AFFA Sets Jan. 25 Meeting to Envision an Austin Folk Art Museum
On June 30, 1988, Austin Friends of Folk Art was formally incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit organization, complete with bylaws, officers and directors, and a mission to promote public appreciation of folk art, which AFFA defines broadly enough to accommodate everything from urban mural art, Feng Shui and Southwest petroglyphs to Moroccan fortune-telling, Oaxacan wood [...]
Blanton Museum Receives Iconic Fiberglass Sculptures By Luis Jiménez
The Blanton Museum has announced the acquisition of two large fiberglass sculptures by UT alumnus, Luis Jiménez, Progress II (1976/1999) and Cruzando El Rio Bravo [Border Crossing] (1989). “Over the past several months, Progress II has become one of the most visited works in the Blanton collection. Border Crossing is sure to draw similar attention. [...]
Veronica Roberts New Modern and Contemporary Curator at Blanton
UT’s Blanton Museum of Art has appointed Veronica Roberts as curator of modern and contemporary art. She is currently adjunct associate curator of contemporary art for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Roberts will join the Blanton in February to oversee and develop the museum’s modern and contemporary program. Based in New York since 2005, Roberts [...]
Herb Vogel, Famous Low-budget Art Collector, Dies at 89
Postal worker Herbert Vogel who, along with his wife Dorothy, a reference librarian, amassed a monumental collection of apartment sized works by a who’s-who of modern artists, has died. The Vogels, immortalized in the 2008 movie “Herb and Dorothy”, stand as an example of how (in the 60′s) big money wasn’t a prerequisite for serious [...]
Blanton Museum Now Online: From Plaster Casts to Cowboys etc. in 17,000 Searchable Pics
The Blanton Museum in Austin has announced the online launch of a massive digitization project: 17,000 images and attendant info about objects in their permanent collection are now accessible through the museum’s soon-to-be-redesigned website. In addition to free range browsing, the Blanton has organized their pics into 122 “portfolios” some grouped by place of origin [...]
Nonprofit Drought Ends: Blanton Joins Texas Museum Hiring Flood
The Blanton Museum in Austin has announced two new hires and one promotion, filling up vacancies. Colette Crossman, currently the Blanton’s administrator of arts and programs, will be Curator of Exhibitions, beginning April 1. She will oversee all aspects of exhibition planning and production and will serve as managing curator for traveling exhibitions hosted at [...]
Biggest Open House in Texas: Explore UT to Again Feature Temporary Art Project
UT’s Blanton Museum has commissioned alum Jules Buck Jones to create a temporary outdoor installation in the museum’s Faulkner Plaza for the annual Explore UT event, set for March 3, when thousands of young visitors tour the campus. This is the Blanton’s second outdoor commission, it follows the much-loved Knitted Wonderland by Austin resident and [...]
Blanton Names Sherman as New Development Director
UT Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art has appointed Molly Hasie Sherman as Director of Development effective April 1. A University of Texas alum, Sherman has twenty years of fundraising experience, mostly working as Director of Development at Austin’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, where she raised over $60 million. Prior to that, she worked at the [...]
Blanton El anatsui Exhibition Opens to Record Crowds: Numbers Up Overall
The opening weekend for El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa at the Blanton Museum in Austin logged over 4,275 visitors between September 22-25. A talk by the artist was SRO during Austin’s Museum Day festivities on Saturday, and in honor of the event, the artist unexpectedly titled a previously untitled work, [...]
Free museum days just around the corner; some orgs are naturally free, others become free, and some have free-ness thrust upon them!
The various Smithsonian museums in Washington D.C. are always free (and federally funded!); once a year, Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day twists the arms of other orgs to open their doors for free too, and this year it’s going to be September 24. Some Texas art museums on board for the event include Crow Collection of [...]
Rifkin resigns Blanton, Wicha up next
Ned Rifkin, director of the Blanton Museum in Austin and UT prof, is resigning his museum job to focus on research and teaching as of May 31. The footsore Rifkin has already been director of the Hirshhorn in D.C., the Menil Collection, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, as well as undersecretary for [...]