The performance takes place Saturday, February 4 at 2 p.m. throughout the museum’s galleries, and begins with music on toy piano from the Austin Critics Table 2009 Best instrumentalist, Michelle Schumann. The event is open to the public and included with museum admission.

Continuing his research into cross-disciplinary collaboration and new contexts for live performances, musician Steven Parker, a doctoral student in the Butler School of Music and Donald D. Harrington Fellow at UT, was invited by The Blanton to draw on the museum’s resources in this, his third installation of the SoundSpace series. Program highlights include simultaneous musical performances by the New Music Co-op, Bel Cuore Sax Quartet, the East Side Arkestra (Sun Ra tribute combo) and the premier of works from composers Andy Sigler and Pierce Gradone, with an amplified cactus and electric trombone. The music will be paired with dancers from Ballet Austin, with choreography from Michelle Thompson.

Following the performance, visitors will have an opportunity to participate in a community jam session, bringing together the Musicircus performers and museum guests for a unique noise making experience.

The Blanton is excited to extend this opportunity for collaboration to one of the university’s most talented graduate students. This project exemplifies the museum’s commitment to nurturing meaningful collaborations that provide innovative experiences with art, inspire creativity, and support the educational mission of the university.

SoundSpace: Musicircus is organized by Steven Parker for The Blanton as part of his year long exploration of the museum and its resources.

As some of you may know, we have been suffering through almost daily server issues. Our previous web hosting company was not keeping up with the demand of our readership.

We appreciate your patience. Cheers.

The Texas White House at the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, Texas (photo by Mr. Holga)

Are you keeping up with our own Mr. Holga and his JFK project? Mr. Holga was in south Texas over the Thanksgiving holiday. He stopped in Salado, Center Point, Stonewall, Austin and Houston. His photographic agenda included Liz Carpenter, General Walker, President and Mrs. Johnson, the Texas White House, President Johnson’s speech, F. Trammell Crow and Congressman Albert Thomas.

Click here to read Death by Holga Road Trip before Thanksgiving on Mr. Holga’s website.

The Big Great American Auction hosted by Ty Pennington

TV special features historic comics, currency, historic Ty Cobb memorabilia; filmed aboard The Queen Mary

ABC has announced that it will air The Great Big American Auction, starring Ty Pennington of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, one of America’s leading reality TV personalities, and featuring exclusively Heritage Auctions’ experts, auction services and staff, in a very special television first made-for-TV auction event, at 10 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, Dec. 8.

The special was produced by Cineflix (Auction) Inc. for ABC. Executive Producers are Lisa Levenson, Ty Pennington, Joe Houlihan and Simon Lloyd.

Ty Pennington has been transforming people’s homes and lives for several years now as the host of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and has now found an exciting new way to change lives by turning their memorabilia and assorted hidden finds into treasures worth life-changing amounts of money.

After scouring flea markets, cellars, attics and yard sales to find one-of-a-kind items whose owners have no idea of their real value, Pennington, with a team of experts from Heritage Auctions, tags the best items and brings them to The Queen Mary oceanliner in Long Beach, CA for The Great Big American Auction. The exceptional collectibles range from first edition classic comic books to rare American currency to an early 20^th century baseball icon’s checkbook, and much more in-between, all chosen for their rarity, value and the uniqueness of the consignor’s story.

“It’s a great thrill to be part of this major network, prime time show, to work with Cineflex and ABC and a star the magnitude and class of Ty Pennington,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. “We went to great lengths with our staff and experts to make sure that all these unique items have great stories and that they live up to Heritage’s exacting consignment standards. We hope that everyone will enjoy the show as much as we enjoyed being a part of it.”

Objects originally bought for mere dollars, or literally plucked right out the trash will go for thousands of dollars as their lucky owners’ lives are changed for the better.

The Great Big American Auction will air on Thursday, December 8, 2011, at 10 p.m. (ET) on The ABC Television Network.

Heritage Auctions is always seeking “consignments with a story” for possible future TV projects. If you think you might have a unique item and a unique story, email to TVShow@HA.com.

Heritage Auctions

Heritage Auctions, headed by Steve Ivy, Jim Halperin and Greg Rohan, is the world’s third largest auction house, with annual sales more than $700 million, and 600,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

The Big Great American Auction hosted by Ty Pennington

The Cavalry Scrap by Frederic Remington, 1906

Go West! Representations of the American Frontier
Blanton Museum of Art
January 14 through September 23, 2012

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin presents Go West! Representations of the American Frontier, an exhibition exploring the pioneering American West as both a physical terrain and an idea deeply rooted in the American psyche.

