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In this Issue... 

Spotlight: Andrew Stangel
 

Join the Conversation: Does Technology Add to the Museum Experience?

 
The Bookshelf:  Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King

About Those Unique Zimmermans

2009-10 School Visits Break Currier Records

Board Position Open

Photo Book in the Works 

 

Coming Events

ArtInterpretationTechnology - Does it Add to the Art Museum Experience? 
Join the Conversation on Our New Guild of Volunteers Blog

 

Most of you spent a great deal of time in the Currier's recent exhibition, The Secret Life of Art: Mysteries of the Museum Revealed, which used a lot of technologies - among them cell phone tours, videos and digital timelines - to provide different viewpoints and new ways of learning about art.  Have you been to the "new" Museum of Fine Arts in Boston yet?  The MFA also takes you behind the scenes with new technologies, with mini-exhibitions about conservation and other museum topics. A follow-up to the Secret Life of Art is an analysis of what educational strategies, both high- and low-tech, our visitors seemed engaged with. The results will inform us about what technological approaches to take for future exhibitions. We will let you know the results when that analysis is complete.

 
As we, and many museums, have been thinking a lot about adding technology - which can be busy, noisy and fast-paced (though doesn't have to be) - to the visitor's experience, I was struck by an article by Arianna Huffington in the Huffington Post, "Museums 2.0: What happens When Great Art Meets New Media?"

 

Ms. Huffington asks a lot of questions that have resonance for me, and like me, doesn't have any definitive answers.  Is it true, as we are told, that younger visitors are so "plugged in" they won't come to art museums which aren't technology savvy?  Or, as Ms. Huffington asks, could we all be looking for something more contemplative in our lives, and museums add the distraction of technology at their peril?  How much technology actually enriches the experience of the viewer, and how much is just "cool"?  And, is there anything wrong with just "cool"?

 

One thing is certain - we are living through a very exciting period in museums, with lots of new opportunities for visitors to enjoy and learn about art in new ways.  As we at the Currier continue to experiment to find the right balance for our audience, what are your thoughts?  

www.currierguild.blogspot.com. ClickSusanLeidy on "comments" at the bottom of the essay and let us know your thoughts.

Susan Leidy, Deputy Director
 
[email protected] or (603) 669-6144, ext. 106

BookshelfThe Book Shelf 

What Jane Seney is reading...
 
 
 

InThePlaceofJusticeWhen I was a teenager, I watched the PBS series Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985 and it had a tremendous impact on me.  Up until that point, in the insulated bubble that was my life, I had virtually no understanding of racial prejudice and the inequality existing in the United States, particularly in the 20th century.  The stories shared in this series were at times disturbing, powerful, heart-wrenching, and incredibly uplifting.
 
   

It was a major awakening for me and helped shape and firm my commitment to issues of social justice.  Because of this powerful formative experience, I have always been drawn to books and movies about the Civil Rights Movement.  Recently, I have read two great, non-fiction writings chronicling events molded by the American attitudes about race in the 1960s. HellhoundonHisTrailThe books are Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides, and In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau.

Needless to say, I was excited about the Currier's acquisition of Glenn Ligon's

Invisible Man (Two Views)

and the opportunities it provides for discussing the issues of which I am most passionate. I applaud Nina Bozicnik for her excellent curatorial choices in the display of this work. As I write this, I am about half-way through Ralph Ellison's

Invisible Man, a book I have found poetic, challenging and even a little mystifying.  I look forward to discussing this work with volunteers and am eager to hear visitor reactions to using our new online book club tools.


JaneSeneyJane Seney, Educator for Tour and Docent Programs 

[email protected]

Or, use the Guild Room computer the next time you stop in.
From our 
Executive Chair


Did you know that the Guild of Volunteer's eNewsletter provides most of the answers to your questions regarding your role as a volunteer of the Currier Museum of Art? About 15 to 20 volunteers and staff members regularly keep you informed through the bi-monthly publication.

