Field+Trip+MCA+or+Spertus+Museum

PERCEPTION ASSIGNMENT FIELD TRIP TO SPERTUS OR MCA

 
 * || [[image:file:///C:/Users/j/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif width="466" height="49" caption="Rounded Rectangle: True philosophy is to learn again to see the world. Maurice Merleau-Ponty  "]] ||
 * || [[image:file:///C:/Users/j/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif width="466" height="49" caption="Rounded Rectangle: True philosophy is to learn again to see the world. Maurice Merleau-Ponty  "]] ||

**1. ****Read informational sheets. ** **2. ****Visit one of the two museums on Tuesday. ** **3. ****Another option would be to construct your own visit to another museum. Take a look at the Activity Inventory Sheet you filled out the first day of class. ** **4. ****Create a mind map of your notemaking upon your visit. ** **5. ****Write minimum one page analysis. ** **6. ****Turn in paper and mind map. **
 * ASSIGNMENT DUE:______________**___
 * Key Points:**

An important aspect of the creative process is to try and see things as we expect them to be. We need to develop the ability to see our world understanding the influence our perceptions have on our sensory encounter. Perception is the meanings we attach to our experiences, to our viewing and the goal here is to consider different perspectives. As described in chapter 3, the first of the three-step process in perception is //selection//, deciding what to pay attention to and what to ignore. The second step is //organization//, arranging the information from our experience in a way that it will make sense to us and the third step is //interpretation//, which is influenced by our past experiences, beliefs, value system, and cultural expectations.


 * || [[image:file:///C:/Users/j/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif width="155" height="150" caption="Rounded Rectangle: “We who pass the image – walking, traveling, but we are the active agent – we can look away, turn down the sound…” John Berger"]] ||
 * || [[image:file:///C:/Users/j/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif width="155" height="150" caption="Rounded Rectangle: “We who pass the image – walking, traveling, but we are the active agent – we can look away, turn down the sound…” John Berger"]] ||

SELECTION You can visit the Spertus Museum or the Museum of Contemporary Art. Select which exhibit you would like to view. You may choose one exhibit or one piece within an exhibit or the building itself. Lately we’ve been able to only see the building and its lobby.

<span style="height: 200px; left: 0px; margin-left: 350px; margin-top: 20px; position: absolute; width: 233px; z-index: 3;">[[image:file:///C:/Users/j/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image003.gif width="233" height="200" caption="Rounded Rectangle: "Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world within words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled."  [John Berger, Ways of Seeing. London: BBC 1972, p. 7"]] OBSERVATION Make notes of your observations using a mind map. Bring an unlined sheet of paper and a variety of pens and markers, some in color to draw your mind map. Do this at the museum. Don’t wait to do it later. After attending the museum, if the MCA read the information about the Calder or Earthworks exhibit and if the Spertus, the explanation of its building design.

<span style="height: 196px; margin-left: 318px; margin-top: 17px; position: absolute; width: 320px; z-index: 4;"> INTERPRETATION Write a paper that is at least one page analyzing your impressions of your observations, your interpretation of the sensations you experienced in other words your perceptions. In what way are your past experiences influencing this current encounter?

<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;"> <span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;"> [|//__Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary__//]<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> - **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Perception **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Per*ceive"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. [|__Perceived__]<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">; p. pr. & vb. n. [|__Perceiving__]<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">.] [OF. percevoir, perceveir, L. percipere, perceptum; per (see [|__Per-__]<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">) + capere to take, receive. See [|__Capacious__]<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">, and cf. [|__Perception__]<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">.] <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1. To obtain knowledge of through the senses; to receive impressions from by means of the bodily organs; to take cognizance of the existence, character, or identity of, by means of the senses; to see, hear, or feel; as, to perceive a distant ship; to perceive a discord. --Reid. <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">

