Shipping Big Art

big truck full of art crates

SMoCA is getting ready to open a new exhibition: Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth will open to the public (this means you gentle reader) on July 30th. What are we doing until then? Receiving and unpacking giant crates. The exhibition was organized by the fabulous Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and then packed up and shipped to us. When the show closes we'll ship it to Los Angeles and then it goes to Seattle. For a preview see video of Nick's work here.

art crates safely moved into the empty gallery

Farmer’s Market at the Citadelle Plaza in Glendale

Up for a fun, mid-week gathering? Head over to the Twilight Farmer’s Market at Citadelle Plaza, near Utopia and 59th Avenue. It happens each Wednesday from 6 – 9 PM through the month of July. It’s got a lot to offer, including flowers, sweets, music, and of course produce. SMoCA is there each week, so look for the table with the special light-up pens and flashlights.

Artists on Artists

Night (or rather afternoon) at the Museum

Do you ever wonder what happens inside the museum on the days we are closed (Mondays all year and Tuesdays from Memorial Day to Labor Day)? Sometimes we have a little fun. In order to celebrate the end of the fiscal year, we had a super-secret gathering in the museum for our friends and colleagues at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and Scottsdale Public Art. We even carefully demonstrated Martin Kersel's Headache:

Headache is part of Seriously Funny and if you've not seen the exhibition you are about to miss out as it closes on Sunday.

Arts Engagement Program

After being an active SMoCA docent for over ten years, I was ready for a new challenge. That presented itself when I was asked to join the Arts Engagement Program. It is a joint venture with Banner Health, serving early stage Alzheimer's patients. It has been found that exposing people to art and music can be very helpful in broadening horizons, renewing confidence and helping to socialize with others again. The improvement we see in each participant, from the first to last sessions, is huge and being part of the program is one of the most gratifying and joyful experiences I've ever had. -Lois Meyers, SMoCA Docent

Update 7-8-09, here is a great article on the Arts Engagement Program

Sketching (with Children) in the Galleries

Last night the Museum was alive! We had approximately 438 people walk through SMoCA’s doors. The galleries were filled with a variety of people, from City politicians to local families. I had the honor of instructing twelve children, ages 6-12, from a local homeless shelter. As many of you know, we have our FREE Thursday night programs at the Museum this summer. Last night was a “Sketching in the Galleries” event for our soon-to-close exhibition Seriously Funny. The homeless shelter contacted us in advance and asked if they could bring a group of children from the shelter to participate in the sketching activity. Laura Hales, associate curator of education, enlisted me and Lesley Oliver to teach their group while she took the adults through the sketching exercises.

Lesley Oliver and I took it on with excitement. The group was a little shy and unsure of themselves at first, but once we got into the activities the children started to bloom. Jason, the shelter representative, said that he felt the museum offered an environment free of judgment. The children were allowed to think, share and be whatever they wanted. They were thrilled to get a chance to express their ideas. Many of them had never been to a museum before. At one point, I sat down next to them and pulled out my own sketch pad. I could hear all of their pencils moving and erasers erasing. Their eyes surveyed the objects in artist Alejandro Diaz’s display of corn, pots, chilies, gourds and matates. Their brains processed the idea of positive and negative space. As I did the same, I realized that sketching allows us to be immersed in our private world, so much that we can release the stresses of our life to be present in the moment. We all shared our work and gave positive comments. I wanted the kids to know that what they sketched did not have to be “perfect” by normal standards. Who says that an upside down police officer has to look like an upside down police officer on your sketch pad? Many of them caught on and took their sketching into their own hands. By the time we were finished I didn’t want it to be over. I felt that I received just as much from their presence as they received from being at the Museum. - Lauren Chambers

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” -Pablo Picasso

SMoCA’s Rewind Remix Replay Design Intern Speaks Out!

Do you love your iPod because of the way it looks or the brand or because it can hold 8,000 songs? Why am I, an industrial design major at ASU, working at SMoCA on an exhibition about music culture?

Industrial design ranges from product design, design of everyday objects like your mp3 player, toothbrush and shoes. Well, I don’t design factories (and don’t want to); I also don’t put an industrial feel into interior design. (I hear that often.)

