A White Wonderland at the DMA

Francis Guy, "Winter Scene in Brooklyn," c. 1817-20, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 2008.23.McD

We are getting into the spirit of the holiday season here at the DMA and in the Dallas Arts District , and we would like to invite you to the Museum for some great holiday shopping and fun holiday entertainment.

And while you are here, be sure to visit the galleries and try to spot all of our white and wintry works of art. Here are a few to get you started:

Level 4

"Veryround" chair, Louise Campbell, designer, Zanotta, Italy, maker, designed 2006, steel with enamel, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund, 2008.49

Anne Whitney, "Lady Godiva," c. 1861-64, marble, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Alessandra Comini in memory of Dr. Eleanor Tufts, who discovered the Massachusetts-backyard whereabouts of this long-forgotten statue and brought it to Dallas, 2011.8

 

Level 3

Door with human figure, Indonesia, South Sulawesi, Sa'dan Toraja people, 18th or 19th century, wood, Dallas Museum of Art, Gift of the Eugene McDermott Foundation

Auguste Rodin, "The Poet and the Contemplative Life," 1896, marble, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.64

Level 2

Ben Nicholson, "White Relief," 1936, oil on carved board, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1963.77.FA

Gustave Courbet, "Fox in the Snow," 1860, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mrs. John B. O'Hara Fund, 1979.7.FA

Barbara Hepworth, "Contrapuntal Forms (Mycenae)," 1965, marble and teakwood, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Clark, 1971.94

 

Level 1

Installation view of "Encountering Space" at the Dallas Museum of Art

And visit the exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk on Level 1 to see white used in fashion:

Lady Gaga wearing Jean Paul Gaultier, "Flare Magazine," 2009, © Max Abadian

Craig McDean, "Untitled (Maggie Rizer)," "Vogue" (U.S.), October 2002, "The Hussars" collection, "La Mariée" wedding gown, fall-winter 2002–2003, © Craig McDean/Art + Commerce

Visit the Museum Store in person or online at ShopDMA.org for unusual gifts to give this holiday season. And be sure to join us for two exciting holiday performances when The Barefoot Brigade presents their annual The NOTcracker dance performance on December 17 and on December 18 Undermain Theater presents a reading of the classic Dylan Thomas poem A Child’s Christmas in Wales.

Have a fun and safe holiday season and we hope to see you and your family at the Museum!

Wendi Kavanaugh is the Member Outreach Manager at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Stacey Lizotte is the Head of Adult Programming and Multimedia Services at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Closing Celebration for Art in October

Sunday we wrapped up the month-long celebration of the Dallas Arts District, Art in October, with a day full of events throughout the district. The DMA hosted a free Carnival of Creativity and Doggies in the District. Below are few photo highlights from the day.

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How to Throw a Block Party

Have you ever wanted to throw a block party but don’t know how to go about it? One of the interesting things about my job is that I now know a lot about what goes into making a good one.

On June 17 we’ll host our third annual Summer Block Party in the Arts District, and I wanted to share a little of the “backstage” planning. The Summer Block Party has always involved the Arts District museums and Downtown Dallas Inc., and this year we are also working with the Dallas Symphony and the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

The first part of planning any big event is getting all the “players” together to discuss ideas and work out the details. Our first Arts District group meeting was the first week of April, and we have had two group meetings since then. Agenda items for these meetings included planning joint programs, discussing street closure logistics, and crafting a marketing plan.

A street performance during a Summer Block Party

After these meetings, the “point person” from each institution goes back “home” to work out the specifics. Here at the DMA we had meetings with our Security, Operations, Membership, and Marketing teams to go over all the details for the DMA’s Late Night, especially the Summer Concert featuring The Polyphonic Spree. Between that first planning meeting in April and the event on June 17, I will have had fourteen internal meetings with various staff members just about this one event.

A past Late Night Summer Concert on Ross Avenue Plaza

Another aspect of throwing a block party is closing the streets between the museums. We do this so we can have programs outside and for the safety of all our visitors, who will be walking back and forth between the institutions. Closing the streets requires a permit from the City, which must be submitted forty-five days before the event. Once we get the okay from the City, we have to secure police officers, outdoor lighting, port-a-potties, and street barricades.

After our programs are confirmed, we then work with our graphic designers and editor to create a schedule of events, which we give to visitors when they arrive that night. We submit text three weeks in advance to give them time to edit and design the schedule, have staff review the schedule, and make any last minute changes before sending it to the printer. We then update our website with all the current information, and our PR department sends out a press release and begins posting on Facebook and Twitter.

