From the Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Looking at, Talking about, and Appreciating Art
Why aren't all the museum galleries open when I visit? Why do museum galleries have to close for installation? Vice President and COO Amanda Shepard walks us through a vital museum operation, installing new exhibits, and the normal people who make it happen, without the help of museum elves.
When we visit art museums we often take for granted that art will be there, hung up on the wall for our enjoyment. In the last few weeks, FWMoA has experienced multiple galleries being deinstalled, prepared, and installed with new exhibitions. Because exhibitions at FWMoA change every 6-8 weeks, we are constantly taking art down, putting art up, and storing art. It wasn’t until I came to work at an art museum that I realized how much goes into prepping artwork for an exhibition, in fact, it takes a whole team of people! A collaborative process between artists, galleries, curators, registrars, and technicians, the artworks go through multiple states before they are displayed for all too look at and enjoy. One of those stages is our term Tuesday: Matting.