News

Mar 28, 2018

Baffled by Conceptual Art? So Are Will Ferrell and Joel McHale in This Museum’s Short Film

Eric Hirshberg directs the Hammer's self-deprecating comedy

Featured on adweek.com

Museums are often pretty humorless when it comes to their artwork. It’s rare for them to acknowledge that art can be confusing—particularly conceptual art, where the artist’s choices can seem self-indulgent or bafflingly arbitrary.

But the Hammer Museum at UCLA leans into that confusion in an amusing new short film made by some A-list talent in front of, and behind, the camera.

Mar 27, 2018

Does Having a Day Job Mean Making Better Art?

Featured on nytimes.com

Mar 26, 2018

Whether it's art and music therapy or art and music as therapy, it calms traumatized teens

Featured on usatoday.com

Music and art are increasingly being used as tools for therapy for high school students who have faced trauma — from sexual abuse to homelessness — and have been proven to help students cope, both physically and psychologically.

Studies have shown that participating in music and art can alleviate pain, help people manage stress, promote wellness, enhance memory, improve communications, aide physical rehabilitation, and give people a way to express their feelings.

Mar 22, 2018

Even plastic art decays, but museum curators are on the case

Scientists can help them save their polymer-based collections.

Featured on popsci.com

On its face, art is often about beauty. From Mona Lisa’s demure smile to the blue dapple of Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise,” we flock to museums and galleries in search of the sublime. Museum curators ostensibly choose to dedicate their lives to art for the same reason—a profound desire to be closer to beauty—but they quickly learn something many viewers don’t: That art is more often a story of decay and destruction.

Mar 21, 2018

VR project brings late Picasso work to life, at last

Bust of a Woman, which was never realised, would have been the world's tallest concrete sculpture

Featured on theartnewspaper.com

For almost 50 years, the artist Pablo Picasso’s wild vision for a massive 102ft high public monument, which was to have been the world's tallest concrete sculpture, has remained unrealised. Now, however, scholars at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, are venturing to make it a reality—that is to say, a virtual reality.

Mar 20, 2018

Is Instagram Ruining Art? One Museum Is Trying 'Photo Free' Hours

Featured on time.com

“This one is going to be tough,” a woman said on Wednesday evening, with her phone clutched to her heart like a missionary holding a Bible.

Mar 19, 2018

Crate & Barrel to launch a new line of products designed by Philly public school kids

Featured on philly.com

Most kids’ grade-school art projects get thrown onto their parents’ refrigerator (and often later into the trash). For a group of lucky fifth through ninth graders, their hand-drawn designs are landing a spot in the “home” section of Crate & Barrel.

Mar 15, 2018

Beyond Frank Lloyd Wright: A Broader View of Art in Chicago

Featured on nytimes.com

Museums throughout the Chicago metropolitan area have begun an ambitious collaborative effort to flesh out the city’s art history beyond the well-known stories of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. At institutions large and small, 29 exhibitions on unsung artists, including Bill Walker, Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Ralph Arnold, are rolling out this year under the banner Art Design Chicago.

Mar 14, 2018

To Reach New Audiences, Museums Are Redefining What They Offer

Featured on nytimes.com

As guests walk into the lobby of the Indianapolis Museum of Art they are greeted by a seven-and-a-half-foot blue plastic snail, often surrounded by a group of squealing, joyful children daring to touch it.

Mar 13, 2018

Why anti-opioid protesters littered a legendary New York art space with pill bottles

Featured on cnn.com

On Saturday, orange and white pill bottles floated by the hundreds in the reflecting pool in front of the iconic Temple of Dendur in New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

At first glance, the Sackler Wing at the famed art museum may seem a strange place for an anti-opioid demonstration, but protesters there wanted to call to attention the link between the wing's donors and the ongoing opioid crisis in America.

Mar 12, 2018

Art galleries 'must embrace digital technology' as the battle against phones is lost

Featured on telegraph.co.uk

or some, there is little more maddening than visiting an art gallery only to find hordes of visitors staring intently, not at the paintings but at their mobile phones.

From today, that sight is not to be sniffed at but encouraged, as the government urges museums and galleries to embrace all things digital to cater to the expectations of a new generation.

Mar 09, 2018

Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Recognizes Talents from Public Service Sector

Once again, the walls of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center were beautifully transformed by more than 200 pieces of artwork during the month of February for their 18th Annual NAP Exhibit. The show, which displays artwork from City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library employees, retirees and their family members, provides an opportunity for participants to be recognized for their artistic talents, an occasion not often afforded to those in the field of public service.

Mar 09, 2018

How Google's New Art Palette Could Help Designers

Featured on architecturaldigest.com

Mar 08, 2018

Projection art brings old Vegas neon signs back to life

Featured on foxnews.com

The Vegas strip has a rich history – and one museum is devoted purely to the collection of old hotel signs that once graced Las Vegas Boulevard.

Standing as a final resting place for old Las Vegas hotel signs, the Neon Museum’s “boneyard” lets visitors be transported back in time when Frank Sinatra and Liberace were selling out performances.

Mar 07, 2018

Osceola Artists Continue to Share their Talents with Social Media

Although thirteen may be considered unlucky by some, it was a momentous year for several artists who received recognition at this year’s Osceola County NAP Exhibit. It was an especially significant year for previous venue coordinator and long-time participant, Juliana Davidson-Ross, who celebrated her long-standing goal of winning first place in the Professional category by sharing this picture on Instagram caption with, “Oh my goodness!