Details About TAM Japan Fundraiser

[Previous: Japanese Artists Said To Be Uninjured]

Here is the email call for artists and the public regarding the just-organized fundraiser coinciding with the opening reception of the still-happening Gateway Japan show on March 26.

The idea originated in an email from one of show's Japanese co-curators, who said artists in her circle coming for the show would bring small artworks to donate for charitable sale.

Picking up on that idea, TAM's text follows:

“An easy give and take” (quoted from Jackson Pollock)

A fundraiser event for the Japanese Red Cross

Saturday 26th March, 12 noon – 9pm at the Torrance Art Museum

Calling ALL artists

On Saturday 26th March the Torrance Art Museum will place tables out in the patio area and ask that artists who wish to support the relief efforts for Japan bring a small artwork to donate. We will ask $50, cash only, for ALL artworks - all of the funds raised to be donated to the Japanese Red Cross.

Works can be delivered to the museum from 12 noon onwards and will be available to buy at any time, with anything sold removed there and then by buyer. The fundraiser will continue throughout the Opening Reception, from 6-9pm, of the exhibition Gateway Japan – an exhibition of Japanese and Japanese American artists (details below).

FOR THE PUBLIC

Please come and show your support, meet the artists who have flown in from Tokyo for this event as well as our local artists and the artists who are donating to this event - and for the small amount of $50 walk away with an original work of art, see a real Sumo Wrestling bout, meet some great artists, and knowing that a great cause was served too.

Any unsold works will be placed online for sale after the opening reception on a dedicated website.

More information is available at www.torranceartmuseum.com

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE

The Time Between Shows -- Part IVSMMOA's Lisa Melandri

Here's another entry in our continuing series of asking museum and gallery curators and directors about how they feel about, and experience, the time between shows -- the period following the public end of one exhibition and the public opening of the next.

[Previous: curators; a preparator; photos.]

"I think that there is often a sadness at seeing something go that you enjoyed and worked on for so long but it is a quick reaction because you are really focused and sometimes anxious about the logistical concerns of the 'next one'— the crates arriving on time, the installation going smoothly, and then the thrill of seeing all the work out and in the same place. A little sadness gives way to an extraordinary amount of excitement and expectation."

-- Lisa Melandri, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, Santa Monica Museum of Art

Japanese Artists Said To Be Uninjured

[Previous: Hopes, Thoughts With Japan]

Sixteen full or part-time residents of Japan are scheduled to participate in the Torrance Art Museum's upcoming exhibition.

All sixteen of those people are apparently accounted for and uninjured following the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the island nation.

That's the news, relayed second-hand, thanks to TAM director and curator Max Presneill's email exchanges with two Tokyo gallery directors who are in touch with the various artists.

Presneill has corresponded with Ei Kibukawa, who runs the Eitoeiko gallery in Tokyo, and Yuko Wakaume, who is Presneill's co-curator for the forthcoming TAM Gateway Japan show.

Kibukawa and Wakaume's emails speak to the devastation to the northeast, as well as the limited power, gas, water, phone service, and public transportation in Tokyo. One of the pair notes feeling a "BIG" -- in all caps -- aftershock while or perhaps just prior to corresponding.

Kibukawa and Wakaume's emails both mention the nuclear crisis -- which has worsened since.

As of the time of their emails, each of the pair still plan on coming to Torrance for the opening reception. Each clearly expects the exhibition to still take place, indicate how it could be cathartic, and request that it be charitable.

The Museum is already planning a special art sale towards the latter -- and also posted a banner on its website homepage advising how to text money for eathquake relief.

Originally, as many as eight of the twelve year-round Japanese resident artists were expected to come to Torrance for the opening.

Kibukawa's email indicates that he will still be bringing the artists in his circle -- either three or four people. Wakaume was -- and still is -- anticipated to travel with three or four others.

More information will be posted here as it becomes available; all of this is clearly subject to change.

