Boise Art Museum Annual Report 2009 – 2010 (Fiscal Year 5/1/09 – 4/30/10)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Boise Art Museum Annual Report 2009 – 2010 (Fiscal Year 5/1/09 – 4/30/10) View online at www.boiseartmuseum.org 670 Julia Davis Drive, Boise, Idaho 83702 • (208) 345-8330 MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FY 2010 was a productive year for BAM! The Museum presented 13 exhibitions, of which all but one were organized by our curatorial staff, accessioned 184 artworks into the permanent collection, and reached more than 25,000 people through educational programs. Of BAM’s many accomplishments, I am particularly proud of our efforts to expand the Museum’s relevance for audiences and engage our community in new and interesting ways. For example, we complemented the exhibition, Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon, with a concurrent display of working robots created by the Boise, Meridian and Nampa High School FIRST Robotics teams. The collaboration with FIRST Robotics teams demonstrated the links between art and science and connected viewers with young robotics entrepreneurs in our community. These exhibitions served as the backdrop for our inaugural Family Day, during which more than 1,000 visitors drew robots, participated in guided tours of the exhibitions and watched robotics demonstrations, resulting in the highest single day admission revenue for BAM since 2006. The Museum also offered unique opportunities for audiences to connect with the exhibition, A Survey of Gee’s Bend Quilts. BAM brought Gee’s Bend artists China Pettway and Louisiana Bendolph to Boise for several educational programs including a quilting demonstration, a panel discussion about the exhibition, an in-gallery art talk and a special quilting workshop for students from a local middle school. These programs brought new audiences, new members and new life to the Museum. Over the past decade, BAM has been one of the most important visual art education resources in the Treasure Valley, and FY 2010 was no different. More than 11,800 students visited the Museum to participate in the Free School Tour Program, and the ArtReach outreach program served a record 6,570 students in rural classrooms, thanks in part to continued funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and a $45,000, two-year grant from the MetLife Foundation. Teen Nights and a Portfolio Review Workshop for high school students, coordinated by BAM’s new volunteer Teen Advisory Committee, attracted a typically hard-to-reach teen audience. Another 7,000 toddlers, families, adults and seniors enjoyed guided tours, hands-on art activities, workshops, camps and classes. These arts experiences equip participants with the essential lifelong skills of critical thinking, communication, imagination and creativity. BAM also reached out to audiences through exciting new events and programs. The Museum launched the dynamic More Than a Pretty Face program and fundraiser, designed to benefit both BAM and Boise’s vibrant artist community. For the program, arts patrons and BAM members commissioned local artists to create new works of art, which were unveiled at an annual gala attended by 250 people and then exhibited in the Museum. More Than a Pretty Face will become an annual event at BAM, helping to foster relationships among artists, patrons and the Museum, and encouraging art enthusiasts to learn about the broad and creative pool of contemporary artists working in Boise. BAM members also added to their personal art collections by purchasing artworks at the New 2U Art Sale and 55th annual Art in the Park. New Museum benefits, such as discounted movie tickets to the Flicks and reduced admission to the Idaho Botanical Garden, provided extra value for our members. To reflect our renewed commitment to our public service role, BAM updated its mission statement in FY 2010. The new mission statement, to create visual arts experiences, engage people, and inspire learning through exceptional exhibitions, collections, and educational programs, will act as a starting point for all Museum communications, increasing audience awareness of our services, roles and responsibilities. BAM will continue to explore the new ideas that characterized our exhibitions, programs and events in FY 2010. We are committed to building on these accomplishments and creating new visual arts experiences that will exhilarate and enrich the lives of people throughout our community. I am grateful to the trustees, staff, volunteers, members, artists, sponsors, donors, contributors and community members who participated at BAM throughout the last year. Melanie Fales Executive Director, 2009–10 2 MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT For more than a decade, I have been involved with the Boise Art Museum as a member, education docent, donor and patron. I was honored to serve as the President of BAM’s Board of Trustees over the past year, a role which allowed me to work closely with the exceptional staff, trustees and volunteers whose commitment to the arts is unrivaled. Year after year, they produce and present among the most exciting, thought-provoking and outstanding