As a TAMA member, the next time you come to the museum for a visit, a tour, an opening or for any other reason, be sure to pick up your MEMBER BADGE! These personalized badges will be kept at the front desk.
Speaking of the Front Desk....if you are a TAM Volunteer who works a shift at the desk, please look for your TAMA membership packet. We are trying to save a little $ on postage by having these picked up by TAMA members who also are TAM volunteers.
If you are a TAMA member but do not volunteer at the desk, your packet should be mailed out this week!! Thank you all so very much for your patience!!!
Monday, June 23, 2014
TAM Stories in Art Date Change....
Please visit our website for updated information on the wildly popular Stories in Art at the TAM! There are 2 dates scheduled in July; the 10th and 24th. Both programs run from 4 - 6 p.m. and are open to children ages 6 to 11. Please call 310-618-2326 to register!
Both programs in July will feature a storytime based on the pieces in the Main Gallery as well as artwork in Gallery Two! Don't miss it. Seating is limited - call today!
Both programs in July will feature a storytime based on the pieces in the Main Gallery as well as artwork in Gallery Two! Don't miss it. Seating is limited - call today!
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Impressive Beginnings....
Our first General Membership Meeting yesterday went very well with our Board of Directors, Bylaws, Orders of the Association and Strategic Plan being unanimously approved!! Also, Natasia Gascon stepped up to become our Membership Chairperson and we had a new member join at the meeting...things couldn't be better for our group and we thank you for helping us to grow.
The minutes from the meeting will be posted on the website and can be accessed through the Membership tab.
We are still looking for an Advocacy Chair!! If you enjoy the 'art' of persuasive cheerleading, we are going to be expressing our concerns to the local leadership about the lack of signage at the TAM and how it seriously impacts attendance and participation at what is unquestionably the premier art venue in the city! If this is something you'd like to help us do, please drop us an email or stop by the museum to pick up an application; we even have business cards now!
Thank you again to all of those who are helping us support the Torrance Art Museum by joining TAMA!
The minutes from the meeting will be posted on the website and can be accessed through the Membership tab.
We are still looking for an Advocacy Chair!! If you enjoy the 'art' of persuasive cheerleading, we are going to be expressing our concerns to the local leadership about the lack of signage at the TAM and how it seriously impacts attendance and participation at what is unquestionably the premier art venue in the city! If this is something you'd like to help us do, please drop us an email or stop by the museum to pick up an application; we even have business cards now!
Thank you again to all of those who are helping us support the Torrance Art Museum by joining TAMA!
Saturday, June 14, 2014
General Membership Meeting Reminder - June 18 @ 1 pm at the TAM
The very first General Membership Meeting of the TAMA will be held on Wednesday, June 18 from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. at the Torrance Art Museum, 3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, in the Conference Room.
We encourage you to join us even if you are not yet a member but are considering membership. Applications will be available at the meeting and are always available at the museum or online at our website.
The Bylaws and Orders will be voted on at this meeting and the strategic plan, the first step in becoming a 501(c)(3) will be discussed. It should be a very productive and informative meeting & we hope to see you there!!
We encourage you to join us even if you are not yet a member but are considering membership. Applications will be available at the meeting and are always available at the museum or online at our website.
The Bylaws and Orders will be voted on at this meeting and the strategic plan, the first step in becoming a 501(c)(3) will be discussed. It should be a very productive and informative meeting & we hope to see you there!!
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Stories in Art: Thursday, June 19th from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. DATE CHANGE TO JULY 24th
 |
Children ages 7-11 years old, and their parents, meet in the Torrance Art Museum Gallery Two for
storytelling. Afterwards, they will tour
the current exhibitions. Following the tour, the participants create
artwork related to the afternoon’s activities in the Children’s Art Wing
of the Torrance Cultural Arts Center.
Register by calling 310 618 2326 or 310 618 2376
Stories in Art is supported by the
Arts Education Partnership Program Grant offered through Supervisor Don
Knabe, Los Angeles County Fourth District. For additional information,
visit us at www.TorranceCA.Gov
The Darkroom presents....
