One of my favorite things about working at the Pulitzer is that there is often an element of the unexpected in our projects. Our current exhibition, Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer, provided just such an element in the form of Staging Old Masters. The program for Staging Old Masters called for small groups of actors to perform short theatrical pieces in front of the Old Master paintings that inspired them. 

This is not a typical activity in special exhibition galleries, and we had numerous discussions among the staff to establish parameters for the performances. Our primary aim was to ensure the safety of the paintings while providing enough space for the actors to perform effectively and the audience to view the performances easily. There was the additional twist of its being a mobile theatrical experience: the actors and the audience would be moving through the galleries to different paintings/performance sites during the program.

Read the rest of this entry »

During the time we are closed to the public (Monday, October 6 until the evening of Friday, October 24 when our next exhibition, Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer opens), there will be a lot going on inside the Pulitzer.This week we will begin de-installing and crating the Dan Flavin: Constructed Light exhibition. Steve Morse of the Dan Flavin Studio in New York will be here to oversee these activities all week. By the end of the week, the galleries will be empty, gallery walls will have been repaired and painted and we’ll be ready for the installation of the Old Masters paintings.

During install, our homepage has been replaced with a temporary landing page – complete with behind-the-scenes information, videos, and research that will lead up to the exhibition opening. Keep checking back to stay updated on what’s happening at the Pulitzer while our doors are closed.

The time between exhibitions is a good time for the registrars to catch up on ongoing departmental projects. Elise and I have just completed the final training session for our new database, The Museum System. We continue to add information to object records and experiment with various reports. We are looking forward using the exhibitions module of The Museum System for the first time for our fall exhibition, Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer. The other project on which we have made progress is clearing out crate storage. When works of art travel, they are usually packed in crates. Over several years we saved our own used crates – to the point where crate storage was so crowded we actually could not walk around in it. We made a survey of the crates to determine which were still travel-worthy and kept just those.

The Pulitzer’s current exhibition has an interesting twist: it is two exhibitions in one. The registrars’ department is now preparing for the installation of phase two of Dan Flavin: Constructed Light to be completed by May 16, 2008.Part of the installation process is as simple as changing lamp colors in several of the Flavins. It is more complicated in the lower level hallway where the objects’ fixtures will be reconfigured and the lamp colors will be changed. In all cases, the resulting objects are different works of art, creating different effects within the building’s spaces.

We will be making these changes over a few days the week of May 12. On Wednesday, May 14, the Pulitzer is open as usual and phase one of the exhibition will still be on view except in the lower level hallway. We will still be installing in that hallway so that all will be ready for the phase two “opening” at the Grand Center Arts Walk at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 16.