On view January 14 through September 23, 2012, the exhibition features paintings, sculptures and works on paper made in, and about, the American West by Henry Farny, Charles Russell, Maynard Dixon, and other artists from The Blanton’s celebrated C.R. Smith Collection of Art of the American West, in the largest installation of this collection in over a decade. Works of related content from the museum’s holdings by Jerry Bywaters, Frederic Remington and others, and a selection of late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American prints supplement the installation, along with borrowed works from the University’s Harry Ransom Center and Briscoe Center for American History.

“Go West! presents works from The Blanton’s collection by some of the most illustrious artists of the period such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Remington,” states Blanton director Simone Wicha. “Visitors will learn about their lives, their artistic styles, the historical moments and subjects they depict, and come away with an appreciation of the rich heritage of the great American West.”

Go West! is organized thematically and chronologically, with investigations of the country’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century, including: contested territories and the ensuing battles of the U.S. Army cavalry, representations of Native Americans, cowboys and ranchers, ideas of Manifest Destiny, the industrialization and urbanization of the land, and the ever-changing American landscape as witnessed and portrayed by artists living and working in the Western United States.

As a special counterpart to the nineteenth-century works on view, The Blanton has organized The Contemporary West, an exhibition that provides a twentieth and twenty-first century response to and interpretation of the Western genre. Opening late April 2012, the presentation includes works in multiple mediums by Jeremy Blake, Ed Ruscha, Lordy Rodriquez, Luis Jimenez among others.

This exhibition is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art. Support for the exhibition is provided by the T.J. Brown and C.A. Lupton Foundation.

Passage by Paul Villinski (photo courtesy the Blanton Museum of Art)

As a special complement to El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin will present Passage, a temporary installation by artist Paul Villinski. On view November 11 through January 22, the large scale, multi-media sculpture features a glider plane with a wing span of over thirty-three feet.

The viewing date for this post has been updated to November 11, 2011. It was previously listed as November 4.

Much like the work in The Blanton’s current exhibition by El Anatsui, Villinski’s installation is fabricated from recycled and repurposed wood that the artist salvaged from discarded shipping pallets, police line barriers, broken furniture, and construction sites around New York City. Enveloping the life-sized glider is a cloud of 1,000 black butterflies; a motif the artist is widely known for and which has been prominent in his work for over 15 years.

Each butterfly is painstakingly shaped to represent one of dozens of different species, and the obsessive, hand-made process means that no two butterflies are exactly alike. The ephemeral and elegant final result of Villinski’s labor-intensive process is one that celebrates the beauty, resilience and ingenuity of both nature and man.

Villinski’s work operates at the juncture of biographical, aesthetic and ideological concerns. The son of an Air Force navigator, he took an early interest in the romance and mechanics of flight, and became an avid glider pilot later in life. Growing up amidst the counter-culture revolution of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Villinski became active in social and environmental causes. As an artist, these varied influences inform his practice on both material and conceptual levels.

About the Artist

Paul Villinski was born in Maine and has lived and worked in New York City since graduating from Cooper Union in 1984. His work has been included in more than 100 exhibitions nationally, recently including “Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary” at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY) and “Prospect .1″, an international Biennial in New Orleans, LA. “Emergency Response Studio,” a FEMA trailer redesigned and rebuilt into a solar-and windpowered mobile artist’s studio, was the subject of a solo exhibition at Rice University Art Gallery (Houston, TX), which then traveled to Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX), Wesleyan University’s Zilkha Gallery (Middletown, CT), and was included in the New Museum’s” Festival of Ideas for the New City” this summer in Lower Manhattan.

Villinski’s work is consistently reviewed in major publications including the New York Times, Art Forum, Art in America, the LA Times, and the Wall Street Journal. His work is widely collected; including large public works created by commission, and is in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Arts & Design (New York, NY), The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA) and the New Orleans Museum of Art (New Orleans, LA). He is represented by Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York.

Passage by Paul Villinski (photo courtesy the Blanton Museum of Art)

Works by Sam Prekop at Tiny Park in Austin

Opening Friday, December 9, 2011, from 7 to 11 p.m., at 607 ½ Genard Street in Austin, Tiny Park will feature the work of Michael Sieben and Sam Prekop (of The Sea and Cake). The exhibition runs through January 14, 2012, and will be available for viewing from 12 – 5 p.m. on select Saturdays (12/10, 12/17, 1/7, 1/14) and by appointment.

