthur V. Neis Phylllis and Ronald Nolan The O’Connor Company-Piller Foundation Tony and Marti Oppenheimer Brent and Melissa Padgett Margaret Perkins-McGuinness Lee E. Phillips III and Marlene Phillips Scott J. Jones and Mary Lou Reece Marynell D. Reece Price R. and Flora A. Reid Foundation Mabel L. Rice Scott and Carol Ritchie Pete Rowland Dan and Nicole Sabatini Dick and Barbara Schowen Elizabeth Schultz Roger Shimomura and Janet Davidson-Hues Dolph Simons, Jr. Family Richard Smith and Sondra Langel Valentino and Elizabeth Stella John T. and Linda Stewart Marilyn Stokstad Richard and Stephanie Surface John and Deanell Tacha Hope A. Talbot Brad and Susan Tate Mrs. Georgiana H. Torres Rud and Anne Turnbull A. Bret Waller III and Mary Lou Dooley Rob and Betsy Weaver Jeff and Mary Weinberg
* updated August 4, 2011
Friends of the Art Museum Board Burdett Loomis, President Vickie Otten, President-Elect Brad Burnside Paul Davis Cathy Hamilton Emily B. Hill Laura Gregory
Nancy Jackson Stephen Johnson Linda Lungstrum Tim Metz Reggie Robinson Josh Shelton Vicky Stadler, Student Rep.
SMA Advisory Board Mike Michaelis, Chair Linda Bailey James K. Ballinger Carol Ann Brown Rose Bryant Randy Gordon David Hiebert Larry Marshall Virginia Nadeau
Arthur Neis Phyllis Nolan Melissa Padgett A. Scott Ritchie Beth Schultz Linda B. Stewart Marilyn Stokstad Jeff Weinberg
53
On April 15, Friends of the Arts Museum celebrated the opening of Networks—the inaugural exhibition of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, and also welcome Jin Shan, the Spencer’s Freeman Foundation International Artist-in-Residence.
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SPRING NEWSLETTER 2011 SMA
Above: Jeff and Mary Weinberg toured the Roots & Journeys long-term installation during the 2011 Friends of the Art Museum Annual Meeting & Purchase Party. Below: Each fall, the Spencer hosts convocation for the KU Honors Programs, complete with activities for students in the galleries.
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