Morning Mindfulness: Focus and Renewal in an Age of Distractions

A Morning Mindfulness session in progress with Raquel Durden

Wake up. Scroll. Post. Like. Love. Comment. Share. Repeat.

In an age of smart phones and social media, many people spend their day in a constant stream of notifications. Like a typical millennial, most days I jump right in. Social media connects us to friends and family across physical boundaries. That delightful buzz means someone wants to send an invitation, share their experience or celebrate their achievements. Other days, I tentatively test the waters. And some days, I drown. An overabundance of information keeps me up at night, when I know my body needs rest. Today, museum visitors understand the value of slowing down in our fast-paced world, and many have found that the Georgia Museum of Art offers an escape from the noise and distractions of life during Morning Mindfulness every other Friday morning.

Morning Mindfulness is a bi-weekly, instructor-led group mediation in the galleries. Organized by Sage Kincaid, assistant curator of education, this program is designed for beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Last Friday, I attended for the first time. I was nervous that my lack of experience and flexibility would prevent me from participating, but I found that the environment was not intimidating at all. Attendees chose to sit on either a stool or a meditation pillow, and people of all ages gathered in the gallery. To start the program, Kincaid described a nearby work of art and included interesting quotes from the artist.

Then, the instructor, Rebecca Shisler Marshall, PhD, began to speak soothing words in a smooth, steady tone. She encouraged attendees to focus on slowly scanning each part of their body. In this way, they minimized distractions and exercised the “muscle” of attention. In truth, I found myself tempted to check my phone, but the non-judgmental approach taught me to gain awareness, not guilt, in response to this impulse.

The practice of mindfulness originates from Buddhist principles but has more recently found a place in scientific research. From substance abuse to sleep insomnia, mindfulness may prove to be a useful treatment for many ailments. I left feeling renewed and focused, and the experience may help you in a similar way.

If you would like to try this program, the next Morning Mindfulness is February 9 at 9:30 a.m. No experience or special clothing is necessary, and meditation pillows or yoga mats are provided. Reservations are encouraged, so please contact 706.542.0448 or sagekincaid@uga.edu.

If you would like to learn more about Rebecca Shisler and Centered Living, you can read more on her website or faculty page.

McKenzie Peterson

Intern, Department of Communications

Artful Conversation: Varied Discussion on Joan Mitchell’s “Close”

Kincaid leading a discussion on Mitchell's "Close"

The first Artful Conversation program of 2018 inspired participants to get diverse perspectives and impressions on Joan Mitchell’s 1972 painting, “Close.” Sage Kincaid led this slow-looking program, inviting guests first to examine the painting with a set of opposite words in mind. Each participant received a different pair: warm/cold, expand/shrink, bold/timid, loose/tight and more. After a longer inspection of the work with these words in mind, the group discussed how the painting was filled with contradictions, making it more detailed and introspective than many had believed at first sight.

Kincaid then informed the group that color was extremely important to Mitchell over the course of her life, as she was affected by the phenomenon of synesthesia. This condition caused her to have close associations with colors, letters and emotions. Green, for example, was linked to the letter A, and white, in Mitchell’s words, “is death . . . it is absolute horror.” Other influences on the artist’s life included her proximity to the Art Institute in Chicago growing up, Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings and her proclivity for skydiving as a pastime.

Kincaid led the group in two more exercises to help inspire other realizations about the work. First, they examined distance’s effect on perspective, walking from the back wall of the room to immediately in front of the painting. One participant noted, with great fondness, that he “liked it more the further he was away,” while another stated that she instead liked how noticeable the details were when standing up close to the work. The larger group then broke up into smaller circles of three to discuss any other impressions that were brought to mind as their positions in the room changed.

As conversations wound down, and the program came to a close, Kincaid ended with a quote from the book “Joan Mitchell: Retrospective: Her Life and Paintings”: “When looking at a great painting by Joan Mitchell, in fact, nothing really needs to be said at all.”

Artful Conversation is a monthly program led by the museum’s education department that focuses on a single work or small group of works over the course of an hour. The next session will be held on Wednesday, February 14, at 2 to 3 p.m. and will focus on Frederick Carl Frieseke’s painting “Girl Sewing (The Chinese Robe).” For future dates, please see the Georgia Museum of Art calendar.

“Icon of Modernism: Representing the Brooklyn Bridge, 1883–1950”

William Louis Sonntag Jr., Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1895

Opening this Saturday and on view through December 11, “Icon of Modernism: Representing the Brooklyn Bridge, 1883–1950” is a rich survey of paintings, watercolors, works on paper and photographs that all take the Brooklyn Bridge as a subject and were created between the completion of the bridge (1883) and the mid-20th century. “Icon of Modernism” aims to show how artistic representations of the structure evolved over time even as it symbolized modernity for different generations. From American impressionism to abstract expressionism, the details of how artists presented the bridge may have changed, but its ability to stand for the modern era remained.