Artists

Sam Prekop’s paintings and photographs have been exhibited at the Modern Institute (Glasgow), Clementine Gallery (New York), Jan Cicero Gallery (Chicago), Durstewitz Sapre Galerie (Hamburg), Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot (Paris), and Mixture Contemporary (Houston), and have been featured in ARTFORUM, ArtNews, Black Book, and Index Magazine. Sam Prekop: Photographs (2007) was published by Presspop Publications (Japan).

Those familiar with Prekop’s music will recognize his art from the album covers of his influential and widely acclaimed band, The Sea and Cake, and his solo records. He has released 13 albums in 20 years and is internationally recognized for his explorations of pop, jazz, electronic, and Brazilian music. His exhibition at Tiny Park will feature drawings, paintings and photographs. Like his music, his visual art demonstrates a strategic restraint and focus on the subtle qualities of mood and atmosphere.

Works by Michael Sieben at Tiny Park in Austin

Michael Sieben is a founding member of Okay Mountain Gallery/Collective. His work has been shown in the US, Europe, Japan, Mexico, and South America. He also works as a professional illustrator and designer primarily within the subculture of skateboarding and is a staff writer and illustrator for the iconic Thrasher Magazine and staff writer for Vice.com. In 2009, Gingko Press published a 96 page book of his work titled: There’s Nothing Wrong With You (Hopefully). He was the 2007 Austin Chronicle Reader’s Poll Best Visual Artist.

The characters populating Sieben’s work seem to bear the weight of (some very heavy) experience, but maintain an almost ridiculous optimism in the face of disaster and absurdity. For his exhibition at Tiny Park, Michael will show new drawings and sculptures.

Tiny Park

Tiny Park, an exhibition series and art space located in Austin, presents contemporary art exhibitions, readings, and film screenings by local and national artists. Functioning out of the organizers’ home located at 607 ½ Genard Street, Tiny Park also utilizes outside venues for larger exhibitions and events, and collaborates with guest curators and other galleries to present conceptually and aesthetically diverse works. Tiny Park is organized by Brian Willey and Thao Votang.

***The Sea and Cake is performing in Austin at the Mohawk on December 8th, the evening before the opening of the exhibition.

Works by Sam Prekop at Tiny Park in Austin

Works by Michael Sieben at Tiny Park in Austin

This unique collaboration between The Blanton and members of UT’s Butler School of Music and Ballet Austin pairs musicians and dancers in a multi-disciplinary performance that explores the distinctive art, architecture, and acoustics of the museum. The event is open to the public and included with museum admission. Tickets will be limited to seventy-five per performance, first come first served, starting at 1p.m.

For this performance, the second in the SoundSpace series, musician Steven Parker, a doctoral student in the Butler School of Music and Donald D. Harrington Fellow at UT, was invited by The Blanton to draw on the museum’s resources to further his research into cross-disciplinary collaboration and new contexts for live performances. Musical highlights include cello, violin, flute and trombone performances of J.S. Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Duet No. 1 in E minor by W.F. Bach, and special compositions by composers Ethan Greene and Mike Svoboda. Ballet Austin’s Michelle Thompson choreographed solo dancers in new works in response to The Blanton’s galleries and Magdalena Jarkowiec of giantmutantdolls.com serves as costume designer.

The Blanton is excited to extend this opportunity for collaboration to one of the university’s most talented graduate students. This project exemplifies the museum’s commitment to nurturing meaningful collaborations that provide innovative experiences with art, inspire creativity, and support the educational mission of the university.

SoundSpace: Music and Dance is organized by Steven Parker for The Blanton as part of his year long exploration of the museum and its resources.

About The Blanton Museum of Art

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the foremost university art museums in the country and has the largest and most comprehensive collection of art in Central Texas. The museum welcomes and engages all visitors by offering personal, extraordinary experiences that connect art and ideas, reaching within and beyond the university campus to stimulate the thriving, creative community that is Austin, Texas. The Blanton’s permanent collection of more than 17,000 works is recognized or its European paintings, an encyclopedic collection of prints and drawings, and modern and contemporary American and Latin American art.

Dallas Art News Museum Express Tour

The announced closure of The Women’s Museum reminded us how much fun we had with the Museum Express Tour in the spring of 2010. So much fun that we would like to do it again in 2012.

For those of you who don’t know, Dallas Art News put together the Museum Express Tour in April 2010. The tour went to eight Dallas & Fort Worth museums in one day using only mass transit (The T, TRE & DART) to get around. It took all day and we only had 15-20 minutes at each museum, but it was definitely an adventure.

