Displaying items by tag: education

It’s reasonable to expect that Jo Ellen Parker will incorporate her extensive background in education into her vision for the future of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. As the first woman to take the helm of the institution since the museum was founded in 1895 by Andrew Carnegie, she is well aware of her responsibilities.

“It’s clear that the next few years will be characterized by increased collaboration, both among the four Carnegie Museums and with other organizations and outreach  — with a strong focus on the educational role the museums play,” says Ms. Parker. “It’s still a bit too early for specifics, as my first three months have been dedicated to listening, looking and learning.”

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College has received a gift of 75 works of contemporary art from the collection of the computer programmer and philanthropist Peter Norton. This is the first in a series of gifts to university art museums and teaching museums throughout the country—drawn from Norton’s personal collection—to support the integration of the visual arts in higher education, foster creative museum practice, and engage diverse audiences with contemporary art.

Norton initiated his first large donation project in 2000, gifting over 1,000 pieces from his collection to 32 select institutions. His gift to the Tang Teaching Museum represents the inauguration of his second major donation project.

Bonhams is to sell Lucas Cranach the Younger’s portraits of Prince Joachim Ernst von Anhalt and his first wife, Princess Agnes Gräfin von Barby at its Old Master Pictures sale in London on 3 December. The portraits are being sold as one lot, estimated at £80,000-120,000.

Joachim Ernst von Anhalt was born in 1536 in Dessau, in what is now the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. After an extensive education under the supervision of his father he was admitted to the University of Wittenberg at the age of just thirteen. The deaths successively of his father, uncle and brothers led to Joachim’s emergence in 1570 as the sole ruler of the Anhalt estates, the first time this had happened since their partition in 1252.

The French architect Jean Nouvel has revealed his modern, airy design for the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC). Located in the heart of Beijing’s cultural district, the 323,000-square-foot museum will house a variety of important collections spanning from the Ming dynasty to the present day.

The NAMOC, which will be in close proximity to the city’s 2008 Olympic stadium, will feature a number of galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, research and education centers, a grand terrace, an indoor garden, and an auditorium. According to Nouvel, the NAMOC “resists the laws of gravity while asserting its presence.”

The Baltimore Museum of Art is hitting the road.

Special pieces are barnstorming a few Baltimore neighborhoods, making some works accessible to all and giving people the opportunity to be the patron and the artist.

"You don't usually see a small museum in a neighborhood. You usually have to drive to the museum, so it's like a sneak attack," said Katie Bachler, the BMA's Meadows education fellow.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes on Thursday signaled that he is viewing the value of the Detroit Institute of the Arts through the lens of the Detroit's future as the city works to emerge from Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Rhodes asked Annmarie Erickson, executive vice president of the museum, how valuable the museum is to the education of children, to the social enjoyment of families who visit the museum, and for southeast Michigan as a whole.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, the nonprofit founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced that it is expanding its funding for cultural institutions’ digital projects. The foundation is committing $17 million to six museums to help increase visitor engagement and education through innovative technology tools. The recipients of the expanded grant program are the American Museum of Natural History (New York), the Brooklyn Museum (New York), the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (New York), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gardens by the Bay (Singapore), and the Science Museum (London).   

The latest round of funding will support a spate of new technologies.

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA has selected New York-based Ennead Architects to design their $200 million, 175,000-square-foot expansion. The project is part of the museum’s comprehensive, $650 million Advancement Campaign, which was announced in 2011. The goal of the Campaign is to celebrate outstanding artistic and cultural creativity in ways that transform people’s lives. Besides the expansion, which will include galleries, a restaurant and additional space for public programs and education, the endeavor includes reinstalling the museum’s collection, several infrastructure improvements and other initiatives.

Ennead Architects previously designed the renovation and expansion of the renowned Yale University Art Gallery. The firm has also worked on projects at the Brooklyn Museum, Natural History Museum of Utah and the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History.

Groundbreaking for the Peabody Essex Museum’s expansion project is expected to commence in 2015 and the new wing is slated to open in 2019. The museum will remain open throughout the renovation process until the final months, when the collection will be reinstalled.

O. Aldon James, the former director of the prestigious National Arts Club in New York, has been ordered to pay $950,000 to settle claims that he mismanaged the institution and used its funds to support his lavish lifestyle. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued James in September 2013, claiming that him, his brother and an associate were using over a dozen apartments and other space at the club’s headquarters rent-free. Schneiderman also said that James used tens of thousands of dollars to purchase goods from antique store, flea markets and vintage clothing boutiques.

The settlement will be divided between Schneiderman and the club – $50,000 will go to the plaintiff and the remaining $900,000 will be given to the organization. However, many critics feel that James and his cohorts should have been more severely punished since the club has accrued over $1 million in legal fees alone thanks to the debacle. In addition to the fine, James has been banned from any future nonprofit leadership roles and must vacate the spaces he occupied at the club by the end of July.

The private National Arts Club was founded in 1898 by the art and literary critic for the New York Times, Charles DeKay. The organization’s goal has remained intact: to “stimulate, foster and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts.” A long list of distinguished artists have belong to the National Arts Club since its founding including Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase and Alfred Stieglitz.    

In 2010, New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum embarked on a six-year project with the luxury automobile brand BMW. The BMW Guggenheim Lab was to include three 5,000 square feet pop-up structures that would travel in consecutive cycles to one location in the U.S., one in Europe and another in Asia. The architect-designed pieces were to remain in each location for 3 months, accompanied by Guggenheim curators who would helm programs for leaders in the fields of architecture, art, science, design, technology and education in an effort to curb issues relating to urban living.

The project’s first lab opened in Manhattan’s East Village in 2011 and attracted over 54,000 visitors. The project transformed a gritty, empty lot into a handsome community center designed by the Tokyo-based architecture firm, Atelier Bow-Wow. The Lab, which was the first and last for the project, traveled to Berlin and Mumbai following its stint in NYC.

BMW officials assured the public that the company will continue to be a global partner of the Guggenheim and that they are still considering future collaborations. The lab project, which was slated to last through 2016, was supposedly reconsidered due to “strategic shifts within the company” at BMW. The exhibition Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab will prematurely wrap up the project. The show will be presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York from October 11, 2013 through January 5, 2014.