The "New" Us...

Danforth Museum of Art - Some Logo Sketches

Come stop by at our museum this weekend to check our latest exhibits, to learn about our bold plans to move to a new location & to attend thought-provoking talk about our ongoing visual extravaganza titled "Wheat, Washington 2009 - 2012" by artist Neal Rantoul. Oh and if the logos above get your pulse racing, do check this out...See you this Sunday :)

[Images Courtesy - Danforth Museum Of Art]

"Creativity takes courage"~Henri Matisse

Mind's...Mind Map :)

An interesting visual illustrating functional centers of human brain. Happy Viewing :)

Mind Blown

”I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them.” ~Picasso

Hippity Hoppity Hop!

If you've finished chocolate shopping, browse your nearby museum's website to see if they have some interesting group-art activity to keep you creatively immersed this weekend.  Remember to paint eggs with colors so bright that they signify onset of effervescent spring :) Have a fun-filled Easter folks! 

Bloom - Shall We?

Image Courtesy - NUV Studio

Planning to launch your new year on a creative note? Well, you can start by visiting a nearby museum for fresh inspiration & radical insights! Bank Of America has extended their amazing "Museums On Us" program that equips customers with FREE admission to a distinguished museum in the thriving communities we dwell in. List of  150 participating museums can be viewed here. Bloom on this year as well folks :)

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."~Picasso

London Olympics 2012

'LOndOn 2012' by Rachel Whiteread and 'Love' by Bob and Roberta Smith

As London draws attention from sports fans from around the world, those with an admiration for art can visit find plethora of Olympic-themed exhibitions London has to offer! Here are links to few active art-exhibits:

+   Road to 2012

+   Designed to Win

+   Olympex 2012

As you watch your favorite world class athletes, do check out this interesting infographic ! Happy Watching :)

Every Vote Counts!

At Danforth, we often say that it simply is not possible to be alive without making an impact on the world that surrounds us. To that, we try hard to offer distinguished services such as Summer Art classes, Adult Art Workshops and FREE Public Tours to our museum visitors. We have seen that when our actions are recognized by museum visitors via feedback notes, visitor emails, fundraising etc. we feel even more inspired to continue our pursuit of making Framingham a vibrant (& thriving) art community in New England!

While we use our energies only in ventures of utmost importance, time and again a vital situation catches our attention and we honor the impulse to act appropriately on it. Well - one such situation has arrived this summer. Danforth Museum of Art is competing for a new website-worth up to $50,000. The Danforth is one of twenty-three nonprofit organizations competing in the Carrots for a Cause competition, sponsored by Jackrabbit. To win, all we need is 15 seconds of your time and your valuable vote! Every Vote Counts! 

"A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows" 

Summer Fun @ Danforth

Ever wondered about:

> Expressing your feelings through creativity?

> Creating engaging doodles for your loved ones?

> Having fun playing with crayons, clay or water colors?

> Commencing that long-thought canvas illustration?

> Develop your Visual thinking skills?

If you answered Yes to either of these, you must visit Danforth Museum soon:)  Regardless of your age or experience with creating beautiful Art, Danforth Museum of Art offers art classes and workshops for all-from kindergartners to accomplished adult artists! Some useful web links are this & this !  Hope to see you at one of the upcoming events at Danforth soon :)

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. Pablo Picasso

Empty and Full

Cross Posted at Gnome Mag

 

The ocean can look very different, depending on whether you are standing at the shore, swimming beneath ocean waves, soaring above in a glider or cruising the waters in a ship. Members of the ever burgeoning Art community may call this phenomenon as perspective. The magnificent images in ongoing exhibit ‘Empty and Full’ at Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in Boston elucidates a thought provoking perspective on Duality. The exhibit illustrates awe-inspiring work titled Twelve Miles to the Horizon by Catherine Opie, a revered American photojournalist of contemporary times.

                                                       

A plethora of things attribute to making Twelve Miles to the Horizon an instantly engaging work. In her work, Catherine Opie narrates her voyage from Busan (South Korea) to Long Beach (California, USA) using images as the medium. These unedited images, shot over a period of ten days on her trans-Pacific journey, and mounted in huge frames [50 by 371/2 inches] look spectacular amidst the white-washed walls at ICA. At first, the viewer is intrigued by so many juxtaposed images of sunrise & sunset on display. The intrigue then translates into sincere admiration upon learning that all the panoramic images were shot by Catherine from the deck of a container ship at sunrise and sunset everyday during her excursion through the Pacific ocean. These twenty images have been meticulously captured with utmost exactness and thus they share the same horizon line precisely at centre of the image.  Amidst water continuously rolling off the ship, turbulence in ever changing weather and unpredictable ocean waves, keeping the heavy camera equipment still on ship’s desk would have been a herculean task.

                                                        

These cyclical images shot at dawn & dusk appear to portray duality. There’s abundance of water on one hand but total absence of land on the other.  Her images also reinforce the static versus dynamic nature of our environment. The omnipresent sun, ethereal moon & usually calm sky being static elements whereas turbulent waters, twirling container ship & ever changing perspective being dynamic elements. All images taken together makes the viewer ascertain and evaluate the nature of relationship between organic (photographer, ship crew) and inorganic (ship, camera) elements.

