Personal Narrative: My Visit To The Scottsdale Museum Of Contemporary Art

Over the weekend, I took the time to explore two museums. The first museum I visited was the D.I.A , also known as the Detroit Institute of Arts. The D.I.A was a very beautiful, multicultural, and unique place. I also took the time to visit and explore the Charles H. Wright Museum of Detroit. Luckily, these museums weren’t too far from each other they were roughly 5-7 minutes apart. The Charles H. Wright Museum was also very beautiful, it was more appealing to me because it is a museum that exhibits and highlights the history of the African American culture. The Charles H. Wright museum also happens to be the largest African American museum in the world.

The Colorado History Museum was a phenomenal place to visit; it felt life like from being in my Colorado History class in college as well as in my high school ones. I had the ability to see what it was like living in Keota, as well as being a huge size person walking around the Denver area, and lastly saw a few pieces of clothing that were the Native Americans during Bent’s Fort. Every detail in the museum I tried paying attention too, because I did not want to miss anything.

First, I arrived at the Phoenix Art Museum and honestly I was going for my grade. But my mind change as soon I get into the lobby. Everyone was exited, some people look really knowledgeable about art, and I heard them talking about pieces of art that Mr. Bierly talk about it. The workers were very friendly and amiable. They always smile at you making you felt welcome and those actions made me feel more comfortable.

It is appropriate to say that the conditions of Blacks in the past have improved since various Black power movements. The twenty first century generation of African Americans continues to be content with the accomplishments’ of our ancestors, instead of becoming more aware of our heritage and culture in order to understand the present. Renée Stout’s art develop from Black movements such as Garveyism and the Pan-Africanism movements that aimed to instill racial pride and racial unity. Just as these movements made Blacks around the Diaspora aware of the conditions of other Blacks, Stout’s exhibit, Tales of the Conjure Woman, unveil the oppressed culture of Africans and African Americans while instilling racial pride and unity.

At the California Center of the Arts I learned a lot about many artists and their many works of art. Throughout the Heated exchange exhibit of Contemporary Encaustics, Jan Jaylo: All these answers that may never come out and Living with the muertos: A Dia de los Muertos Experience by Daniel F. Martinez I learned many interesting facts that change the way I view art work.

For as long as I can remember I have always had the drive and passion to create works of art in many ways, shapes and forms. My creativity and integrity that I share with art is on many levels ranging from 3D work, video game design, physical pieces of artwork as well as digital. I believe that there are very few schools that would not only help challenge my abilities but be able to utilize them in many ways I would've never imagined.

He started his article, “How African-American Artists Fought to Diversify Museums”, with an overview of the history of the issue. The article stated the importance of the initial attempts to mollify black artists and how the attempts sparked more outrage by displaying the blatant disproportion of diversity. It concluded that all of these events built up and provoked a movement to include more art as seen to this day. It focuses on how museums are still guilty of conforming to social and political views, as seen by the types of art displayed and who created them. The article then turns into an interview with author, Susan Cahan, to discuss political influences in museums throughout history and what effect it has on the art world today concerning black artists. Unlike the New York Times article, this story went into excessive detail of how the movement to include more African American artists started and the progress that has been achieved throughout the years. It granted the reader a more thorough understanding about the movement and why it has been (and still is) a serious issue today. The comparisons it brings up from the very first attempt to include black artists in an exhibit—“Harlem on My Mind”—to the exhibits today document the remarkable progress made as well as the excessive amount of protesting that accompanied it. Both articles were great sources of information for people looking into the history of black artists exhibition, but the critical difference between the two was the tone: the first article viewing the situation to be long-overdue but hopeful, while the second article spoke of the situation from the perspective of an author who felt the museums should be ashamed of their lack of effort throughout the

Since I was little, I have been struggling to find the way to my future. I ultimately lost interest in each prospective career I considered. Despite my extensive soul searching, I never seemed to find the perfect fit. That was until we took a trip to a museum that became life changing.

