It’s off to the races for the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA).

The museum’s Circle 2445 is encouraging everyone to dress in their best for the running of the 139th Kentucky Derby. The party, Run for the Roses, is scheduled for 4 p.m. May 4 in the Peristyle Theater.

Party-goers watch the Kentucky Derby at last year’s Run for the Roses. Photo by Tina G Photography.

“The main point of the event is to get dressed up and have a fun afternoon at the museum,” said Dustin Hostetler, co-chair of Circle 2445, in an email.

“While I’ve never been to the actual Kentucky Derby, I am certainly a fan of this event. Our first Derby party at the TMA in 2011 was a blast and I can’t wait for this year’s party.”

The event will include Southern-style appetizers, a cash bar featuring mint juleps and live music by Kentucky Chrome. The Derby will be simulcast on a big screen.

Circle 2445, led by Hostetler and Amir Khan, is a group that promotes involvement with the museum by planning programs targeted to appeal to young adults.

The name of the group comes from the museum’s address, 2445 Monroe St., and also reflects the 24-45 age demographic.

“It is of course important for the museum to engage with this demographic because these people will become the next generation of leaders, philanthropists and patrons of the arts in Toledo,” Hostetler said. “We need to support them as they do us.”

Tickets cost $40 in advance or $50 at the door. They can be purchased online at toledomuseum.org/circle2445 or by calling TMA’s information desk at (419) 255-8000, Ext. 7546.

A special promotion offers anyone renewing or buying a membership with the museum, along with joining Circle 2445, a free ticket to the Derby party, said TMA’s Marketing Communications Coordinator Jenny Fogle.

To purchase or renew a membership to the museum, contact the information desk.

Anyone interested in joining Circle 2445 can contact Coordinator Jackie Tussing at (419) 255-8000.

Tags: Circle 2445, Kentucky Derby, Run for the Roses, TMA, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Toledo Museum of Art.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Toledo Museum of Art’s latest exhibit, Crossing Cultures, is a collection of contemporary Aboriginal Australian artwork that connects the past with the present for TMA Director Brian Kennedy.

Kennedy served as director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from 1997 to 2004 before becoming director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. In 2006, his connection to Australian art deepened when he met Aboriginal art collectors Will Owen and Harvey Wagner while putting on an exhibit. A portion of Owen and Wagner’s collection is now on display at TMA.

Kennedy said of the Toledo exhibit, “It’s quite emotional and I just know that people will be influenced by it, the Aboriginal connection to the land and the culture. The story is so powerful that it cannot help but make us think about our own.”

The exhibit features 120 pieces of contemporary Indigenous art, mostly from post 2000. Artists include Michael Riley, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Danny Gibson Tjapaltjarri, Destiny Deacon, Walangkura Napanangka and Christian Thompson.

Stephen Gilchrist of the Hood Museum curated the exhibit, which is expected to find a permanent home at Dartmouth when it reopens there. Each room in the multimedia exhibit, which includes sculptures, paintings, videos and photos, represents a different region. There are about 550,000 indigenous people in Australia, representing about 2.5 percent of the population, Kennedy said.

Ricky Maynard (Big River/Ben Lomond, born 1953, Launceston, Tasmania), Wik Elder, Arthur (from the series “Returning to Places that Name Us”), 2000.

Much of the exhibit deals with the indigenous people’s relationship to the land and also their oppression and colonization.

The exhibit starts with a room dedicated to the Stolen Generation, when Aboriginal children were taken from their families and placed in institutions or with other families in an attempt to squash their culture. Crossing Cultures ends in a room called “Crying for Country.”

Gilchrist said he hopes the show inspires Toledoans to think about indigenous Ohioans and to expand their minds in other ways.

“It’s a really good exercise in cultural relativism,” said Gilchrist, a native of Western Australia. “Especially at a gallery in a museum of art, we’re not always confronted with the things that are familiar. There’s a lot that can be learned from experience with the unfamiliar.”

Kennedy said he believes the region’s last Australian Aboriginal art show was nearly 25 years ago so most people will learn something new.

“The museum is a place that engages with all the countries of the world back through civilizations and so bringing art here from around the world just helps make our people more diverse and encourages tolerance and those aspects that we hold dear,” he said, adding that the show could spark a movement toward Aboriginal art collecting in the area.

“I’ve never seen a major Aboriginal art show that didn’t encourage some people to collect Aboriginal art. It has that sort of visceral connection with some people,” he said.

Owen recalled his “dumb luck” in the late 1980s when he and Wagner first came across Aboriginal art in New York City.

“We were so taken with it that two years later, we went to Australia and bought our first painting,” Owen said, adding that he’s attracted to the variety found in indigenous art.

“One of the things that we wanted to do in building this collection was really try to represent all the very, very different kinds of art making that goes on in Aboriginal Australia,” he said.

“I think people expect it to be old and [depict] animals, kangaroos and turtles and things like that so I hope they just learn how beautiful and how diverse it is.”

Crossing Cultures includes a number of talks and activities, Kennedy said, adding that he thinks the free admission will encourage attendance.