Elizabeth Withstandley's "From Far Away Across The Universe" is the third part of
a multi phase project that started in the summer of 2011. It began
with the launch of a website to collect stories about a friend, Matt
Winthrop, who had passed away the prior year. The website contained a
built in audio recorder, enabling people to speak privately and tell
their story of Matt. Since stories become the record of our existence,
the idea was that through these stories a stranger could get an
understanding of a person they had never met.
The London based artist Cathy Ward was
enlisted to go to a concert by the band Spiritualized and experience it
for Matt. The 37 audio recordings collected on the website were
compiled onto a CD and sent to Cathy, along with a ticket to the
concert. She was instructed to listen to the recordings prior to the
concert so that she could get an idea of whom Matt was and experience
the concert for him. She was also asked to document her experience at
the concert in the form of audio, video and photography.
The installation presents the recorded concert
audio over a video featuring the waveform representation of the show.
Excerpts of the 37 recorded stories can be heard on the opposing side of
the room. Viewers can step in and out at any point and experience part
of the concert and stories, allowing them to be a part of the event
themselves as a transient presence through Matt and Cathy.
"Channel", a short film Cathy created in response to her participation in the project, accompanies the piece.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Link to Online Exhibition @ TAM
Follow this link to see the newest online exhibition at the TAM:
This exhibition proposes that artists are mapmakers, their works, maps, and their audience, orienteers. It also suggests a correlation between its content and form. If maps and mapping strategies are the content, then a virtual exhibition is its form. What is web surfing and its clickstream but synonyms for the mapping of a journey through the digital landscape?
Orienteering comes from the Swedish word orientering. It has its roots in late 19th century military training. Since then, it has since become a popular, competitive sport. It consists of a cross-country race with nothing more than a map and a compass. Minus the competitive aspect, orienteering provides an apt metaphor for this exhibition. We can define it as the reading of works of art. Readers of art use moral compasses to explore the artist’s mapped experience and imagination.
In a general sense, it’s also a sensible way to think about art. Each artist in the exhibition explores and then maps the as-yet unknown territory of her or his respective life. Some of the artists incorporate fragments of actual maps into their work. Some create imaginary, idiosyncratic maps. And some use mapping strategies (for instance, images made from library catalogue cards). Peter Turchi calls mapmaking a two-step process of exploration and presentation. (His topic is writing, but his ideas translate well to art.)
Artists begin at a coordinate-less Ground Zero. Their work process is the odyssey. Their work reveals depths plumbed, insights gained, and grace conferred. Presentation refers to the visual articulation and dissemination of this humanity. More often than not, the work conflates the two processes. Marks on the pictorial surface leave traces of both the journey and its destination. Orienteering, then, shows how the viewer follows the existential breadcrumbs left by the artists.
Like maps, art can be political, social, economic, and philosophical. The work in this exhibition is no exception. Despite their different references, themes, and styles, each work serves to seek, to find, and then to guide. It provides a path as well as a destination. Step by step, it shows the decisions that went into its creation. Critical cartographer Denis Wood notes that mapmakers base their work on conventions and assumptions. So do these artists. In a letter that Thomas Wolfe wrote to F. Scott Fitzgerald, he compared the amount of detail the two writers put in their stories. Fitzgerald, he said, was a "leaver-outter" while he was a "putter-inner." What artists omit is often as significant as what they include.
For every benefit of a virtual exhibition, there’s a drawback. Administrative labor and costs may decrease. At the same time, though, the joy and serendipity of studio visits and shoptalk recede from view. Countless works of art may be available for such an enterprise. And yet, the thrill of seeing studio work hung on a museum wall disappears.
One thing that doesn’t change is scale. In the old days, slide lectures would standardize the size of images on the screen. An enormous Raphael painting and a small Da Vinci drawing would, when projected on the wall, appear to be the same size. Substitute jpegs for slides and, as with maps, you’ve got the same distortion.
