A Celebration of 61 Years!

All museums have permanent collections. But what does that really mean? The pieces in a museum’s permanent collection are just that - they are a collection of pieces the museum has acquired and intend to keep. What I have learned is that permanent collections are vital to museums for a variety of reasons. They allow the organization to form goals and collecting strategies to better serve the community in a unique and stimulating way.

Although many may not realize this, the Asheville Art Museum’s Permanent Collection actually consists of more than 2,500 works of art and nearly 5,000 architectural drawings! Like most museums, though, we have a limited amount of space to show our awesome collection in the galleries. We currently are only able to show about 3 percent of our entire collection. In our exhibition, Looking Back: Celebrating 60 Years of Collecting at the Asheville Art Museum, guests are able to see how diverse our Permanent Collection really is. The even more exciting part is you are likely to see something new in the galleries every time you visit because our Executive Director and curators are always rearranging and adding new pieces.

The Asheville Art Museum is dedicated to strategic collecting and considers these goals with each art acquisition. As a whole, the Museum has focused its expertise on 20^th and 21^st Century American art. It also seeks to include works from local artists and works of significance to Western North Carolina’s culture such as Studio Craft, Black Mountain College and Cherokee artists. We have important photographic pieces of our region and nationwide as well as contemporary photography. Our holdings also include large sculptures, Outsider Art and pieces reflective of the local community.

Many of the pieces in the Permanent Collection are gifts from artists or the families of artists who would like to continue the legacy of the artist and the work. Others are purchased through funds given by gracious benefactors and many are purchased by the Museum or through Museum groups such as the Collector’s Circle and Art Nouveaux.

Now that you know a little more about our Permanent Collection, come experience it in the galleries or view even more at once in our online archive. We also have a Work of the Week featuring information about a different piece from the Permanent Collection each week. We are very proud of our collection and love sharing it with the public! We also thank everyone who has contributed to our growing collection!

Docent Recruitment Photos

In honor of Docent Recruitment Day coming up on September 20, here are some pictures of docent activities throughout the years, just to get a taste of what you might experience as a volunteer docent at the Asheville Art Museum! From summer picnics to craft projects, field trips and holiday luncheons, docents know how to have fun.

Join the Arts Community at the Asheville Art Museum as a Docent!

We’re getting ready for Docent Recruitment Day here at the Museum and we’re trying to get everyone interested! Anyone can be a docent – we have all types of people serving on our docent staff - young, old, teachers, doctors, artists and art lovers. All that’s needed is a passion for the arts and for sharing what you care about!

Docents are an integral part of the Museum staff because they volunteer their time to give informative tours of the Museum to our guests. The word “docent” comes from the Latin “docere,” which means, “to teach.” But don’t be intimidated! Being a docent is easy because you get all the training you need before you start your tours. You don’t need any teaching experience or even any prior knowledge of art before you start, just a willingness to absorb what you learn from training.

Docent training session

If you take the time to talk to any of our docents, most will tell you the experience has been the most rewarding and gratifying of all their volunteering endeavors. In addition to the fun of leading tours, docents also have the opportunity to meet artists, Museum staff and visit local artists’ studios and cultural attractions. Not to mention, you will gain great friendships with your fellow docents, who throw a fun holiday party every winter.

Although the public speaking aspect makes many volunteers nervous in the beginning, they find they are comfortable in the role and thoroughly enjoy the interaction.

Docents are only expected to attend Monday morning trainings two to three times each month and commit to leading tours approximately once each week during the school year. The trainings are extremely thorough and are created to teach docents all they need to know about each exhibition.

Docents are the Museum’s gateway to engaging with our guests personally and connecting them with the Museum and the art itself. If you think this is the perfect role for you, we would love to see you at our Docent Recruitment Day Monday, September 2010 at 10:00 a.m. There will be tasty snacks and more information about being a docent.

You can also talk to Nancy Sokolove, our Adult Programs Manager about this opportunity by calling 828.253.3227, ext 120 or e-mailing nsokolove@ashevilleart.org.

Who is Joseph Albers?

Joseph Albers and Sewell Sillman
explored through two WORKs OF THE WEEK

August 9th through August 22, 2010

From left: Josef Albers, Formulation: Articulation Folio II, Folder 12, 1972, serigraph on paper, 15 x 40 inches. Gift of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. 1997.01.05.65L; Josef Albers, Formulation: Articulation Folio II, Folder 18, 1972, serigraph on paper, 15 x 40 inches. Gift of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. Asheville Art Museum Collection. 1997.01.05.65R.

Josef Albers and Sewell Sillman are intimately tied in terms of the artistic lives they led and the work they produced. When Sillman arrived at Black Mountain College, Albers was head of the art department. Initially interested in architecture, Sillman quickly displayed a passion for art under the tutelage of Albers. Sillman and Albers both shared a passion for color studies and were both instrumental in the formulation of Color Theory. Sillman eventually taught many of the courses that he took under Albers.