“It encourages people to engage with a different kind of art form that they may not be familiar with and to enjoy it, so I think we’ll get a very large number of people,” he said.

He also said the Toledo Zoo’s May 24 debut of Wild Walkabout, an Australian exhibit, could encourage attendance.

“Both the Toledo Zoo and the Toledo Museum of Art are incredible organizations that are respected by their peers worldwide, and beloved by their communities,” said the zoo’s Executive Director, Jeff Sailer, in a news release. “By working together and sharing our talents, we’re able to offer all our guests an even more meaningful experience.”

Crossing Cultures includes free presentations and other related programming like “Symbols, Stories & Social Justice,” an exhibit in the Community Gallery for which University of Toledo art students created personal symbols from their own lives inspired by Australian Aboriginal art.

At 7:30 p.m. May 31, Kennedy will present “In the Eye of the Storm: Aboriginal Australian Art Today” in the museum’s Little Theater. Owen will host a gallery talk, starting in Libbey Court, at 2 p.m. June 8 and 15. Gilchrist will host another at 7 p.m. June 14.

The exhibit also features several free film showings. “Art+Soul: A Personal Journey Into the World of Aboriginal Art” is at 1 p.m. April 20. The three-part series depicts curator Hetti Perkins’ journey through Australia, speaking to different artists.

For additional programming and to learn more, visit www.toledomuseum.org/exhibitions/crossingcultures/. The museum is located at 2445 Monroe St. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday and closed Mondays and major holidays. Crossing Cultures runs until July 14.

Tags: Brian Kennedy, Crossing Cultures, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 at 9:56 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Toledo Museum of Art.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

On March 22, Leslie Adams attended a private event in Washington, D.C., where she was celebrated as being one of 48 artists included in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Her work will be on display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery for the next 11 months.

“For a portrait artist, it doesn’t get any better than the National Portrait Gallery,” Adams said. “Don’t let the term ‘gallery’ mislead you, it’s a beautiful, beautiful museum.”

The show, which opened March 23 and will run until Feb. 23, 2014, is located next to the Hall of Presidents.

“The exposure is going to be incredible,” Adams said. “When [people] walk out of the Hall of Presidents, it just falls into our gallery where our show is.”

This is the second time Adams has been chosen for the competition, last time making it to the top 100, this year the top 48. Adams is the second person from Toledo recognized; David Eichenberg was a finalist in 2009.

Leslie Adams

“Probably close to 10,000 entries and two people from Toledo have been part of the show,” Adams said. “That’s a pretty big deal.”

Adams entered a charcoal-drawn self-portrait into the contest. The same portrait, featuring her sitting in front of MRI images of her brain, was featured in the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition. Since then, she has had a solo exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art.

“It was that drawing that was the reason I had a solo show at the museum,” Adams said.

Adams heard about the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition while she was a member of the Portrait Society of America. The triennial juried exhibition invites works in traditional media, including oil paintings, drawings and photographs, according to a news release.

Of the more than 3,000 entries, 48 were chosen to appear in the gallery. Seven of those 48 were selected for a cash prize. First place earned $25,000 and “a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection.”

The competition was started after Virginia Outwin Boochever left $2 million to the gallery when she died.

“The vision of Virginia Outwin Boochever was to increase awareness about portraiture as a vibrant art form,” said Wendy Wick Reaves, interim director of the museum, in a news release.

Adams was motivated by Boochever’s vision.

“I think so many people walk in museums, and with realistic portraiture … they think this is done from somebody a long time ago,” Adams said. “I think what she means is that there are still living, breathing people that paint portraits. It’s not a lost art; it’s not a dying art. It’s still a profession and it’s just an amazing profession to be in.”

In Toledo, Adams spends her time painting political figures. Because of this, she took advantage of her time in Washington, D.C.

“It’s important to me to go to the capital to see the artwork there,” Adams said.

Adams has worked in Downtown Toledo for close to 20 years after growing up in the South End, she said. She worked out of another, smaller studio Downtown before moving to her current location on Huron Street four years ago.

Many of her clients are state senators, governors and judges.

Each portrait requires an average of 400 hours of work by Adams and her assistants. Adams employs a traditional technique of portrait painting, which consists of a lengthy process of drawing and painting multiple layers of flesh tones and light. Much of this process is spent really getting to know the subject, physically and on a personal level, Adams said.

Adams is also working on portraits of Paul Gillmor for the Ohio Senate and Justice Francis Sweeney and Judge Robert Morton Duncan for the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Tags: David Eichenberg, Huron Street, Judge Robert Morton Duncan, Justice Francis Sweeney, Leslie Adams, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Paul Gillmor, Portrait Society of America, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Toledo Museum of Art, Virginia Outwin Boochever

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 26th, 2013 at 11:43 am and is filed under Exhibits, Featured, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa will give a free lecture at 6 p.m. March 14 in the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) Peristyle as part of the museum’s Masters Series.