On Monday, I went Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is located in 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. I want to know about American tribe’s story. So I visited there. By visiting museum, I could experience about American tribe’s culture, clothes, language and so on. In that time, I could find ‘Oklahoma’. Oklahoma is one tribe of American tribes that I found in class. There is a ‘Kaw calumet’. It is a product of Oklahoma that represent a sacred badge of friendship. It is used by some Indian leaders in opening ceremonies of treaty meetings. ( These ceremonial pipes marked the solemnity of the occasion.)

I participated in a tour of the Black Cultural Center. It was quite interesting and I’m not just saying that because some stranger is reading my response. I really enjoy art and love painting, so when I saw all of the canvases with these moving paintings I was really drawn into the tour. Now because I waited so long to complete the badge I forgot the name of the paintings, but I can tell you exactly what I saw and how the ones that stuck out to me made me feel. I remember the front desk is the designed after the nose of a slave ship. I thought that was pretty interesting. Then as we began the tour there was this painting of a woman. The painting was very moving as she looked very weak and yet as you looked into her eyes they were as serene

I’ve been on a trip with my friend Lily Wagner to my grandmothers in Arizona, we’re both in this class and so we went to the Tucson Museum of Arts together a few days ago. They have a couple exhibits going at the moment, and some really interesting ones coming soon that I wish I could’ve seen. Currently they have “Horses of the West: Power, Freedom, and Friendship” which I really thought I’d be into since I rode horses up until a bit ago, but as it turns out horse art really isn’t my thing. They also had “Welcome to the American West” which had some lovely paintings and “Of Earth and Sand: Ceramics and Glasswork” which was my personal favorite, but I’ve always loved ceramics and anything to do with glass art.

I had been wanting to visit the Palmer Memorial Institute since Professor Porter mentioned it in class because Sedalia is not far from where I live. Today, I finally got the chance to visit. I actually enjoyed walking around this historic site more than I thought I would. The first plaque I read was on that described the origins of the Palmer Memorial Institute. The school was previously named Bethany Institute and was founded by American Missionary Association in 1870. Not too long after, in 1902, the AMA was forced to withdraw its limited financial support. Because of this, Charlotte Hawkins Brown courageously reopened the school in the fall of 1902 and renamed it the Palmer

My experience to the Dallas Museum of Art was a bit different from the last time I had attended the museum. I was curious to see what pieces of art there would be and if it would be the same as the previous visit which was long ago, but to me all the pieces of art were so different and very interesting. It may have been because I saw all the pieces in a new perspective since learning about the different types of paintings there can be and knowing how and where sculptures come from. Even though I do not know much of art I really gave it a try into seeing what the artist may have wanted us to get out of his work. By reading a view of the chapters made me aware of art, I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but it was actually nice knowing that a

The two works of art that I have chosen to analyze are 1) Jordan Casteel. Miles and JoJo. 2014. Oil on canvas, 54” x 72” and 2) Aaron Fowler. He Was. 2015. Mixed media, 134” x 165” x 108”. The themes that these works of art represent in regards to the exhibit are love, family, and pain. However, they also fall into other thematic categories. The main theme that seems to apply to both “Miles and JoJo” and “He Was” is Human Experience. Additionally, these arts differ in some ways.

On December 5, in the Vandervort Room at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, FSEM 42: Interrogating Race participated amongst the other living and learning communities FSEM’s in the annual First-Year Seminar Symposium. All the FSEM’s had a particular area where they displayed and articulated posters, demonstrations, or performances illustrating all the knowledge they have learned from the fall semester in a display form for the audience to critique. The atmosphere at the symposium was great. Faculty members and students walked around and analyzed materials, asked questions, and were eager to learn more about the displays provided. The Symposium was successful from my perspective and I applaud all the students that went through their process of displaying masterpieces for the audiences. The process to illustrate projects at the symposium was not easy and took lots of dictation and hard work.