Newcomb Pottery exhibition ends with curator lecture

Spread throughout multiple galleries of the Georgia Museum of Art are a variety of hand-crafted and beautifully decorated objects that range from pottery and metalwork to bookbinding and textiles. These objects all have one special thing in common.

They all originate from the Newcomb Pottery, where women were not only able to create these objects to sell and to support themselves financially, but also to make great contributions to American art.

The Newcomb Pottery was a social and artistic experiment from 1895 until 1940 at the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College (now part of Tulane University) in New Orleans. The program allowed women to support themselves financially while they trained to become artists.

In addition to producing highly coveted, iconic art, the program helped facilitate the betterment of women as well as the New Orleans community through art education.  

The current exhibition, "Women, Art and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise," is part of a national tour organized by Tulane and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The exhibition, which is the largest comprehensive showing of the pottery in 25 years, will travel to nine different cities through 2016.

And although the exhibition will close at the Georgia Museum of Art after Sunday (Aug. 31), there is still opportunity to see it and learn about it. The museum will host the lecture “Newcomb’s Designers: A Conscious Revolution” by Sally Main, senior curator at the Newcomb Art Gallery at Tulane University, this Thursday at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception.

Main will speak about the societal and artistic impact of this revolutionary social experiment. The event is the perfect opportunity to experience this unique exhibition before it continues on its tour.

 

Summer Art Adventures at the Museum

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Art Adventures! The time of year is here again when pint-size visitors descend on the Georgia Museum of Art for Art Adventures, the June and July day camp excursion for elementary school-age kids that promotes critical thinking skills through interactive gallery activities.

Every year, this award winning educational program picks a theme to inspire students on vacation to think about art in a different way. This year's theme is "Becoming an Art Museum Superhero" and takes off from the exhibition "Women, Art and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise." When observing these textiles or pieces of pottery, the kids are asked by members of the museum's educational team to engage their other senses, not just sight.

At first, the kids are skeptical: We can't hear art! But then, to fine-tune their superhuman powers of hearing, the team leader plays different instrumental songs while the students observe the works of art. The kids are then asked which song they think fits better with a particular work. The goal is to have the participants think about all the unique ways art impacts their lives by explaining their choices. The Wonderwomen and Supermen in training receive tokens at the end of each of the five stations set up in the exhibition–one each for superhuman touch, sight, hearing time travel and mind reading.

When the group is done in the galleries, they head down to the Michael and Mary Erlanger Studio Classroom to create their own works of art with their newly sharpened superhero skills. As this year's activity is inspired by the Newcomb Pottery exhibition, kids paint ceramic plates with their own superhero emblems, even though recreating Batman's logo is inevitably a crowd favorite.

Regardless of theme, Art Adventures focuses on fostering critical thinking skills in a fun and creative manner. This summer's Art Adventures is booked to capacity, but if you're interested in learning more about this activity, other museum educational programs or reserving a spot for next year, visit www.georgiamuseum.org

Behind the Scenes: Newcomb Pottery

As “Art Interrupted” is being packed away, don’t fret because the Georgia Museum of Art is making way for an exhibition of Newcomb Pottery, opening May 17. Newcomb Pottery is one of the most significant styles of American art pottery produced in the 20th century. These objects balance form and decoration as they highlight the nature found in the Gulf Shore region where the pottery was located. The objects in this exhibition come from the Newcomb Art Gallery, private collections and the Smithsonian Institute, but the museum is working to create a unique experience for its patrons.

The exhibition, titled “Women, Art and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise,” is the largest presentation of Newcomb arts and crafts in more than 25 years. It emphasizes women in the arts and their impact in post-Civil War society. The women who worked at the Newcomb Pottery helped advance their economy, and their art made a lasting impact on American history.

At the Georgia Museum of Art, the preparation department is working on layout for the exhibition. The preps will create special mounts for the pottery along with handcrafted pedestals. The museum’s main goal is to create an exhibition and color scheme that is aesthetically pleasing. “We are currently trying to create a layout that works with the flow of our galleries and is pleasing to the eye, said Todd Rivers, chief preparator at the museum.

The exhibition is on view May 17 through August 31, 2014, with numerous associated events that can be seen on the side of its page here.

Organized by the Newcomb Art Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, it is sponsored nationally by the Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works, and locally by Dr. and Mrs. George Rives Cary, Ceramic Circle of Atlanta, Inc., the Piedmont Charitable Foundation, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.