Want to feel smarter? Visit a museum: it works every time, and it's not a figment of your imagination or a fake smarter - you are smarter. Viewing, experiencing the art of our world is an educational experience. It's also soothing to the mind. So imagine how much smarter you'd feel if you were able to gain access to behind the scenes at an art museum - you'd feel like a genius. That's exactly what The Mobile Museum of Art offered members and the public this week: A Behind the Scenes tour with the museum's Art Logistics director Kurt Thomas. This rare tour is offered twice a year and I arrived at the museum located in Langan Park early enough to be greeted by the museum's Curator of Art and Audience Engagement, Stan Hackney. I sipped on a glass of red wine and soon the other 11 guests for the 5:00 PM tour arrived. There were three tours yesterday - 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 PM. The tour was free to museum members and only $5.00 for non-members. Of course I am a member - aren't all Mobile residents who can tell a Monet from a Degas?
I was super-excited about this tour, like some people get stoked before attending a major football game. Yes, I just admitted that... (I am attending the Senior Bowl on Saturday, February 3, and more news about this annual event coming soon...so, I am not 100% nerd, just a percentage of me...)
As in most museums, all the work it takes to make exhibits happen takes place in the belly of the beast - in the basement, and this is where we found the administrative and support offices, and treasure after treasure troves of fine art. Kurt began the tour in the main administrative office, beginning with architectural to-scale models ( 1:12 ) of the exhibit halls and rooms. These models allow staff to plan exhibits in real time using mock-up pieces and prints. We visited the graphics office where museum art signage is designed and cut on a vinyl cutter, and rooms in which matting and frames are stored for possible use in future exhibits, or as needed. Some of the rooms house display cases and all the materials needed to fashion an exhibit of the caliber required in an accredited museum. Kurt explained the accreditation process - there is a mountain of work involved in being certified to house and exhibit extremely fine art, some in the permanent collection and often art from other museums and traveling art shows that transport art around the world.
We received a tour of the loading dock to see how art arrives (and departs) , and the various temperature and security-controlled rooms where art is stored based on its type. For example paintings, textiles, ceramics each have their own storage rooms. The doors of these rooms are, if memory serves me, 119 inches tall. Off the loading dock is an elevator tall and large enough to host a Mardi Gras float. We took a ride in this behemoth, to see ( and feel) how the art is brought from the dock or storage to the main exhibit floors above - or back down to storage or on to some other show...Someone asked if there was ever a time when a piece of art did not fit in the elevator, to which Kurt explained there was a Monet that needed another inch or two for a fit, and try as they may by tilting it, etc. the piece would not fit and therefore was not able to be exhibited. Being an Alabama boy I inquired as to why they just couldn't take a chainsaw and cut off the top of it, but no one seemed to hear my question...
I was struck by the fact that in museums across the country - the world - more than half of the art in their possession will rarely, if ever, see the light of an exhibit floor. When I suggested during this tour that perhaps this museum could be expanded, I was reminded by another guest on the tour that it takes money to do that - a fact that perhaps had momentarily escaped me as I suddenly found myself feeling sorry for archived art. I thought about the poor artist who spent months - perhaps years in some cases, creating a piece, only for it to end up in a museum basement. But before I pulled out my handkerchief I reminded myself at least the piece was catalogued and stored, and protected for longevity, unlike the multi-million dollar piece that travels from attic to yard sale and then finally ends up in a thrift store with a five dollar price tag on it. (By the way, if any reader is aware of any such art piece, let me know. I have a weakness for unrecognized masterpieces...)
So the next time you visit a museum, while you are pondering the brush strokes and masterfulness of that rare piece, also consider all the work that went into getting that painting hung on the wall. Behind the scenes of fine art exhibits is steady and hard work. This exclusive tour arranged by Stan Hackney, Kurt Thomas and their co-staff including Joe Lett, Jr. the Media Marketing Specialist, was a perfect one hour that made me glad I don't just scroll through certain emailed newsletters. If you are not already a member of The Mobile Museum of Art I ask what are you waiting for?
Next up, the museum hosts a Family Mardi Gras Day, Saturday, January 13, 1-5 PM when the educational team will guide you through art-making activities including making masks and floats out of shoeboxes (bring a shoebox!) There will be dancing with Gloria Petit Williams and live music. Admission that day is FREE, including all the activities. It doesn't get any better than that...
There are events throughout the month and year, with a whopping ten events scheduled for this month alone. If you are interested in clay and pottery, there are several events in this genre this month...
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