Plensa’s sculpture, “Spiegel,” which is German for mirror, is the newest addition to TMA’s Georgia and David K. Welles Sculpture Garden.

Jaume Plensa. Photo Courtesy Toledo Museum of Art.

The piece consists of two large seated figures, each lit from within, measuring 12 feet high and made of a steel latticework of letters from eight different alphabets welded together, but spelling no words.

“He is very sought-after,” said Amy Gilman, TMA associate director and curator of contemporary art. “He doesn’t do a lot of public appearances like this, so it’s a real privilege to be able to bring him here.

“He’ll be talking about his own work and introducing our visitors to some of the other works he’s created,” Gilman said. “That will hopefully allow people to have some context for the work we’ve acquired for the museum. It’s a real privilege and a pleasure to be able to have that kind of dialogue.”

Plensa’s sculptures, many featuring the human body and letters or words, can be found in public spaces around the world. He is perhaps most widely known in the United States for the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park in Chicago.

“Jaume Plensa is one of the most significant sculptors working today,” Gilman said in a news release. “Plensa has a remarkable ability to create work that is at once immediately accessible to the first look while encouraging deeper engagement over the long term.”

Response to the piece, which was installed in 2012 at the intersection of Collingwood Avenue and Monroe Street, has been positive, Gilman said.

“Almost from the moment the piece was installed, even before we finalized the lighting, we started getting notes from people we know and on Facebook about immediately being drawn to the piece and basically falling in love with it the way we did,” Gilman said.

TMA, which normally closes at 4 p.m. on Thursdays, will stay open until the talk, Gilman said. Pre-lecture food and a drink is available in the cafe for $15 for members or $20 for nonmembers. To purchase dinner tickets, call (419) 255-7000, Ext. 7448.

For more information, visit www.toledomuseum.org.

"Spiegel" by Jaume Plensa. Photo by Andrew Weber / Courtesy Toledo Museum of Art.

Tags: Amy Gilman, Jaume Plensa, Spiegel, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Lectures, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Would you have recognized the genius of Vincen Van Gogh if you had been living in the south of France during the late 1880s? Maybe you were a Bohemian in Greenwich Village in the 1960s; did you suspect Andy Warhol’s soup cans would define pop art?

There are exhibitions on view in Toledo where visitors can decide for themselves which contemporary local artists may have what it takes to one day join the ranks of the immortals.

The granddaddy of local art shows is at the Toledo Museum of Art. Featuring works by 76 locals, the longstanding annual Toledo Area Artists (TAA) exhibition is free and runs through April 14. This year’s exhibition has been called diverse and “very exciting” by the museum’s Mellon Fellow Kate Nesin, a contemporary art historian who juried the exhibition together with Connecticut-based artist Joe Fig.

Besides paintings and sculpture, the exhibition includes jewelry, fabric and ceramic art. Nesin said the submissions were “mostly representational,” including “a great deal of portraiture,” which seemed to buck a recent trend toward purely formal abstract art that Nesin had observed around the country.

Fig said he and Nesin went through the submissions “many, many times” before making their selections. Fig called this year’s exhibition “a rounded show,” because of the assortment of media it features. He acknowledged the selection process is subjective but when it comes to making art Fig said, “I’ve been doing this for 25 years.”

“Faded Not Forgotten” by area artist Randy Bennett won Best of Show at the Salon des Refusés.

As for detecting any discernible trend from the hundreds of submissions, Fig said, “The trend is that there is no trend.” He said there are “little pockets of different [art] genres” around the nation. Instead of any particular genre of art, people are trying to chase subgenres.”

The jurors based their selections for the exhibition on electronic images of the artwork submitted to the museum, standard practice for this type of show. Those images were passed along to the jurors without the names of the artists.

Salon des Refusés

With nearly 600 artworks rejected by TAA, there is plenty of work to hang at the Parkwood Gallery at the Arts Commission’s offices, 1838 Parkwood Ave., across from the museum. That is the location of the Salon des Refusés, which takes its name from a 19th-century French forum for Impressionism, which at the time had not yet been accepted by the art establishment.

PRIZM, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the artistic community, has been sponsoring Toledo’s Salon des Refusés for four years. But the salon has a tradition in Toledo that goes back 20 years, said Annette Jensen, the founder of PRIZM, which is a member of the Toledo Federation of Art Societies. In its early days, Salon promoters might lurk near the museum steps on the lookout for local artists with that hangdog look to ask for submissions. This year the Toledo Museum of Art included submission information for the Salon des Refusés in its emails to artists whose work was not chosen for the TAA show, Jensen said.

Bowling Green State University School of Art professors Tom Muir and Dennis Wojtkiewicz juried the Salon. Muir said he was surprised there were not more entries but called the work “overall quite good.” Wojtkiewicz, who said BGSU art profs regularly serve as jurors both regionally and nationally, said the submissions reflected “quite a range in technical quality, content and creativity.” But in an email to Toledo Free Press Star, Wojtkiewicz said “the beauty of the Salon show” is “artists receiving an opportunity to exhibit their work in a quality venue and being treated in a respectful and professional manner.”