The 2010 Museum Express Tour had about a dozen adventurous art lovers. All of them lived in the Dallas – Fort Worth area. The Museum Express Tour is more for local residents than it is for vacationers.

We would like to do the Museum Express Tour again if we can get more people to join us. We want 30 to 50 art lovers for this event.

Possible museum stops on the tour include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Dallas
  • Crow Collection of Asian Art
  • Dallas Museum of Art
  • Nasher Sculpture Center
  • Meadows Museum
  • Museum of Nature & Science
  • The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
  • Texas Museum of Automobile History

• Fort Worth
  • Amon Carter Museum of American Art
  • Fort Worth Community Arts Center
  • Kimbell Art Museum
  • Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
  • Sid Richardson Museum

The estimated cost for the Museum Express Tour will be about $100 per person, which will include a mass transit pass, access to all the museums on the tour, lunch and a t-shirt.

Before we start doing any serious planning, we would like to gauge how many people would be interested. If you would like to spend a Saturday traveling from museum to museum with a couple dozen new friends, then please let us know by filling out the sign-up form below.

Completing the below form does not in any way mean you are registered for the tour. The official tour registration will come in January 2012.

Dallas Art News does not share email addresses with anyone.

Related Posts

From Fort Worth to Dallas on the Museum Express Tour – April 2, 2010

Dallas Art News Museum Express Tour to Visit Eight Museums in One Day via The T, TRE and DART -Feb. 25, 2010

Facebook Images from the Museum Express Tour Dry Run in 2009

Dallas Art News Museum Express Tour makes it to The Women's Museum on Saturday, April 3, 2010. (Photo by James Roman)

The ideal reporter would be an aspiring writer. Someone who enjoys attending exhibits and documenting the experience. A reporter can be a freelancer, a college or high school student, stay-at-home mom or senior citizen. Anyone with a high school degree or above can apply.

A Dallas Art News reporter should be able to contribute one news post every month depending upon location. Some areas will have less art news than others.

A reporter will be required to follow style guides (standard and Dallas Art News styles). All reports will be edited prior to posting. Reporters will be given credit for their work.

A Dallas Art News reporter is not a paid position at this time. The position exists mainly for the art and the experience and the glory.

Interested reporters should contact Dallas Art News at reporters@dallasartnews.com or use the contact form at the bottom of this post. Please send links to examples of your work.

Frequently Asked Question

1. I already have a full-time job. Can I be a Dallas Art News reporter?

Yes. Dallas Art News is looking for individuals with an appreciation for art and the ability to write an honest review for the benefit of others. We need reporter all over Texas to help report art news.

2. How much does this position pay?

Nothing. Dallas Art News is starting-up slowly and is not making any money. We are doing this for the love of art. Not even the managing editor is being paid.

When Dallas Art News starts making money, we will consider rewarding our reporter, especially reporters who joined us during our development period.

3. I don’t live in one of the cities mentioned. Can I still be a Dallas Art News reporter?

Yes. If you live close enough to one of these big Texas cities, then you can be a Dallas Art News reporter.

4. Are there any benefits to being a Dallas Art News reporter.

Yes. Dallas Art News often gets invited by museums and galleries to preview their exhibits. This is a great opportunity to meet museum directors and curators, artists, gallery owners and special guests.

Dallas Art News added another perk this year. We paid the membership fee for each exhibiting artist for the McKinney Avenue Contemporary. This allowed our artist staff members to show their work in The MAC Annual Member Exhibit. The MAC arranged for all our works to be hung together.

5. I am an artist. Can I be a Dallas Art News reporter?

Yes. Dallas Art News definitely wants the viewpoint from an artist.

You will not be allowed to review your own art, but we definitely would like you opinion on other exhibits and artists.

6. I am not sure my writing skills are strong enough to be a Dallas Art News reporter. How will reporters be selected?

The best way to determine your ability to write is to send you out on a writing assignment. Instead of reading a writing sample, we would like to see a current review. With a little editing, we will probably publish it on Dallas Art News.

Don’t panic. We will give you some pointers and discuss the standard flow of an art review.

7. Can I also post the review I write for Dallas Art News on my  blog or website?

Yes. Since this is not a paid gig, you can post your work where ever you like. The only limit we impose is that you don’t post your review to other art news sites that compete with Dallas Art News.

If you are even considering being a Dallas Art News reporter, then use the following Contact Form to send us a message.