Awesome . . .

a word I overuse. I enjoy saying it – it conveys excitement, wonder, and the “wow” factor. The mobile hot-glass unit from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale is awesome!

Through Sunday, May 31, visitors to the Woodson Art Museum have the opportunity to watch glassblowers work their magic and turn molten globs of glass into beautiful works of art (which, coincidentally, are available for purchase inside the Museum).

What You Can Expect

Driving into the Museum’s parking lot, you’ll see a large tent and hear the white noise of a 2000+ degrees furnace. Approaching the tent, you’ll be given a ticket – with every public demo you have a chance to win (random drawing) a finished piece of glass art. Taking a seat, you wait for the demo to begin. In front are glowing-orange circles, the openings of the furnace and the glory hole.

For about 40-45 minutes you watch the demo lead by SIU professor Cortney Boyd, graduate student Steve Hagan, and undergraduate Tim Sheperd. During the demo, molten glass is transformed into a myriad of different forms, color is added, and tension is felt when the piece is broken off the punty rod. The glass object is quickly but carefully transported – using Kevlar gloves – to the annealer to cool down and harden, the crowd cheers and applauds with delight at the performance. At the conclusion of the demo, a paperweight is given away – maybe your ticket is the winner!

In addition to watching FREE public demonstrations (demos are presented during regular hours Tuesday – Friday, 9 am – 4 pm and Saturday and Sunday, Noon – 5 pm), venture inside the Museum to view Wrapped in Tradition: Dale Chihuly’s Trade Blanket & Blanket Cylinder Collection. (After I watched a few demos, I had a greater appreciation for the glass cylinders on display.) Also, check out Selections from the Collection in the decorative arts gallery that presents Victorian Glass Baskets and artworks from the Woodson Art Museum’s Studio Glass Collection.

Definitely worth making the trip.

Get your glass to the Woodson Art Museum – it will be AWESOME!

Three Cheers for the American Association of Museums

At the end of April, Woodson curator of collections Jane Weinke and I traveled to Philadelphia to attend the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums. En route I wondered what this year’s meeting would be like . . . what would the “tone” be? In these uncertain times, I speculated whether colleagues would be brooding or perhaps – wishfully – optimistic that brighter days were on the horizon.

Somewhat to my surprise (although I am not generally a pessimist), the Philadelphia gathering of more than 5,000 museum professionals representing institutions of all types and sizes from A (art museums) to Z (zoos) was high-spirited as well as inspiring.

The American Association of Museums (AAM), our professional “umbrella” organization, is, in my opinion, enjoying a renaissance the likes of which no one could have anticipated a few years ago. I attribute this remarkable turnaround to the inspired and inspirational leadership of Ford W. Bell, AAM President since spring 2007. Case in point, Ford was ubiquitous in Philadelphia. It seemed as though everywhere you looked, he was there (and that’s a good thing!) . . . greeting colleagues, introducing himself, and participating.

The General Session began on a high note with the debut of “SPARK: Museums Matter,” an eclectic montage of faces, bodies, and voices celebrating the special qualities of Philadelphia’s museums. While specific to the meeting locale, the superb film is relevant everywhere there is a museum that has ever inspired a visitor. Watch it here.

Keynote speaker Walter Isaacson was a dazzler. Without notes and without a single “um,” he held the large audience in rapt attention as he spun a message of creativity around the singular genius of Albert Einstein. It was a remarkable romp through scientific, political, social, and cultural history that delivered maximum punch. And he even made Einstein’s “theory of relativity” understandable.

These positive experiences were just the beginning. I attended multiple excellent and instructive sessions – including three hands-on, computer-lab sessions on Google AdWords, Google Maps, and e-newsletters (how AAM’s annual meetings have changed!) – met many new colleagues, and returned home and to the Woodson Art Museum with renewed energy and enthusiasm for the good work of museums. There’s so much we can do and so many ways that we can serve the varied needs and interests of our audiences and our communities. And so we press on!


