Steinnun News

Apparently Steinnun Thorarinsdottir's work has been chosen for an installation in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, beginning March 24 and titled "Borders." Thorarinsdottir's installation "Horizons" is currently on view in the Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden at GMOA, and she will be here herself to speak on her work March 29 at 5:30 p.m. To see more of her work, click here and remember that if you send us photographs of yourself with "Horizons" to gmoapr@yahoo.com, we'll put them up in our Filckr gallery.

Recent events

Our Black History Month events were a big hit, with a wonderful array of guests turning up to honor Michael Thurmond at Traditions, the closing event/dinner for "Celebrating Courage" (UGA's celebration of the 50th anniversary of its desegregation), and earlier that day to hear David Driskell, renowned African American artist and art scholar, speak on how art crosses cultural boundaries. Here are some photos from Traditions and from the dinner with Driskell the previous evening.

Be sure to go ahead and mark your calendar for two big upcoming events at GMOA: a panel discussion with 11 of the artists featured in our exhibition "Tradition Redefined" on Thursday, March 24, and an artist's talk by Steinnun Thorarinsdottir, the artist who created "Horizons," on Tuesday, March 29.

Horizons a Hit

When we decided to host Steinnun Thorarinsdottir's traveling exhibition "Horizons" in our new sculpture garden, we had no idea how popular her cast-iron figures would be in candid photographs. The above one came from Family Day, but people keep sending them to us, so we're going to create a special set on our Flickr page to showcase them. Feel free to send us your snapshots (to gmoapr@yahoo.com), and we'll put them up.

The Art of: Preservation

Wow! This event was just about perfect, with a beautiful day cooperating with our desire to be outside in the sunshine but not melting in the heat. A breeze even showed up to make things yet more pleasant. If you'd like to see a slideshow of some of the fun, check out the photos below, a set we'll be adding more to as the day goes on and we round them up from our various cameras.

Family Day: Spring Festival

Photos from Family Day: Spring Festival which was on March 20 have been uploaded to Flickr. The kids had a lot of fun creating animal booklets and works of art with sidewalk chalk. There were even live animals available to provide inspiration for their designs.

Construction Photos

We didn't get a construction update last week, but that's not because there's a lack of activity at the site. In fact, things are busier than ever. We did have a few staff members head over for this and that, so here's a small slideshow of images from their trip, including a bit of video of construction workers working.

Installation

The exhibition "University of Georgia Turns 225" has been going up in the locked galleries of the Visual Arts Building for the past few days, with preps doing last-minute tweaks, making sure everything is level, adding "Please do not touch" labels and the like. Here are some photos we took to show you what's going on:

Note that this set may well be updated later today, when the pumpkin orange wall right across from our offices (in the same building) gets updated with some artwork.

New Photos Up

Not only have we added more photos to the "Soulful Celebration" set on Flickr, but we've just gotten up pictures from the farewell party for Deirdre Conneely, who just left us to move back up north and will be sorely missed, and the Collectors' last outing.

Speakeasy Photos

We've got all the photos from Speakeasy up on our Flickr page, and the slideshow is embedded above. Beware. This could take up half your day, as we've got nearly 300! We extend our most heartfelt thanks to Blount Photo, which supplied photography for the event and served as one of our generous sponsors. They did a wonderful job with both candid and posed shots, and we can't recommend them enough. Thank you, as well, to everyone who attended the event, which was a very successful fundraiser in addition to being a fun evening and a great excuse to get costumed up for many of our guests. Despite frigid temperatures, some of you were kind of enough to pose outside with one of Todd Emily's vintage automobiles, and the photos were worth it. These events take a lot to put together, but it's all worth it when we can see the results!

Construction Photos

Weekly construction tours for staff have finally hit the end of the alphabet (in reverse order), meaning this week's lucky tourists were Dale Couch and Hillary Brown. Progress continues to be made, and even Annelies Mondi, who seems to be over at the site every day, pointed out some new things to notice. The structural steel for the connector is done, and while interior construction hasn't begun in earnest, there are signs of it, as well as of where the bump-out will take place on the interior. Enjoy the slideshow of photos below.

Collectors Holiday Party

The Collectors held their holiday party this past Tuesday (December 15), and here are the photos from it. Click here for more information about joining the Collectors.

Staff Infection Closing Reception

Tim Brown, our Friends membership director, was kind enough to snap some photos during the closing reception for our "Staff Infection" exhibition, including many of the artists posing with their work. If you missed it (and it was a rather small reception), you missed fun, cookies and more.

Construction Photos

Staff visits to the construction site continue, and each of them brings more photos. Tricia Miller and Lanora Pierce went last Tuesday and these are the images that resulted, giving a great picture of what's going on inside and out.

Check out the pictures from last night!

Last night’s event, “The Art of: Music,” was a great success! Thank you to everyone who came out! GMOA would especially like to thank Athens Blur Magazine and Stan Mullins for sponsoring the event. “The Art of: Music” was hosted by the Young at Art committee of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art as part of the GMOA series “The Art of.” The event was held at Stan Mullins Studio on Pulaski Street and featured live music from Grammy Award winner Art Rosenbaum, as well as the Around-the-Globe Sea Shanty Singers and Hawk-Proof Rooster.

