WINTER 2024
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table of CONTENTS
p. 4
p. 13
From the Director p.3
Exhibitions p.4
From Concept to Gallery p.8
New Acquisition p. 12
The Art of Giving: Ron Shelp p.13
p. 14
75th Anniversary Celebration p. 14
Green Symposium Returns This February p.16
BLACK ART & CULTURE AWARDS 2024
In the Shop p.18
Museum Notes p.19
Hours Tuesday and Wednesday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Thursday: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday: 1 – 5 p.m. Closed Mondays. Museum Shop closes 15 minutes prior. Free tickets required.
MARCH 22, 2024 5:30 – 9:30 p.m. Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award recipient Curtis Patterson Lillian C. Lynch Citation recipient Marie T. Cochran
706.542.4662
Department of Publications Hillary Brown and Jessica Luton
Design Noelle Shuck
BECOME A SPONSOR: bit.ly/bacawards-24
Interns Adeline Bryant, Kristina Durkin and Kristen Locke
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from the DIRECTOR
board of ADVISORS
A new year always fills me with excitement and anticipa - tion as I think about all the possibilities for the year.
Carl. W. Mullis III* Gloria B. Norris*** Sylvia Hillyard Pannell Randall S. Ott Gordhan L. Patel Janet W. Patterson Christopher R. Peterson, chair Kathy B. Prescott Julie M. Roth Alan F. Rothschild* Bert Russo Sarah P. Sams** D. Jack Sawyer Jr.* Henry C. Schwob** Margaret R. Spalding Dudley R. Stevens Anne Wall Thomas*** Brenda A. Thompson William E. Torres Carol V. Winthrop Gregory Ann Woodruff
B. Heyward Allen Jr.* Rinne Allen Amalia K. Amaki** June M.Ball Karen L. Benson** Sally Bradley Jeanne L. Berry Devereux C. Burch* Robert E. Burton** Lacy Middlebrooks Camp Shannon I. Candler* Wes Cochran Harvey J. Coleman James Cunningham Martha Randolph Daura*** Todd Emily James B. Fleece John M. Greene** Judith F. Hernstadt Marion E. Jarrell** Jane Compton Johnson* George-Ann Knox* Shell H. Knox*
This year, however, is special. With one full semester as director of the museum under my belt, the start of the 2024 year also marks the beginning of my first full year in a beautiful new community, museum and university. The new year also brings a welcomed new experience with milder winter weather in Georgia. Having grown up in Hawaii, it’s fair to say that my initial adjustment to more frigid winter weather took no small effort. Despite my best efforts and many years there, I never truly got used to the cold winter months in Boston. Needless to say, I’m thrilled to exchange the cold winters in New England for the milder winter months here in Athens. While my appreciation for the warmer weather is not to be underesti- mated, I am even more grateful for the equally warm welcome my wife and I have received during our first semester at UGA. Not a day has passed that someone hasn’t offered to help us settle in, show us around town or checked in just to see how we are doing. Thank you for welcom- ing us to our new home. Jumping into the new year in this new environment has prompted me to think deeply about what it means to belong and feel truly connected to people and places. A poignant James Baldwin quote comes to mind. In a letter to the author Sol Stein, his high school classmate and editor of Baldwin’s classic collection of essays “Notes from a Native Son,” Baldwin wrote:
Ex-Officio Linda C. Chesnut Bree Hayes S. Jack Hu David Odo Jeanette Taylor
Andrew Littlejohn D. Hamilton Magill, chair elect David W. Matheny, immediate past chair Marilyn M. McMullan Marilyn D. McNeely Ibby Mills
* Lifetime member
** Emeritus member
*** Honorary member
“The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.”
It is humbling to consider Baldwin’s words in the context of our current work at the museum. He was referring to the necessity of carving out his own place in a world that did not often welcome him. It serves as a strong reminder to those of us who are invested in making the museum a place for all, that there is much work to be done. What does it mean to truly welcome people into our galleries and par- ticipate in our programs in ways that not only include them, but help them feel like they belong? How can we connect with our community to co-create a museum that is a place where we — our students, faculty, staff and community members — feel at home? It is our responsibility to work with you to make the museum into such a place. Our education department organizes programs ranging from interdisciplinary UGA class visits and artist talks to creative aging pro - grams and Family Days; our curators acquire, research and exhibit works of art in ways that provide opportunities to think and feel in powerful and unexpected ways. In the new year, I look forward to finding new ways to work with you and with new communities to make the museum a place where we can all truly belong.
Mission Statement: The Georgia Museum of Art shares the mission of the University of Georgia to support and to promote teaching, research and service. Specifically, as a repository and educational instrument of the visual arts, the museum exists to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret significant works of art. The W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation Fund and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art support exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art. The Georgia Council for the Arts also provides support through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is ADA compliant; the M. Smith Griffith Auditori- um is equipped for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors. The University of Georgia does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or mili- tary service in its administrations of educational policies, programs or activities; its admissions policies; scholarship and loan programs; athletic or other University-administered programs; or employment. Inquiries or complaints should be directed to the Equal Opportunity Office 119 Holmes-Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Telephone 706-542- 7912 (V/TDD). Fax 706-542-2822. https://eoo.uga.edu/.
