Cultural Event Report
Cultural Event Report
The Smithsonian American Art Museum was located in Washington DC. As it was close enough, I decided to take a visit and see what it had to offer. The day of the visit was on 5th December. In my opinion, I felt that by studying the art quietly on my own was the best way to gain an understanding of the assignment. At the entrance of the museum, I was greeted by a friendly woman at the front desk who also handed me a map of the museum and a pamphlet.
The museum was very clean and large. On realizing this, I felt confident that I would get the two pieces of art that interested me enough to note. Inside the museum, I noticed that it had been designed according to the broad variety of American art. Some of the significant artists that stood out from where I was standing included Thomas Moran, Winslow Homer and Edmonia Lewis.
The hallway was designed at the center of the museum where it branched into the different rooms. The two main public areas held most of their artwork: the Lunder Conservation Center and the Luce Foundation Center for American Art. Of the two, the Luce Foundation Center for American Art was more prominent as it presented all the art in glass cases. Some of the artwork included sculptures, paintings on screens and crafts (Fitzgerald, 2008).
The Lunder Conservation Center on the other hand had behind-the-scenes expositions of preservation work.
The center was designed in a way that displayed the conservation staff doing the work in recreating and preserving artwork. At the museum, one of the artworks that impressed me the most was the Renwick Gallery. The Renwick Gallery concentrates on the American craft and the decorations from the 19th to the 21st century. The gallery lies in the national Historic Landmark building that was originally the Corcoran gallery of Art. The history of the gallery described that it was first built in 1874 but was later relocated to another site. Efforts by Secretary of the Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley and President Lyndon B. Johnson made sure that the building was turned over to the Smithsonian administration. The Ghost Clock and the Game Fish were the most spectacular aspects.
After finishing with the Renwick Gallery, I walked around the outer compound and had a few snacks before finally ending up at the American Art main building that had several paintings on display. The Smithsonian American Art Museum contains a lot of history on America and other countries that shaped the continent. Her I learnt that the museum doubles up as an exhibition center where over 14 galas have been organized that focus on America culture and history. The famous “Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow” exhibition was hosted at the same museum in 2011. The museum has also embraced technology to improve the provision of relevant information to the customers that come. They have online tours that I browsed through courtesy of the free wireless internet at the site. I also noted that the Major Rafael Soriano paintings were very pricey and uniquely painted in a life-like manner (Slowik, 2006).
I realized that the museum was a vital source of history for America based on several observations. First, the museum is home to many artists of the Renaissance and post- Renaissance eras that helped shape the economic and political dimensions. Artists such as Karen LaMonte and Albert Ryder have produced extraordinary works that reflect global cultures as well as the experiences by Americans. The influence of modernism on the artistic expressions within America has been great and diverse in nature. Modernism applies the past artistic works to create new works. It began in the 20th century when artists started to reflect on the effects and events of the two world wars that were later followed by the Industrial Revolution. English poets for instance started focusing on the uprising Christianity within America when writing their pieces. My visit of the Smithsonian American Art Museum ended with me joining part of our guided tour of the rest of the facilities.
References
Fitzgerald, O. P., & Smithsonian American Art Museum. (2008). Studio furniture of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum. East Petersburg: Fox Chapel Pub.
Slowik, T. J. & Smithsonian American Art Museum., (2006). America’s art, Smithsonian American Art Museum. New York: Abrams.
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