Hats off to Toggling

Multitasking, juggling, TCOB (taking care of business), putting out fires: we all have our own “catch phrase” to express doing many things at once. I’ve heard that women are better at it then men and that “tech-natives” (20 somethings and younger) are often called “togglers” for their ability to shift seamlessly from one activity to the next.

The museum field is chock-full of mutlitaskers by design. We have to be. If I polled the Woodson Art Museum staff, from gallery guard to director, I’m confident everyone would be working on multiple projects.

Google SketchUp Design Studio interactive model.

As I type, I’m thinking about the Design Studio copy editing awaiting me, this week’s Wausau School District design in-service follow-ups, the programs I’m leading this week, and my trip to Washington, D.C. this weekend to judge the Excellence in Exhibitions Award for the American Association of Museums. These seemingly disparate tasks are why I love my job – it’s always different. I’m always learning. And I’m constantly connecting to communities in a variety of ways.

Wausau School District teachers working on a drawing exercise.

Community art museums like the Woodson Art Museum are dynamic cultural think tanks filled with fully engaged museum professionals. In these environments we can brainstorm, fine tune, and present innovative programs and exhibitions. I’ve always boasted about how the Woodson Art Museum’s leadership lets us “fail” – we’re encouraged to try new things, be creative, and revisit and tweak ideas from the past. This leadership quality helps foster ideas and creativity while raising the bar.

For the Woodson Art Museum – and all museums – to be relevant to the “togglers” of the future it must ensure that it is a creative and innovative hub of activity and exchange. 

I heard a museum professional once put it this way, “at smaller museums you wear a large hat and perhaps many of them. At a large museum you wear a very small hat (meaning you specialize in a narrow field).”

Here’s to wearing many large hats!

Museum professional "X" demonstrating multitasking.

The Changing Face of Student Art

It seems like yesterday. In reality it was April 1979, when I came to the Woodson Art Museum for a job interview. During a tour of the facility we entered a room filled with colorful artworks piled on sawhorses covered with boards. It was definitely not an exhibition space but a storage area where the recently ended Student Art Exhibition was being sorted for return to teachers. To think there was a large space dedicated solely to the artwork is, itself, amazing especially in light of how we currently use every inch of this facility.

There was something fateful about walking into that room in 1979. Ever since, many aspects of the Student Art Exhibition have been my responsibility. As with all long-running projects, we’ve made minor adjustments to the Student Art Exhibition. I checked the archives for some interesting facts.

The first exhibition was in 1978. Teachers within a 45-mile radius of Wausau were invited to enter ten artworks. A panel of two state art educators juried the exhibition. The entries were from students in grades 4-12. Of the 500 artworks received, 160 were on view March 4-19, just two weeks.

By 1984 the exhibition had grown quite a bit. Of the 719 works entered, the final exhibition included 262 works. This represented students from 56 schools; certainly a record number of entries.

Who could predict that the next year, 1985, would so soon shatter the previous record.  Teachers from 71 schools presented 971 works to the judges who chose 311 artworks – an amazing number. The paintings, sculptures, weavings, pottery, and jewelry overfilled the galleries. We had reached our capacity. Some changes were necessary to continue offering the best regional Student Art Exhibition.

First we limited the number of artworks each teacher could enter. That brought the numbers down, but we were still overwhelmed. Eligible grade levels were changed to 5-12.

Next, we divided the region (which had grown to encompass a ninety-mile radius of Wausau) into three groups. Each regional group would alternate participation on a three-year rotation. That solution worked for about 20 years.

In 2006 the exhibition again was modified. The three-year rotation was changed to bi-yearly by grade level. The first year focused on grades 9-12; the alternating year on grades 5-8. Each art teacher was invited to enter three artworks, thus eliminating the jury process. Teachers and students were encouraged to choose the works to represent their classrooms in the exhibition. This model has worked well.

One minor change was made in 2011. Each teacher was invited to enter four artworks instead of three.

The 34th Student Art Exhibition opens on March 5. This year, 192 works are included entered from 45 schools, representing students in grades 5-8.

This year we’re hosting two receptions to view the exhibition and meet the student artists, Thursday, March 3, 4-6 pm, and March 5, 1-3 pm. The exhibition is on view during regular hours and closes March 27.

Playing in the Snow

There’s an old joke about art historians and how we fall asleep when the lights go on! **

Left to right: Mike Martino, Tom Queoff, Mike Sponholtz

If you follow this “logic,” Team USA Snow Sculptors – Mike Martino, Tom Queoff, and Mike Sponholtz – come to life when the temperature hovers around zero.

And that’s exactly what this week’s weather promises as the Woodson Art Museum welcomes Mike, Tom, and Mike back to Wausau for the twenty-second time.

With the mercury expected to remain in the single digits and below zero through the end of the week, the snow sculptors will enjoy ideal (for them!) conditions in which to carve and sculpt one of their most ambitious creations here to date.

Dubbed “Slay It with Snow,” this year’s project features a giant slide – yes, it will be interactive when completed for as long as the weather cooperates – carved in relief to resemble a fire-breathing dragon.

2010 Snow Sculpture Celebrated "Las Artes de Mexico"

You can watch Team USA at work in the Museum’s sculpture garden from Wednesday afternoon through Saturday morning, February 9 through 12, and be among the first to take a ride down the slide at noon on Saturday when we’ll christen the dragon slide with hot chocolate.

Mike, Tom, and Mike love to play in the snow as their Wausau-area fans well know from past years. Enjoy these images of past Team USA creations at the Woodson Art Museum and get ready to greet the dragon.