<span style="color: #cc6600; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world. **Sensation** usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin. **Perception**, on the other hand, better describes one's ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input. In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Thus, **perception in humans describes the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized experience**. That experience, or percept, is the joint product of the stimulation and of the process itself. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Peter Lindsay & Donald A. Norman: //Human Information Processing: An Introduction to Psychology//, 1977. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
 * <span style="color: #cc6600; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Definition of Perception **
 * <span style="color: #cc6600; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Text taken from **

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Spertus Museum <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">610 S. Michigan Avenue <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">312.322.1700 <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: #ededed none repeat scroll 0% 0%; line-height: 10.55pt; margin: 6.6pt 0in 2.65pt;">**<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Spertus Museum Admission ** <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: #ededed none repeat scroll 0% 0%; line-height: 10.55pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">General admission: $7 (for special exhibits w/ very limited viewing times) Students and seniors: $5 (for special exhibits w/ very limited viewing times) Children under 5: Free Spertus members: Free • every Sunday - Thursday from 10 am-5 pm street level vestibule** <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Spertus Museum’s ingenious storage and display area houses and presents more than 1,500 objects from the museum’s outstanding 15,000-piece collection. This unique display reflects the different perspectives a collection can have: beauty and loss, history and its fragmentation, aesthetics and function. Visitors can examine cross-cultural influences on the development of Jewish objects, as well as ethical and historical issues surrounding the acquisition and display of culturally sensitive collections. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">
 * Free for everyone:

=
<span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Façade: Architectural/Historical Significance ===== <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">With few exceptions, the historic South Michigan Avenue streetwall is composed of buildings with private uses, so the public cannot easily enjoy the extraordinary views of Grant Park and Lake Michigan available from these buildings. By its transparency, the Spertus façade announces the accessible and public nature of Spertus. Furthering this is the manner in which the Spertus façade emerges from the solidity of the predominately masonry-faced buildings surrounding it. The façade creates an opening in the scale of the streetwall, beckoning visitors to enter and explore the rich variety of offerings within. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">The new Spertus facility fills one of the last open spaces on this great street—directly facing Grant Park. Like the surrounding buildings, many constructed in the period of tremendous architectural innovation that followed the Chicago fire, this building is forward-looking in its design and use of materials, while maintaining respect for its important setting. The stone, brick, and terracotta grid of the streetwall will tightly frame the narrow glass façade, and it is this dynamic that compels the folding and movement of the glass. At the same time, the average size of each of the façade's individual panes of glass is consistent with the standard size of the windows in the buildings up and down Michigan Avenue. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">"Like the bays of its 19th- and 20th-century neighbors, the facets that create the façade's dynamic crystalline form allow light to extend into the narrow building, while expanding the views enjoyed from inside. Today's technology permits these triangulated glass facets to be more spatial than the bay windows of earlier periods. The composition of the Spertus façade will change depending on the sun’s position, with facets simultaneously transparent, reflective, translucent, and opaque. When panels reflect, they will mirror the building's magnificent setting of sky, sun, and the greenery of Grant Park. At night, the building's interior light will emit a warm glow," offered **<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Mark Sexton **, FAIA, who, with **<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Ronald Krueck **, FAIA, is principal of the award-winning Chicago firm, <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Krueck & Sexton Architects <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">The stunning ten-story faceted window wall that forms the façade of the new Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, designed by <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Krueck & Sexton Architects <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">, will be a direct expression of the mission and values of this prestigious organization, offering a literal "window" into the world of Jewish learning and culture. The transparent façade, to be built from 726 windows in 556 different shapes, will be installed <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> ====<span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Why does the building look the way it does? ==== <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Like the surrounding buildings, many constructed in the period of tremendous architectural innovation that followed the Chicago fire, the Spertus building is forward-looking in its design and use of materials while respectful of its important setting. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">The role of light is central to the religious and intellectual traditions of Judaism, and has been incorporated into the design, which features a façade of folded glass that will optimize natural light throughout the building. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">By its transparency, this façade reveals the accessible and public nature of Spertus. Furthering this is the manner in which the façade emerges from the solidity of the predominately masonry-faced buildings surrounding it to create an opening in the streetwall, beckoning visitors to come inside and engage in the educational and cultural programming Spertus offers. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Modulating the scale of the building, the glass folds relate the Spertus façade to the numerous bays windows, cornices, and other projections found along South Michigan Avenue. The average size of each of the façade's individual panes of glass is consistent with the standard size of the windows in the neighboring buildings. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">A recessed entry space creates welcoming protection at the street level. Rather than a traditional cornice, the top of the Spertus façade extends skyward, representing that the pursuit of understanding is infinite. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">//<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Chicago Tribune //<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> architecture critic Blair Kamin called the design "boldly innovative" and "skillfully done" and wrote, "The building will strike a remarkable balance between respecting the row and making a powerful contemporary statement." ====<span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Will the building be environmentally responsible? ==== <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">The new Spertus facility is a model of environmental sustainability, applying energy-saving new technologies throughout. Specifically, the new Spertus is in compliance with the Silver Level of the <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">[|U.S. Green Building Council's] <span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System®, a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Environmental elements of the new facility include energy efficiency provided by the materials being used on the glass façade, a 6,659-square-foot green roof, a 425-square-foot open-air terrace, plus environmentally friendly building materials, HVAC, lighting systems, and water efficiency. <span style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">The conscientious and careful planning embodies the Jewish tenets of //<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Bal Tashchit // (not destroy or waste) and //<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Tikkun Olam // (repair of the world). <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Museum of Contemporary Art <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"> 220 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611-2643

