Today we hosted an open house as part of the 2008 Graduate Student Expo, so people got to come over to the Tarble Arts Center and see us in our "natural environment." We totally felt like monkeys at the zoo--and probably looked like monkeys at the zoo too! Here you can see some pictures of the E-gallery, one of two galleries in which we will be displaying objects. The E-gallery is the kind of "fun" gallery with things people can touch and $50 wicker chairs they can sit in. That's where the train car is. You can see the train car there along the back wall of the gallery. It is really just a series of three "rooms" (which we added dividers to later this afternoon), where visitors can learn about people's perceptions of travel based on status, race, social class, etc. It will look a lot better when we're done with it, but I still think it's stupid :-) It would be cooler if it actually looked like the outside of a train car, but it's just an interior facade. In the photos you can also see the big signs we're hanging from the ceiling. At first I thought it would look really dorky, but it is actually looking pretty cool. Angie took the last two of those pictures from up in the rafters as she was installing the signs. You can see Aly and me busily matting and framing some photos. (Aly seemed a lot happier today than yesterday, which was good.)
It will be in the other gallery, the Brainard Gallery, where we will have more of the fine art pieces. We had to design a part of the exhibit to be more "kid-friendly" because EIU has a program with all of the 5th grade classes in the area, where they bring their students to see the HA exhibit each spring. So that's why the E-gallery will be more interactive than the Brainard. We ran into a few problems today, but the most serious was that there are six photographs we're supposed to have framed that are mysteriously missing! Laurie and I will try to track those down tomorrow, but I'm afraid we're going to have to have them reprinted. Dan was supposed to have had all of the photos printed, so it appears that he kind of dropped the ball on this one. Hopefully we can get this resolved quickly.
Today was totally crazy! We were running all over the place all day. Then, this evening I was interviewed by the Daily Eastern campus newspaper. They requested an interview with me, Dan, and Mr. Riccio to talk about the exhibit and the HA program (supposedly they just chose our three names off of a list). It was pretty cool to be interviewed for the paper. It's always good to feel famous :-)
Tomorrow is going to be even more CRAZY!!! Aly and I have to take our turn as "project managers" for the day, so we had to plan out an agenda. Our problem is that at 4:30, we all have to be to the Graduate Student Advisory Council awards banquet in our Sunday best to accept the Creative Activities Award we were given for our Dudley project. This greatly disrupts the flow of the day--because we have to give people time to go home and change--but I think we got it worked out. We are really getting down to the wire, so tomorrow we have to start hanging artwork, hang the interpretive panels, finish some object mounts, put up some display cases, start adjusting the gallery lights, FIND THE MISSING PHOTOS, print object labels, find frames for things that haven't been framed yet, and what we really need to do is VACUUM the galleries! There is sawdust everywhere.
The best part of tomorrow will be that Greg gets to come to Charleston for lunch! (Aly and I were sure to schedule lunch into our busy day.) Tomorrow is Greg's day off of work this week, and he will be in Sullivan helping his mom get things packed up at their house there, so he said he will sneak away for lunch, and I'll do the same! That means that when he comes to the exhibit opening festivities on Saturday, we will have seen each other five out of the last eight days--an unprecedented number!!! :-) So even though this week is crazy, I like it because I'm getting to see Greg more than usual. Dr. Rugh will be flying to Chicago tomorrow and staying with her sister, then she'll be here on Friday, so this is a good week! Well, I'm pooped, so I'm heading to bed here pretty soon to gear up for another day at the zoo tomorrow.
1 comment:
It looks like things are coming together. Today at Curves, Lauralynn found that great Harriet Beecher Stowe quote for me: "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you til you could not hang on a minute longer, noever give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
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