P.S. The sculptors have planned a clever tip-of-the-hat to Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller, currently on view in the Museum’s galleries. You’ll have to be a super-sleuth to find the hidden detail.

2006 Snow Sculpture Celebrated
Paul O. Zelinsky's "Awful Ogre's Awful Day"

 ** Traditionally, art history classes were conducted in dark classrooms with slides projected onto screens. Hence the joke, i.e., art history students would come to life when the lights went off!

Who’s Afraid of Icy Roads? Not this SPARK! Advocate

It’s 7 am on January 27, and I’m off to Superior, Wisconsin, to attend a conference, “Healthy Minds and Healthy Bodies throughout the Second Half of Life.” I’ve rented an SUV with all-wheel drive and feel confident that I’ll arrive in one piece.

I made it as far as Colby and decided maybe I should drink a little less coffee next time I travel. Heading back onto Highway 29, I mutter questions to myself: Who plows the ramps? Are ramps not as important as the highway? Has anyone used the ramp from Colby heading onto Highway 29? It twists and turns sharply. Glaze it with some ice and you have a situation that requires deep-breathing exercises. After one terrifying, anti-lock-brake defying moment, I begin chanting an amended version of the mail carrier motto in my head: “Neither snow nor rain nor ice stays this educator from the swift completion of her appointed rounds.”

I make it to Superior in four hours. My body is still healthy and my mind only a little stressed as I head into the Barker’s Island Convention Center. I’m excited to be here and to take part in “A Hand in the Plan: Shape Wisconsin’s Approach to Alzheimer’s” led by Susan Perlstein, Founder Emeritus, National Center for Creative Aging. My day is looking up as I spot Helen Ramon, Program Officer, Helen Bader Foundation. She greets me warmly and introduces me to Susan Perlstein. I feel honored to meet her; I attended a National Center for Creative Aging Conference in 2009 and was impressed with the research and knowledge she incorporated into creative aging programs.

Susan invites me to sit up front so she can introduce me when she talks about the SPARK! alliance part of her presentation. Susan begins by sharing the Big Picture about aging in America: in 2030 over 70 million people will be over the age of 65. These older Americans are seeking meaningful experiences. Susan informs us that a good program offers social engagement and “mastery,” the opportunity to become proficient at a task or skilI. I ask myself: Does SPARK! offer social engagement and mastery? Yes, SPARK! is all about a social experience – conversation, getting together with other adults, sharing opinions and knowledge. What about mastery? Yes, participants become museum visitors, art critics, art historians, and artists.

Susan informs us that research on creativity and aging shows that those involved in programs similar to SPARK! have better health, fewer doctor visits, less medication, and increased activity and social engagement. As her talk continues I find myself wanting to shout out “Yes, SPARK! does all of it!” In the SPARK! program at the Woodson Art Museum, a team approach is used between the participant and care partner. Interaction with participants is key to the gallery conversations and during those conversations we discover life stories. Creative expression is key too, not only in the conversation but also in the process-based, hands-on art exploration!

Susan now has reached the part of her presentation that addresses Alzheimer’s. I brush my hair back, straighten my shirt, and prepare to stand. What did she just say? Would I come up to the podium and talk about SPARK!? “Neither snow nor rain nor public speaking stays this educator from the swift completion of her appointed rounds.”

During my remarks, I explain that the SPARK! alliance comprises ten museums based in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Each museum offers a program for individuals suffering from memory loss and their care partners. For those that are part of the alliance, grants from the Helen Bader Foundation funded staff training at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Each museum models its program after the Meet Me at MOMA Alzheimer’s arts program. A logo has been developed and can be found on the SPARK! alliance museums’ websites and events calendars indicating programs for those with Alzheimer’s. The Alzheimer’s Association placed all the SPARK! alliance programs on its website.

The Woodson Art Museum offers a free monthly program for individuals and their care partners. Artworks on view spark conversation among participants and a creative activity follows the gallery discussion. Discussion begins with a variety of themes – from gardening, canning, farming, shoe shopping, and engagement stories to the writing of poetry. During hands-on art medium exploration some participants protest that they ‘flunked art.” That protest turns to awe upon the discovery that they can create art when it comes from within and that art should not be burdened by someone else’s expectations of a completed project. At the Woodson Art Museum creativity matters. Individual expression matters.

During the last part of the conference we contribute to the statewide effort to identify how Wisconsin can better address the needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

The discussion is based on the following drawn from the Helen Bader Foundation “A Hand in the Plan” website. http://www.hbf.org/news/ahandintheplan.htm

Why does Wisconsin need a state plan for Alzheimer’s?

Among its benefits, a state plan will inform decision makers about the latest facts on the many aspects of the disease:

• providing proven, effective ways to enhance the quality of life of persons living with Alzheimer’s;

• demonstrating the need for supporting caregivers and related services when a family member is living at home;

• assuring the most current knowledge from scientific research is used in providing services to people and is incorporated into our long-term care system; and

• reducing the staggering costs of Alzheimer’s by preventing unnecessary and costly complications and disability.

The input of those facing these issues every day will be a critical part of a successful state-level plan.

This conference is especially timely considering that recently President Obama signed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) into Law. http://www.alz.org/news_and_events_Obama_signs_NAPA.asp

With that, the conference ends and I start my return to Wausau, through sleet, no less. Yes, I’m chanting “Neither snow nor rain nor ice stays this educator from the swift completion of her appointed rounds.”