You might think that the exhibition’s online installation would be bereft of visual dynamics. Not only does homogenization mess up the works’ proportions. Scrolling down a web page prevents anything but lateral relationships. And, because the space is a virtual one, the work can’t respond to the architecture that created the gallery space. The Curator can’t move viewers through the exhibition by the placement of works. He can neither acknowledge stylistic similarities nor explore thematic atmospheres. Imagine being at a dinner party where you can only talk to your neighbor and not to someone across from you or otherwise down the table. In other words, all the fun of installing an installation is gone. To read the show is like reading text on a papyrus scroll that unfurls up- or downward into an imagined infinity.
It is possible, though, to include more artists and more works than a Gettyesque budget would allow. A virtual show allows the use of hyperlinks for reference. It encourages social media for dialogue. And it takes advantage of email to broadcast the show all over the globe.
This exhibition itself is a map. It results from a journey. Its destination is a beginning. Perhaps it will inspire people to explore otherwise unknown artists and works of art. Perhaps they will do so with the metaphors of mapmaker, map, and orienteer. In so doing, they might discover, as shown here, that art may be infinite but that it's also universal. Finally, they might see how, minus its rants and cants, art can affect their lives. Arrival at any one of these sites would affirm that this exhibition reached its own particular destination.
Art may seem to come out from nowhere, but exhibitions? No way. In addition to Max Presneill, Lisa DeSmidt, and Chris Reynolds at the Torrance Art Museum, I’d like to thank, first and always, the artists and, second, the people (almost all artists, as a matter of fact) who provided such a large and rich pool from which to draw: Lisa Adams, Idurre Alonso, Cristina Barroso, Stephanie Costello, Lisa C Soto, F. Scott Hess, Jennifer Reeves, Jason Rohlf, John Seed, and PE Sharpe.
Cartographia: Artifacts of a Creative Journey
Exhibition Dates: June 7 – July 26, 2014
Curatorial Statement:
At our best, we don’t make road maps so much as
chart the territory (…) Each of us stands at one unique spot in the
universe, at one moment in the expanse of time, holding a blank sheet of
paper. This is where we begin. Peter Turchi, “Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer”
Cartographia: Artifacts of a Creative Journey
This exhibition proposes that artists are mapmakers, their works, maps, and their audience, orienteers. It also suggests a correlation between its content and form. If maps and mapping strategies are the content, then a virtual exhibition is its form. What is web surfing and its clickstream but synonyms for the mapping of a journey through the digital landscape?
Orienteering comes from the Swedish word orientering. It has its roots in late 19th century military training. Since then, it has since become a popular, competitive sport. It consists of a cross-country race with nothing more than a map and a compass. Minus the competitive aspect, orienteering provides an apt metaphor for this exhibition. We can define it as the reading of works of art. Readers of art use moral compasses to explore the artist’s mapped experience and imagination.
In a general sense, it’s also a sensible way to think about art. Each artist in the exhibition explores and then maps the as-yet unknown territory of her or his respective life. Some of the artists incorporate fragments of actual maps into their work. Some create imaginary, idiosyncratic maps. And some use mapping strategies (for instance, images made from library catalogue cards). Peter Turchi calls mapmaking a two-step process of exploration and presentation. (His topic is writing, but his ideas translate well to art.)
Artists begin at a coordinate-less Ground Zero. Their work process is the odyssey. Their work reveals depths plumbed, insights gained, and grace conferred. Presentation refers to the visual articulation and dissemination of this humanity. More often than not, the work conflates the two processes. Marks on the pictorial surface leave traces of both the journey and its destination. Orienteering, then, shows how the viewer follows the existential breadcrumbs left by the artists.
Like maps, art can be political, social, economic, and philosophical. The work in this exhibition is no exception. Despite their different references, themes, and styles, each work serves to seek, to find, and then to guide. It provides a path as well as a destination. Step by step, it shows the decisions that went into its creation. Critical cartographer Denis Wood notes that mapmakers base their work on conventions and assumptions. So do these artists. In a letter that Thomas Wolfe wrote to F. Scott Fitzgerald, he compared the amount of detail the two writers put in their stories. Fitzgerald, he said, was a "leaver-outter" while he was a "putter-inner." What artists omit is often as significant as what they include.
