Best of
Museums

2001

Katie and the Sunflowers


James Mayhew - 2001
    Mimi, a little girl from a painting nearby, comes to help Katie, but when Mimi's dog Zazou comes too disaster follows! This imaginative fantasy about a mischievous character is an original and fun way to introduce children to art. A page of notes at the end gives background information on the artists. Includes reproductions of five famous post-Impressionist masterpieces: Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh Breton Girls Dancing by Paul Gauguin Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh Still Life, with Apples and Oranges by Paul Cezanne Tahitian Pastorals by Paul Gauguin

The Illustrated Guide to the Egyptian Museum


Alessandro Bongioanni - 2001
    From the creation of the first state on the banks of the Nile to its submission to the Roman empire, the millennial story of ancient Egypt is recounted here through the artistic masterpieces, the everyday objects, the spectacular jewels, and the magnificent remains from the tombs of the pharaohs, all remarkably assembled within the walls of a single institution.Structured as a guide, but fully illustrated with superb color photographs, this book suggests a simple but comprehensive itinerary through the museum, subdividing the tour into chapters devoted to the most important episodes in Egyptian history. Collected during the course of over a century of archaeological excavations, jewelry, tools, toys, models, religious objects, mummies, and monumental sculptures offer vivid glimpses of a formidable civilization. The rich funerary cache of Tutankhamun, the treasures of Tanis, and the jewels of Queen Ahhotep reflect the glory of the Egyptian monarchy, but there are insights too into the day-to-day lives of the more humble sections of society. Previously unpublished photographs and plans alongside texts prepared by the museum curators themselves help readers to penetrate the corridors and halls of the great museum in search of a heritage unique in its richness and variety, following in the footsteps of the great figures in Egyptian history: from the pharaohs, suspended between heaven and earth, to the archaeologists who, with their patient excavations, have helped to shed new light on the land of the pyramids.

Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity


Susan Kenny Stevens - 2001
    NONPROFIT LIFECYCLES: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity weighs in with a developmental perspective on nonprofit capacity and its relationship to increased organizational performance. Offering practical insights and thought-provoking case illustrations, this book presents seven nonprofit lifecycle stages and the predictable tasks, challenges, and inevitable growing pains that nonprofits encounter and can hope to master on the road to organizational sustainability. More than ten thousand nonprofit and foundation officers have attended the Growing-Up Nonprofit TM seminars in which Susan Kenny Stevens originally introduced the hands-on wisdom of lifecycle theory. Now, as foundations and nonprofits seek to understand the principles of capacity and capacity-building activities, Stevens again showcases the lifecycle approach she pioneered more than two decades ago. The lessons contained in Nonprofit Lifecycles are timeless. Learn for yourself the stage-based wisdom from this nationally-recognized expert on nonprofit capacity

O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes: The Artist's Collection


Barbara Buhler Lynes - 2001
    An enormously popular artist, she became identified and respected as an independent American spirit through both her art and her life. At the time of her death in 1986, Georgia O'Keeffe owned more than half of the approximately 2,000 works she had produced during the eighty years she was active as an artist: some 400 works in oil, charcoal, pastel, pencil, and watercolor, as well as more than 700 sketches. For various reasons, she had always kept a portion of her art out of the public eye and these works were not published, exhibited, or available for purchase during her lifetime. Among the works that had been exhibited and sold over the years, some were repurchased by O'Keeffe as they became available. This book explores for the first time the significance of O'Keeffe's collection of her own work. Approximately 75 seminal works, dating from about 1910 through the 1960s and reproduced in full color, document the range and quality of the art that O'Keeffe either chose to retain in her estate or consciously distributed to institutions in her lifetime and as bequests. It reveals her thinking in relation to her oeuvre, providing a unique perspective from which to understand O'Keeffe as artist and collector. The book accompanies an exhibition organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the principal recipients to date of art from the O'Keeffe estate. The exhibition coincides with the opening of the Milwaukee Art Museum's major addition designed by noted Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Little Horse of Iron