Front and back cover: Kei Ito (b. 1991), “Eye Who Witnessed,” 2020 – 22. 108 unique chromogenic photograms (sunlight, historical archive), 8 × 10 inches each.
David Odo, Director
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Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun January 27 – July 14, 2024
Kei Ito, “To Implore Your Light,” 2021 – 23. Photograph of artist’s past installation of the work.
Kei Ito, “Sungazing Scroll,” 2023. C-print photogram scroll (sunlight, artist’s breath), 12 inches × 118 feet.
Kei Ito uses photography to examine the intergenerational trauma of nuclear disaster and the possibilities of healing and reconciliation.
Ito’s grandfather, who survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, described the day as if there were “hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.” Ito uses camera-less techniques, exposing light-sensitive material to sunlight for the length of a single breath. In this way, he ties the invisibility of radiation (whether from the sun or nuclear weaponry) to the life-breath of the human body. Ito’s work also connects nuclear war’s impact abroad to the effects of nuclear testing on “downwind - ers” on the American continent. As a result, he poignantly underscores our collective inheritance in the nuclear age, as both the attacker and the attacked suffer at an apocalyptic, global scale. Curator: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, George Putnam Curator of American Art, Peabody Essex Museum Sponsors : Funding made possible by the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Char- itable Foundation with additional support from the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art and Sara and John Shlesinger
Kei Ito (b. 1991), “Eye Who Witnessed,” 2020 – 22. Chromogenic photogram (sunlight, historical archive), 8 × 10 inches. Kei Ito, “Burning Away,” 2021 – ongoing. 8 silver gelatin chemigram prints (sunlight, honey, various oils), wooden frames, 24 × 20 inches each.
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exhibitions
Richard Prince: Tell Me Everything February 10 – June 16, 2024
“Tell Me Everything” features artist Richard Prince’s most recent suite of works based on the joke archives of influential 20th-century American comedian Milton Berle (1913 – 2000).
Berle, whose career lasted more than eight decades, often documented jokes on index cards, which he organized by subject in file drawers. Prince, an avid book and rare manu - script collector, bought four cabinets of thousands of Berle’s jokes at a Los Angeles auction. Although viewers are not privy to individual jokes, the enlarged inkjet images developed from this archive reference the centrality and lasting significance of jokes in communicating ideas about everyday life, taboo subjects and broader cultural norms. During the 1980s, Prince began reappropriating old jokes in his work, utilizing handwritten jokes and later creating large monochromatic canvases with silkscreens of individual jokes on the surface. The title of the exhibition was inspired by the first joke he came across in a secondhand bookshop: “I went to see a psychiatrist. He said, ‘Tell me everything.’ I did, and now he’s doing my act.”
Milton Berle, joke file. Two upright card-catalogue files (48 × 18 × 24 inches) containing jokes typewritten on 3 × 5-inch cards and indexed by subject.
Curator: Shawnya Harris, Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art
Richard Prince (b. 1949), untitled (Milton Berle), 2021. Ink jets on canvas, varying dimensions.
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Nancy Baker Cahill: Through Lines October 28, 2023 – May 19, 2024
Nancy Baker Cahill (American, b. 1970), “Slipstream Canon,” 2023. 4k video, total run time: 2:30, 1920 × 1080 pixels. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation photograph of Nancy Baker Cahill (American, b. 1970), “Margin of Error,” 2019 – 23. Augmented reality, accessible through 4th Wall app. Production by Drive Studio and Shaking Earth Digital. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Jason Thrasher.
“Nancy Baker Cahill: Through Lines” highlights the artist’s interdisciplinary artistic practice and the role of emerging technologies in contemporary art.
In the gallery, Baker Cahill’s prints “Slipstream 17” and “Slip- stream 18” trigger their own AR animations, bringing static images to life as related videos. The artist’s AR works bridge the physical and virtual worlds through 4th Wall, Baker Cahill’s free AR art platform, allowing viewers to interact with and document themselves with the work. Through their visceral and temporal qualities, Baker Cahill’s AR works help viewers visualize what philosopher Timothy Morton calls “hyperobjects”: entities of such monumental scale and complexity that they often defy conventional modes of human understanding. By rendering the invisible visible, the artist challenges perception and reveals the unmarked, untold and unimagined.
Nancy Baker Cahill’s work examines ideas of systemic power, consciousness, the human body and the impact of humans on the biosphere. This mid-career survey exhibition is Baker Cahill’s first solo museum show. Expanding upon her background in tradition- al media, the artist redefines the possibilities of drawing in contemporary art. She begins with finely rendered graphite drawings that evolve into torn paper sculptures, then scans and animates them into 3D digital immersive videos. The drawings, altered by software, later reappear as single cinematic frames in the form of fine art prints. “Through Lines” moves across spatial dimensions and media, following Baker Cahill as she investigates materiality and immateriality through her progres- sion from drawing into digital works of art in augmented reality (AR). Featuring drawings, sculptural installations and single- and multichannel videos, the exhibition traces Baker Cahill’s mark-making from traditional modes of artistic production into technologized ones. The works invite reconsiderations of fine art and the art historical canon in the face of emerging technol- ogies while examining site, time and space as they relate to the physical body, the digital, the permanent and the ephemeral. “Through Lines” invites guests and viewers to interact with art outside traditional brick-and-mortar exhibition spaces with an animated, geolocated AR installation in the museum’s Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden. This monumental artwork, “Margin of Error,” imagines an inevitable and toxic outcome cre- ated by humans’ impact on the environment. The title referenc- es the statistical probability of an event to occur, in this instance the occurrence of environmental disaster. By placing this work in the museum’s sculpture garden, the exhibition underscores consequence of the impending biological, chemical and geologi- cal disasters that will take place in our own backyards.