**<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">Museum Hours **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">General Telephone: ** 312.280.2660 **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Box Office Telephone: ** 312.397.4010
 * Monday || Closed  ||
 * Tuesday || 10 am - 8 pm ||
 * Wednesday through Sunday || 10 am - 5 pm ||
 * Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day: Closed
 * Admission is FREE all day on Tuesdays** ||


 * <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">Admission Prices **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;">
 * Suggested General Admission || $12 ||
 * Students with ID and Senior Citizens || $ 7 ||
 * MCA Members and Children 12 and under, members of the military || Free ||

Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy June 26 - October 17, 2010 <span style="font-family: "Browallia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Alexander Calder, //<span style="font-family: "Browallia New","sans-serif";">Little Face //, c. 1945. The Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan. © 2009 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. // Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy // pairs the work of Alexander Calder with the work of seven contemporary artists whose practices are bound to Calder's legacy as modern sculptor. While a well-known, even beloved figure, Calder has not previously been considered an important point of reference for contemporary artists. This is the first exhibition to explore Calder's significance for an emerging generation of sculptors, reconsidering his influence and his innovation through a presentation of his own work alongside the work of contemporary artists.

The seven contemporary artists in this exhibition: Martin Boyce, Nathan Carter, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Aaron Curry, Kristi Lippire, Jason Meadows, and Jason Middlebrook, have taken important cues from Calder including a return to hand-on production, the creative reuse of materials, and explorations of form, balance, color, and movement. Combining rigorous concept with a renewed emphasis on formalism, the work of these artists prioritizes the visual and visceral qualities of sculpture. Both directly and indirectly influenced by Calder, all of the artists are looking towards modernist forms and ideas, challenging and recontextualizing what is for many a familiar art history.

The MCA's in-depth holdings of Calder form the core of the presentation of his work, complemented by mobiles, standing mobiles, and stabiles drawn from Chicago area and national public and private collections. Calder's work is mounted along with sculptures by the contemporary artists. Middlebrook is also undertaking a site-specific commission for the exhibition, creating a mobile which is planned to hang in the MCA's atrium.