 

Look for these features:

Spotlight, The Book Shelf, Milestones, Guild blog,
photos and slide shows,
Frank Lloyd
Wright Building Conservancy updates, museum highlights and art acquisitions, Guild Executive Board and Museum Shop news, field trips, visitor tips and poetry.

 

Don't miss what's happening at the Currier.  Your Guild's eNewsletter continues to keep you up-to-date and applauds your accomplishments.

 

As Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Beautify your own life and you beautify the lives of everyone around you." 

Thelma RaineThelma T. Raine, Executive Chair, Currier Guild of Volunteers 

[email protected]

 
Museum Shop News
 

The shop has developed a note card of the Georgia O'Keefe's OKeefeCross by the Sea. The shop is also developing two of John Brook's furniture pieces into postcards - True Loves Blue and Ladder Back Chair.

 

Another project the shop is working on is six images on microfiber lens cloths. They are: Knock at the Door, Fishwives, Goldfish Window,

Rosen Still Life, North Woods,

and Moat Mountain at Intervale, New Hampshire.

 

The shop staff would like to thank all our wonderful museum shop volunteers (Joan, Sandra, Sally, Becki, Susan, Martha, Brittney, Miriam, and Richard) for the efforts and energy they have given the shop.  

 

On January 18th, despite a snow storm, the shop staff and volunteers, met at the Museum for a winter holiday party. 

Richard Russell




Richard Russell,
Museum Shop Chair

 
[email protected]


Coming Exhibitions
Jon Brooks: A Collaboration with Nature
March 19 - June 12
2010-2011
Executive Committee

 
Officers
Executive Chair:
Thelma T. Raine

Executive Vice Chair:
Pat Howard

Treasurer:
Ted Parrot

Secretary:
Yvonne Dunham

Committee Chairs

Guild Ambassadors:
Frances Gray
Fran Wiggin

Guild Communications:
Judy McKenna
Pauline Bogaert

Guild Meetings & Programs:
Peg Case

Guild Membership:
Barbara Shepler

Museum Docents:
Carolyn Hollman

Museum Shop:
Richard Russell

Special Projects:
Pam Parrot

Zimmerman House Docents:
Dennie Dyer
The Currier Guild in action eNewsletter Staff:
Editors:
Judy McKenna and Pauline Bogaert
Photo Editor: Anna Zhurbey
Blog Administrator: Karin Whitford 
Production Assistance: Neva Cole, Michelle Pennington

Karin Whitford is First Currier Guild eNews Blog Administrator

 
KarinWhitford
eNews blog administrator Karin Whitford.
Karin Whitford is now our Guild eNews blog administrator. A new docent and Nashua resident, Karin received a bachelor's degree from Rivier College with a concentration in Graphic Design. Her favorite work of art is Claude Monet's Camille Monet in Japanese Costume at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Alphonse Mucha of the Art Nouveau era is her favorite graphic artist.
Peeps Bogaert & Judy McKenna
eNews editors Pauline Bogaert and Judy McKenna
[email protected]
[email protected]

NovDecAnnaZ
eNews photo editor Anna Zhurbey
ComingEventsComing Events
March 13, 2011
Inspired Words
Participating writers read poetry and prose in the Museum.

 

March 18, 2011 

Jon Brooks: A Collaboration

with Nature  
 
Member Reception

 

April 30, 2011
Big Apple Express
A fun day trip to New York City

June 7, 2011
Guild of Volunteers
Annual Meeting

March/April 2011

Spotlight

SpotlightShining Light on Art History

 

Andrew Stangel vividly recalls the first time he taught a class on Sept. 21, 1970. The history course, based on Kenneth Clark's 13-part BBC television series Civilisation: A Personal View, had about as many men as women signed up, but that Monday night the women attended, but there were few men. "I couldn't figure it out," he says, until he discovered it was the debut of Monday Night Football. "They had to show up the next Monday or they wouldn't get credit," he adds, with a laugh. 