The exhibition will travel to Villanova University Art Gallery in fall 2024.
Curator: Kathryn Hill, associate curator of modern and contemporary art Sponsors: The Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, John and Sara Shlesinger, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation Fund and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Decade of Tradition: Highlights from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection THROUGH JULY 3, 2024
Power and Piety in 17th-Century Spanish Art THROUGH july 28, 2024
Power Couple: Pierre & Louise Daura in Paris THROUGH may 5, 2024
FROM CONCEPT TO GALLERY
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AN IDEA
Think about the last art exhibition you enjoyed visiting.
How was each work of art displayed? How did the colors, textures and patterns affect your senses? What did you see when you first walked in, and when you looked a little closer, what did you find? A lot of work goes on behind the scenes to create an art exhibition. Through a detailed, collaborative process, staff from all departments at the Georgia Museum of Art put countless hours into creating the perfect visitor experience for each exhibition. The process is intricate, but the result is rewarding for every visitor who comes through the doors.
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INITIAL PLANNING
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MOVING ART
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DESIGN
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INSTALLATION
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THE REWARD
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by Kristina Durkin
how a museum exhibition comes to life
INITIAL PLANNING
AN IDEA
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WITH COMMITTEE APPROVAL, THE NEXT STEP IN THE PROCESS IS TO MAKE A BASIC PLAN.
HOW, EXACTLY, DO WE CREATE AN EXHIBITION FROM CONCEPT TO GALLERY?
For the museum’s recent exhibition “Nancy Baker Cahill: Through Lines,” museum staff, including preparator Elizabeth Marable and associate curator of modern and contemporary art Kathryn Hill, met with artist Nancy Baker Cahill to discuss and imagine the many possibilities for the exhibition. They talked over the basic details, including how much space the exhibition required, what gallery spaces were ideal and what technological requirements were needed. With Baker Cahill’s use of augment- ed reality, the exhibition had some unique requirements, but requirements are different for every exhibition that the museum hosts. For “Through Lines,” museum staff and Baker Cahill decided that the exhibition was well suited for three museum spaces — the Roush Gallery, the Dudley new media gallery and the Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden. With those deci- sions made, the exhibition was added to the museum calendar and more detailed planning for the show could begin.
Collaboration and planning are key, but it all begins with a great idea. Most often, that great idea comes from one of the museum’s curators, who brings an exhibition concept to an internal committee, either with the Georgia Museum of Art or another collaborative institution. Advocating for the concept to the committee, the curator makes the case for the importance and impact of a potential exhibition. With unique knowledge and expertise, curators promote art and artists they want to showcase to the committee and provide a plan to make it pos- sible. “I always say the biggest job of the curator is to have a strong checklist. It is from there that everything springs, from negotiation to programming,” said Shawnya Harris, deputy director of curatorial and academic affairs and Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art.
A SketchUp design by Elizabeth Marable for the exhibition “Emma Amos: Color Odyssey,” on view at the museum in 2021, and the actual installation based on the design.
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MOVING ART
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THE NUMBER OF ARTWORKS AN EXHIBITION INCLUDES OFTEN DETERMINES HOW COMPLICATED IT WILL BE TO GET THEM TO THE MUSEUM.
For the Nancy Baker Cahill exhibition, there was only one artist’s work being showcased, but often getting works to the museum can be a much more complicated endeavor. Staff must plan for aspects such as the location of works and how to transport them, how to orchestrate shipping them from many locations and the sheer physical requirements for moving them. The process often requires detailed logistical planning and can take quite some time. Depending on the size of the exhibition, the number of works being borrowed or purchased and the necessary fundraising when acquiring works, the whole process can often take years.
None of this would be possible without the diligent work of museum registrars, who manage and monitor every move of works. Registrars arrange transportation and movement logistics, make sure pieces are moved with care and keep a record of the condition of works throughout the process. Whether pieces are from the Georgia Museum of Art’s permanent collection or on loan from an artist, a collector or another institution, this is no small task. When “Through Lines” was still being planned and designed, registrar Amber Barnhardt was also hard at work get- ting loan agreements and contracts signed and ironing out other details that make it possible to get works to the museum.
DESIGN
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WHILE REGISTRARS ARE WORKING ON THE LOANS PROCESS, CURATORS ARE CHOOSING WHICH WORKS WILL BE PART OF AN EXHIBITION.
When the checklist of works is (mostly) finalized, exhibition de - signers begin building a digital, to-scale version of an exhibition using 3D modeling software. Collaborating with curators to bring their vision to life, designers must consider a variety of factors to create a polished exhibition that museum visitors will enjoy. Which sections will be important? In what order should pieces or sections be arranged? Which objects illustrate the theme of the exhibition? Which layout makes sense? These are all major questions that de- signers and curators plan and discuss many months before works are installed. For “Through Lines,” chief preparator and head of exhibition design Todd Rivers and curator Kathryn Hill worked with the artist to meet the technological needs for the exhibition. Marable and Baker Cahill walked through every detail of the exhibition checklist and model to develop a first draft layout. With two site-specific installations, the artist’s input was especially vital.
