From the Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Looking at, Talking about, and Appreciating Art
To understand the arguments for and against providing paid internships, Alyssa Dumire, FWMoA Director of Children’s Education and Katy Thompson, FWMoA Children’s Education Associate have each taken a side (whether or not it represents their personal views or those of our institution) to help unpack the arguments at present.
Many of us today expect museums to be bustling hubs of activity, offering a range of sensory experiences. But what if this is all just a distraction from the very essence of museums? In this essay, Amanda Shepard explores the age-old argument that seemingly pits the people against the soulful experience of objects themselves.
On August 24 Amanda Shepard, FWMoA COO, was privileged to judge the purchase prizes for the Kekionga Plein Air Paint Out. Though we all make private judgements of art, the stakes go up when we in the art world must select public winners from a group of highly competent artists. But who is Amanda to judge? Find out why she picked what she did, and the methods she taps into for coming to her conclusions in this "Reality Check".
Today marks the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing team returning to Earth. Wait, what does that have to do with art? Find out as Alyssa Dumire take us through some of her favorite pieces of space art that help us interpret these significant historical moments, even years after they've happened.
Suzanne Slick discusses the world of forgery! Museums, not just those that house art, have to be extremely careful when acquiring new works to ensure they are authentic. Read on as Sue discusses what methods people use to trick collectors and how we can determine if a work is the "real thing" or not.
We asked our education intern, Laura Heirigs, to weigh in on a news story that had caught our eye, a competition in Switzerland to have a Picasso in your house for one day. Read on to get her thoughts on art and where it belongs: in our homes or in museums.
Slow Art Day is this Saturday! You're probably thinking, what is Slow Art Day? Slow Art Day is when we challenge museum visitors to look at five pieces of artwork for 10 minutes each. Read on to see what Katy Thompson thought about as she looked at three of our pieces for 10 minutes as a preview to the big event this weekend!
In my role at FWMoA, I’m lucky enough to be inextricably linked to all our social media accounts, so every little thing people say about us is conveniently delivered to my inbox. Most reviews are positive, accurate, and heartwarming. Some stretch the truth, and others inspire my blog posts. A common set of complaints seem to bubble to the surface of our negative reviews: “It’s not as big as I thought it would be;” “There’s not enough to see;” “There were no famous artists like Degas or Renoir;” “It’s not like Chicago or Los Angeles.” Read on to see how our museum compares to others and what makes our collection unique.
A few weeks ago, a fire at the 200-year-old Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, obliterated years of Latin American history, science, and culture. Investigations revealed the extent of disrepair the museum had experienced, stemming from a lack of government funding over the past few years. Multiple news outlets reported on the museum’s use of crowdfunding to pay for expenses and lack of digitized records. A public museum, this spurred international outcries over budget cuts experienced by public museums, libraries, and archives worldwide. I started to think about the collection at FWMoA, what would be lost for the residents of Fort Wayne, and Indiana at large, if our museum was there one day and gone the next.