It's Great to See You

by curator of education, Catie Anderson

The Woodson Art Museum hosted a daylong accessibility training for community members, Museum volunteers, and colleagues on Friday, February 22. Museum educators from the Museum of Wisconsin Art and the Milwaukee Public Museum joined other speakers in presenting how their institutions offer diverse programs for visitors of all ages and abilities. Panel discussions and presentations focused on audiences with specific needs and programs that serve them such as SPARK! for individuals with memory loss and Art Beyond Sight for those with low vision or blindess. Peter Berg of the Great Lakes ADA Center  at the University of Illinois at Chicago offered an informative keynote address, which covered the requirements and logistics stemming from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Berg is an outstanding representative for the Great Lakes ADA Center and also a champion for the blind community. Berg’s PowerPoint visuals served his audience well, while he relied on “Job Access with Speech” or “JAWS” a screen-reading program for the blind. It was enlightening to observe this technology in use and to see how Berg, upon hearing a five-second or so sound byte of his slide title, was able to articulate his points.

When I began assisting educator Jayna Hintz with the Woodson Art Museum’s Art Beyond Sight program last year, I was nervous. Working with individuals with vision loss and blindness in an art museum concerned me – how was I going to communicate effectively? What should I or shouldn’t I say? Could I use the words “see” or “look?”

Leading public programs usually prompts an adrenaline rush that comes from being “on” for visitors, but Art Beyond Sight had me anxious. Accessibility for all visitors is a goal at museums across the country but at the Woodson, it’s a priority. After training from Jayna about how best to serve this audience – serving as a sighted guide, offering verbal descriptions of artworks, and etiquettes for various interactions such as assisting an individual in finding a seat in the galleries – I was prepared to greet participants and join them on their in-gallery sensory experience . . . .

I loved it.

Over a year later I find myself looking forward to Art Beyond Sight on periodic Saturday mornings at the Museum, before we open our doors to the general public. What I’ve found through this program is a consistent group of thoughtful, generous, and enthusiastic art lovers who make the journey to the Woodson Art Museum during each exhibition for art making and appreciation. In the ten minutes before the program begins, the Museum’s main entrance fills with  “It’s so great to see you” and “What are we going to look at today?”

Saturday, March 9, artist in residence Calvin Nicholls will join Jayna and me for an Art Beyond Sight program in the galleries amid Folding Paper and Paper Sculpture by Design. Nicholls will provide materials and a hands-on exercise in paper sculpting for participants, inviting them to enter his world of highly detailed paper sculptures. Like me, before my first Art Beyond Sight program, Calvin is filled with questions and earnest concerns – the last thing anyone ever wants to do is say or do something inappropriate. His passion for his work and hours of preparation for his residency assure me that he’ll be a wonderful addition to the March 9 Art Beyond Sight program.

Museum accessibility means more than wheelchair ramps and push buttons to open doors – although these amenities are important. It challenges educators to think about multiple points of access and making meaningful connections with individuals from all backgrounds and abilities.

 

Efforts to be an accessible and welcoming place for all visitors come in a variety of forms. Tuesday afternoon, I worked with Hmong adults who are students in an ESL program at the Neighbors’ Place in Wausau. I provided a guided gallery tour for two Hmong interpreters several weeks ago so that they could guide their group of English-language students through the galleries this week. The students’ time in the galleries was followed by forty minutes of origami folding in the Museum’s classroom. Through hand gestures, broken English, and lots of giggles we were all able to create origami penguins and fish – a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Origami Fosters Connections

by Amy Beck, marketing and communications manager

Like origami artworks held together via paper tucked into compatible pocket folds, collaboration is key to Woodson Art Museum programs for all ages. Often, as staff members plan and work alongside community partners, we develop soft spots for these people.

Michael assists visitors on opening day.

Roman with Little Masters participants, February. 19.

Two origami enthusiasts, ages 16 and 20, are helping lead paper-folding programs during this exhibition. Both, nudged by an art teacher or mom in the weeks before the origami opening, brought their folded-paper creations to the Museum to meet with education curators Catie Anderson and Jayna Hintz. Michael Schneider, a UW-Marshfield/Wood County student from Stratford, helped teach visitors to fold cranes during opening weekend and has shared his meticulous, pleat-folded origami models to be handled by Museum docents and examined by visiting students. Roman Baca, a Wausau West High School student, folds origami forms with 5- to 12-year-old children during Little Masters and Young Artists after-school programs at the Museum this week.

Michael with origami artist and WPR host Ruthanne Bessman

 WAOW-TV9 reporter Rob Duns interviewed Roman for a Wandering Wisconsin segment airing today. This isn’t Roman’s first media interview. The Wausau Daily Herald’s Keith Uhlig interviewed Roman (and Michael, too) during the Museum members preview party for a front-page story and posted the interview video on the newspaper’s website.