At SMoCA, I am using my knowledge of design history to research pivotal moments in music design—the Braun radio (a precursor to the iPod designed in 1958), Moog synthesizers and Wah-pedals for guitars. The other day I was so excited to see that MoMA has some of Dieter Rams’ work in their archives!

As a designer, it has made me feel really hopeful that good design can be respected in the way art is appreciated, and not forgotten. In a day in age where every year there is a new gadget, the choices may seem overwhelming and frivolous —just following suit with ‘planned obsolescence.’ This exhibition really highlights the unique places were design and music meet, where the user becomes the designer or where the designer learns from the user to create something beneficial. Design isn’t about consumerism and it isn’t just another step towards ‘planned obsolescence’.

So far it’s been fun hunting through archives, contacting potential lenders, as well as learning how making an exhibition works. Get ready, Rewind Remix Replay: Design, Music & Everyday Experience opens December 19, 2009!

MUSIC DESIGN CALL FOR OBJECTS @ SMoCA

SHARE YOUR LOVE OF DESIGN AND MUSIC FROM 1950 TO 2010 WITH SMOCA

Think back to the time you first fell in love with music. How did you play your first album? What instruments have you used to make music? Has that changed over the years? Would you like to lend to a museum exhibition and help us explore these questions?

The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art invites Valley residents to bring their boomboxes, record players, turntables, walkmans, guitars, synthesizers and related paraphernalia to the Museum to be considered for inclusion in the exhibition, Rewind Remix Replay: Design, Music and Everyday Experience. All objects will be reviewed by SMoCA staff and Prasad Boradkar, Associate Professor, Industrial Design at Arizona State University and guest curator of the exhibition. The exhibition will be on view at SMoCA from December 19, 2009 to May 23, 2010.

The Museum is particularly interested in portable listening devices, playback machines, musical instruments and related advertisements and related attachments from the 1950s to 2010. If you have unique objects (like record players designed for cars, flashy boomboxes that light up, or other unusual products), we would love to see them. People should not bring clothing and all items must be in excellent condition to be considered. If your item is too large to easily transport to the Museum, please bring a photograph instead. The Museum will not offer appraisals of any items.

Each person who brings one or more items (or photographs of items) will receive free admission to SMoCA on June 27 as well as two free passes to come back and see the exhibition Rewind Remix Replay: Design, Music and Everyday Experience.

For questions related to the object search or the exhibition, contact:
Claire C. Carter, curatorial coordinator, at 480-874-4630 or clairec@sccarts.org

WHERE: Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) 7374 East Second Street Scottsdale, AZ 85251

WHEN: Saturday, June 27 10:00 – 3:00pm

SMoCA goes underground

SMoCA has been participating in the Old Town Scottsdale Farmer’s Market since November. It’s been a little roasty out there the past few weeks. But we aren’t letting that scare us away. We are just going underground. For the month of June, the market will be at that same parking garage on 1st and Brown--just a level below. We will be out of the sun and it is a good 10 degrees cooler there. So take the steps down a level and come see SMoCA and the other vendors at the Farmer’s Market Saturday.

Sketching in the Galleries, Free Thursdays, May 28

The Callahan, Siskind, Sommer galleries were filled with people of all ages, who found cool stuff to sketch from the over 100 photographs on view. While sketching, they listened to music composed by Frederic Sommer, and left with awe-inspiring sketches—just ask this little girl!

The next sketching evening at SMoCA will be on June 25, 6:30-7:30 in the Seriously Funny galleries. It will be seriously fun. I promise.

-- Laura H., SMoCA education department

you want free? you want cool?

SMoCA celebrates summer 2009 with Free Thursday Nights. Click on the image to make it bigger, or check out the schedule on smoca.org or facebook (are you a fan of SMoCA yet?)

SMoCA needs YOU!

Art is missing and we'd like your help. Work in our Seriously Funny exhibition by Nina Katchadourian (pictured at left) was installed on 5th Street and Roosevelt in downtown Scottsdale. The exhibition was originally to close on May 24th, but it has been extended to July 5th. Some eager, art-loving soul, came and collected all of the signs on May 25th. So we appeal to the sign-taker: "Please bring them back to SMoCA." We won't ask questions. Really.

Did you know?