The design of an exhibition is integral to great visitor experience. A good flow in a gallery space, with a layout that gently guides visi - tors to works and information, can give visitors space to contem- plate, find inspiration or have discussions along the way. Aesthetic choices, such as font and color scheme, also play an important part in exhibition design, noted Marable. “The color and text elements serve to enhance the viewing experience and better tell the story,” she said. These choices help visitors understand exhibition con- cepts without even reading a label, at an almost unconscious level, and help make a visual story accessible to as many people as possi- ble. Each visitor deserves to have an experience that is uninhibited and accommodating, so designers are purposeful about aspects such as lighting, font size, label height and even viewing angle. In “Through Lines,” the wall color was a deliberate choice, said Mar- able. “[It helped] guide the viewer though the themes discussed [with] a very bold pink tone that we were able to pull directly from one of Baker Cahill’s artworks,” she said.
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INSTALLATION
THE REWARD
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FOR EXHIBITION INSTALLATION, MUSEUM PREPARATORS EACH HAVE SPECIALIZED SKILLS, AND THEY COLLABORATE AS A TEAM TO GET THE JOB DONE. While Marable focuses on layout and design and works with an artist before the gallery is installed, other preparators, such as Larry Forte and Robert Russell, oversee physically putting the exhibition together. Forte handles most of the construction and mount-making, and Russell is responsible for matting and framing works on paper and for lighting. Working togeth- er is crucial because each part of an exhibition is dependent on another, noted Russell. “The design may call for a sculpture with very few lighting requirements to be installed next to a work on paper or textile that requires a very low light level,” he said. “It can be difficult to light the sculpture appropri - ately while also keeping light-sensitive works at a safe level.” Knowing the light restrictions and matting and framing re- quirements ahead of time helps preparators work together to make the initial ideas and designs a reality.
“EXHIBITS ARE NOT BOOKS. THEY ARE THREE- DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES MEANT TO TELL A STORY,” NOTES THE SMITHSONIAN’S GUIDE TO EXHIBIT DEVELOPMENT. Through careful planning and collaboration among staff across many departments at the Georgia Museum of Art, the museum creates exhibitions that bring prolific artists and their works to life for the public. Every aspect is carefully considered and when all is said and done, the process creates the greatest re- ward of all — an experience that educates, inspires and brings joy to everyone who walks through our doors. Next time you’re in the galleries, take a moment and admire the work that went into the exhibition you’re enjoying.
SketchUp design by Elizabeth Marable for the exhibition “Nancy Baker Cahill: Through Lines” and the finished installation.
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ACQUISITION
The Georgia Museum of Art recently acquired “Holy Family,” an oil-on-copper painting by an artist in the circle of Lavinia Fontana (1552 Bologna – 1614 Rome).
“HOLY FAMILY”
Purchased in honor of former museum director William Underwood Eiland and his late partner Andrew Ladis, the work showcases Fontana’s influence and impact in Bologna and beyond. Ladis taught art history at the Lamar Dodd School of Art from 1987 to 2007, where his scholarship focused on Renaissance artists. Together with Eiland, he helped make the University of Georgia and its art museum well known for research on Italian art of the period. Fontana trained with her father, Prospero Fontana, and quickly achieved independent success in Bo- logna, a city that boasted a thriving artistic scene. From the 1580s until the early 1600s, Fontana was the portraitist of choice among Bolognese nobil- ity. Later, when she moved to Rome, she became a painter at the papal court and the recipient of numerous honors. Her legacy extended beyond her lifetime and Italy, and her art has sparked renewed scholarly attention and collector interest; a major exhibition, “Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker,” was held at the National Gallery of Ireland in 2023. This painting shows the lasting impact of Par- migianino (1503 – 1540), an artist known for his graceful and inventive compositions who had been active in Bologna and whose work Fontana would have surely studied. The work also points to the influence of Northern Italian artists such as Antwerp-born painter Denis Calvaert (1540 – 1619), who apprenticed under Fontana’s father and specialized in paintings on copper. This oil resembles one of Fontana’s paintings of the same subject, also on copper, and was likely made by an artist working within her close circle. Mary, standing at the center of the composition, turns her head toward the sleeping infant Jesus while lifting a translucent veil to cover him. The young St. John the Baptist holds a reed cross and bows over the child, while St. Joseph appears in the left background in prayer. This image beauti- fully evokes both the tender bond between mother and son and the Christ Child’s destiny. The small scale further enhances the intimate nature of the scene and suggests that it was created for pri- vate devotion. The artist masterfully rendered the lavish quality of the figure’s garments, and the copper support lends a particular luminescence to the picture.
Circle of Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – 1614 Rome), “Holy Family.” Oil on copper, 8 3/8 × 6 3/8 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase with funds provided by Amburn Power in honor of Andrew Ladis and William Underwood Eiland. GMOA 2023.304.