Sillman also continued to work with Albers through his print publishing firm, Ives-Sillman, founded with fellow Yale professor and graphic designer Norman Ives. Sillman used the knowledge he gained from years of color studies to successfully create color reproductions of fine art works. By focusing on screenprinting as a new medium for reproductions, these two were able to control the quality of their color prints, allowing them to introduce the fine art portfolio book to the United States. Their first and most frequent client was Josef Albers, who entrusted them with the production of two instrumental portfolios: Interaction of Color, a book based on Albers' lessons in color theory, and Formulation: Articulation, a retrospective reworking of some of Albers' greatest artistic achievements.

These two prints, now on display in the Museum's exhibition Sewell Sillman: Pushing Limits, are included in Albers' deluxe double portfolio Formulation: Articulation. Sillman recalled that the purpose of this portfolio was to allow Josef Albers the opportunity to take "every seminal idea that he's ever had and to redevelop it." Sillman was a key collaborator in creating this portfolio, for he helped Albers review his past work and select compositions to reproduce as screenprints.

All of the works in the Museum's Collection from Albers' portfolio, Formulation: Articulation, are now up on the Permanent Collection Archive.

Come in to see Sewell Sillman: Pushing Limits, which traverses the breadth of Sillman's career as a student, a businessman, a teacher, a collaborator, an artist and a friend.

Image: Eugenia Joyce, Sewell Sillman, Josef Albers, and Norman Ives at the completion of the Formulation: Articulation project in 1972. Photo by John Hill, Collection of James McNair.

Inside Scoop: Behind the Scenes

This summer has been exceptionally busy around the Museum and the summer interns have been working hard to keep up with all the events and work there has been. Luckily, I’ve had the honor of working with an extremely diverse group of fellow interns and have found that we’ve gotten a TON of work accomplished over the past three months!

All of us are scattered around different departments, so our work has been very different, but equally rewarding! Curatorial interns have been endlessly dedicated to adding pieces from our Permanent Collection to our online archive. This is an intimidating endeavor, since our Permanent Collection holds over 2,000 objects and 4,000 architectural drawings! Over the course of the summer, interns have managed to almost double the archive entries. That means countless hours spent researching, editing, typing and fact checking so that our Permanent Collection can be seen online by anyone, anytime, anywhere! Click here to peruse the collection!

Then there were those who spent their hours planning events, volunteering, organizing the Museum Shop and working on inventory. Some learned about grant writing and its importance to a great non-profit organization and others learned how to make a gallery installation go smoothly! And then some of us had the pleasure of writing the blog to let everyone know all the juicy details. :)

Curatorial Intern Freeman helped with the installation of the exhibition Sewell Sillman: Pushing Limits

Communications Intern DeeAnna (me!) and volunteer Nikki helped work the Asheville Art Museum booth at Bele Chere

Events Planning and Curatorial Intern Casey (right) had some fun at ArtMob's Summer Soiree event

All of the girls at the Seventh Asheville Wine Auction + Art Gala

From left to right: Casey, Lisa, DeeAnna, Lindsay, and Sarah

I would like to extend my gratitude to all of the interns and Museum staff for making this summer so enjoyable. Sometimes it didn’t even feel like work at all…

Inside Scoop: Exhibition inspires craft project

Have you ever wanted to make your own bird feeder? Well, our new exhibition, Sallie Middleton: A Life in the Forest recently inspired me to create a simple bird feeder that anyone can make! Sallie’s works are intricately detailed watercolors inspired by nature. We have several of her paintings in our collection, many of which are of different species of birds. I immediately thought of this craft to show in conjunction with our new exhibition. I have seen this project throughout the Internet but originally learned about it from a friend who loves the outdoors. You can follow these simple directions or see a demonstration in a video of me on WLOS’s Craft Corner!

Here’s what you will need:

Three 4 foot lengths of rope or jute

15 inch grapevine wreath

10 inch terra cotta saucer

Instructions:

1. Easily fit your saucer into the center of the grapevine wreath.

2. Take your rope or twine and knot all three pieces together at each end.

3. Fit the wreath feeder inside the three ropes so it sits on the bottom knot that you tied.

4. Then simply hang it on a tree or somewhere outside as a bird feeder or bird bath!

You can easily decorate it with ribbon or glue seashells on the saucer.

Feel free to find creative ways to attract the birds!

Inside Scoop: The Big Crafty 2010

The Big Crafty proved its popularity this year as hundreds of people crowded Pack Place and Pack Square to get their hands on some awesome hand made crafts from local crafters and artists. Voted the best arts and crafts fair in Western North Carolina, the Big Crafty NEVER disappoints. There was definitely an eclectic assortment of crafts, from pottery all the way to "organic armor." There were so many interesting and exciting booths, I’m afraid I spent a little too much money! I especially enjoy my unique print from Katie Daisy and my eco-friendly jewelry from Smart Glass Jewelry. The event is always a great way to experience the best of Asheville and the amazing artists who work here!

The Big Crafty also lured many people into the museum, who strolled through some of our galleries and learned more about some of our events! Take a look at some of our photos we snagged at the event.