Did you know that our current exhibition Seriously Funny won't close this weekend as originally planned? We love it so much we're keeping it up until July 5th. See, you still have time to visit.

Did you know that there is a fun blog called Jumping In Art Museums? (Please, don't jump close to art! Safety first!). Did you know we've done a little jumping of our own?

Did you know that t-shirts by artist Dan Perjovschi (with art featured in Seriously Funny) are available in our museum store? Doesn't the staff look great? You too can look this cool. Really.

keeping Current with SMoCA

At SMoCA we are lucky to have a fabulous pr/marketing and graphic design staff. They have been working hard to create a beautiful new e-newsletter called Current. It not only looks great, but it keeps you, fan of SMoCA, up to date on events, lectures and other fun things. If you aren't signed up, you can sign up here. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. See, no excuse to miss fun this summer. And remember: it is always about 70 degrees in the gallery, the PERFECT summer getaway.

I hope to see all of you tonight (if you've purchased a ticket, and don't worry if you haven't, we still have room in the overflow seating) to hear Emmet Gowin.

Symposium weekend

A two-day (well, one evening and one day) symposium, Exchanging Ideas: photography, abstraction and metaphor at mid-century is next weekend. It is held in conjunction with our smashing photography exhibition At the Crossroads of American Photography: Callahan, Siskind, Sommer which, by the way, has been extended to August 9th. However the extension doesn’t mean that you should wait—oh contraire! You won't want to miss any of next weekend's activities. The symposium begins Friday evening, May 8th at 7pm with a talk by Emmet Gowin. Mr. Gowin is a photographer, professor of photography at Princeton University and a former student of Harry Callahan and Frederick Sommer. He’ll give a poetic gallery talk about Sommer, abstract photography and the influence of Sommer and Callahan on his person work. You can learn more about his work at the Pace/MacGill Gallery or at Masters of Photography.

Set your alarm clock on Saturday, May 9th for a day jam packed with activities. From 8:30 am to 4:00 pm the following will speak:

Joseph Sterling (photographer and student of Callahan, Siskind and Sommer at the Institute of Design) will share his personal experiences and Callahan, Siskind and Sommer’s role in developing a photography program at the Institute of Design, Chicago.

Claire C. Carter (co-curator of the exhibition and Curatorial Coordinator at SMoCA) will investigate Siskind’s work and its relationship to the paintings of the Abstract Expressionists. Claire has been at SMoCA for about a year and a half and she brings great enthusiasm, passion and a bunch of spunk to the program.

Leland Rice (photographer, curator and writer) will discuss Sommer’s Arizona landscape photographs and how the Surrealist painters Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy influenced his work.

Keith F. Davis (Curator of Photography, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Chair, Art Selection Committee, Hallmark Cards, Inc., both in Kansas City, Missouri) will lecture on Harry Callahan’s interest in the universal. Mr. Davis’s recently organized exhibition on Homer Page at the Nelson-Atkins has received national notice in Time magazine and in Tyler Green’s modern and contemporary art blog.

Harold Jones, (photographer, curator and educator, director of LIGHT Gallery, New York [1973-1975] and founding Director of the Center of Creative Photography [1975-1977], University of Arizona) will discuss the inception of LIGHT Gallery and how these three artists’s archives came to reside in Arizona.

Plus there is a book signing, Q and A and a juried portfolio share. (whew!)

We expect a full house, so please call and reserve your ticket today, 480-994-ARTS ($10 members/$15 non-members and free for students with ID). More information.

Photo info:

Photograph of Aaron Siskind (left) and Harry Callahan, n.d. by an unknown photographer
gelatin-silver print, 4 ¼ x 6 3/8 inches
Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, Tucson, 1979.048.002

Lecture Musicale

Have you always wanted to go to the lecture that lets its hair down?

Please join us and L.A. sculptor and performance artist Martin Kersels for his Lecture Musicale, 6:30pm TONIGHT (Thursday) at SMoCA.

If you’ve been dying to see the Headache sculpture in action, i.e. the giant drum pedal in the Seriously Funny exhibition, now’s your chance to see it “played.”

