Last night was New Music night at the Museum. As Brad and his Quartet were setting up and practicing I eavesdropped a bit and had an epiphany.

Each month composer's and their groups play their music in the front gallery at our historic site in Furman Park. For art this is a tough room. The walls are not even and there are deadzones that will challenge the best curator and installer.  Something I probably shouldn't be telling the public but I promised to talk about place in all its facets.

A deadzone is a place in the room where you have to hang something really strong or it just dies and becomes invisible. 

So to me this room is not the best room for art.

I found out last night what it is good for. Music!

I overheard Brad saying what a great room it was to play in, not only because it is intimate but because the (unintended) accoustics are so terrific! They love to play the room.

Art too at its best has music and energy to it, we just can't hear it, we sense it if we tune in. Works that resonate.

Maybe a sense of place is also finding the best match for a room and for its use, where two purposes collide and create something amazing. What would place be like if we made the effort?

Will we change this from a gallery, well no. We need all the space we can get.

Last night though opened my mind to the prospect that a concert hall can be created in many ways. For the heart of the concert hall wherever it is, whatever it is made of, it is the art, the music, the mastery of the musicians, the innovation of the composer, the ears and minds of the listeners that makes the place.

Listen to a few moments from our little concert hall.
  Brad Dutz Quartet, an improvisation from Brad's Kanagawa series (#7 & 11).

Last week we filmed Ed giving a talk in Venice at L.A. Bioneers that will air later this summer here when we launch a new on-line program Culture Chronicles: Ideas on Life. 

Ed's committment to the environment and living green is legendary.
His advice on how to begin living the green life? Start where you are, with what you can afford and build from there.

One thing I think we don't realize is that Ed had to do the same thing. He said he dreamed of solar power yet it took him years and years before he could afford to achieve the dream.

So it seems that being green is like anything in life there is a learning curve and we find our way both with our hearts and our pocketbooks.

And Ed is there at the head of the trail cheering us on.

  photo credit: c. Wendy Owens

As Chair for the Green Museums Initiative, I have just finished the final copy for the Greening the Conference booklet for California Association of Museums.

This is our second booklet 'Walking the Talk' that makes visible all the ways we worked to make the Annual Conference more green, more sustainable.

I think the booklets can also be helpful for home or office, for everyday life so check out the booklets, print a copy for your 'Living the Green Life' files.

Click the year to obtain the file: 2008   2007

"Support California's diverse museums".

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Did you know that:

A Museum is a zoo, an aquarium, a garden, an historic house, a science center as well as a cultural, natural history or art museum.

In our everyday work at the Museum, we meet incredible minds, talk with noted artists, visionaries, listen to creative ideas on life....all an opportunity to expand our world. We want to bring this same opportunity to and share these ideas with students in our community, our next leaders.

Our Youth Afield program focuses on High School arts students because we feel it is important to use our resources to support young adults at a turning point in their lives.

Our pilot field trip was a huge success:

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Beyond Ultraman  pulls inspiration from popular culture, creating art as popular culture. Art Toys.

(David Horvath)

Kenny Scharf’s Kosmic Kavern mural in the garage of PMCA was the first artwork the students saw! A perfect set up for the Beyond Ultraman exhibit.

Kenny Scharf is a well-known artist who became an art star in the 1980’s. Scharf and Keith Haring, along with their French counterparts Francois Boisrond and Herve Di Rosa, drew inspiration from the popular culture of comics, TV, music and animation (re: The Jetsons/ Scharf) to create new worlds or to narrate their own lives (Boisrond). Beyond Ultraman artists like Scharf and his contemporaries in the 80’s, draw from the same source.

The curation and installation for Beyond Ultraman was fabulous!

David Gonzales’ Homies (the long Lucite case and its air of sophistication was the perfect juxtaposed display) and Tim Biskup’s towering stand of Calli dolls surprised me. A thrill.

On this, my second visit,  a Gary Baseman Dunce came home with me. And dreams of commissioned pieces for the new museum!

The Afield journey also visited LACMA for Dali & Film. Students weren’t off the bus before they were asking when the next field trip was scheduled!

Beyond Ultraman was curated by LATDA.

LATDA is an exciting new Museum (currently without walls) that evokes magic and energetically seeks to amuse and engage visitors in a sense of play. Learn more about LATDA visit their site at latdamuseum.org

P.S. I am a huge fan (and member) of LATDA and like Calli dolls and Dunces dancing in my head, I dream too of LATDA as a bricks and mortar site….wishing they could join us as  part of a museum campus along with Columbia Space Learning Center at Downey Studios development!  A wonderful dream!

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photo credits: Students c. George Redfox; all other photos courtesy of LATDA.

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Postscript 2-16-08: 

I was thinking about what makes an exhibit great. Beauty. Innovation. Imagination. Something we haven’t quite seen before or in a way we haven’t experienced yet.

On opening night of Beyond Ultraman I eavesdropped on conversations as we left the party.

On the extreme, a well dressed woman in her 60’s was moving slowly towards the parking lot saying to anyone who passed ‘Wasn’t that the best show you’ve seen in a long time!’ I think she was slightly stunned, but ecstatic. She showed definite signs of euphoria.

People across the board came away happy.

In the cool sometimes austere contemporary art landscape, an exhibit like this directly accomplishes what art sets out, it wakes us up to our lives.

So the answer I came away with is simple: people want to be inspired.

“We are all looking for true home…a place that magnetizes us…that energizes us to believe in possibilities and the promise of a life well lived…where something magical is just around the corner.

A place where the reflection strengthens us, where we live our wholeness, where all of us is present. A place where ideas & inspiration find us easily.

And for the practical souls: good soil, clean air & water, good food, amenities we love, the essentials, architecture we like to look at, a friendly atmosphere that allows for meaningful encounters & worthwhile conversations….”

I wrote this last New Year’s as a gift for my friends, a little soul game for a new year of adventure. Notice place. Notice where you feel at home.

It is clear to me now that in a chaotic political world, a sense of true place has never been more important.

Too, I hadn’t realized then that the work we have been doing at DMOA for some time is about creating a sense of place. The ideas of what makes us at home in the world, what creates authentic place and what is most important about place to each of us.

The words I wrote to my friends in fact describe our dream for this new ‘place’ we are building here, physically building here, our first new project, DMOA @ The Glidehouse.

Building community, illuminating the village green, and making it accessible to all is just a part of creating a new space. Authenticity. Imbuing a place with a sense of meaning or belonging. Creating space where new ideas can live and become visible. Making visitors and artists feel at home. These are more intangible aspects of building that sense of place.

Creating anything new is like finding true home.

In the coming months, I’ll share more than our ideas of place. I’ll share our story with you.

Welcome to DMOA and to the journey of discovering and building a new sense of place.

All the best,
Kate Davies