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the art of giving RON SHELP
Ron Shelp in UGA’s student newspaper, the Red & Black, during the early 1960s.
president ever at the age of 32. He traveled the world in that role, especially South and Central America, where his love of art was reawakened. In 1982, he and June Mueller Peno married and began collecting art together, partially due to the influence of renowned Atlanta collector and dealer William Arnett (AB ’63). Through Arnett, they began collecting works by self- taught or vernacular artists, which formed the basis of the traveling exhibition “Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African American South” from 2000 to 2004. “We were drawn to this art because we [felt] it [was] dra- matic, moving and wide-ranging,” Shelp said. “You find everything in it from tough, forceful portraits and icons to symbolic narratives to subtle abstractions. But, equally important, this art has a message that speaks to June and me, as Southerners. Even the most abstract of these works tells us something about what the world looks like through the eyes of people who grew up in the segregated South and lived through the civil rights movements and the turbulent times that followed.” Shelp reconnected with UGA in 2003 and he quickly be - came involved with the museum, making gifts of art from his collection from 2008 to 2020, including Thornton Dial’s large painting “Spirit of Grand Central Station— The Man That Helped the Handicapped” (which Dial said was a portrait of Shelp) and Charlie Lucas’ found-metal sculpture “Twister,” which greets visitors at the muse- um’s side entrance. His focus on vernacular art seemed to mirror his own humble upbringings and the sense that those didn’t define one’s scope of possibilities. Shelp died on August 15, 2021, surrounded by his family. He is survived by June and their two sons, Kent and Rus- sell. He left behind a legacy of donations to the University of Georgia totaling more than $650,000, including the value of works of art. The Shelps were generous donors around the country, giving works of art to the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the American Folk Art Museum, the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at Colorado State University, the Smithsonian Amer - ican Art Museum, the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ron re - served his greatest generosity, however, for the university that changed his life, setting up a planned gift to establish an acquisitions endowment at the museum that will allow it to buy works of art to inspire and educate UGA students of the future, showing them the vast possibilities that await them, no matter where they started.
Who would’ve thought that Ron Shelp, with humble beginnings as a traveling fruitcake salesman and no plans to go to college, would one day leave a generous gift to the Georgia Museum of Art in his will? His story is a reminder that our greatest gifts often come from the most unlikely beginnings. Ron Shelp (AB ’64) was born in 1941 in Cartersville, Georgia, to Willie and Clarence Mulkey and spent his early years there. After his parents di- vorced, his mother married Sherwood Shelp, an army recruiter whose last name Ron took as his own. The family traveled frequently, and after Ron graduated high school, there was no expectation that he would pursue higher education. Instead, he ran a cotton gin, worked as a bill collector, served as a clerk and typist for the FBI and sold fruitcake for Benson’s Bakery. None of those jobs was particularly inspiring though, so when Edmonds Martin, his former high school principal in Cartersville, told him he needed to go to college, Shelp listened. Martin wouldn’t take no for an answer. He packed Shelp into his car, drove him to the University of Georgia, got him enrolled in classes and even set up loans for him. Martin also stayed in touch and made sure that Shelp finished his schooling. Martin did the same for more than 100 students, Shelp said, with the same persistence. He was intent on mak- ing a difference in each of their lives. Shelp’s first day of college was the day Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes integrated UGA, he said in an interview. He saw the demonstra - tions against integration and refused to take part in them as a believer in equity from his early years. He dove into university life fully and became a passionate debater and co-captain of the debate team. He debated even more as a member of the Demosthenian Society and participant in the honor societies for Phi Kappa Phi, Blue Key and Omicron Delta Kappa. He also, crucially, took an art appreciation class, a required course to grad- uate at the time, and he even got an A. But the value of that class went well beyond a letter grade or basic acquired knowledge. That class and his love of UGA planted seeds that would bear fruit nearly 60 years later. After graduating from UGA with a degree in history and political science, Shelp went on to a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins’ School of Ad- vanced International Studies. He also worked for former Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. (LLB ’18) before finding his way to American International Group, a multinational finance and insurance corporation. Shelp worked at AIG for more than a decade, becoming its youngest vice
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75th anniversary CELEBRATION
Attendees were also surprised and delighted when Hairy Dawg pushed out the 75th birth- day cake then hung around to take photos with guests and in the galleries. Thanks to the Ma- terial Culture and Arts Foundation, family ac- tivities were in abundance, with guests painting their own mini canvases (complete with teeny easels), decorating party hats and making chalk art in the Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden, under a beautiful banner by K.A. Artist Shop. Many visitors wrote birthday wishes to the museum on heart-shaped sticky notes that multiplied on the large windows leading to the sculpture garden. The galleries, on the second floor of the build - ing, were busy, too, with volunteer docents manning Art Carts to share their knowledge about works in the collection with visitors. Attendees who completed a scavenger hunt in the permanent collection received not only six souvenir buttons, but a poster as a prize. The Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art signed up many new members and handed out door prizes every 20 minutes. Not a Friend? You can become one for free at jointhemuseum.com and stay in the loop about all the museum’s happenings. The museum also premiered its brand-new collaboration with Jittery Joe’s at the event. Cup of Inspiration, a 100 percent Arabica blend, is available exclusively in the Museum Shop for now and provides a kickstart for the creative spark you need. Just outside the doors, on a beautiful autumn day, the rest of the Spotlight on the Arts Family Day was bustling, too, with the Georgia Chil- dren’s Chorus performing in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex quad and an instru- ment petting zoo at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music.