It’s time for another update from construction supervisor Ronnie Green! Members of the GMOA staff have been taking turns touring the construction site. Sarina Rousso and Todd Rivers were the lucky ones this time, accompanied by deputy director Annelies Mondi and security supervisor Brent DeRevere. Here are some of the photographs taken of the progress. To view the complete set, go to our Flickr page.


This photo was taken across from the back or side entrance of the museum. To the right is the new wing, which will include second-floor galleries as well as space for parking. The metal grid-work in the foreground is the beginning stage of a retaining wall that will close off the area, creating a courtyard where a sculpture garden will be located.


This is a view from behind the existing museum building, where Holder is preparing the way for an extension of the second and third floor to create space for storage and classrooms. The parking deck on the right side is not part of the Georgia Museum’s project, but it will provide more parking options for our patrons.


Here is a view of East Campus from the parking level of the new wing. This level will be illuminated by natural light, provided by a series of light wells that will direct light from the roof to the bottom level. One of these openings is visible in the back corner of the ceiling.


This view shows more progress on the parking level of the new wing.


This photo was taken from the new wing; it shows the sculpture garden and includes a mock section of the retaining wall that will enclose the courtyard.

Addition to R.A. Miller Online Gallery

We received six new images today to add to our R.A. Miller online gallery. The images were submitted by Patrick Allen, who works at the UGA Press, and his pictures were taken at Miller's property when he visited the artist back in November of 1990. Allen shared a very moving story with me from that visit where Miller told him of a tornado that hit his home when he was child. He recalled how his mother, who was widowed at the time, sent the children out to pick up the pieces of the home that had been scattered about after the tornado hit. From those pieces, the family rebuilt their home in Rabbittown, Ga., where Miller lived till he died in 2006. You can view all of Allen's pictures in our Flickr gallery .

Family Day: Whirligigs

This past Saturday, September 19, the Georgia Museum of Art and the Lyndon House Arts Center hosted a Family Day event in conjunction with Lord Love You: Works by R.A. Miller from the Mullis Collection in one of the craft rooms at the Lyndon House, where the exhibition is also located. Families began arriving a bit before 10 a.m. and were directed upstairs to where Lord Love You is displayed for a gallery activity. After receiving inspiration from R.A. Miller’s whirligigs, the families came back downstairs to make whirligigs of their own. Check out our flickr gallery for more images from Family Day.

Friends Slideshow

We've got some pictures from the board meeting of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art this past week. Lots of lovely colors people are wearing.

4 More R.A. Millers

Our online collection of R.A. Millers has expanded! Steve Moorman sent us four images from his personal R.A. Miller collection, and they have been added to our flickr gallery. We are still on the lookout for more images, so send in yours to gmoapr at yahoo.com.

Phase II Construction

Hello, everyone! There has been some exciting progress with the Phase II construction of the museum. Here is the update from Construction Supervisor Ronnie Green:



From left: Patricia Wright, Annelies Mondi and Jenny Williams. In this shot from the second floor of the new extension, the viewer can see Joe Frank Harris Dinning Commons as well as other buildings on East Campus.



The bulldozer is clearing an area behind the current museum building to make room for an extension. This new area will provide second- and third-floor space for additional storage space and classrooms, respectively. The parking deck in the background is being constructed as well. It is not part of the museum’s project, but it will provide more parking for museum patrons.



The ground level of the new wing will provide parking for visitors. This view from beneath the construction also shows one of the skylights, or light wells, that will provide natural light to the dark parking lot.



The skylights will channel natural light to the parking lot, but a small amount will be diffused into the galleries on the second floor. This is one of the floor openings on the second floor of the new wing.



Taken from the current second-floor gallery, this shows the site for the sculpture garden. The new wing is out of view to the left, and the existing museum wall can be seen to the right. A retaining wall will be erected on the opposite end, fully enclosing the sculpture garden.





This photograph was taken from the second floor of the new wing. More of the sculpture garden is visible as well as a small mock section of the retaining wall (the square slab of concrete next to the recycling bins). This mock section is not set where the actual wall will be. Those familiar with the museum will notice that the staircase leading to the second-floor galleries has been removed. There will be a new staircase built as well as a new exterior wall made of glass. The current exterior wall will remain, but on the inside. Patrons will be able to ascend to the galleries while looking out over the sculpture garden. The recycling bins are an important part of this construction site as well. Most of the materials removed in the demolition/renovation have been recycled. The Georgia Museum of Art is committed to making this new building LEED certified. For more information on LEED certification, visit: http://bit.ly/AFiWb



The lobby is also undergoing renovation. The staircase has been removed, and a wall stands in its place. The new glass doors lead out to the sculpture garden, and the expanded lobby will extend farther to the left. The reception desk has been removed so that new woodwork can be added.



This is another image from the lobby. The framework around the auditorium doors has been removed. The ceiling in the lobby has also been taken down.



This image was taken in the library, which is also undergoing expansion.



This space, formerly the print storage area, will hold the new study centers in the humanities.