For every benefit of a virtual exhibition, there’s a drawback. Administrative labor and costs may decrease. At the same time, though, the joy and serendipity of studio visits and shoptalk recede from view. Countless works of art may be available for such an enterprise. And yet, the thrill of seeing studio work hung on a museum wall disappears.
One thing that doesn’t change is scale. In the old days, slide lectures would standardize the size of images on the screen. An enormous Raphael painting and a small Da Vinci drawing would, when projected on the wall, appear to be the same size. Substitute jpegs for slides and, as with maps, you’ve got the same distortion.
You might think that the exhibition’s online installation would be bereft of visual dynamics. Not only does homogenization mess up the works’ proportions. Scrolling down a web page prevents anything but lateral relationships. And, because the space is a virtual one, the work can’t respond to the architecture that created the gallery space. The Curator can’t move viewers through the exhibition by the placement of works. He can neither acknowledge stylistic similarities nor explore thematic atmospheres. Imagine being at a dinner party where you can only talk to your neighbor and not to someone across from you or otherwise down the table. In other words, all the fun of installing an installation is gone. To read the show is like reading text on a papyrus scroll that unfurls up- or downward into an imagined infinity.
It is possible, though, to include more artists and more works than a Gettyesque budget would allow. A virtual show allows the use of hyperlinks for reference. It encourages social media for dialogue. And it takes advantage of email to broadcast the show all over the globe.
This exhibition itself is a map. It results from a journey. Its destination is a beginning. Perhaps it will inspire people to explore otherwise unknown artists and works of art. Perhaps they will do so with the metaphors of mapmaker, map, and orienteer. In so doing, they might discover, as shown here, that art may be infinite but that it's also universal. Finally, they might see how, minus its rants and cants, art can affect their lives. Arrival at any one of these sites would affirm that this exhibition reached its own particular destination.
Art may seem to come out from nowhere, but exhibitions? No way. In addition to Max Presneill, Lisa DeSmidt, and Chris Reynolds at the Torrance Art Museum, I’d like to thank, first and always, the artists and, second, the people (almost all artists, as a matter of fact) who provided such a large and rich pool from which to draw: Lisa Adams, Idurre Alonso, Cristina Barroso, Stephanie Costello, Lisa C Soto, F. Scott Hess, Jennifer Reeves, Jason Rohlf, John Seed, and PE Sharpe.
TAMA Thanks its Members!
Appreciate all the TAMA members who came out to support the show. Several new members joined and we offer our most sincere welcome! For those who could not join us, your membership packets are ready and will be mailed in the next week or so. If you prefer to pick up your packet at the TAM, let us know & we'll make arrangements to leave it for you!
Thanks again!!
Thanks again!!
Awesome Opening!!!
Last night was a whirlwind of activity as the Panel Discussion and last minute set up preceded an extraordinary opening for Watchmen, V&B and the Darkroom films....
Here are a few snapshots from the evening...
Here are a few snapshots from the evening...
Friday, June 6, 2014
DATE CHANGE: Curator Tour of Watchmen moved to Saturday July 12 @ 1 p.m.
Please note the previously scheduled curator-led gallery tour scheduled for June has been rescheduled to Saturday, July 12 from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. This is a 'don't miss' opportunity if you are looking for an in-depth curatorial perspective of how Watchmen came to be and the statement the contributing artists are making....
Extraordinary!!
Wow!! Today was simply amazing at the TAM! Those who came to listen to Peter Clothier were led on a transcendent journey of artistic observation through intense visual study countered with closed-eye meditation! It was seriously a very cool way to contemplate and better understand art. He began by explaining that we often spend more time reading the label accompanying the piece than we do looking at the piece itself! Peter also cautioned us to let go of our 'baggage'; preconceived notions of what we 'like' and what we 'dislike' in a painting, an artist or a medium. The hour long activity (it was far from a lecture) was like a field trip in your mind...impressive.