The museum celebrated its 75th birthday in style on November 5, 2023, with a crowd of at least 540 in attendance.
Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz joined museum director David Odo to welcome all and read a proclamation in honor of the museum’s 75 years providing free inspiration (above). UGA students, faculty, staff and community members also learned the winner of Museum Madness, the 64- work showdown that took the form of an NCAA tournament bracket and on which museum visitors and fans had been voting since March, both online and in person. Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau’s “La Confidence” edged out Art Rosenbaum’s “McIntosh County Shouters” by a mere dozen votes.
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returns this february
GREEN SYMPOSIUM
The 12th Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts will be held February 2 and 3, 2024, at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel.
Titled “The Past Made Public: Taking Stock,” this year’s symposium focuses on the wealth of decorative mate- rials in the public sphere in Georgia. Our universities and schools, churches and synagogues, public buildings and offices, state parks and historic sites, libraries and historical organizations, cemeteries and gardens, military bases, historic forts and craftspeople all hold elements of Georgia’s material culture. Speakers will explore the contents of museum collections large and small, public art, religious objects and government institutions. With Dale Couch, our former curator of decorative arts, well and truly retired, Caroline Rainey (UGA MHP ’19) has taken the reins of the symposium. Rainey has presented at the symposium previously and was an intern at the museum from 2015 to 2016. She currently works at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs in its Division of Historic Preservation, where she serves as a rehabili- tation tax incentives specialist and architectural reviewer. She previously worked as a curatorial assistant for the National Council of Preservation Education, under the National Park Service, and she wrote her master’s thesis for UGA on the use of interior easements and New York’s landmark preservation ordinance for the protection of historic interiors. Rainey has assembled an impressive slate of speakers for the 2024 symposium, with Ulysses Grant Dietz, chief cu - rator emeritus, Newark Museum of Art, set to deliver the keynote speech, “Go Big AND Go Home: Collecting Re- gionally While Thinking Nationally.” Dietz, a descendent of President Ulysses S. Grant, was decorative arts curator at the Newark Museum for 37 years and has written books on Victorian furniture, art pottery, studio ceramics, jewelry and the White House. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City. He is also on the board of the U.S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum at Mississippi State University.
Charles Pinckney (American, b. 1953), “U,”2013. GMOA 2022.331. Pinckney’s work is an example of contemporary studio jewelry, which Ashley Callahan will discuss at the symposium.
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OTHER SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Shannon Browning-Mullis executive director, Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace
Elyse D. Gerstenecker curator of decorative arts, Telfair Museums “Collections, Commissions and Collaborations: Hand-Painted China at Telfair Museums” Katherine Jentleson Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, High Museum of Art “From Garden to Gallery: The High Museum of Art’s Howard Finster Collection and Art Environment Curation” Lea C. Lane curator, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts “Where Patterns: Georgia at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts” James Langford president, Coosawattee Foundation “The Material Culture of the Muscogee Creek and Cherokee in Northwest Georgia” Monica Obniski curator of decorative arts and design, High Museum of Art “‘But now who needs pots?’ Charles Counts, Potter with a Purpose”
“Prepositions: Decorative Arts by, for and from African Americans in Savannah History”
Ashley Callahan independent scholar
“Contemporary Studio Jewelry in Georgia”
Russell Clayton independent scholar
“Building by Building, Room by Room: The Decorative Works of Athos Menaboni” Dale Couch independent scholar
“The Crescent Foot Group: New Discoveries”
Charlotte M. Crabtree independent scholar
“Views into the Vault: Georgia’s Hidden Silver Heritage”
Matthew S. Davis director of historic museums, Georgia College & State University
“Executive Elegance: Building and Interpreting Collections at Georgia’s Old Governor’s Mansion”
Advance registration at hotel.uga.edu/events/henry-green-symposium is required by January 15. The same link includes information about registering for a hotel room at the Georgia Center. You can reserve a hotel room using room group code 1078 until January 4, 2024. After that date, please call the Georgia Center to request a hotel room with block code 1078. If a room is available, you will receive the group rate.
SPONSOR THE GREEN SYMPOSIUM
Symposium Sponsors as of December 13, 2023 $5,000 Marilyn & John McMullan Anne & Bill Newton
$1,800 Brunk Auction Mary & William Burdell Jr. Kathryn & Henry D. Green Jr. Hedgerow Farms Meika & J. Hamilton Hilsman Julie G. Jenkins MOTSTA Fund/Community Foundation for Northern Virginia Reece Preservation Services, LLC Betsy & Lee Robinson Claire & G. Boone Smith III Kenneth H. Thomas William Wansley in memory of Louise Dunn Wansley and in honor of Stevi and Elizabeth Wansley
The biennial Henry D. Green Symposium and its published proceedings are funded exclusively by
Miscellaneous Gifts Mitzi Hagan Sandra S. & Cecil C. Hudson William Markert III
grants and sponsorships. Surplus revenue will be used to support the Georgia Museum of Art’s initiatives in the southern decorative arts. There are three levels of sponsorship: Keynote ($5,000) , Featured ($2,500) and Event ($1,800 ). The majority of each sponsorship is tax-deductible. Benefits of sponsorship include name recognition in a variety of printed and digital materials associated with the event, full symposium registration including evening activities and complimentary copies of the published proceedings. Completely tax-deductible gifts of any size are welcome. Contact Anna Conrad at 706.542.9914 or conradam@uga.edu to become a sponsor or receive more information. Sponsorships and gifts may also be made online at bit.ly/green-24-sponsor .