Lawrence Scanlan - 2001
    This is the case with a group of horse breeders who have pledged to re-establish Canada’s heritage horse, aptly called the Canadian — a breed descended from the Norman horses that took European knights into battle. Habitants of old Quebec called this uncommonly strong breed le petit cheval de fer — the little horse of iron — and in many ways the tumultuous story of this horse mirrors the history of Canada.Little Horse of Iron tells the story of one man and his horse. At the age of 50, Lawrence Scanlan bought his first horse — a Canadian called Saroma Dark Fox Dali. A spirited and untrained young Canadian gelding, Dali taught Scanlan a great deal about patience, fear and courage. Always candid and often amusing, the year-long diary of their relationship deftly explores the joys and sorrows as both horse and human struggle to trust and understand each other.Along the way, we meet the people who prize the Canadian horse’s unparalleled contributions over three centuries — on the family farm, on the battlefield, on the race track and in the show ring. Marvellously detailed and rich in character, Little Horse of Iron is a heart-warming celebration of one horse, and of his breed — Canada’s own.

The Manual of Museum Exhibitions


Barry Lord - 2001
    Conceived, organized, and edited by Gail and Barry Lord, this invaluable book includes contributions by masters of each step in the complex art of museum exhibition-making. Subjects range from traditional displays of art, artifacts, and specimens from the permanent collection to the latest developments in virtual reality, online exhibitions, simulators, and big-screen reality. An exciting array of stimulating case studies featuring outstanding museum exhibitions from both sides of the Atlantic makes this manual all the more valuable to practitioners and students of the museum profession, architects, designers and the many specialized contractors involved in 21st-century exhibitions. The book is also useful and interesting reading for museum Trustees and Board members, volunteers, and all others who understand and enjoy the educational value of today's museum exhibitions. The Manual of Museum Exhibitions is particularly remarkable for its comprehensive scope, including evaluation processes, exhibition gallery requirements, and practical methods for each step in the planning, design, production, and project management of exhibitions. The final chapter surveys contemporary developments and presents a particularly impressive group of case studies that suggest possible directions for museum exhibition development in the new millennium. The Manual of Museum Exhibitions is a practical, hands-on, comprehensive guide to the entire process of planning, designing, producing, and evaluating exhibitions for museums of all kinds. Conceived, organized, and edited by Gail and Barry Lord, this invaluable book includes contributions by masters of each step in the complex art of museum exhibition-making. Subjects range from traditional displays of art, artifacts, and specimens from the permanent collection to the latest

The Arts of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum


James W. Cook - 2001
    Dubious mermaids and wild men who resisted classification. Elegant sleight-of-hand artists who routinely exposed the secrets of their trade. These were some of the playful forms of fraud which astonished, titillated, and even outraged nineteenth-century America's new middle class, producing some of the most remarkable urban spectacles of the century.In The Arts of Deception, James W. Cook explores this distinctly modern mode of trickery designed to puzzle the eye and challenge the brain. Championed by the Prince of Humbug, P. T. Barnum, these cultural puzzles confused the line between reality and illusion. Upsetting the normally strict boundaries of value, race, class, and truth, the spectacles offer a revealing look at the tastes, concerns, and prejudices of America's very first mass audiences. We are brought into the exhibition halls, theaters, galleries, and museums where imposture flourished, and into the minds of the curiosity-seekers who eagerly debated the wonders before their eyes. Cook creates an original portrait of a culture in which ambiguous objects, images, and acts on display helped define a new value system for the expanding middle class, as it confronted a complex and confusing world.

Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium


James Putnam - 2001
    "Artists today treat museums as filled not with dead art, but with living artistic options."Arthur Danto, "After the End of Art" Here is the first extensive survey of one of the most importantand intriguingthemes in art today: the often obsessive relationship between the artist and the museum. This is a relationship with a long history, whose full significance has been realized in the activities of artists in recent decades. From early instances of the urge to collect exotic objects, the "cabinet of curiosities," to assemblages of found objects and imitations of museum displays, artists have often turned their attention to the ideas and systems traditionally embodied in the museumdisplay, archiving, classification, storage, curatorshipwhich they have then appropriated, mimicked, and interpreted in their own ways. Citing a wide range of examples, from Marcel Duchamp's "Portable Museum" to Damien Hirst's distinctive use of vitrines, James Putnam examines the themes by which the artist/museum relationship is defined and redefined. He shows not only the ways in which artists have been influenced by museum systems and made their works into simulations of the museum, but also how they have questioned the role of museums, observed their practices, intervened in them, and helped to redefine them. This is a subject around whichdirectly and indirectlycontemporary art dialogue revolves. Without rival, this is one of those rare books that will become essential reading for everyone interested in the development of art and its presentation to the public in museum displays and installations. 280 illustrations, 227 in color.

Building a Legacy: The Restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park Home and Studio


Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust - 2001
    It was here -- from 1889 to 1909 -- that Wright tested his theories, which would coalesce into his famed Prairie style. Always experimenting with materials, forms, colors, and the shaping of space, Wright constantly remodeled the Home and Studio, adapting to the changing needs of his family and work. By the 1970s, after the Home and Studio had been remodeled still more and sold several times, the unique structure, fabrics, and materials that so defined Wright's establishment had all but disappeared.Recognizing the importance of the Home and Studio, the city of Oak Park and the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust (then the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation) set out to revitalize the community and preserve the historic building. Building a Legacy is a fascinating pictorial story of the incredible thirteen-year restoration effort.With conversational text, informative sidebars, and historic and present-day photographs and drawings, the book commemorates the dedicated efforts of community volunteers and paid workers. Covering the grassroots efforts to raise money, the detailed plan for the restoration, and the painstaking efforts necessary to complete the project, Building a Legacy documents the successful achievement of saving an intimate creation of one of the world's greatest architects.

Pest Management in Museums, Archives and Historic Houses


David Pinniger - 2001
    It covers the many recent developments in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the heritage sector. The book includes new information on trapping and detection of pests and the advantages and disadvantages of physical and chemical control measures. The illustrations have been produced especially for this book and are some of the clearest pictures of museum insects yet published. The chapter on rodent and bird pests completes the comprehensive coverage of any pest problem likely to be encountered. The concerns over the use of pesticides on objects, staff and the environment and the options available are rationally discussed. Applying the principles of IPM, as described in this book, to museums, archives and historic houses is not only safer, but also more cost-effective.

Raw Histories: Photographs, Anthropology and Museums


Elizabeth Edwards - 2001
    This book explores how approaching anthropological photographs as 'history' can offer both theoretical and empirical insights into these roles. Photographs are thought to make problematic history because of their ambiguity and 'rawness'. In short, they have too many meanings. The author refutes this prejudice by exploring, through a series of case studies, precisely the potential of this raw quality to open up new perspectives.Taking the nature of photography as her starting point, the author argues that photographs are not merely pictures of things but are part of a dynamic and fluid historical dialogue, which is active not only in the creation of the photograph but in its subsequent social biography in archive and museum spaces, past and present. In this context, the book challenges any uniform view of anthropological photography and its resulting archives. Drawing on a variety of examples, largely from the Pacific, the book demonstrates how close readings of photographs reveal not only western agendas, but also many layers of differing historical and cross-cultural experiences. That is, photographs can 'spring leaks' to show an alternative viewpoint. These themes are developed further by examining the dynamics of photographs and issues around them as used by contemporary artists and curators and presented to an increasingly varied public.This book convincingly demonstrates photographs' potential to articulate histories other than those of their immediate appearances, a potential that can no longer be neglected by scholars and institutions.