Organized by MCA Curator Lynne Warren, this exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue co-published by the MCA and Thames & Hudson and will tour nationally.
 * * Purchase the exhibition catalogue
 * Visit the Calder and Contemporary Art microsite
 * Watch more videos on our YouTube channel ||
 * Watch more videos on our YouTube channel ||

Summer Outdoor Creation Stations Every Tuesday in the summer explore themes from the art on view with free, all-ages, hands-on art experiences. Join us from 11 am - 2 pm on our front plaza and from 5 - 8 pm on our terrace.

Summer Outdoor Creation Stations are generously supported by the North Side Affiliate of the MCA.

Creation Station: Mechanics Tuesday, August 10, 11 am - 2 pm, 5 - 8 pm FREE Alexander Calder loved to tinker with his art. Play and discover how simple mechanics can produce surprising effects. Creation Station: Balance Tuesday, August 17, 11 am - 2 pm, 5 - 8 pm FREE By tinkering with notions of balance, Alexander Calder made unique and surprising stabiles and mobiles. Play with weight and shape, and discover how balanced or unbalanced you can make your art.

Earthworks: Robert Smithson, Sam Durant, and Mary Brogger April 24 - October 3, 2010 Robert Smithson (American, 1938-1973) is widely held as one of the most influential and significant artists of the twentieth century. His writings, drawings, sculpture, and, most famously, his earthworks have become touchstones for contemporary artists for their rigorous artistic and theoretical investigations and for the way in which they married concept and form. This exhibition brings together three works from the MCA Collection: Smithson's film //Spiral Jetty// (1970) that documents the production of the landmark work of the same name; Mary Brogger's //Earthwork// (2000); and Sam Durant's //Partially Buried 1960s/70s Dystopia Revealed (Mick Jagger at Altamont) & Utopia Reflected (Wavy Gravy at Woodstock)// (1998) -- to demonstrate the sustained influence of Smithson's ideas and practice on a subsequent generation of artists.

//Spiral Jetty// is a 1,500-foot long, 15-foot wide counterclockwise coil made entirely from mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water that extends from the northeastern shore of Utah's Great Salt Lake. Smithson created it just months after the completion of the work //Partially Buried Woodshed//, a dilapidated wooden structure upon which Smithson had dirt piled until its central beam cracked and then left as site-specific work, half exposed, half covered in dirt. //Spiral Jetty// was an extension of many of the ideas Smithson also explored in //Partially Buried Woodshed//, the work to which Brogger's and Durant's works specifically refer, including the concept of entropy-the inevitable disintegration or decay of all matter and energy over time-as well as the use of natural materials and the expansion of art-making into the landscape on a grand scale. Located on the campus of Kent State in Ohio, //Partially Buried Woodshed// subsequently accrued new meaning through its context -- it became an unofficial monument, signified by the addition of graffitied text, to four students who were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard in a Vietnam War protest that turned violent.

Brogger's //Earthwork//, a birdhouse in the form of a scale-model of Mies van der Rohe's seminal Farnsworth House, takes on the legacy of modernism with a wry tongue-in-cheek reference to Smithson and his earthworks. Piling birdseed in the center of the transparent home, Brogger suggests the potential for an icon of architecture to become a ruin itself. Durant borrows the materials and formal language of Smithson's oeuvre-dirt, mounds, and mirrors -- for his work //Partially Buried 1960s/70s Dystopia Revealed (Mick Jagger at Altamont) & Utopia Reflected (Wavy Gravy at Woodstock)//. Durant explores, as the title suggests, the utopic and dystopic shift the two music festivals heralded. Durant parallels this symbolic historical comparison with the way in which Smithson's //Partially Buried Woodshed// came to memorialize not only the students who were killed at Kent State, but in many ways the promise of the 1960s, an entropy unto itself.

The exhibition is presented on the third floor, where a selection of books and ephemera on Robert Smithson and some of the historical issues raised by Brogger's and Durant's works are available. The exhibition is organized by Michael Green, Curatorial Assistant, and Diana Nawi, Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow.