To join the Revolution, submit your “Eco-zibit” Proposal. Submissions will be accepted September 1, 2013 – October 4, 2013.

Denison University Green Revolution Programs:

Opening Convocation with Majora Carter
September 12, 2013 at 8:00 PM, Swasey Chapel

Denison’s Spectrum Series campus theme, “Real Utopias: From Dreams to Practice” will kick off with eco-entrepreneur Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable Bronx and the Majora Carter Group.

MAKE IT HAPPEN! Social Entrepreneurship Workshop
August 19 – August 26, 2013

The workshop will consist of classroom presentations, discussions, and field trips. Participants are encouraged to identify an area of interest that they can use as a focus for their work during the workshop and beyond. For more information: MAKE IT HAPPEN! Social Entrepreneurship Workshop

For more information about special events and programs sponsored by our Green Revolution partner The Works in Newark, visit Green Revolution Licking County.

Personal Space

Denison Museum is pleased to welcome the exhibition “Personal Space”. “Personal Space” will explore the fragility of the human body, utopian and dystopian realities/fantasies, vulnerability, fear, anxiety, and desire. The New York based artists comprising the show — Jennifer Cohen, Dani Leventhal, Yasue Maetake, Ohad Meromi, and Jennifer Nuss will exhibit work ranging from modestly scaled drawings to large sculptures and video.

In an ongoing effort to highlight the outstanding quality of Denison Museum’s permanent collection, the five artists participating in “Personal Space” have generously curated pieces from the Museum’s permanent collection that will be on view in the smaller gallery.

These exhibitions have been organized by Tommy White, Denison University Assistant Professor of Studio Art.

Exhibitions on view September 12, 2013 – December 7, 2013
Free and open to the public.

Green Revolution
Real Utopias: From Dreams to Practice

For more information: Green Revolution

by Marisa Zemesarajs ’15

With summer just around the corner I’m sure everyone has stopped and thought “but really, where has this year gone?” Another school year. 8 months. Though 8 months is really no time at all it seemed like more than enough time through the countless indecisions regarding majors/minors, all-nighters in the library, burnt pizza bagels, and mornings where there was no hot water. Even though these things made our days seem long, there was always the knowledge that endless opportunities awaited-next week, next month, next year. Some people are using the summer to relax (which we all deserve), travel, intern, write, the list goes on. Regardless of what you do, I’m sure we can all agree that the change in schedule is most-anticipated, exciting even.

To draw from my memory of Sesame Street, this week is definitely brought to you by the word “bittersweet.” This sentiment is definitely present in the Museum. We have to say goodbye and give a huge congratulations to our graduating student workers, Lindsey Beetem (Art History and French) and Karly Etz (Art History and Classics). We also must bid farewell to Sam Scinta (Art History and Education) as she travels her way to Bath, England for a year. I speak for the whole staff in saying that they all will be missed (who will help me eat all the snacks in the office!) With new workers coming in next fall, new projects, and new exhibitions, this summer calls for a lot of hard work at the Museum.

This summer, thanks to a gift from Carole Darst ’63, we have the means to complete a project cataloguing, rehousing, and conserving our extensive works on paper collection. This past semester I’ve been slowly working on cataloguing drawers and drawers of these pieces, and I’m so happy to say that I will be able to see this project to completion as a Chessman Intern for the Museum this summer! While I’m veering away from the usual “Object of the Week” motif of my weekly posts from here on out, I’m also excited to bring a more archival approach to the blog this summer and a journalistic approach next semester. I have around two weeks at home until I must return back to the hill and as much as I’d like to think I’ll be spending those two weeks doing something fun/productive, I’m just going to accept that I will watch all 7 seasons of “It’s Always Sunny” in three days…again. I act like this is something to be ashamed of, but we all have done it.

But of course, for those weird days where napping gets old everyone at the Museum urges you to take time and learn a bit on your own! The Fall Exhibition for the Denison Museum opens in September, but in the meantime there are so many opportunities to visit another! Go to the Wexner Center at OSU (seriously, it’s great and free) or the brand new Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland. All in all, have a great summer and look out for updates from us!

Sarah McInteer Bekker
1923 – 2013

The stark, white museum wall is a product of business. consisting of transactions between other museums, galleries, auction houses, and personal collections. All in all, the spaces that house art are always on watch for pieces that will perfectly encapsulate the persona of their institution. This is great for museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA and galleries in Chelsea and Brooklyn, who can entice donors with a swanky, champagne-glimmered benefit and the promise of a plaque in the hall, all in exchange for a Pollock. Smaller museums, like the one here at Denison, take donations and turn them into an opportunity to establish a permanent collection that is rooted in a variety of disciplines: fine arts, archaeology, anthropology, and physics, just to name a few. I’m sitting and typing this in the Museum’s storage room, kicked out of the office as to not distract from student interviews and on every side of me there is an object more different than the last. I spy ancient Roman bricks, Buddhist statues, some Picasso sketches, eastern ceramics, a portrait from the school of Rembrandt, all at once. It’s an eclectic mix, a perfect parallel to the liberal arts experience. This museum is at its core an institution that inspires learning. A museum that displays and collects pieces from one genre is interesting, sure, it has a lot of appeal at face value. But in walking through a gallery whose walls lose distinction from one another, the experience can become stagnant. Our permanent collection requires constant attention, you get to discover things at every corner.

This basis for discovery is made possible by the hundreds of donors that have contributed to our collection throughout the years. Every donor holds a special place within the Museum, which leads me to a recognize a significant donor, Sarah Bekker, who passed away on April 2nd. A recognized scholar of Burma studies, an authority on Burmese Buddhism, and the founder of the Burma Studies Foundation Biennial Sarah M. Bekker prize, Bekker was devoted to the study of visual culture. Sarah and her husband, Konrad generously contributed to our collection of eastern art. As I look through Bekker’s donor file, I am confronted with unique snippets of her interactions with Denison in the 1970s: polaroid photographs, old typewritten letters on tissue-thin paper where a previous director cannot hold his excitement at the newly accessioned pieces (not kidding, the line “Oh boy! I am practically passing out right now as I type” struck me in particular), and handwritten letters from Bekker herself. It’s all very charming and I can’t help but wonder what this woman was like. Her contribution of over 60 items ranging from ceramic bowls, standing Buddha statues, and carved animal figurines is not forgotten. That is what’s great about this museum, we’re excited about the items we receive. Every piece makes a difference and provides a greater understanding of the art world.

On August 27, 1974 a Calvin K. Prine wrote to Mrs. Bekker “We look forward to your continued interest and support of Denison University, and of the treasure house of quality art objects, that you have substantially increased, for the benefit of many fortunate students in days and years to come.” 40 years after this letter was written I am typing this, looking at her contributions (admiring a bohemian printed 19th century tea bowl in particular.) That has to say something. We are all so happy to have pieces that were once a treasured part of Sarah Bekker’s life. Pablo Picasso once said “art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” and with her help the dust is not so thick.

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Miriam Nelson, Head of Preservation of Ohio University Libraries. Preservation of Book Collections Workshop. William Howard Doane Library. April 11, 2013.

We put our whole lives into the hands of technology, so much so that we become disabled when it fails us. Leaving my iPhone in my dorm sends me into a frenzy, I immediately look for an opportunity to reunite with it, panicking over the possibility that I won’t be notified when someone retweets me at that exact moment. It’s silly, really. We assign so much value to a screen, ignoring the mode of communication that has reliantly served humanity- the written word, as made possible through paper. Unlike this laptop I write from, which will surely be obsolesced by a newer model this summer, and that model by another, and so on, paper can never be displaced. Paper is the true servant of civilization. Upon birth our lives are recognized by a slip of paper, death too holds a place in paper and ink. Even our careers at Denison start and end with a piece of paper, the big envelope that cannot be protected against our destructive, excited hands, the intimidating leather-bound certificate that will stare us down from its place on a bookshelf. Our very livelihood, for centuries, has been summarized in a fragile paper trail. While my mind is drifting to less-than-serious associations (i.e. Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, The Office,) it is apparent that paper holds an overarching position in our lives. When thinking about paper, preservation is key, which brings me to this week’s topic.

On Thursday, April 11th, our very own library held a preservation of book collections workshop, sponsored by Denison Libraries, DU Franklin Lecture Series, Denison Museum, and Ohio University Libraries. Having a personal interest in art conservation, I was able to sit in on the workshop, which was led by Miriam Nelson, Head of Preservation of Ohio University Libraries. As I learned, restoring something as universal and seemingly simple as a book is actually quite the process, requiring a thoughtful and gentle technique. While I watched associates of Denison, the Granville historical society, and Kenyon’s Gund Gallery perform hinge mends, repairs on tears, dry cleaning procedures, and create fillers for pages that have fallen out, my mind began to wander to the bigger picture. Why is this workshop important? What does the future hold for the written word? What is the value of paper?

We all have a favorite book. I’m not referring to the story itself and the common connection we make as we assume the role as the protagonist. I’m referring to the copy itself. The one where interpretations layer upon one another when it’s revisited each time with fresh eyes. There’s value in this experience. One that deserves to be preserved. When asking Anna Cannizzo, Curator of Collections at Denison Museum the same questions I posed earlier, she expressed a similar sentiment, “I still have my first hardcover copy of To Kill and Mockingbird. If something were to happen to it I’d want to take care of it. It’s a sentimental thing, something I would want to pass down to my niece. You can never displace a book. There isn’t a culture that isn’t impacted by the written word.” Sponsoring a book preservation workshop encourages a larger respect for these objects that have shaped our very own stories.

Upon reflection, the present value of books becomes obvious, but will this value survive the test of time, and even bigger, the test of digitalization? Miriam Nelson is confident that even though the nature of the word will, and is, changing, that the desire for printed books is not something that will become extinct, “People mesh together the idea of written communication and the book form. And they worry that if one form goes, the other too will disappear, when that isn’t necessarily the case. If anything, niche publishers will remain to fulfill the want for printed books. I see a renaissance arriving too, with hand bookmaking and artist’s books.”

Thanks to a quick Google search, there are an estimated 129,864,880 books in the world. Technology is powerful, but not powerful enough to replace this number, which surely increases everyday. So, books are ubiquitous. And as a result, preservation is a job that is never done. I end this post laughing/crying with my boss at the thought of scotch tape being applied to the Dead Sea Scrolls in an attempt to “preserve” them. Paper provides a log of civilization, and on a microscopic level, each and every one of our lives. While we may not want to preserve our last chemistry exam, keep the birthday cards, the acceptance letters, the ticket stubs, and your copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, the paper trail will prove to be invaluable.

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Please join us this spring for a fun-filled afternoon of family friendly events and Book Making Workshop. Refreshments will be served. All ages welcome. This event is free and open to the public.

Book Making Workshop

In association with the exhibition Druckworks: 40 Years of Books and Projects by Johanna Drucker, the students of Denison University’s Artists Books class will conduct a one-day workshop for ages 6-18. This free class will teach some amazing and simple book binding processes that have been used by artists of all discipline to work with the book as a form of art. All materials will be provided.

Frank Stella. “Empress of India”
American. 1968. Lithograph.
DU1968.209
Denison Museum Collection

If you were to take a can of Morton Salt, cover the title and lend a cursory glance, the illustration of the girl in yellow, holding the wind-taken umbrella would nearly resemble some Toulouse-Lautrec post-impressionist poster. Break up the image with a few pastel strokes and it would be the image of Monet’s Woman with a Parasol. Isn’t that a curious thing? How a few, minor manipulations can turn a household product into the work of a first-rate artist? So what’s the difference between a contemporary logo and any modern art movement? Some would argue nothing, others everything.

The question remains: is all advertising art? And conversely, is all art advertising? This is a relatively new question to be answered; the advent of commercial advertising and branding is younger than the university we attend. Yet, this is a question of increasing relevance. The McDonald’s golden arch arguably produces just as much visual identity as a Picasso. It may even generate stronger senses of identity and community given that we observe the trademark nearly every day. Even better: the product is something to be consumed. I don’t drive down the street and see Van Gogh’s Starry Night bound to a commercial rooftop, situated above an illuminated marquee reading “Buy One, Get One French Painting.” So it would appear that miles separate the fine art world and the advertising world, but they are inextricably bound together.

A piece that exemplifies this development I speak of is a part of the collection here at the Museum, Frank Stella’s Empress of India. Stella is an American painter and printmaker noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He began to produce works which emphasized the picture as an object, rather than a picture as a representation of something, be it something in the physical world, or something in the artist’s emotional world. Stella’s work exemplifies the cross between art and advertising. In 1976, he was commissioned to paint the exterior of a BMW, to which he said, “a picture is a flat surface with paint on it- nothing more.” This 1968 lithograph Empress of India with stripes of various blues arranged in “V” patterns shares qualities with a logo we would see casually strolling through a mall. So let’s consider this “trend” of thought where advertising can be art, and art, advertising.

Considering advertising as art is quite the debate. I’m sure we have all heard someone say that commercial advertising was the beginning of the end, the false sense of progress that fueled our insatiable desire to want things. Furthering this point, some believe that art is meant to elevate thinking in an aesthetic context, while advertising just provides a cultural log of our tastes and trends. On the other hand, advertising being a cultural record to some is the reason why it should be included in museums around the country. It is a part of our history, there’s no denying that. I’m not ready to take a stand on either side of the spectrum, the tension alone is what piques my interest.

So let’s flip the question: is art advertising? I think so, yes. Artists have really become a brand, every piece they make fits into a collection. There’s something at work when you’re able to look at a piece for the first time and make assumptions about who created it. How is that different from looking at someone’s shoes and immediately recognizing the maker? Picasso is just as much of a household name as Clorox, it’s true. Advertising is everywhere, even in art.