Enterprising spirit of photographer contrasts sharply with serenity of the ocean especially at dawn. Warm colors at dawn seems to make viewer feel rejuvenated, ready to start another day enthusiastically. The cool colors at dusk however imply a sense of loneliness and similar connotations of everything dark. The first (departure from South Korea) and the last image (arrival at California, USA) also seem to accentuate the contrast between rational (ethereal natural beauty, nature imposed order etc) versus irrational (civilised societies governed by strict rules, government imposed order etc).

The strong visual energy portrayed in these life size landscape photographs makes viewer wonder-Why artist decided on venturing out all alone on such a never-seen-or-heard before voyage in first place? Perhaps artist wished to break free from burgeoning cities and complex lifestyle to a far flung place where she could capture vibrant colors of nature, seek plenty of inspiration and narrate a visual story. Perhaps the excitement of capturing the unknown, remarkable possibilities of meeting new people & adventure of sea voyage engaged her inquisitive mind.

One of the most crucial aspects of life in modern times is the notion of freedom and the notion of bondage. The final goal is to experience freedom in its entirety but to understand what freedom is we first have to understand what bondage is. Catherine’s landscape photographs illustrate both very well. One one hand she is out in the open sea doing what she loves to the core (freedom) but on the other hand, in-spite of possessing best photographic equipment,  she can only capture her subjects and not her feelings in photographs (boundaries). Most of us live in a hallucinated state where we are restricted by our own projections and thus we seldom achieve breakthroughs.

At the outset, her Empty and Full exhibit seems to advocate to spectator to suggest shifting into an open & adventure seeking mindset. Once our minds are open, we can commence filling them with all the splendid people, places and experiences that we have always longed for. Very soon we might find our lives full of spirit and remarkable times similar to her breathtaking landscapes. These images seem to be a wake-up call from artist to the viewer, suggesting the viewer to pursue their true passions, march forward towards their long term goals and ultimately matter!

Despite being devoid human presence, Catherine all-encompassing surreal oceanscapes leave viewer feeling little perplexed, quite amazed and romantically dreamy.

[Images Courtesy - Catherine Opie]

Over The Moon



Join us on March 24, 2012 as we celebrate our fifth anniversary to support Deborah D. Blumer Fund with our museum visitors, distinguished volunteers and omnipresent art admirers. We promise to offer our visitors opportunity to meet celebrity artists, listen to live music, engage in stimulating conversarions, learn about our educational programs, devour sparkling wines & great desserts and experience pure fun! Here's some information about Over The Moon and our other upcoming events. See you all at Danforth soon!

'Art doesn't transform. It just plain forms.'~Roy Lichtenstein

Art + Sound

Random experiments are fun since they usually surprise us with unanticipated outcomes and provide us with candid feedback for re-running these experiments with better insight and experience. I was quite thrilled to be a member of one such unique expertiment at BOSE headquarters earlier this week. As members of ever-growing Danforth museum community, we got opportunity to do a community outreach at BOSE.Our goal was simple, educate people about our museum's presence in Framingham, suggest some great engagement programs we have (e.g. Drop into Art, Bring Your Baby etc.) to BOSE and highlight the benefits of visiting museums in general to BOSE employees.

Upon reaching the event, we were pleasantly surprised upon learning that BOSE had organized a family fair inviting representatives from various groups such as Fitness Centers, Credit Unions, Vacation tour operators, Healthy Food Cos and of course us :) Quickly, we organized our booth scattering our classes brochures & member information pamphlets on our table. Our first impressions were extremely positive-we were greeted cordially by event organizers, who helped us with writing pads and water bottles to get us started.  SoonJanis (fellow docent) and Kendra (our education co-ordinator) joined me and we prepped our booth further. Thanks to Kendra's iPad, within moments we setup a slideshow showing salient artworks from our current exhibits. As clock ticked noon, the fiar was overwhelmed with inquisitive appearing BOSE employees from all departments. As visitors approached our booth (perhaps drawn by visuals on slideshow), we commenced conversation with questions such as:

• Have you heard of Danforth Museum Of Art?
• Do you know there is an art museum in Framingham?
• Have you been thinking about honing your little one's observational skills?

We were quite amazed at spotting genuine interest in ART, Museums and Creativity in general amidst BOSE employees. I personally had few memorable stimulating conversations with visitors on How museums can develop one's visual perception skills, How ESL students learn so many words during one visit to a museum and How slicing & dicing an artwork develops critical thinking ability of children. As we handed FREE passes to visitors, we communicated enthusiasm, positivity and openness to all.

As an outsider, I have always admired ultra small immaculate surround sound systems from BOSE. This visit reinforced my respect of the company where creativity & perfectionism seems to thrive naturally! We sincerely thank Jaclyn McTigue from BOSE for orchestrating this family fair where we exchanged both great ideas and smiles with spirited BOSE employees. Hope to do participate in more such experiments in the days ahead :D

[Image - MIT]

'Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.'~Plato