After the business meeting, at which the TAMA Board members were graciously given candles to thank us for Fearlessly and Boldly 'lighting the way' to the future, we were treated to an excellent tour of both Gallery II and the Main Gallery exhibitions. Max Presneill, the TAM curator, and Lisa DeSmidt, Events Coordinator, explained the idea of a 'flaneur' as well as the general concepts behind how artists feel about surveillance. There are 'cameras' everywhere in this exhibition and the entry into the Main Gallery is unlike anything they've ever had before!! Max did remind us that the intent of the TAM is to 'reflect what artists are talking about' and this exhibition certainly aims to do just that. It's all quite exciting.
During the tour Max pointed out similarities of the displayed pieces to some of his favorite works including James Ensor's Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 as well as Gericault's The Raft of Medusa.
Tomorrow is the reception and opening to the public. TAMA Members will enjoy a celebratory glass of champagne & priority seating at the 5:00 p.m. Panel Discussion led by Lisa DeSmidt. If you've not yet joined, but would like to experience the benefits of membership, TAMA members will be on hand to distribute and collect membership forms.
Feel free to post to this blog your comments, observations and insights into this very intriguing exhibition.
After the business meeting, at which the TAMA Board members were graciously given candles to thank us for Fearlessly and Boldly 'lighting the way' to the future, we were treated to an excellent tour of both Gallery II and the Main Gallery exhibitions. Max Presneill, the TAM curator, and Lisa DeSmidt, Events Coordinator, explained the idea of a 'flaneur' as well as the general concepts behind how artists feel about surveillance. There are 'cameras' everywhere in this exhibition and the entry into the Main Gallery is unlike anything they've ever had before!! Max did remind us that the intent of the TAM is to 'reflect what artists are talking about' and this exhibition certainly aims to do just that. It's all quite exciting.
During the tour Max pointed out similarities of the displayed pieces to some of his favorite works including James Ensor's Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 as well as Gericault's The Raft of Medusa.
Tomorrow is the reception and opening to the public. TAMA Members will enjoy a celebratory glass of champagne & priority seating at the 5:00 p.m. Panel Discussion led by Lisa DeSmidt. If you've not yet joined, but would like to experience the benefits of membership, TAMA members will be on hand to distribute and collect membership forms.
Feel free to post to this blog your comments, observations and insights into this very intriguing exhibition.
Looking forward to today!!
The TAM is having a special event today at 11:30 a.m. Guest Speaker Peter Clothier will discuss The Art of Looking. This session is scheduled to run until 12:30. A Docent meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. with a walkthrough of the new exhibitions at 2 p.m. Stop by to join us for a fascinating look at what the TAM has to offer in this next installation.
TAMA Logo Design? Which do you like better?
Here are a couple of options for the new TAMA logo design....do you have a preference?
OR
Let us know what you think!! :)
*The 'silent majority' has spoken and we are going with the one on the bottom!
*The 'silent majority' has spoken and we are going with the one on the bottom!
Monday, June 2, 2014
Our Numbers are Growing!!
Many thanks to all who have RSVPd for our upcoming events at the TAM this week!! We look forward to you joining our group!
That being said, we are also looking for a volunteer to step up to help with MEMBERSHIP! The numbers are increasing and we'll need someone to organize and keep track of all things membership!
If you're interested, drop us an email tamadvocates@gmail.com and we can discuss!
See you at the TAM this Friday & Saturday.
TAMA
That being said, we are also looking for a volunteer to step up to help with MEMBERSHIP! The numbers are increasing and we'll need someone to organize and keep track of all things membership!
If you're interested, drop us an email tamadvocates@gmail.com and we can discuss!
See you at the TAM this Friday & Saturday.
TAMA
Sunday, June 1, 2014
South Bay Focus Applications are now Available
Click here to view and download the application for this year's South Bay Focus hosted by the Torrance Art Museum...
TAM announces:
This year's Juror is Scott Canty, Director and Curator of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
Artists from Long Beach are now welcome to apply in addition to other cities in the South Bay.
TAM announces:
This year's Juror is Scott Canty, Director and Curator of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
Artists from Long Beach are now welcome to apply in addition to other cities in the South Bay.
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