 

AndyStangel
UNH Art History Professor Andy Stangel

Four decades later, Monday Night Football is still around. So is Andy. For the last dozen years or so, he has been teaching art history classes at the Currier with docents and University of New Hampshire students.  "It's a win-win for docents and students," says the adjunct professor of Art History and Humanities at UNH, Manchester. "Students benefit when docents mention something I haven't, and docents benefit by learning more about art and history."


He is steadfast about the importance of the docents' role at "New Hampshire's flagship institution for the collection, preservation, exhibition and education in the fine arts," he says, and has nominated them as a group each year since 2006 for the University's Granite State Award. The award is usually given to an individual, but Andy feels the group as a whole deserves the award. In the nomination form he wrote "this select group of members...individually and collectively, have enhanced society as a whole and [their] work speaks to the values of our urban mission."   


Born in New York City, the 68-year old was raised in California. He took his undergraduate and graduate degrees primarily at the University of California, Los Angeles. His study emphasis was Medieval History and Art History. He has lectured at various universities around the U.S. and Germany, where he lived and worked for two decades.  


A travel devotee, Andy began giving art history tours in 1974. His students asked if they could take a field trip to see some of the art they were studying. He set up a 10-day tour that "didn't have an empty seat. That took me out of the classroom to a classroom on wheels, and the campus was Europe."
 

MarAp11 Andy and Ann
Andy Stangel with docent Ann Richardson at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Photo by Jane Bentas.

Docent Jane Bentas visited Paris on a trip with Andy in 2008. She recalls a five-hour whirlwind tour of the Louvre Museum, Andy charging forward with students and docents in tow. "He showed us more of the Louvre in one day than anyone else could," she says. "He'd look at his watch and say, 'Let's move on. We've got lots more to see'." On another trip to Rome, Jane recollects a scheduled excursion cancelled due to a strike. "Although he didn't have to, Andy spent the entire day showing us additional art work in Rome that wasn't on the tour. He is very giving, and he's always up," says Jane. "Sometimes he displays more youth than his students."  
 

On a recent snowy day, Andy was home reading about his next student tour to Rome (March 13 to 19) when I phoned him to chat. He told me he "feels history ought to be looked at as closely as we read about it.  I hope my students find my classes eye-openers."


When I asked where he got his boundless energy, he said he makes the most of time, because "I don't know how many more minutes I have left. Maybe God will make an exception in my case and I'll live longer than Methuselah!"

He guesses there are about 15 docents at a time in each class. These docents, he calculates, "have a collective experience of more than a century of being on the front line of art." He is grateful having a docent cadre in his classes, because "they make points of clarification that expands the discussion."


He doesn't plan on retiring "as long people want to listen to what I'm saying and looking at what I'm showing."  He told his wife Margaret whenever his time comes, "I hope it's in the classroom in front of a 300-watt projection bulb." 

Spotlight by Pauline Bogaert
Z-House Docent Report
ZimmermanHouseReportAbout Those Unique Zimmermans

One of the things that makes the Zimmerman House unique is the Zimmermans. Trying to understand them, who they were and what motivated them to build our treasured Frank Lloyd Wright house is a constant quest of Z-House docents. Our December training session allowed us to hear first-hand more about this distinctive couple and their extraordinary house. There were stories about how their home was constructed; the museum's early work on the house; the opening celebration of the house; and how early tours were conducted. 

Z-House Docents
Fran Gordon reminisces about the Zimmermans as Pat Meyers and Ann Milne look on.
Pat Meyers, Fran Gordon and Ann Milne shared their memories with us. Ann Milne talked about going into the house to take the first inventory of its contents.
Pat told us about allowing the museum to store Zimmerman furniture and possessions in her mother's house while floors and heating systems were restored. 

She also talked of the museum's celebration the night before the house was opened to the public. Luminaries lit the path to the party in her backyard.


Fran talked about early tours of the house, which included a tour of the Amoskeag Millyard.  This practice stopped when the Millyard Museum opened. It was temporarily included again when museum tours left from Hanover Street while the Museum was closed during its recent expansion.  Fran also mentioned van and house docents are sharing and collaborating more now than in the early days. The attending docents were given a tape of interviews with John Geiger in 2003 and Lucille Zimmerman in 1977.

I would like to thank, Ann, Pat, and Fran for sharing their memories with us - these are the things our visitors love to hear.

Frank Lloyd Wright News: Last year the World Monuments Fund (WMF) named Taliesin and Taliesin West to its watch list, a global acknowledgment of the cultural significance of these two sites, and the importance of preserving and protecting them for future generations. Both places served as laboratories for design and experimentation for Wright and his apprentices. While both sites have survived and continue to function as they were intended, time has taken its toll on their structures. Comprehensive plans exist for both locations outlining critical issues to be addressed and recommending structural stabilization and restoration on the buildings and grounds.The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation  hopes this high profile WMF designation will attract attention and provide major funding for critical long-term restoration work at the two sites.  

Dennie Dyer

Dennie Dyer  

Zimmerman House Docent Chair
434-8794
 
[email protected]
Z-House docents: If you have any comments or questions about your volunteer efforts, please feel free to contact Dennie Dyer to discuss what's on your mind.

Museum Docent Report

docentSchool Program Breaks Record for '09- '10


Take a guess: how many students participated in Currier Museum programs through their schools last year?  How many more children came with their families for Thursday's New Parents Gallery Talks and Saturday art activities?  How well does the Currier serve young people and families?

The answers may astound you.  According to Christa Zuber, group tours administrator, the 2009-2010 school year set a record with 6,112 students visiting the Currier on school trips.  A breakdown of this total shows May 2010 had the highest number - 1,439 - of students at the Currier in one month.  Although this fall had 1,412 students, April and May are traditionally the busiest months, and Christa expects an equally large turnout this spring. 
 

MarilynDavison
Marilyn Davison demonstrates an art project.

These numbers are more impressive if you count the 69 families attending the new parent talks and 582 attending Family Saturdays.  Associate Educator Michelle Pennington, who organizes special programs for adults and children, reports these family programs have grown steadily since the reopening of the museum in spring 2008.  Our volunteer docents led tours and assisted with art activities for all of these programs aimed at families.

 
According to "Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who's Doing it Best" by Fran Smith, "Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill."  Smith cites a 2005 Rand Corporation study that found the visual arts "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing."  While Smith's article advocates for more arts education in the schools, she also admits the arts have fallen victim to tight budgets, and many schools fail to provide adequate arts education in their curricula.

 

All this makes the Currier's programs ever more valuable to students who participate.  According to Susan Leidy, the Currier's commitment to educating students in art goes back to the opening day, October 9, 1929, when school children were among the first visitors to the new building.  Today, the Currier has partnerships with the Nashua and Manchester School Districts. Nashua includes all 4th graders for New Hampshire History Through Art, and Manchester includes all 5th graders for Welcome to the Currier. Many of these tours include an art activity afterward, projects relating to the tour's theme. (See the Currier website for a listing of all programs available for school tours.)   

 

A sampling of teacher feedback underscores the success of student tours:

  • "The students really didn't want to leave...it doesn't get any better than that with teenagers." (Hollis-Brookline High School)
  • "Our 4th grade students...made so many connections in their learning about NH History and Fine Art." (Broad Street Elementary, Nashua)
  • "Your docents were very informative and kind..." (Moultonborough Central School)
  • "'At risk' kids...need much help and today was a good day for them.  The museum is beautiful with beautiful art work." (Equity II Program, John Stark)
Michelle Pennington and Christa Zuber
Michelle Pennington and
Christa Zuber


All this takes organization, planning, and preparation.  The three key people who make it happen for children are Christa, who schedules school groups, chooses art projects, and greets visitors; Marilyn Davison - a veteran docent and part-time staff - who assists with all phases of school visits and, most importantly, prepares and runs many of the art activities; and Michelle, who organizes the two special programs, and designs and leads the art activity for Family Saturday. 
 

