Category: Akron Art Museum
Free Thursdays
We want to hear from you about Free Thursdays. To learn about all the spectacular programming on Free Thursdays visit our calendar.
Venice Biennale, Part Three
Chief Curator Janice Driesbach recently travelled to Italy where she experienced the Venice Biennale 55th International Art Exhibition. This is the third post in a series of three. Read the first post here and the second post here. Venice is awash with tourists, although we had a nice conversation with a native Venetian one day. Among visitors, Italian seems to be the predominant language, followed by German. British and Australians are numerous among English speakers. An English couple we encountered directed us to the Richard
Venice Biennale, Part One
Chief Curator Janice Driesbach recently traveled to Italy where she experienced the Venice Biennale 55th International Art Exhibition. Our first afternoon we made our way via a short vaporetto ride and on foot to two of the collateral Biennale exhibitions—both in palazzi (palace-like buildings) along the Grand Canal. We saw a section of Glasstress: White Light/White Heat in elegant rooms, each adorned with amazing chandeliers (most of which were part of the original decor, it seemed). Rina Banjeree‘s multimedia installation (photo below) was a highlight
BACK. TO. SCHOOL.
Three little words that alone don’t cause a whole lot of emotion, but put them together and the response is usually either panic or elation. Many of the local school districts started their 180 days of reading, writing and arithmetic this week. Local universities such as the University of Akron start the fall semester on Monday, August 26. Whether you’re catching the big yellow bus or the Roo Express, the Museum Store has some inspiring supplies to make your classes a little more fun. Start
Digital Media Tour
Do you have a blog or active Twitter account devoted to the arts or activities in Northeast Ohio? Thursday, August 22 at 6 pm If so, we would like to invite you to attend the Akron Art Museum’s first-ever Digital Media Tour. Focusing on Real/Surreal, this tour led by Chief Curator Janice Driesbach explores many themes of realist and surrealist art in American from the 1920s-1950s. Learn how artists balanced the real and unreal, created fantasy/dreamlike images with unique materials, and dealt with the tumultuous
Surrealist Game: The Exquisite Corpse
By: Alison Caplan, Director of Education The Surrealists didn’t have Apples to Apples or Pictionary in their day, but they did participate in parlor games that helped get their creative juices flowing. In the 1920’s, surrealist artists played a game based on chance and accident called Exquisite Corpse. The goal of the game was to make a kind of collaborative collage using words or drawings. The name Exquisite Corpse is the result of an early game, where the finished sentence read “The exquisite corpse will
Downtown@Dusk: The Speedbumps
This week’s Downtown@Dusk features Kent-area band the Speedbumps. Concert attendees can also enjoy a discussion from Collections Manager Arnold Tunstall and food from Old Carolina BBQ while kids are entertained by fun art activities during ArtCamp@Dusk in the museum’s classroom. Concert goers will be delighted by the Speedbumps’ eclectic sound and organic feel. Through the utilization of hollow-bodied instruments like cello, upright bass, ukulele and acoustic guitar, the Speedbumps produce music that is both approachable and relatable to any audience. The Speedbumps have opened for
Real/Surreal is Coming Soon
By: Janice Driesbach, Chief Curator It’s just over four weeks before Real/Surreal opens and Akron Art Museum curatorial, education and design staff have been planning the installation for months. Although the exhibition is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, we are personalizing it for our Akron visitors. Our efforts respond to input we received from our constituents in surveys and a focus group last fall. We learned our visitors are interested in knowing about the historic context in which the artists were working,
Downtown@Dusk: Robin Stone
The Akron Art Museum’s popular concert series Downtown@Dusk will continue on Thursday, June 27 from 6:30-8:30 pm with a performance from singer Robin Stone. Concert goers can also enjoy a sneak preview of the upcoming exhibition With a Trace: Photographs of Absence from Senior Curator Ellen Rudolph and food from Urban Eats while kids are entertained and educated by fun hands-on activities during ArtCamp@Dusk in the museum’s classroom. Concert attendees will thoroughly enjoy Stone’s soulful, intelligent groove music and be inspired by the personal hardships
Gravity and Grace Travels to Brooklyn, NYC
By: Arnold Tunstall, Collections Manager We’ve begun the next phase of our El Anastui exhibition, Gravity and Grace – after its premiere here in Akron. Since the exhibit closed last October, the staff has been working nearly every day to prepare it for the national tour. Our preparators re-designed existing crates, new ones and developed packing methods. And I went to Brooklyn to assist with the installation. Watching Brooklyn Museum’s curatorial team re-imagine some of the works was very exciting. A few pieces were literally