The fourteen full or part-time Japanese residents in the Gateway exhibition line-up are:

Masura Aikawa
Taku Anekawa
Shusuke Ao
Shingo Francis (lives in Japan and U.S.)
Tomoo Gokita
Yuki Hashimoto
Minako Kumagai
Gil Kuno (lives in Japan and U.S.)
Satoshi Saegusa
Keiko Sakamotoo
Akira Shikiya
Akihiro Yasugi
Kenichi Yokono
Yuki Yoshida

Was TAM's Exhibition A Success?And How Is Success Here JudgedToday's Question for TAM's Max Presneill

TAM's exhibition, What's New, Pussycat? closed March 6, 2011. TAM's next exhibition, Gateway Japan, is as of this writing, scheduled to open March 26, 2011. (Hopes and thoughts.)

During The Time Between Shows (see this link for more information, please
http://writer.torranceartmuseum.com/2011/03/time-between-shows-part-ii.html), this blog checked in with TAM's curator and director Max Presneill.

We'll be presenting one question and one answer during an eleven-day period.

Today's question and answer --

Jeremy Rosenberg: How was What's New, Pussycat? received? And what are useful criteria for deciding how any show has been received? Does quantity of attendees matter? Quality of critical reviews? Volume of tweets? Reaction of the artists involved?

Max Presneill: WNP was a big one -- in reputations of the artists involved, in the amount of buzz and attention. We had a really big opening and the number of visitors was high over the entire run. I don’t know what the exact figures were (they are being tallied up now) but they were very good. Of course sheer numbers does not tell you if a show was good or not. Nor does the amount of reviews or tweets, etc.

For me the criteria of the quality of an exhibition is a more subtle affair – ones own judgment, those of ones peers too, both count. It is a critical evaluation a bit like how anyone can tell when furniture is well laid out in a room (for the install), well lit, etc. In some ways it is a success if people like it and do not even notice the hand of the curator -- if things just seem to be well placed, the flow through the space is smooth, the works lit so you don’t even pay that attention and most importantly of all, if the theme is strong enough to encourage conversations about the show and the works selected for it create an engaging experience. The artists themselves are often the harshest critics of these matters so having them happy is a big plus too.

Tomorrow: Kristin Klosterman and Laddie John Dill.

The Time Between Shows -- Part IIIThe Preparator's View

Last week, we heard from seven art and culture museum and gallery curators and directors about how they feel about and experience the time between shows -- the period following the public end of one exhibition and the public opening of the next.

Today, we present a preparator's view of that same period.

Here's the link back to what the curators and directors said.

And here's what Matt Driggs, an L.A.-based artist, curator, and accomplished preparator, says:

"As most of the people that have written on this subject are on the curating side
of the "between exhibitions," I will speak to my experience as Chief Prepartor
and Exhibition Designer at the USC Fisher Museum of Art.

"The Fisher is a small-to-medium sized institution perhaps a little bit bigger than the Torrance Museum. At the Museum, between shows it was all hands on deck - the preparators, curator, educator, receptionist and even the director could be called on to perform a task (though the director was usually the last person you would ask
for help).

"An exhibit would end -- the old artwork was taken down, placed in crates, packed
and shipped out -- walls were torn down, new walls put up - mudded and painted,
and new crates were shipped in for the upcoming exhibition.

"Curators became registrars - white gloves placed on hands to remove the artwork from the crates (as not to mark up the object) and every nook and cranny of the artwork checked for scratches, nicks or marks. If there was an aberration on the painting or sculpture, it is marked down on the condition report to provide proof that the Museum was not liable for its damage.

"When there was a small exhibit at the Fisher, I would perform 90% percent of the
installation work. If there was an elaborate installation for an exhibit, I
could be in need for up to seven [additional] preparators to install and handle artwork. During these busy times I would act more as facilitator than workhorse, moving with each of the workers and stopping to help them when a difficult task would come up.

"During my time at the Museum I could had scrubbed the floor with little more than a toothbrush and the next minute (after a hand wash and some white gloves) moved and installed a painting well worth over a million dollars."

-- Matt Driggs, former Exhibition Designer and Chief Preparator at the USC Fisher Museum and former Curator at Edward Giardina Contemporary Art and Raid Projects.

