It has been over a week since the show opened and I am trying to digest what has been happening. I had been told that openings at the Hunterdon Art Museum typically drew 200-250 people. There were actually three shows opening at the same time as is typical in this museum. One was the members show, so there were many artists and their friends at this. Another was the photography of a photographer named Walter Chandoha who is in his nineties, a popular local man who was a photographer whose work appeared in Life magazine and also was a noted photographer of cats. So, it was expected that the turn out would be on the high side. However, it was very high, at about 500 people and the museum director said she had never seen the museum like this before. I am sure it is the biggest opening they ever had. Of course the crowd was swollen by lace people who came from as far away as Ireland, Canada, Maine, Wisconsin and DC, as well as 10 of the artists. I am under the impression that the museum does not often see people traveling from other states to attend their openings. A number of people came on the bus from New York City, largely members of the Brooklyn Lace Guild. Also, there were my friends and family members who turned out. The Urchins were a huge draw. They had been extensively advertised by the museum, and some major news sources, such as New Jersey Monthly and the Gannet newspapers had written up the show in advance, concentrating on the Urchins and on Lieve Jerger's Carriage of Lost Love. Unfortunately, the Urchins are only on display until Oct. 7th and I wonder if that fact isn't compressing a lot of the visitation into the first two weeks. However, I went over to the museum on Sunday to give a tour to a generous donor and was told that the museum had had 134 visitors on Saturday which was considered quite a lot, in fact, I got the impression it was unprecedented. The director said that she can also tell that the museum is more busy on weekdays, just from what she experiences when she leaves her office. On Sunday while I was giving the tour, there were people, not on the tour, who were asking where the show came from and whether it would travel. They were gobsmacked by the Carriage of Lost Love, which has been magically lighted. One asked what museum it would be going to eventually, and they were surprised that there was no plan for a museum to acquire it. In fact, they asked me how I knew about all these works, including the Carriage. i have actually been following the progress of the Carriage of Lost Love since Lieve began writing about it in the Belgian lace School lace magazine in the 1970s. The Carriage of Lost Love is a big hit. People are just mesmerized by it. It is optimally lighted, as well. The Hunterdon Art Museum called in a man who is an expert lighter and who builds exhibits for other museums such as the Museum of Natural History, and he did a fantastic job. Going into the room with the Carriage is an experience that photography just cannot capture, because it is immersive. Also, the room is smallish. it might have been better for the purpose of getting the ultimate photo if the room were larger, but for the purpose of enjoying the experience of seeing the Carriage in person, the room is just right. I have gotten a certain amount of credit for things like lighting and installation that is not really my due. The Museum is a very professional place, with experts that they can call on and that they pay, as well as a volunteer installation crew that is very, very good. Among the paid installers is a man named Seth who has been an installer at the Newark Museum and is now working at the Breuer branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Seriously, they could take almost anything and make a very professional looking exhibit out of it. They think nothing of drilling holes in walls and floors, painting walls, creating new walls, and calling in electricians to put in new outlets. They were a bit stretched by the installation of the Urchins, but there is an entire profession called Rigging which does things like this. The museum hired a Rigger and also a company to provide the heavy equipment. (It would have been somewhat better if the company had had a crane...) When the problem of hanging Manca Ahlin's piece Corona which required about 35 nails in a wall which is stone arose, they were able to almost instantaneously source an extremely large board to mount it on and place against the wall. It is a small museum, but everyone is on the ball. Maybe everyone is on the ball because it is a small museum, and they are all basically in the same office space. In fact, I was away in Belgium at the World Lace Congress when all the art arrived, something coordinated by the exhibition coordinator. There was minimal input from me about the installation. I just came over and consulted on a few little issues. I know other people who have put on exhibits who actually had to do the mounting themselves. I am a little bit disappointed that there have been no reviews of the show in any newspapers or other news sources in NJ. But, I guess that is asking a lot. I keep searching the internet for them, but all internet mentions of the show stop promptly at about a week before the opening. The catalog seems to have been selling well at the museum. The director has asked if she can sell it at a 10 per cent discount to members of the museum, so that is nice. I am going out tomorrow to give a tour to the Metro Chapter IOLI who were generous donors. I am looking forward to it. I feel more comfortable with small groups. I got a bit terrified when I had to speak at the opening. I had been rehearsing, and memorizing, I was supposed to move around the room concentrating on a few things. Knowing which artists were coming, I had concentrated on them, but I had a few others I was going to talk about to flesh out the picture of 20th-21st century lace. . In the end, there were so many people that the moving around was a bit awkward. The microphone didn't work when we got to the other side of the elevator shaft, I guess because it was some kind of blue tooth? My husband tells me that Elena Kanagy-Loux of the Brooklyn Lace Guild diagnosed the problem, and seized the speaker, trying to move it within range of the microphone, but by then I had abandoned the effort and i was speaking with an elevated voice and reading from my talk, rather than speaking from memory. I should have warned the artists that I was going to introduce them and their work, because some of them didn't seem to be able to step to the front when I called upon them. However, after I described each artist's work, there was applause, which I wasn't expecting. But, it was nice, because these artists deserve it. Artists present were Ashley Williams, Alex Goldberg, J Carpenter, Manca Ahlin, Daniela Banatova, Dagmar Beckel-Machyckova, Dorie Millerson, Laura Friesel, Lieve Jerger and Choi + Shine. Ten artists out of 28 was not bad, I thought, especially since they were coming from as far away as California, Canada, Wisconsin and Florida. Since it was an international show it would be hard for many of them to come. Also, of course, Lauran Sundin, Denise Watts and Pierre Fouche were in the show put on by Jane Atkinson in England and were participating in activities there. So, four of my 28 artists were attending festivities related to another lace show. How can it be that there are two lace shows at once, when mostly there are none? At 5 pm we went outside to hear Choi + Shine speak about the Urchins, which was very interesting. There were not enough seats, so people were standing and even sitting on the terrace. There were two food trucks there and I guess that they did well because I am told that my daughter was too late to get the last lobster roll from one of them. Two college friends of mine who came from New York went off to dine in a particularly nice restaurant on Main Street and Lieve and her sister went to the historic inn for dinner while waiting for the sun to go down and the first Urchin lighting. I had been concerned that the food trucks would not get their minimum because lace people might find eating from a food truck to be incompatible with wearing lace. I am hoping that the food trucks did well, but also the local restaurants, since a positive response from the community to the Museum is always to be desired. When not eating, we were all posing inside and outside the Urchin waiting for the sun to go down. One of the Urchins had been artfully suspended over the water, so it was only possible to pose with the other Urchin, but that was fine, except that people kept inadvertently photo bombing each other. It was widely acknowledged that the best view of the Urchins was from the historic bridge, actually a rather lacy iron structure, just outside the museum. As the sun went down we began to gravitate that way for photography. The Urchins were very pretty in the sunset when a violet glow seemed to suffuse the area and the structural towers that they were hanging on were not as visible. We had planned to go to the historic inn afterward for anyone who hadn't had enough festivities. But as it turned out, everyone had had enough. After all, the opening started at 3 and ended around 8. Also, many people had entered before 3 at my suggestion because after the opening starts, it is basically a party, and it is hard to really concentrate on the exhibit and the labels as you might in a more calm setting. Also, it was Sunday night and people had to go to work the next day, some of them at locations rather far from New Jersey. So, it was just me and my husband and my long time friend (maid of honor at my wedding!) at the historic inn afterward, Devon
- To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