“Icon of Modernism” features 42 works of art, including from painters Joseph Stella, John Marin, Yun Gee, Georgia O’Keeffe and Reginald Marsh and photographers Edward Steichen, Walker Evans, Weegee and Consuelo Kanaga. Four works in the exhibition come from the museum’s own collection, but the remainder are on loan from museums, corporate collections and private collections across the country.

Glenn O. Coleman, Bridge Tower, 1929

“When it opened, the Brooklyn Bridge was a phenomenon, and many commemorative objects featuring the bridge were produced. Other museums have shown the wide variety of these objects, but we decided to focus on the aesthetic portion alone,” explains Sarah Kate Gillespie, the museum’s curator of American art, chose Gillespie, who was tasked with organizing the exhibition when the museum hired her in 2014.

Many of our visitors and readers will be surprised to hear of the connection between a structure so tied to New York City and Athens, Georgia. As it turns out, direct descendants of John A. Roebling, who designed the bridge, lived in Athens for many years, and portraits of Roebling's son and daughter-in-law, Ferdinand William and Margaret Allison Roebling, have been on view in the museum’s permanent collection galleries.

In addition, the museum’s collection overlaps strongly with the span of time the exhibition covers; an exhibition of related works that shows the city in the same time period from that collection, titled “Man’s Canyons: New York City on Paper,” will be on view through December 31 in the adjoining Boone and George-Ann Knox Gallery I. An illustrated catalogue, published by the museum and available at the Museum Shop, accompanies “Icon of Modernism,” with scholarly essays by Gillespie, Janice Simon (Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Art History in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, UGA), Meredith Ward and Kimberly Orcutt, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art of the Brooklyn Museum.

Related programs include:

• 90 Carlton: Autumn, the museum’s quarterly reception (free for members of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, $5 nonmembers)
Friday, September 16, 5:30–8:30 p.m.

• Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: “'Neath Brooklyn Bridge”
Thursday, October 6, 7 p.m.

• Tour at Two: public tour with curator Sarah Kate Gillespie
Wednesday, October 12, 2 p.m.

• Gallery talk by curator Sarah Kate Gillespie and Stephan Durham, associate professor in the UGA College of Engineering
Thursday, October 13, 5:30 p.m.

• Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: “It Happened in Brooklyn”
Thursday, October 13, 7 p.m.

• Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: “Brooklyn Bridge”
Thursday, October 20, 7 p.m.

• Emerging Scholars Symposium, co-organized with UGA’s Association of Graduate Art Students, October 21 and 22, with Richard Haw as the keynote speaker on Friday, October 21, 5:30 p.m.

• Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: “Kate and Leopold”
Thursday, October 27, 7 p.m.

• Family Day: Building Bridges
Saturday, November 5, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (as part of UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival).

All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated.

Schedule Your Group's Art Adventure Today!

In the summer, hundreds of young children bring their ideas and creativity to the Georgia Museum of Art for the program Art Adventures. Originally an outreach program called Art Excursions, the program grew into what it is today: a free in-house art experience for community organizations, day care centers and summer camps. Carissa DiCindio, curator of education, has worked with the program since its onset and said, “Art Adventures has always been one of my favorite programs because we are able to reach a wide group of children in the community, from preschool students to teens, and engage them in the museum with gallery and studio activities that are a lot of fun.”

This June and July, Art Adventures will examine contemporary art created at the Mixografia Workshop, a collaborative studio established in 1968 in Mexico City and now based in Los Angeles. In the Mixografia studio, invited artists create three-dimensional prints and use experimental techniques to create handmade paper in relief. Our 90-minute Art Adventure program includes a tour of the exhibition “Paper in Profile: Mixografia and Taller de Gráfica Mexicana” with trained museum guides. Children will investigate the galleries through games that promote close looking and inquiry with museum educators and UGA students who volunteer as education interns. Each participant will also have the opportunity to create a work of art inspired by the exhibition to take home.

Reservations for Art Adventures 2016 are now being accepted. Morning (10–11:30 a.m.) and afternoon (1–2:30 p.m.) time slots are available every Wednesday and Thursday from June 8 to July 28. Each 90-minute session can accommodate up to 30 children, with one chaperone for every 10 children. To schedule your group’s Art Adventure, contact Brittany Ranew at branew@uga.edu or 706.542.0448.