Come enjoy the rare opportunity to hang out with one of the smartest, funniest, and most warm-hearted artists in the art world. There will be video, old school slides (yes we found a projector), a boom box, audience participation, and Martin very likely dancing. He was previously a part of a modern dance performance group called the SHRIMPS.

--Claire Schneider, senior curator

SMoCA and the Scottsdale Farmer's Market

Volunteers from SMoCA have been hanging out at Scottsdale’s Old Town Public Market every Saturday since October.

It’s been great to watch this Farmer’s Market grow and change with the seasons. The produce has always been great, and there is lots of yummy fresh-made bread. More recently, flower booths have started showing up. This past weekend a vintage artisan ice cream truck pulled in––just in time for the warm weather. Mmmmm…..

If you come you can stop by the SMoCA booth, get some information, and learn more about what is going on at the Museum. Bring your dog in preparation for our summer William Wegman exhibition (more on that soon) and take home some natural dog treats from the booth next door. Right now it is open from 8:30 – 1:00, but starting on May 2 will run from 8:00 – Noon. Look for us on the corner of 1st Street and Brown.

Echelman in Arizona: From SMoCA to downtown Phoenix

(Top image) Janet Echelman's The Expanding Club, as installed at SMoCA for the popular exhibition Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting.

And now Janet Echelman's Her secret is patience as of this evening at 3pm officially open in downtown Phoenix between 1st and Central Avenue, north of Van Buren.

For more information on this exciting public art project check out: http://phoenix.gov/news/030609civicspace.html

Seriously Funny wear

Dan Perjovsichi, an artist in our Seriously Funny exhibition worked with our graphic designer to make a T-shirt just for SMoCA. They just arrived this week and feature a drawing from his work The Arizona Drawing. They are available in men's and women's sizes for $22. Call 480-874-4666 or visit SMoCA to buy yours. Hurry, staff may just buy them all up first!

See if you can spot the "you have to deliver" guy in the image of the entire wall above (photo collage by Claire Warden).

Spring at SMoCA

Each spring, right around Easter and Passover, we have a visitor at SMoCA. This guest places small stones, each painted robin's egg blue, in and around the museum. This year they had words written on them. I collected the one from the skyspace "Knight Rise" (above left) and it says "Navigate." I don't know if stone scattering is part of any formal spring ritual, but the SMoCA staff looks forward to it each year.

SMoCA Education Update-Design Career Day 2009

Last weekend, we collaborated with local area architects to host Inspiring Aspiring Architects. This was a workshop that gave teens the opportunity to work one-on-one with an architect to build a model representing their own personal sanctuary. Here, architect Matt Salenger works with Morgan Nelson and her mother, Fawn, to help design the “perfect kitchen for making cookies”.

Laura Hales- Assoc. Curator of Education

Overheard at SMoCA

A brief remark overheard last week, from one mature female visitor to another:

"Well, even though we didn't see the naked artist, we still had a good time."

Come to SMoCA to find the Naked Artist, you might be surprised.

Alejandro Diaz

Naked Artist Inside, 2009

freestanding sign

48 x 96 inches

Courtesy of the artist and The Happy Lion Gallery, Los Angeles

Produced by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Photo by Claire Warden

Scottsdale Arts Festival

SMoCA staff took a quick break on Friday morning to enjoy the sights and sounds of the 2009 Scottsdale Arts Festival. We especially enjoyed the "teeter totter" sculptures. We hope you have a chance this weekend to visit the Festival as well, and remember, your ticket stubb from Festival grants you free entry into SMoCA. How can you beat that?

Overheard at SMoCA

Our exhibition Seriously Funny includes artworks by artist Kjellgren Alkire. One of the pieces in his installation is titled Cowboy Confessional (pictured above). The sculpture takes the form of twin outhouses on a flatbed trailer. The tongue-in-cheek installation nevertheless offers an opportunity for reflection. Viewers are invited to enter the "confessional" and reflect about honesty and redemption.

A staff member recently overheard this conversation between young brothers who were sitting inside the confessional:
(small voice #1): I’m sorry that I hit you.
(quiet pause)
(small voice #2): That’s ok. I forgive you.

Their mother reported later, "I am not sure they came out lighter for having released these emotional weights, because they were fighting again an hour later, but for the moment they were in the outhouse booths, there seemed to be a slight spiritual awakening."