Muir, who said he has been submitting work to the TAA show for about 20 years, was himself rejected this year, although his art has been selected for inclusion in the past. He said he is a fan of the Salon des Refusés because the annual show means artists “working outside of tradition or acceptable art forms can still exhibit their work.” Muir said one of his favorite things about the TAA exhibition has always been going across the street to the Parkwood Gallery to “see the works that did not get in.”

The Salon des Refusés gives “people in the art community a chance to see works that might be outside standard practice,” Muir said.

How does a juror select a Best of Show? Muir said he and Wojtkiewicz looked for pieces that were “the most inventive and well-resolved in the craft and artistic content of the work.”

The professors chose artist Randy Bennett’s mixed media work “Faded Not Forgotten” for Best of Show. Wojtkiewicz said the overall quality of the three pieces Bennett entered played a role in his decision. Both jurors agreed that Bennett’s “work stood out in a way that made him a deserving candidate for the award,” Wojtkiewicz said.

Jensen noted that mixed media artwork has gained in popularity lately. The collage-like technique can be used as a way of “capturing memories,” said Jensen, who believes people are “hungry for some kind of connection” to their own past and to others, as evidenced, for example, by the popularity of social media.

A tip for submitting artists

As someone whose art has been both accepted and rejected many times over the years, Muir had a tip for artists who submit work: provide good quality photographs. While Muir acknowledged that a photo does not always give “the full sense of the work,” he said jurors may see the quality of the photo itself as a test of professionalism.  In his juror’s statement, Muir wrote, “I continue to urge artists to invest in the highest quality photography that they can, for the sake of their work’s best representation.”

In addition to the TAA and the Salon des Refusés, art lovers can also view the University of Toledo’s juried student exhibition through March 15 at the UT Center for the Visual Arts, adjacent to the Toledo Museum of Art.

Tags: Bowling Green State University School of Art, Parkwood Gallery at the Arts Commission, Salon des Refusés, Toledo Area Artists (TAA) exhibition, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 8:32 am and is filed under Star, Toledo Museum of Art.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

During her “Monster Ball” tour, Lady Gaga would take to the stage wearing her now-famous “Living Dress” — an ever-shifting cacophony of fabrics controlled remotely using motors and cables. The spectacle never failed to garner an epic reaction from her audiences. In one fan video, you can hear the voice of a spectator almost enraptured with excitement at the sight. “It’s amazing! It’s f****** amazing!”

Those words were music to the ears of Vinilla Burnham — Vin for short — the designer who worked feverishly for six weeks to finish the garment. “You can’t get better feedback than that!” Burnham said in an interview with Toledo Free Press Star.

Burnham will share her experiences working on projects like the Gaga dress, the Batsuit used in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns” and many, many more in a free presentation at 2 p.m. Jan. 20 in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle.

Titled “Touching the Stars: Costume Design from Covent Garden to Hollywood,” her talk will cover the wide variety of experiences the U.K. native has had in the entertainment industry.

Vinilla Burnham

“Covent Garden and Hollywood are poles apart, both as wonderful as each other,” Burnham said. “I was extremely fortunate to have such an enormous variety in my career, from ballet and opera to Monty Python, Jim Henson and the Muppets, Batman and Lady Gaga.

“I specialized in costume design which crossed over with creature effects, puppetry, animatronics and even CGI, so I will cover all these areas. It will be an overview with a lot of variety and even some inside information.”

If Burnham sounds enthusiastic about her visit, well, it comes naturally. Burnham is a naturally passionate individual, and sharing her experiences with others clearly brings her great joy.

“I love it. I love passing on my knowledge and I hope people are entertained as well as informed, and hopefully inspired.”

Burnham’s passion is informed by a lifetime within show business. Her parents were both actors, but the young Vin knew she never wanted to perform herself. Still, there was an inevitability to her involvement with theater. After a stint at art school, she got a job working with props at the Royal Opera House in London, before migrating to costumes for television and film.

Her parents’ experience as performers helps Burnham empathize with the actors she works with. “It is their character after all, so it is my job to work with them to find out what works best for their portrayal of the character. It is a curious and exciting process; whatever preconceived ideas I may have about how I think they should look changes completely on meeting them, and it is a voyage of discovery to find the perfect look.”

So when does Burnham know that they have hit upon the perfect design? She just … knows.

“It is usually the case that both the actor and myself know instantly when we have struck the right chord, and that we have got it right. It is never a case of my telling the actor what he/she is wearing, it is collaborative.

“Very rarely does an actor’s ego get in the way,” Burnham added. “Some feel more strongly than others and some want more input than others, but I have encountered one or two that were difficult, and they will remain nameless!”

Celebrity gossip columnists may be disappointed when Burnham refuses to surrender such juicy details, but for her it’s always about the work. Beyond her most famous pieces, Burnham expresses a great deal of joy for her designs on a 2006 production of “The Wind in the Willows” starring Matt Lucas and Bob Hoskins.