Again:

Here's the link back to what the curators and directors said.

And here are a few photos from the time currently at TAM between shows.

Thoughts, Hopes With Japan

Like people everywhere, our thoughts and hopes are with the people of Japan, and the Japanese diaspora.

The Torrance Art Museum's next scheduled exhibition is titled, Gateway Japan, and is to feature the works of 21 artists who are either from Japan, or of Japanese heritage.

The list of those artists is on the museum's home page, along with images of the artists' works -- some of which appear particularly more poignant in light of cataclysmic events.

At least six of the Japanese artists, and the Japanese co-curator of the show, had been scheduled to travel to Torrance and attend the Gateway opening reception.

A box from one of the artists had already arrived at the museum.

We'll check in now with TAM's director to see if he's heard from any of the seven. More here when we learn more.

The Time Between Shows - Part II

As noted in our previous post, this blog emailed the following question to Max Presneill, TAM's director and curator:

"What's New, Pussycat, closes March 5. Are the final few days of a show -- particularly one you co-curated -- exciting? Sad? Bittersweet?"

Presneill's emailed reply:

"By the time the close of a show arrives we are already way into the next exhibition – arranging shipping, getting the catalog together and that sort of thing. We have moved on from that particular relationship and are courting the next one, ha, ha."

How would Presneill's response compare with that of fellow art and culture professionals in and around Los Angeles?

We checked in with a handful of those folks this week, asking about their own experiences between shows they've put together or overseen.

The below are among the texted and emailed replies:

**

"To me it was like a Saturday... A restful period between work periods."

-- Adolfo V. Nodal, curator, gallery and museum director

**

"I like the time between shows -- one of my favorite things about it is the potential inherent within the empty yet charged space."

-- Irene Tsatsos, Director of Gallery Programs, The Armory Center for the Arts

**

"It only looks like a breathing space from outside, usually it's a hectic time -- the exhibition may be closed as far as the public is concerned, but the logistics of deinstallation and reinstallation then arise -- getting stuff off the walls/floor, packed up, stored or returned/picked up; patching and painting walls, even moving them; collecting unpacking and installing new work. To say nothing of the PR, website update, writing and printing labels, catalogs etc. And of course conceptualizing and designing new exhibitions.

"There's a great book called "Art Worlds" by Howard Becker, from the `80s which unpacks some of the people and tasks involved with the intention of demonstrating that work is not the product of a single artist but everyone who supports the work's production and display, from canvas weavers to security staff; the action of a multiplicity not a singular individual, in other words.

"When I was co-directing Raid [Projects] with Max [Presneill] we did a new exhibition every month, that was a conveyor belt of action that never stopped. Maybe the first or second week of the exhibition were times of a slight lull -- but that might just have been the result of collapse due to exhaustion."

-- Janet Owen Driggs, curator, writer, former co-director of Raid Projects

**

"At the Studio [for Southern California History] the period in between exhibits usually is a scurrying period of cleaning and whitewashing. It is often a period of cleansing and the last time we did it in between Law & Disorder and Love is Living Large there was a great excitement waiting for the new exhibit. I normally am too exhausted to really think about it. However, I am usually so sick of an exhibit by the time it goes down that to have it go away is a fantastic feeling of accomplishment."

--Sharon Sekhon, Founder & Executive Director, the Studio for Southern California History

**

"In my experience that period is when I have felt a nice concentration of creative energy. The sense of possibility in the new presentation is still felt because it is still being realized and the type of questions that run through your mind are will it live up to my expectations? will the artist be able to actualize their ideas? how will everything look installed?"

-- Name Withheld, director of an arts and culture organization

**

"The period between exhibitions is full of hustle and bustle. It feels like there are a million and one things to accomplish, and all while we are winding down the previous exhibition! Has all the art been received yet, when is it being installed? Are the press kits finished, post card, catalog, website, is the gallery prep done? It's all very exciting!"

-- Colton Stenke, former Assistant Curator, Torrance Art Museum