Won't you consider coming to SMoCA to ease your burdens?


small print for artwork:

Kjellgren Alkire (United States, born 1976)

Cowboy Confessional, 2009

trailer, outhouses and electrical components

27 x 96 x 120 inches

Courtesy of the artist, Produced by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

(c) Kjellgren Alkire

Photo by SMoCA staff

SMoCA Nights

Last night (Thursday, March 12) was SMoCA Nights: Valley Fever. SMoCA Nights is a three-times a year event with a fashion show, music and fun. Valley Fever included a performance by Kjellgren Alkire as part of his installation in Seriously Funny, dancers, DJs, video art and taro card readings. Video of the fashion show is already online. Be sure to watch until the end when you can hear an interview with chief curator Claire Schneider.

Artists on Artists

Well Wednesday's program was wonderful! It was the second rendition of our new Artists on Artists program of presentations by artists curated by artists from our advisory committee. This one was called Stand Up and Pimp Yourself: 5 minute pitches by nine artists who live in the margins. It was a wonderful, thoughtful and inspiring group of presenters and the overall concept provided a great platform for discussion. Everyone gave a lot of time and energy to help make it all happen—especially Gregory Sale and Erin Sotek. It was creative and thought provoking and I think we are on to something really fresh and interesting with this Artist on Artists program. I for one am very excited to see how the program continues to grow. It is a great way for us to work with the local artist community and to offer up a new kind of program that is educational and also a fun outlet for creative expression.
--Cassandra Coblentz, associate curator

Comment of the Week #8

This week's comment is spoken (not written!) and was overheard at the Phoenix installation site of Nina Katchadourian's Monument to the Unelected, a piece from the SMoCA exhibition Seriously Funny.

When a passerby inquired to two SMoCA employees doing a routine maintenance check on the site, he was told that the collection of political signs displays the names of all the candidates who have ever lost an American presidential election. The passerby laughed and said,

"Wow, maybe there IS hope for art in this world!"

Let Nina Katchadourian make a believer out of you too! Check out Monument to the Unelected at 5th St. and Roosevelt St. in Phoenix, and Thomas and Pima near the 101 in Scottsdale. And be sure to make your way to SMoCA to view the rest of the Seriously Funny exhibition.

Comment of the Week #7

Two of our favorite new comments from the comment board for At the Crossroads of American Photography. Thanks for visiting and drawing your approval of the photographs on view.

Intern Dana speaks out

Intern Dana (left) and curatorial coordinator Claire Carter working on the gallery model for At the Crossroads of American Photography


Photographer Linda Connor speaking at SMoCA
Photo by Claire Warden

I am a recent photography graduate from Arizona State University who has been interning with Claire Carter for the last couple of months preparing for the latest exhibition. At the Crossroads of American Photography: Callahan, Siskind, Sommer has officially opened! We have been staring into a scaled model of the SMoCA galleries and organizing images so tiny they were barely recognizable. As a result, when installation began I had an Alice-in-Wonderland-like experience of being shrunk into the model to install these larger than life images from these three phenomenal photographers. Installation was a whirlwind of runs to the store for title cards, vinyl and matte board in between discussions on the placement of images. This dreamlike experience continued when I got to meet with Linda Connor during her gallery talk. It was quite a thrill to hear her amazing stories of the support and generosity that these photographers gave to their students. The themes of mentorship and the exchanging of ideas continue as we are planning a brown bag lecture during March as well as a symposium to be held on May 8th and 9th!!! Along with this stunning show, SMoCA, in conjunction with Radius Publishing, has put together a breathtaking catalogue of the exhibition. I have been lucky enough to work on the proofs of the catalogue and watch it evolve! NOW it is HERE in the SMoCA Bookstore. Be sure to make it a priority to come in and check it out!!! Dana Buhl, Intern

SMoCA Installation 2009! The highlight reel

In order to recycle materials and save valuable time, the SMoCA exhibitions staff sometimes has to move a few walls, literally. Pictured here are Preparator Wylwyn Reyes, Assistant Preparators Joel Brown and Nick Quint and Exhibitions Manager Laura Spalding in the process of shifting a 12' wall from one museum gallery to another.