The Richard C. Owens Charitable Foundation $2,500 Terry L. Barrett Devereux & E. Davison Burch Linda & David Chesnut Lee Epting Beverly & Jeff Evans Peggy Galis Material Culture & Arts Foundation Marian & Carl Mullis III
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NOTECARD SETS $10.95 – $24.95
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in the SHOP
CUP OF INSPIRATION COFFEE $25
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YETI TUMBLERS $45 – $48
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The Museum Shop has a brand-new online store through Shopify at georgiamuseumshop.myshopify.com with a wide selection of items, although not everything that it carries. Shop online any time, day or night, and have your items shipped or pick them up at the shop at no cost.
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MUSEUM NOTES
staff notes New leadership often means change. David Odo , the muse- um’s new director, took the reins just before the fall 2023 semester and has made some changes to the museum’s organizational structure to create a more efficient workflow. The curatorial and education departments are now encom- passed under a new division: the division of curatorial and academic affairs. At the helm of the new division, as deputy director, is Shawnya Harris . She will also maintain her position as the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art. Callan Steinmann continues to serve as the head of the education department, but with a new title: head of education and curator of academic and public programs. The registrars’ department and the department of design and preparation have also been combined into a new division: the division of collections and exhibitions. Tricia Miller is the new deputy director of the division. Todd Rivers remains head of exhibition design and chief preparator. This restructuring also necessitated two additional promo- tions. Amber Barnhardt is now senior registrar and Kathryn Hill has been promoted to associate curator of modern and contemporary art.
awards
“GRAPHIC ELOQUENCE” WINS LOPRESTI AWARD
“Graphic Eloquence: American Modernism on Paper from the Collec- tion of Michael T. Ricker,” by Jeffrey Richmond-Moll and collector Michael T. Ricker, was honored as winner of the 39th Annual Mary Ellen LoPresti Art Publication Awards by the Southeast chapter of the Art Libraries Association of North America (ARLIS/NA) for the 2022 copyright year. The award recognizes excellence in art publishing. “Living up to its name,” the ARLIS/NA award announcement stat- ed, “this title is a thoughtfully crafted resource full of quality images and text that beautifully conveys the spirit of American modernism through the work of many lesser-known artists of the 20th century.”
SOUTHEASTERN MUSEUMS CONFERENCE AWARDS
Tricia Miller , deputy director of collections and exhibitions and head registrar, was awarded the Southeastern Museums Conference’s (SEMC) Museum Leadership Award in recognition of her many years of service and generosity to the field. Initiated in 1994, the award recognizes mid-career museum professionals who have contributed to significant advances within the profession through leadership in mu - seum activities at their own institution or in the museum profession as a whole, especially in the southeast region. The museum also received a number of awards in SEMC’s competitions in exhibitions, publication design and technology. The competition showcases the best in the profession and provides benchmarks for southeastern museums. “Art is a form of freedom” received silver in the Excellence in Exhibitions competition . A result of a collaborative project that brought works of art from the museum’s collection into classrooms at Whitworth Women’s Facility, a prison in north Georgia, the exhibition was unique because works were chosen by the incarcerated women at the facility and featured prose and poetry the women wrote in response to the works. In the Publication Design Competition , the museum’s 75th Anniversary Campaign was awarded gold ; Facet, the museum’s quar- terly newsletter, was awarded bronze in the magazines and news- letters category; “Jane Manus, Undaunted” was awarded silver in the gallery guides category; and the “Longleaf Lines” coloring book, illustrated by Katie Mulligan, was awarded bronze in the gallery guides category as well. Noelle Shuck , the museum’s graphic designer since 2020, designed all four. In the Technology Competition , the museum received gold in the vir- tual media category for its Instagram Stories trivia feature and silver for its Museum Madness campaign, in association with the museum’s 75th anniversary. The museum’s communications team created and designed both features.
Kaitlyn Loyd
Kevin Roldan
The museum also welcomed Kaitlyn Loyd as the new assistant curator of education this fall. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from UGA, has many years of experience with K-12 audiences and is an accomplished studio artist. Kevin Roldan also recently joined our team full time as an assistant registrar. He was previously an intern at the museum and has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in museum stud - ies from Johns Hopkins University.
Annelies Mondi , who has been serving as senior advisor to the director, retired again December 15.