Proof for the Late Night Schedule of Events

Lastly, to continue in the tradition of my previous blog post about Late Nights, I thought I would end this post with a new Late Nights by the Numbers list:

272 – number of emails I have sent and received about the Summer Block Party since April

52 – number of performers and artists featured during the June Late Night

7,000 – number of Late Night event schedules printed for this night

6 - number of food trucks that will serve food during the Summer Block Party

2 – number of clues the DMA will tweet for the Museum Art Challenge on Twitter

12 – number of port-a-potties on-site during the Summer Block Party

4 - number of rotating mirror balls that will be used during The Polyphonic Spree concert

Stacey Lizotte is Head of Adult Programming and Multimedia Services.

Artfully Green

Reduce, reuse, and recycle. As Earth Day rolls around, we’re reminded of our impact on the environment. But what are we doing at the Dallas Museum of Art to be green? Uncrated went on a search to find out.

Each year, over half a million visitors step through the Museum’s doors, and our large building is 500,000 square feet, taking up two city blocks in downtown Dallas. Our global collections span over 24,000 works of art, and we produce an average of eighteen exhibitions each year. We have an underground parking garage, a cafe, a store, and over two hundred employees.

With this large footprint, we were excited to find out about some long-standing practices and a few new ones that the DMA is using to reduce its impact on the environment:

• Three years ago, The City of Dallas and the DMA retrofitted the building’s entire energy management systems in order enhance energy efficiency. Efforts included replacing our boiler and chillers, adding eco-friendly light bulbs, low flow toilets and water fixtures throughout the museum. As a result, utility consumption has been reduced over 50%.
•  The Museum has a water management system throughout the building. It is a smart system with rain sensors for our hardscape and landscaping.
•  We added healthier, more drought-tolerant trees along the Museum bordering St. Paul Street.
•  All chemicals and cleaning agents used at the DMA are eco-friendly.
•  DMA employees are offered a discount to ride the DART system to work. There is a bicycle rack located on Ross Avenue Plaza.
•  When layouts of our galleries are changed for new exhibitions, we reuse studs and building materials. All crates and art packing materials are reused and/or recycled.
•  The DMA participates in a recycling program with the City of Dallas. The profits the City makes are sent into the general fund for City programs such as Park and Recreation projects and Fire Department equipment.
•  All copy paper used at the Museum has a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste content.
•  All of the printed materials produced by our Creative Services team are printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper, using an FSC-certified paper distributor, and 95% of the commercial printing (100% local) that the Museum does uses an FSC-certified printer.
•  The admission tags that visitors receive when they visit the DMA are collected and reused. Look for boxes at the Visitor Services Desk to recycle your tag when leaving.
•  The Museum Store features products from many local artists and craftsman and also has a wide variety of eco-friendly products.
• Our cafe uses compostable or biodegradable disposable containers and recycles all plastic, glass bottles, paper, cardboard, wine corks, and cooking oils. This summer, we will begin working with a food composting company.
•  The cafe menu consists of locally purchased organic produce, sourcing through local vendors within a two hundred-mile radius. Soon, the cafe will implement new infused water stations and glass-bottled waters, phasing out plastic-bottled water.

The DMA is working with the U.S. Green Building Council to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for these efforts. We hope to have our designation by August 2011.

For a selection of works on view at the Museum that incorporate recycled materials, visit our sister blog, We Art Family, for their Earth Day post. And for eco-friendly activities, emerging green technology, and thought-provoking ways to think, work, and live green in Dallas, join us today and tomorrow in the downtown Dallas Arts District for the free Earth Day Dallas Festival (the DMA will have FREE admission on Saturday, April 23, 2011!). To reduce your carbon footprint, ride DART to Pearl Station and walk to the Arts District.

Happy EARTH Day!

Mandy Engleman is the Director of Creative Services at the Dallas Museum of Art

Let’s Celebrate the Arts

On Saturday we were excited to launch Art in October in the Dallas Arts District with a free admission day of activities and even an exhibition sneak peek.

 

Art in October

 

There are so many wonderful cultural events happening every day in Dallas, and especially in the Arts District, that we need a month to celebrate them all!  Here at the DMA we hosted a delegation from Dallas’s “Sister City,” Dijon, France–five Michelin-starred chefs and one sommelier–outside our Flora Street Entrance.

 

Chefs from Dijon shared some amazing dishes with visitors.

 

 

Some delicious French food prepared by our visiting chefs from Dijon.

 

For four hours they prepared and offered samples of food and wine  from Burgundy, the land of The Mourners.

 

Visitors enjoying a free sneak peak at "The Mourners"

 

Inside, we had performances throughout the day, including spoken word pieces by Booker T. Washington students, flash mob dances, and an appearance by the Plano Senior High Chamber Singers in full medieval dress (see them again on the October 15 Late Night).

 

The Plano Senior High Chamber Singers

 

 

Masterpieces in the works at the Space Bar in C3

 

Your Museum staff happily joined in on the fun, even grabbing a few bites of escargot panini along with our more than 4,500 weekend visitors. We can’t wait for the rest of the Art in October celebration!