“I loved the book as a child, and it was colorful, animal characteristics, it was period and it was a comedy, all the ingredients I love. I was particularly pleased with Badger’s costume and I have brought it with me from England to show at my talks,” she said.

Burnham’s experience integrating her fanciful designs with physical and visual effects certainly gives her a leg up in an era where the process of creating fantastic sights on film is changing rapidly. She said she hasn’t found it hard to adapt, because “it is not about elaborate visual effects, it is about telling stories through characters.

“If effects are used for the sake of it, it will be meaningless, and audiences will not believe it. Having said that, I love to use visual effects,” she noted. “I am the first one to want to know of new technology and materials, but they must be used within a context of good ideas and good design, it must be totally relevant to the visual statement you are making or you are sunk.”

Burnham communicates such love and joy through her film work that it comes as a surprise to learn she’s taking a hiatus to launch a new project called “The Little Costume Shop Weddings.”

“I have been making quarter-scale ballet costumes for some while now for collectors, and it occurred to me one day, ‘Where do people put their wedding dresses after their weddings?’ Most people pack them away and never see them again, so I thought it would be a wonderfully romantic idea to offer people a quarter-scale replica of their wedding dress.”

But there will always be a fire within Burnham about her first love, one which she believes she will communicate to the Glass City on Jan. 20.

“I hope that Toledoans will find the talks interesting, informative and also entertaining,” she said. “I would like to tell them about some of the incredibly talented and creative people that inspired and educated me during my career that they perhaps would never otherwise come across, people whose work should live on. And how my English heritage amalgamated with your American heritage and resulted in some groundbreaking work, and bridged the gap across the ‘pond.’”

For information, visit toledomuseum.org.

Tags: Batman, Jeff McGinnis, Pop Goes the Culture, Tim Burton, Toledo Museum of Art, Vinilla Burnham

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 at 10:42 am and is filed under Film, Pop Goes the Culture, Star, Toledo Museum of Art.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Visitors have come from near and far to tour the Toledo Museum of Art’s (TMA)  “Manet: Portraying Art,” which runs through Jan. 1.

TMA is the exclusive North American venue for the exhibition, which opened Oct. 7 and drew from more than 30 public and private collections worldwide to comprise the first exhibit focused on the portraiture of 19th-century French painter Édouard Manet. After TMA, the works will be shown at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

"Boy Blowing Bubbles," by Edouard Manet. Photo Courtesy Toledo Museum of Art.

The exhibit has attracted visitors from 38 states, said Teri Sharp, TMA public relations manager. After Ohio, the next most common home states for visitors were Michigan, Indiana and New York. There have also been visitors from Dallas and Austin, Texas; Phoenix; Seattle; Denver; Albuquerque, N.M.; Washington, D.C., and more.

“We expect our biggest days for attendance will be the last days of the exhibition,” Sharp said. “As much as 20 percent of attendance could be in the final days. We are projecting that when the exhibition closes on Jan. 1, we will be close to our goal of 50,000 visitors.”

Often credited as “the father of modernity,” Manet’s style inspired many well-known Impressionists, including Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas.

“A lot has to do with what he put in and what he left out,” said TMA Director Brian Kennedy, referencing “The Railway,” Manet’s painting of a girl looking at a train. The train is not in the painting, only steam from its engine. “In the way Manet encapsulates his period, we have a window into the birth of our modernity.”

Manet painted his family, friends and the literary, political and artistic figures of his day, often in casual settings rather than traditionally posed portraits, said co-curator Lawrence Nichols, TMA’s senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900.

Nichols hopes Manet’s works prompt viewers to contemplate their conception of self, something especially relevant in today’s social media-saturated culture, Nichols said.

“It is very much about 2012 and what it means to conceive of yourself and what it means to be perceived by others,” Nichols said.

The exhibit includes 34 oils and five pastels by Manet, Nichols said.

“Édouard Manet is one of the major artists in Western European painting tradition. Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt — Manet ranks among these, absolutely,” Nichols said. “It’s not exhaustive, but we have some of the absolute greatest [of his portraits]. The gems are here.”

The museum is located at 2445 Monroe St. Admission to the exhibit is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors 65 and older and students age 6 to 22 and free for TMA members and children 5 and younger with a paid adult admission. An audio tour is available for $3. General admission to TMA is free.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday- Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday and closed Mondays and major holidays. Special extended holiday hours are noon to 8 p.m. New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31) and noon to 8 p.m. New Year’s Day (Jan. 1).

For more, visit toledomuseum.org.

Tags: Lawrence Nichols, Manet, Teri Sharp, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Star.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) recently launched a student guide program, partnering with Toledo School for the Arts (TSA) to train select students to assist docents in leading public tours of “Manet: Portraying Life.”

Seniors Kim Fisher of Toledo and Grace Parr of Northwood and juniors Drew Fleniken and Madison Littin both of Toledo, underwent a yearlong training process prior to the exhibit’s opening in October.

The students studied the 19th century French painter and his portraiture as well as learned basic docent skills such as how to ask open-ended questions and how to adjust tour information between adults and children. Each also chose one of Manet’s portraits to research in depth.