CALENDAR Program is free but registration is required; email gmoa-tours@uga.edu to reserve a spot.
on the exhibition “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun.” Egel’s research focuses on the politics of arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament negotiations. She will expand on exhibition themes such as the legacy of nuclear testing, nuclear disarmament efforts and the human experience and humanitarian implications of nuclear weapons.
at https://bit.ly/90c-feb-24. Not yet a Friend? Visit jointhemuseum.com to join today. Event Partners: Athens Printing Company, Barron’s Rentals, Epting Events, Guide 2 Athens and Perryander Studio. ARALEE STRANGE LECTURE: “LEARNING FROM LOSS: PEDAGOGIES OF ART, CREATIVITY AND CHANGE” Thursday, February 22, 5:30 p.m. Karyn Sandlos, associate professor and head of art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will deliver a lecture that explores artistic responses to loss in education and the public sphere. How do the creative processes we find in art and aesthetic experience be - come a resource for learning to live with loss? In the U.S., amid the catastrophic losses of the COVID-19 pandemic, a national conversation about learning loss has reinvigorated educa- tional debates about the most efficient and engaging ways to convey missed curricular content. At the same time, educators are asked to be responsive to new and more challeng- ing forms of student anxiety, disconnection and disengagement. This, too, is a loss; one that can’t be overcome by innovative teaching alone. We are all learning how to re-engage with learning. STUDENT NIGHT Thursday, February 29, 6 – 8 p.m. Join the Georgia Museum of Art Student Association for refreshments, door prizes and themed activities to celebrate the museum’s latest exhibitions, including “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun” and “Richard Prince: Tell Me Everything.” Student Night is gener- ously sponsored by the UGA Parents Leader - ship Council. IMPROV ATHENS PERFORMANCE Thursday, February 29, 7 p.m. Improv Athens is the resident improv com - edy troupe at UGA and is completely run by humans from Earth. They do both short- and long-form improv, which they make inten- tionally funny as they understand this to be pleasing to other humans. Join the group for an improv show presented with the special exhibition “Richard Prince: Tell Me Every- thing.” AN EVENING WITH BAD ATH BABES Thursday, March 14, 7:30 p.m. When audience members howl in recognition at an impression of the stereotypical male comedian, it’s a sign that the time is right for a change in the local scene. That’s just one of the reasons why Athens stand-up comics Allison Coleman and Meg Abbott formed Bad
TOURS AND GALLERY TALKS
TOUR AT TWO Wednesdays January 3, 10, 17; February 7, 14, 28; March 6 and 27, 2 p.m. These drop-in public tours feature highlights of the permanent collection and are led by museum docents. SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT TOUR Sunday, January 21, February 18, March 17, 3 p.m. Stop by for a Sunday afternoon tour featuring highlights of the permanent collection, led by museum docents. ARTFUL CONVERSATION Artful Conversation programs are 30 minutes long, focus on just one work of art and provide opportunities for close looking, Join Mallory Lind, associate curator of educa- tion, for a conversation about George Tooker’s painting “Laundress.” • Wednesday, March 13, 2 p.m. Join Callan Steinmann, head of education and curator of academic and public programs, for a conversation about Stephanie Jackson’s paint- ing “Bluest Eye.” CURATOR TALK: THE FEMALE GAZE: WOMEN ARTISTS AND SITTERS IN A FAMILY PORTRAIT GALLERY Wednesday, January 31, 2 p.m. Join Asen Kirin, Parker Curator of Russian Art, for a talk on portraiture in the Martha Thompson Dinos Gallery. CURATOR TALK: “RICHARD PRINCE: TELL ME EVERYTHING” Wednesday, February 21, 2 p.m. open-ended dialogue and discovery. • Wednesday, January 24, 2 p.m. Join Shawnya Harris, deputy director of curatorial and academic affairs and curator of the exhibition, for a talk on the exhibition “Richard Prince: Tell Me Everything.” FACULTY PERSPECTIVES: NAOMI EGEL Wednesday, March 20, 2 p.m. The Faculty Perspectives series invites faculty from across campus to share their perspec- tive on an exhibition through the lens of their disciplinary expertise. Join Naomi Egel, as- sistant professor, department of international affairs in the School of Public and Interna - tional Affairs at UGA, for a gallery program
SPECIAL EVENTS
THIRD THURSDAY Thursday, January 18, February 15 and March 21, 6 – 9 p.m.
Athens’ established venues for visual art hold Third Thursday, an event devoted to art in the evening hours, on the third Thursday of every month from 6 until 9 p.m. to showcase their visual-arts programming. Full schedules and participants are posted at 3Thurs.org.
12TH HENRY D. GREEN SYMPOSIUM OF THE DECORATIVE ARTS
Friday and Saturday, February 2 and 3 UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel
Join us for the 12th Henry D. Green Sympo- sium of the Decorative Arts, “The Past Made Public: Taking Stock,” with a keynote speech by Ulysses Grant Dietz, chief curator emeritus of the Newark Museum of Art. Visit geor- giamuseum.org/greensymposium for more information. $389 / $229 (full-time museum professionals) / Free (students). Register by January 15. IN CONVERSATION: KEI ITO AND BINH DANH Thursday, February 8, 5:30 p.m. Artists Kei Ito and Binh Danh will discuss their work in conjunction with Ito’s current exhibition, “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun.” Both artists are at the forefront of artistic practice and thinking about war, in- tergenerational trauma, and reconciliation and renewal. The conversation will be moderated by director David Odo.
90 CARLTON: WINTER 2024 Friday, February 9, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Join the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art for a reception featuring a first look at “Richard Prince: Tell Me Everything” and a celebration of the new exhibition “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun.” Not Yet Friends: $15; Friends of the Museum and Friend + Annual Fund Members (Supporter level): $10; Friend + Annual Fund Members (Reciprocal level and above): complimentary. Advance registration is strongly recommended
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