PS. The mood among colleagues in Philadelphia regarding the economic recovery and the impact on museums was guardedly optimistic. Let’s hope so.

Spring Museum Outing

Turn a nice spring day into a fabulous family outing. Pack up the family and visit the Woodson Art Museum. Once here, head downstairs to Art Park. Seat your family in front of the Ever Changing Landscape. This is the start of your adventure.

Try this. Divide the magnetic sculpture images among family members. One at a time, ask each to place a magnetic sculpture on the landscape. Look at the pieces and talk about the animals and birds. When all the pieces have been placed, it’s time to head outside.


Using a Seek and Find Map (take one from the holder located to the left of the Ever Changing Landscape), lead your family on a sculpture scavenger hunt. Use the map to decide which sculpture to investigate first.

You also can pre-plan things to do in the Sculpture Garden. Here are some ideas for things to bring along: a storybook about one of the animals portrayed in a sculpture (To see images prior to visiting, check the Museum’s website, www.lywam.org – click on Sculpture Garden and then on Permanent Collection ); scientific fact books about the animals represented in the garden; or for a hands-on activity, pack chenille stems. At Debra Butterfield’s Kua, bend the chenille stems into horse shapes.Some things to do in the Garden don’t require anything special. For example, make a circle around a sculpture, join hands, and walk to the right. Stop every few feet and discuss what each person sees that is different from their last vantage point. Try looking at a sculpture by standing in front of it. Then kneel and look; sit and look; and finally, lie down on your stomach and look up at the sculpture and then roll over and look at it upside down.

When you find Burt Brent’s Heavyweight, it might be a good time to rest. This bronze hippo is the only sculpture in the Garden that visitors can touch and sit on. But do be careful, touch gently, and make sure the surface is not too hot for little hands, legs, and bottoms.

To wind down your visit, bring water bottles and a snack to share in the Garden. This is a good time to learn from one another about which sculptures made an impact. Ask family members if they could take home one sculpture, which one would it be and where would they put it?
Sharing impressions from your Museum visit will reinforce lasting memories from a fabulous family outing.

Memories and Influences

The Museum’s galleries are filled with Native American trade blankets from the collection of glass artist Dale Chihuly along with glass cylinders from his Blanket Series. The exhibition, Wrapped in Tradition, opened April 4 and visitors are streaming in to see the colorful and vibrantly patterned blankets and spectacular glassworks. The docents have been busy giving tours to area school children whose teachers have taken advantage of a terrific educational field trip as the school year winds down.

As a child growing up in Wausau, I remember going to the Marathon County Historical Society on a school field trip (this was before the Woodson Art Museum was established . . . I guess I’m dating myself). What stands out in my mind from likely my earliest museum experience, was being in the kitchen of the historic Yawkey house. Off the kitchen was a narrow staircase that led to the second floor and on the walls of the staircase was a colorful logging mural. I remember thinking how unusual it was to see a painting in a staircase and what a special place this museum must be.

In the sixth grade I went on an end-of-the-year field trip to Milwaukee and we visited the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Zoo. It was the mid 1960s and for me the art museum was a real treat. The artworks that made the biggest impressions on me were Andy Warhol’s stacked Brillo boxes and a huge Robert Irwin acrylic disc that allowed you to look through its concave shape, distorting your view of the museum entrance and other children on the opposite side.

As I look back on my grade school and high school years, I’m now certain that my experiences influenced me to pursue a museum career. Because my early field trips and museum visits had a profound impact on my, I think about this when scheduling exhibitions for the Woodson Art Museum.

I wonder how visitors will perceive an exhibition, which artworks will “speak” to them, and especially how school children will react to the artworks in the galleries.

The combination of trade blankets and glass is unusual, but once you understand the “Chihuly connection,” the objects on view at the Woodson convey a powerful message of how an artist working in one medium was influenced by another art form.

How might you be influenced by your next visit to the Woodson Art Museum?