TMA docent coordinator Paula Brown-Gray said the program is the first of its kind at TMA since at least the 1990s, when she came to the museum.

Toledo School for the Arts students Grace Parr, Drew Fleniken, Kim Fisher and Madison Littin assist Toledo Museum of Art docents in giving tours.

“We wanted to work with students and their passion and energy for the arts and Toledo School for the Arts seemed like a good fit,” Brown-Gray said.

Veteran docents act as mentors.

“Before a tour, we meet with the docent and they can answer any questions we have,”

Fleniken said. “If we’re having any trouble during a tour they will jump in and help out. Afterward, they tell us what we need to improve on and what we did good.”

All four students said they’ve enjoyed seeing firsthand how the museum operates.

“I just like being sort of behind the scenes, being on the other side of the tour,” Fisher said.

“The museum puts all these things together, but you never really know how they do it and it’s cool to see all the work that goes into it,” Fleniken added.

The students said people are often surprised to find such young guides, but most leave impressed.

“People definitely don’t expect teenagers to be giving tours,” Fleniken said.

“They all think it’s wonderful kids are involved in the museum,” Fisher added.

“The docent said I did an amazing job and she was so glad I joined her and asked that I join her on more tours, so I think it went pretty well,” Littin said.

Museum docent Jeanne Rudski of Perrysburg partnered with Fleniken and Parr on tours.

“They are some of the most personable and well-spoken young people I’ve ever encountered in my life,” Rudski said. “Both of them had prepared a particular painting in the exhibition and had done thorough research, so they were well-grounded and were able to present their research in the framework of the tour. Both were great. I just kind of stood back during the works they were presenting and let them do their thing.”

Parr said the most helpful advice she’s gotten from veteran docents is to go with the flow.

“You have to feed off the energy of the people there. You can make a lesson plan, but you really need to be able to move with what they are saying,” Parr said. “I like the interaction with the people, to hear what they say, because I know what I’ve learned and what we’re supposed to say, but to hear what they have to say is cool because I can learn from them as well.”

Fleniken said he learned tour guides have to be enthusiastic.

“They won’t enjoy it unless you’re enjoying it,” Fleniken said.

Fleniken, who plans to study art history or graphic design, said the experience is the perfect preparation for his chosen field.

“It was amazing,” Fleniken said. “I learned how to help people enjoy art and understand it.”

Parr, who hopes to become a museum curator, said it helped strengthen her longtime love of art.

“I’ve loved it so much,” Parr said. “I was used to loving art secretly and would do my own art studies. Now I get to really learn about it and work with the people who usually would teach me when I go to the museum. Now I get to teach other people.”

Littin is planning to study atmospheric science, but said she’s learned a lot from her student guide experience.

“It was just really, really eye-opening and I loved it,” Littin said. “There were times where I said, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ but I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because the payoff is really, really nice.”

Although still undecided about her future plans, Fisher said serving as a student guide has caused her to reconsider.

“I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but now I’m not sure,” Fisher said. “I’ve always liked art, but it’s made me really like art a lot more and appreciate it more.”

David Saygers, artistic director of TSA, said he’s glad the museum partnered with the school.

“It was a brave step on the part of the museum because the Manet exhibition is an important one for them,” Saygers said. “They take their docent program very seriously and for them to commit to training students as docents is a big thing.”

The experience has given the students professional experience as well as an understanding of how museums work and the kinds of opportunities available in the art field, Saygers said.

“We hope it’s an experience that strengthens their interest and helps to clarify how it might influence their career,” Saygers said. “A couple of them are really looking at careers in museums, so it’s been a really meaningful experience. The docents who have observed them do tours have been really impressed and pleased with the quality of their knowledge and the way they interact with people on the tours. Honestly, it seems like it’s been a really meaningful experience for everybody. It’s been a real success.”

Brown-Gray said the museum plans to continue the program.

“Everyone that’s worked with them thinks it’s great. They have done us very proud. They are really remarkable young people,” Brown-Gray said. “We’re going to be doing more training for the next exhibition and we’re hopefully going to use these four to train the next four or five. David [Saygers] is very much wanting that to happen, too. We’ll be meeting in January to talk about the next step.”

TMA, located at 2445 Monroe St., is the only North American venue for “Manet: Portraying Life,” which drew from more than 30 public and private collections worldwide. The exhibit is on display through Jan. 1.

The Manet exhibit costs $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and is free for children 5 and younger. General museum admission is free. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday and closed Mondays and major holidays.

Tags: Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Star, Toledo Museum of Art.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Editor’s Note: There was an incorrect date for the Adams Street Zombie Bar Crawl in the Oct. 24 Toledo Free Press Star. The Zombie Crawl is Friday, Oct. 26.

Zombie Crawl set for Oct. 26

The third annual Adams Street Zombie Bar Crawl is set for 8:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Oct. 26.