exhibitions, educational programs and events that our community has to offer. BAM has always been a place for reflection, creativity and dialogue about issues of importance in our daily lives. The exhibitions Gee’s Bend Quilts and Patchwork: Historical Quilts explored themes of race and gender, while Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon and Devorah Sperber: Threads of Perception promoted an understanding of the ways in which technology have impacted society and art. Idea as Art and The Herbert and Dorothy Vogel Collection: 50 Works for 50 States provided audiences with an opportunity to learn about some of the nation’s most significant contemporary conceptual and minimalist artists, while the exhibition Corrugated invited viewers to experience the fantastical and whimsical large-scale cardboard sculptures of California artist Ann Weber. Several exhibitions, including James Castle, Kid Stuff and Full Circle, offered an in-depth look at the Museum’s permanent collection, which now holds more than 3,000 works of art. As a BAM docent, I am especially proud of the Museum’s work to educate children in our community about the visual arts. Over the past year, nearly 12,000 Idaho students participated in a free docent- guided tour at BAM, followed by an art making activity in the Museum’s education studios. On docent tours it was gratifying to see the students’ enthusiasm to view original artworks and experiment with art materials and techniques. Many of these students had never been to an art museum before, and their experiences at BAM invariably opened the door to a world of creativity and discovery that is not universally available in our public schools. There are countless other ways in which BAM positively impacts our community. Events such as Art in the Park stimulate the local economy and help local artists and craftspeople. Lectures by artists, workshops, classes and free admission days allow people from all walks of life to learn about art in a welcoming, stimulating environment. Outreach to rural schools ensures that underserved students have access to the arts, and special programs for seniors and veterans provide art experiences to those who may not otherwise be able to visit the Museum. Looking back, I am pleased at how much BAM has achieved in one year, and I know that more is to come. None of this would be possible without the support of our donors, members and visitors. We appreciate all of you who come to the Museum again and again, bringing open minds through our open doors. We know that you, our friends and supporters, share our passion and determination to ensure our community’s active engagement in the art available through BAM. Esther Oppenheimer Board President, 2009–10 3 Exhibitions & Installations artist, started working with the lighter medium of cardboard in 1991 and finds great interest in the possibility of making beautiful objects from common and mundane materials. Weber received her BA from Purdue University and her MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts where she studied with renowned ceramic sculptor Viola Frey. Organized by the Boise Art Museum James Castle James Castle’s 1963 Exhibition at the Boise Gallery of Art, 1963; soot and saliva on found paper Private Collection James Castle: Tying it Together May 2 – September 27, 2009 Raised in Garden Valley, Idaho, Castle was born deaf and never learned to read, write or Ann Weber Wonderland, 2008, BAM installation view use sign language. However, he developed a cardboard, staples, shellac sophisticated means of communication Courtesy of the artist through drawing and devoted a lifetime to the Popcorn She and She creation of his own images. Castle ignored Drink Me Tulip Roots traditional drawing materials in favor of Marmalade Wonderland Happy Birthday Baby discarded cardboard, paper scraps and homemade charcoal dyes. Using these materi- Kid Stuff als, he produced drawings, assemblages and June 6 – October 11, 2009 books illustrating his rural Idaho environment, including landscapes, buildings, self-portraits, What delights a kid? This exhibition included two- family pictures and fantasy forms. The exhibi- and three-dimensional objects, selected from tion celebrated Castle’s growing national BAM’s Permanent Collection and local private renown and showcased a representative collections, in which artists reflect on the memo- selection of BAM’s Castle holdings, the largest ries of childhood as well as images of interest to museum collection of his works. The new docu- children. The whimsical exhibition included works mentary film about Castle’s life and creative by Deborah Barrett, Alexander Calder, Michael processes, James Castle: Portrait of an Artist, Corney, Benjamin Jones, Marianne Kolb, Marilyn was shown within the exhibition. Lanfear, David Gilhooly, Marilyn Lysohir, Renda Organized by the Boise Art Museum Palmer and others. Sponsored by the Charles Redd Center for Organized by Boise Art Museum Western Studies Corrugated Sculpture by Ann Weber May 23 – November 8, 2009 California artist Ann Weber transforms the ordi- nary medium of cardboard into impressive large-scale sculptures reminiscent of pods, gourds and organic spires.