Roman and Michael with Keith Uhlig

Maybe it’s just the mom in me, but seeing Roman and Michael at the preview party in their dress shirts and ties and accompanied by proud family members made me smile. As the Museum’s media liaison, I was tickled to connect them with reporters after each graciously and eagerly agreed to be interviewed.

Michael and his mother during the preview party.

Just as eagerly, I tried to facilitate another connection. After chatting with Michael’s mom and learning that they’re searching for colleges that best equip and nurture students for careers utilizing origami applications in math, science, technology, or architecture, I emailed origami artist Christine Edison. I’d gotten acquainted with Edison while facilitating a connection with Wisconsin Public Radio host Glen Moberg, who interviewed her during a recent Route 51 program. A Chicago Academy High School math teacher, Edison knows many origami artists who also are mathematicians and scientists working on cutting-edge, origami-inspired designs and inventions.

I hope Edison offers sound advice about where Michael can best further his education to pursue an origami-related career.

Like delicate origami artworks, we rely on one another and the connections we make to form and hold our lives together with increasingly beautiful complexity.

Tracing Artwork's Trail to Museum

by Jane Weinke, curator of collections

Some of the best information I’ve discovered lately has come from blogs. For me, the relaxed writing style and personal observations are appealing. Brevity is another welcome feature.

With those thoughts in mind, I am going to succinctly address how the Woodson Art Museum acquires artworks and how that information appears on the accompanying gallery label.

My first task is clarifying museum lingo to spare you from deciphering jargon.

One of the missions of the Woodson Art Museum is to acquire artwork that sets the standard for art of the avian world. Artwork the Museum owns is referred to as the permanent collection. These objects – whether paintings, sculptures or graphics – are acquired (through gifts and purchases), owned, and cared for in perpetuity.

Gifts from artists and donors comprise the majority of the artworks in the Woodson’s permanent collection. That said, the Museum also purchases artworks thanks to special funding. All potential acquisitions are carefully reviewed by a Board committee – eight members representing the Board, staff, and community. A Collections Management Policy along with a Collecting Plan guide decision making. Staff diligently research artworks under consideration and share their findings and recommendations with the Committee.

Lastly, the information on how the Museum acquires artwork can be found on the second to the last line of the label.

Here is an example of a gallery label.

Ajay Brainard   American   b. 1971

The Final Embrace, 2001

Northern Parula warbler

Oil on hardboard

Museum purchase with funds provided by

the John and Alice Forester Charitable Trust

2012.28

For the most part, museum labels contain the same basic information. Woodson Art Museum labels include bird species for our indoor birding fans.

I’ve observed that the last line raises the most questions among visitors. The common thought is it’s the price paid for the artwork. Alas, no. It’s a tracking number, called an accession number. Similar to your social security number, an accession number is unique to the work, stays with it forever, and is used to distinguish one work from another.

Although brevity was not possible, my hope is that armed with this information your next trip to a museum will be less mysterious and even more enjoyable.

Family Field Trip Yields Benefits

by Jayna Hintz, curator of education

The A.C. Kiefer Educational Center is a 4K and early childhood center that supports families and enhances development of 3- to 5-year-old children and takes family field trips in the Wausau community to model teaching skills for parents and ways to integrate classroom curriculum into daily life. Each month, A.C. Kiefer teachers Lori Kurszewski and Maria Hachfeld invite early childhood students and their families to join them in visiting sites such as the Woodson Art Museum.

Tuesday, students and families met and interacted in Art Park, the Museum’s interactive family gallery, and experienced hands-on artmaking activities – painting with ice cubes and tempera powdered paint and more. The A.C. Kiefer teachers used this time to build language from the curriculum and demonstrate ways parents can teach children in various settings. Art Park, books, building blocks, and puppets were used to describe birds and colors, ways to engage children. Teachers also modeled communication skills during conversations with children and parents.

An important aspect of meeting at community locations, Lori explains, is to provide group time for people with similar needs. Navigating public spaces as a group breaks down perceived barriers and transforms seclusion into inclusion – being a member of a community and being welcomed and accepted as an individual.

As a museum educator, I have enjoyed meeting the A.C. Kiefer students, families, and teachers. It’s always exciting to meet first-time visitors who “didn’t know we existed” or weren’t even aware that the Woodson Art Museum  “allowed children.” These participants learn that we love children and visitors of all ages. I look forward to greeting these families as return visitors; they affirm that the Woodson Art Museum fosters an atmosphere of sensitivity, understanding, and acceptance.