The crawl will start at Wesley’s Bar & Grill, 1201 Adams St., and move up Adams Street to Manhattan’s, 1516 Adams St., The Attic on Adams, 1701 Adams St., the Ottawa Tavern, 1815 Adams St., and Bretz Nightclub, 2012 Adams St., before heading back to Wesley’s.

This year’s event is sponsored by the UpTown Association in partnership with the bars, restaurants and businesses of the Adams Street corridor. New this year will be a beer tent with live entertainment provided by the Uptown Association at the corner of 17th and Adams streets, said UpTown Association board member Ryan A. Bunch.

Toledo School for the Arts students will be doing zombie makeup at the “Toledo Loves Love” mural, at 13th and Adams streets at 8 p.m.

The nearby Glass City Cafe, 1107 Jackson St., will be open 1-5 a.m.

“Anybody who doesn’t get their fill of brains for the night, they’ll be happy to feed them toast and eggs,” Bunch said. “There’s usually some zombie-themed food specials, too.”

Bunch said he started the zombie crawl almost as a joke with some friends, but 700 people showed up the first year and 1,500 people the next year.

“We expect this year to be even bigger. I think people enjoy getting dressed up and acting silly and weird for a night,” Bunch said. “I’m really excited. I love the nature of this event. It’s so loose and fluid. We say, ‘This is the day and this is the time’ and people take it from there. The bars usually do something unexpected. It’s cool to see something so organic take root because people like to have fun.”

For more information, visit “Adams Street Zombie Bar Crawl III” on Facebook.

— Sarah Ottney

Gradkowski to appear at Oct. 26 Hallo-Bash

Cincinnati Bengals and former University of Toledo quarterback Bruce Gradkowski and his wife will be at Arnie’s at Levis Commons in Perrysburg on Oct. 26 for a party called Hallo-Bash with Bruce.

Bruce Gradkowski

“It’s gonna be a huge party,” said Arnie’s managing partner Denny Milligan. “The place is going to be pretty extensively decorated, like a haunted house. I’ve got 200 pumpkins, 50 bales of hay, decorations inside and out, fire pits on the patio. People are going to get a chance to party with Bruce and his wife. It’s just going to be a rockin’ party.”

Gradkowski, who is part owner of Arnie’s, is also in the process of opening a restaurant called Gradkowski’s near the intersection of Secor Raod and Dorr Street, as part of UT’s Gateway Project.

Gradkowski will be on hand from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. and the first 25 people in the door will get an autographed photo with Gradkowski, said Arnie’s owner Singh Grewal.

Costumes are encouraged. Gradkowski and his wife will be in costume and judging a contest, with $100 gift cards awarded to the best male and best female costume.

DJ Avalanche will play from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

“It’s going to be a blast,” Grewal said.

The event will also serve as a canned food drive to benefit the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank. For every canned good item, attendees will receive a raffle entry for a football autographed by the Cincinnati Bengals, Milligan said. The drawing will take place at 1 a.m. and the winner must be present.

Arnie’s will host another Halloween party 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Oct. 27.

“We’ll be doing all the same things on Saturday, but minus Bruce,” Milligan said.

Arnie’s At Levis is located at 25818 N. Dixie Hwy., in Perrysburg. Attendees must be 21 or older.

— Sarah Ottney

TMA’s ‘Made in Hollywood’ free with costume Oct. 27

Guests who visit the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) on Oct. 27 dressed as a movie star will get free entry into the new “Made in Hollywood” exhibition.

The exhibit features more than 90 images by Hollywood studio photographers between 1920 and 1960, from the silent film era through the end of the studio system in the late 1950s, according to a news release.

The event will be held during regular museum hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., visitors can enter at the Grove Place entrance, walk the red carpet and be photographed before making their way to the exhibit, according to the release. There will also be a retro photo booth.

Regular admission to the “Made in Hollywood” exhibition is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors (age 65 and older) and students (ages 6–22). Admission is free for TMA members. General admission to the museum, 2445 Monroe St., is free.

For more information, visit toledomuseum.org.

–Staff reports

‘Evil Dead The Musical’ returns

“Evil Dead The Musical” will be performed at the Valentine Theatre, 410 Adams St., on Fridays and Saturdays Oct. 26-Nov. 10 at 7 and 10 p.m.

“Back by popular demand,” the musical combines horror films “Evil Dead,” “Evil Dead II” and “Army of Darkness” to create a “hilarious live stage show that combines all the elements of the cult classic,” according to a news release.

The show, directed by Jim Norman, centers around five college students who go to an abandoned cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash an evil force that turns them all into demons. It’s up to Ash and his trusty chainsaw to save the day.

Due to profanity, adult themes, graphic comedic scenes and “lots and lots and lots of blood,” performances are recommended for ages 16 and older. Tickets are $20. Splatter zone seating is available. Based on available seating, a half-hour before each show, seats will be opened to students with valid IDs for $15.

For tickets or more information, call the box office at (419) 242-2787 or visit the web site

valentinetheatre.com.

— Sarah Ottney

Hallowe’en in Greenfield Village

Greenfield Village is hosting its 30th annual Hallowe’en event.

