Traditional Fine Arts Organization
Gallery and Outdoor Evening Exhibitions Project
2022-2023
(above: Stanton Macdonald-Wright,
Mural for the Santa Monica Library: Prologue (mountain tops), between
1934 and 1935, 28.5 x 60 inches, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Public
domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Onsite and/or virtual exhibitions
Nationwide
Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) is interested in co-sponsorship grants to institutions nationwide planning American representational art special/temporary exhibitions, either web-based and/or in-person, featuring pre-WWII artworks based on topics such as ethnic identity, regionalism, impressionism, realism, portraits, landscapes, decorative arts and crafts, murals, art colonies, and non-journalistic photography.
Southern California
Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) is also interested in further co-sponsorship grants to Southern California institutions planning American representational art special/temporary exhibitions, either web-based and/or in-person, featuring pre-WWII OC artworks. Of interest are exhibitions based on topics such as impressionism, realism, portraits, landscapes, ethnic identity and non-journalistic photography. Of special interest are intra-county collaborative and touring exhibits.
For all above exhibitions
For the above exhibitions, TFAO favors grants to institutions whose policy is to archive details of future, current and past exhibitions in the exhibitions section of their websites. Details include online posting of all enriched content which may include: images; recordings of curator interviews and lectures; artist and curator biographies; virtual tours; teacher guides; press releases; media coverage; wall texts; enhanced object labels; illustrated checklists, online brochures, catalogues or gallery guides in flip book format; etc. If an institution has not yet added enriched information about an exhibition at the time of its posting of an upcoming exhibit, yet is committed to add such material when the future exhibition becomes current and retains it when the exhibition is transferred to the past exhibitions section of its website, we will take that into consideration.
We encourage institutions to make online catalogs available to the public without charge, while paper printed copies remain monetized, one reason being that "coffee table" catalogs appeal to an audience largely separate from viewers of online versions: mainly students and teachers. Our Survey of Online Exhibition Catalogues, Brochures, Gallery Guides and Related Materials contains examples freely available to the public. These institutions decided that freely available online brochures and catalogs - optionally locked out for download or content copying - broadly serve the global public, aren't materially detrimental to their net operating income and serve to further their mission statement education component.
We require that all online information posted concerning an exhibition will be at all times available to the public without charge.
Examples of exhibitions with physical and/or online elements co-sponsored by TFAO in 2022 are A Fanciful World: Jessie Arms Botke and Striking Figures: Francis De Erdely
Please see directions for letters of inquiry and further steps leading to project funding. Also see TFAO strategy and preferences.
More and more museums are offering a rich online menu of materials to accompany physical exhibits. This is partially to attract younger audiences who seek knowledge onilne. Depending on the quality of their online experience, there may be an inflection point soon when a sizable portion of them will prefer that option over physical visitation. Following is what ChatGPT software (likely crafted by young engineers) had to say in response to a somewhat rhetorical questiin in March, 2023.
Outdoor Evening Exhibitions
About TFAO and the project
In early 2022 TFAO issued to UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art a challenge grant for production of an evening outdoor exhibit named Plein Air en Plein Air. The content of the multi-year evening exhibit will be artworks from the Irvine collection of California impressionist art. Projection will be on one or more exterior walls of campus buildings. LIMCA's Monthly Muse says: "Plein Air en Plein Air is a site-specific installation conceived by artist Jesse Colin Jackson, professor and associate dean of research and innovation at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. This work projection maps digital images of select plein air artworks (made outdoors) from LIMCA's collection onto buildings throughout UCI's campus. Digital technology allows us to bring the art to you, the university's 30,000+ students, 25,000+ faculty and staff, plus countless alumni and other visitors."
We encourage institutions to consider evening outdoor projection of pre-WWII American representational artwork exhibitions via loop videos on exterior walls of structures. In locations with evening high pedestrian traffic such as campus buildings, downtown streets, shopping centers and stand-alone buildings, an opportunity exists to both engage new audiences with curated exhibitions and generate further institutional awareness. Desired topics content is the same as for onsite exhibitions.
Issues concerning these types of exhibitions include:
- correlation with temporary or permanent exhibitions currently on display in the galleries, or artworks from the collection not on display
- estimated evening exhibition run's foot traffic engagement, adjusted for darkness hours, rain & fog restraints, seasonal pedestrian patterns, etc.
- image set cycles per available evening, total time per cycle, number of art images and didactic/informational elements per cycle
- project costs including purchase vs rental of equipment options
- cost/benefit analysis
- city ordinances
- respect for sight lines of other publics
- subjectivity of suitable reflective luminance (brightness)
- for flat wall surfaces, effects of surface gain, ambient light, image square footage, keystone correction and wall color on luminance
- security of equipment
- availability of adequate electric power
- vehicle traffic distraction
- animal disorientation
- ancillary expenses
Projection mapping technology may also be considered where a wall surface is uneven.
Please see directions for letters
of inquiry and further steps leading
to project funding. Also see TFAO
strategy and preferences.
Art museum outreach: phase one
The Art Museum, Gallery and Art Center index guides viewers to special pages covering Resource Library sources listed by museum name: A-C D-G H-L M-Q R-S T-Z.
Informational letters sent to the following museums based on anecdotal information:
Return
to research projects, reports and studies
Links to sources of information outside of our web site are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations. Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.
*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:
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