CarolynHollman

Carolyn Hollman
Museum Docent Chair
669-4893
[email protected]
Museum docents: If you have questions or comments related to your volunteer efforts, please feel free to contact Carolyn Hollman anytime to discuss what's on your mind.

View Museum and Z-House Training Calendars On-Line:
Docent Calendar
                       Z-House Calendar
Petals Unfold for Ninth Season 

Petals2PaintThe ninth annual Petals 2 Paint exhibition will be held April 14 to 16 at East Colony Fine Art, 55 S. Commercial St., Manchester. Hours are from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday's opening night; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday.

The event pairs an art work with floral designers who use the artwork as an inspiration or springboard for their creations. Organizers are seeking people interested in submitting a floral arrangement. Two Currier docents are scheduled to participate in the 2011 event, Nancy Stewart, who creates Ikebana, and Muriel McMillan, who will also represent the Bedford Garden Club. 

 
Sally Shea
For more information, call Sally Shea
624-6661 

[email protected]

BoardPositionBoard Position Open

Meetings and Program Chair Peg Case has completed her two-year term on the Guild executive board.  We extend our sincere thanks to Peg for her excellent service.  If you, or someone you know, would be a perfect fit for this position, please contact Pat Howard (625-6588, [email protected]) or Marilyn Davison (623-0148, [email protected]).

 

If you would like to know more about the position and what it entails, please contact Peg Case (895-2718, [email protected]) and she will tell you all about it.
 

Pat Howard

 

Pat Howard

Executive Vice Chair
625-6588
[email protected] 

Praise for Currier Volunteers 
 

We are half-way through our 2010-2011 fiscal year (July 1, 2010 - Dec 31, 2010).

 

We had 105 active volunteers contributing 5,804.50 hours. More than half the hours were counted in trainings, field trips, museum shop, events, research, and guild responsibilities. Tours accounted for 2,516.25 hours.

 

Twelve volunteers contributed over 100 hours, and a fabulous four contributed over 200 hours: Dennie Dyer, Victoria Duffy, Carolyn Hollman and Richard Russell! Congratulations to all and many thanks.

 

Important: Remember to keep your museum membership current. You must renew annually.
 

JanFebBShepler
Barbara Shepler
Membership Chair

494-6015

[email protected]

PhotoBookSmile: Volunteer Photo Book in the Works

  

Smile! If a member of the Currier Guild of Volunteers stops and asks to take your picture it's because Special Projects is going to create a membership list - with photos - of all Currier volunteers. 

 

This electronic list will include the information that membership chairman, Barbara Shepler, provides on a spread sheet format.  In addition to the photo, name, address, phone number and email address, this list will include where the volunteer serves at the Currier - museum docent, Z-House docent, museum shop, office, or other areas.  This should be especially helpful when a new class of docents begins giving tours as it will allow them to put a face with a name.  Dennie Dyer has started compiling this information electronically and if it proves popular it will become available to all Guild members in a 5 �" x 8 �" booklet. 
 
 

Pam Parrot
Pam Parrot

Special Projects
580-2188
[email protected]

 

Guild of Volunteers Handbook Now Online
 

GuildHandbook

 

Ever wonder about the history of the Guild? How the Guild board is structured? What the committees do? Now, it will be easier than ever to get the information. The Guild of Volunteers handbook is online. To view the Guild Handbook, click here.   
Currier Guild eNewsletters Now Archived 

All Currier Guild members will now have access to previous Guild eNewsletters beginning with the January/February 2010 edition. To go to a previous eNewsletter, simply click on the desired link:

The archived eNewsletters will be accessible via a link in all future editions of the Currier Guild in action eNewsletter.