Guests of all ages can enjoy Hallowe’en in Greenfield Village, inspired by Halloween celebrations from the early 1900s, said Melissa Foster, media and film relations manager for The Henry Ford in Dearborn.

Guests at the 30th annual event will travel a guided path lit by 900 hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns with designated stops for trick-or-treating. Among characters encountered along the path will be those from classic literary works, including “Treasure Island,” “Hansel and Gretel” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Guests can also hear a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” or watch a classic scary movie from the silent film era.

“People enjoy it because it’s a different kind of atmosphere, without so much of that goriness that Halloween has taken on,” Foster said. “It’s more fun. It’s more interactive. We incorporate works from classic gothic literatures. It’s a neat way to experience the village.”

The final weekend of tours is Oct. 26-28, starting at 6:30 p.m. Last entry on Fridays and Saturdays is 9 p.m. Last entry on Sundays is 8 p.m. Tours take about an hour, Foster said.

Tickets are $12.75 for members and $15 for nonmembers. Children 2 and younger are free.

For tickets or more information, call (800) 835-5237 or visit www.thehenryford.org/events/halloweenevent.aspx.

— Sarah Ottney

Tags: Adams Street, Arnie's, Bruce Gradkowski, Halloween, Toledo Museum of Art, Zombie Crawl

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 at 10:33 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Family Fun, Halloween, Theater.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Admirers of portrait painter Leslie Adams will be able to experience a different side of the local artist at a new solo exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA).

Adams is known for her oil portraits, but “Leslie Adams: Drawn from Life” features mainly charcoal drawings, said show curator Amy Gilman, associate director of TMA and curator of contemporary art. The show opened Oct. 19 and will run through Jan. 13. Admission is free.

“We thought it was really important to highlight work of hers that doesn’t normally get seen,” Gilman said. “It’s something more personal to her and they are really quite beautiful. It’s both an important and engaging body of work.”

Represented in the works are people and places that shaped Adams and her career, including TMA, where Adams took art classes as a young girl, the New York Academy of Art, the Portrait Society of America, the Ohio Statehouse rotunda, her father, University of Toledo professor emeritus Diana Attie, fellow portrait artist Michael Shane Neal, Toledo jazz musician Jon Hendricks and more.

Jon Hendricks and Leslie Adams at TMA.

“Most of the work has an autobiographical thread that runs through it that I think people will really respond to, not just about Adams herself, but the relationship between someone and the museum,” Gilman said. “She grew up in the museum, taking classes here, like many people do, having a special relationship with certain artwork, certain rooms in the gallery. This body of work brings some of that to life. You will see spaces portrayed in some of the drawings that will be familiar to people who know and love the museum.”

The exhibit consists of 13 charcoal drawings and one oil painting, most created during the past year, Adams said.

“Drawing is my first love. I always return to it. I think the content of the exhibition lent itself to doing it in charcoal,” Adams said. “This show is all about a little girl with the dream of becoming an artist. I wanted the show to be positive, I wanted it to be hopeful. I want people to look at it and — whatever it is they want, whether an artist or lawyer, it doesn’t matter — say, ‘If I put my mind to it, I can do it.’”

The works are not chronological, but depict Adams at various points in her life.

“Madonna and Child with Roses” depicts Adams as a baby with her mother. “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl” features Adams working at her first easel, a gift from her father.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is called “The Art of Life” and depicts present-day Adams in her studio. In the foreground are illustrations of major turning points in her career and newspaper clippings from past exhibitions. Pictured in the background are artistic supplies ready to be used, such as a blank canvas and paintbrushes.

“The foreground represents my past and the background represents my future,” Adams said. “Here I am at 49 years old, having an exhibition at Toledo Museum of Art, which is an absolute dream come true. I’ve dreamed about it since I was a little child. The exhibit is reflecting on my career. How did I go from a little girl sitting in the Cloister, taking Saturday classes at the museum, to having an exhibition at the museum and where does it go from here?”

Adams, who grew up in South Toledo and works out of a Downtown Toledo studio, specializes in figurative art and portraiture. She has created portraits of numerous corporate, religious and civic leaders, including Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, Bishop James R. Hoffman and former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, with each portrait requiring an average of 400 hours of work. She is the first recipient of the Solo Exhibition Award, presented at the 2011 Toledo Area Artists Exhibition.

Adams and Gilman said they hope visitors connect with the exhibit in a personal way.

“I hope they get a renewed sense of their own relationship with the museum, both past and present,” Gilman said. “It’s really personal to her and connected to the way people remember the museum and how we all carry those special spaces within us.”

The museum is located at 2445 Monroe St. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday and closed Mondays and major holidays.

A limited-edition print of “Madonna and Child with Roses,” signed by Adams and inspired by the charcoal drawing in the exhibition, is available as a 12-inch-by-9-inch print in the museum store.

For more information, visit www.leslieadams.com or toledomuseum.org.

Tags: Jon Hendricks, Leslie Adams, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 at 11:06 am and is filed under Exhibits, Star, Toledo Museum of Art.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.