Displaying items by tag: members

This August and September, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York will offer members an exclusive look at James Turrell’s major site-specific work Aten Reign. The popular installation will be showcased in Quiet Views, allowing visitors the chance to experience the luminous and immersive work in an intimate and meditative environment.

James Turrell, an American artist who is best known for his works that explore light and space, spent nearly six years planning the massive installation that has transformed the Guggenheim’s iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda. Quiet Views consists of four events taking place on the evenings of August 12, August 19, September 9, and September 23 and will include two sittings on each day. Only sixty people will be present at each hour-long sitting.

James Turrell was organized by the Guggenheim in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In honor of Art Museum Day, approximately 180 art institutions across the United States will offer free entry or reduced admission rates on May 18, 2013. The event, which is in its 4^th year, was planned by the Association of Art Museum Directors and is meant to unite the organization’s members. Many institutions will also offer special events and programming in honor of Art Museum Day, which coincides with International Museum Day for countries outside of the U.S.

Participating institutions include some of the most renowned museums in the country such as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), the High Museum of Art (Atlanta), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the Frick Collection (New York). A full list of participating museums can be seen here.

This year’s Art Museum Day theme is museums (memory + creativity) = social change.

For the first time in its 187-year history, the New York-based National Academy will welcome photographers, video artists, and performance artists to its organization. A community of artists, students, museum-goers, and supporters of the arts, the National Academy had previously only allowed painters, sculptors, printmakers, and architects to be voted into membership. Known as National Academicians, each year since 1825 a select group of the country’s most celebrated artists are elected to become members of the Academy.

This year’s inductees include the video and performance artist Joan Jonas (b. 1936), photographer Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), and video artist Bill Viola (b. 1951). Twenty other newly elected visual artists and architects will join the Academy’s 300+ active members this year. After being inducted, each Academician presents the Academy Museum with a selection from their oeuvre. The National Academy Museum’s permanent collection currently includes over 7,000 works. Past and present National Academicians include Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), and Frank Gehry (b. 1929).

The National Academy also includes the Academy School, which offers studio-based classes. Over 30 faculty members lead courses and workshops in painting, drawing, sculpture, new media, video and photography, printmaking, mixed media, and art theory.

Members of the Los Angeles County of Museum of Art currently pay $400 a year for exclusive access at the institution. All of that is about to change as museum director, Michael Govan, announced that he will be raising annual fees for members to $1,000 a year. A $250-level museum membership must be purchased separately annually. The announcement has council members as well as art enthusiasts and professionals threatening to leave the institution.

While Govan stands behind his decision, some feel he is jeopardizing the support of smaller donors and will scare off younger people from becoming members. At a meeting for council members on Tuesday, November 27, Govan explained his decision, stating that the changes are part of a larger restructuring plan to simplify the museum’s system and make it more professional. Govan also plans to dismantle each of the ten museum council boards, leaving only a chairperson to assist the department curator and development staff.

The fee increase will go into effect in January for new members and in June for existing ones.