Hallie Ford Museum of Art Opens Redesigned Permanent Gallery

A redesigned Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh Gallery, which houses the Hallie Ford Museum of Art’s permanent collection of European, Asian and American art, will open March 5 after three months of renovations.

To celebrate the reopening, the museum will host a free family activity day, led by education curator Elizabeth Garrison, March 7 from noon to 4 p.m. in the lobby of the museum. Activities will include art projects based on pieces in the museum to help families explore the galleries.

The reconfigured Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh Gallery presents the collections in a historical sequence, beginning with ancient art and including sections on Christian art, Asian art and 19th and 20th century European and American art. The gallery features new walls and display cases, improved lighting, color schemes to differentiate regions and time periods, and a range of text panels and annotated labels to enhance the visitor’s experience. In addition, a number of new gifts and purchases acquired in the past 10 years will be on display.

The collections in the gallery span 4,500 years and encompass four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. They were assembled over the years to support the liberal arts curriculum of Willamette and to introduce museum visitors to major themes and styles in Western and Eastern art history. Rather than attempting a comprehensive view, the collections consist of small, unassuming art treasures meant to be studied, savored and enjoyed.

Many of the objects on view were given by Mark and Janeth Sponenburgh. Professor Sponenburgh is a sculptor and art historian who, with his late wife Janeth, traveled throughout Europe and Asia and amassed a collection of Western and Eastern art that they gave to Willamette in 1990. Other donors include Richard Brockway, A. Dean McKenzie, James and Aneta McIntyre, Muriel Stieber, Marge Riley, Bill and Beverly Galen, the late Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, Dan Schneider and Michel and Victoria Hersen.

The reinstallation of the gallery was a collaborative project by museum director John Olbrantz, collection curator Jonathan Bucci, education curator Elizabeth Garrison, exhibition designer/chief preparator David Andersen, faculty curators Roger Hull and Ann Nicgorski, and visiting instructor in art history Kevin Greenwood. Financial support was provided in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The redesign is part of an ongoing effort to keep the museum’s permanent galleries fresh and interesting. The Carl Hall Gallery, which houses a collection of historic and modern regional art, will be reinstalled this summer, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Gallery, which houses a collection of Native American baskets, will be reinstalled in the summer of 2010. The Print Study Center, which houses a works on paper collection, was remodeled in 2007 as part of the museum’s basement renovation.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call (503) 370-6855.

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Museum Seeks Volunteer Docents

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University is recruiting volunteers for a new, mid-year docent class beginning Jan. 26. Using inquiry-based discussion and dialogue, docents guide visitors of all ages and backgrounds in an active exploration of artwork from a variety of periods and cultures.

“While a background in art or art history is not required, we are looking for people who are able to speak in public, have a strong desire to learn, are flexible and dependable, have a commitment to the program, and can be accurate yet creative in the presentation of information,” said Education Curator Elizabeth Garrison.

Training for new and active docents is ongoing on Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., September through mid-May. Docents must attend weekly classes, complete occasional reading assignments and develop and present tours. In addition to becoming a member of the museum at the individual level or above, docents are asked to pay yearly dues of $15 per person.

Information packets and application forms may be picked up at the museum Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Dec. 24 through Jan. 5. To receive an information packet and application form by mail, call the museum at (503) 370-6855.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the city of Salem, the mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. It includes four permanent galleries focusing on European, Asian and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper, as well as two temporary exhibition spaces featuring historical and contemporary art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art to Close for Winter Break

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art will close Dec. 24 and re-open Jan. 6 to correspond with the closure of Willamette University for winter break.

Two special exhibitions are currently on view. The Second Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial continues through Dec. 21 in the Study Gallery. The exhibition features contemporary prints created by Native American artists at the Crow’s Shadow Institute on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon.

The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon continues through Jan. 18 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. The exhibition, which includes regalia from all nine of Oregon’s federally recognized tribes, offers visitors a rare glimpse at the beauty, history, and meaning of regalia in tribal life and thought.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Mondays. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art to Close for Thanksgiving

In observance of Thanksgiving, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will close Wednesday, Nov. 26, at 3 p.m. and re-open Saturday, Nov. 29, at 10 a.m.

In addition to permanent galleries devoted to historical and contemporary art, the museum features two special exhibitions through the end of the year.

The Second Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial continues through Dec. 23 in the Study Gallery. Organized by Crow’s Shadow Master Printer Frank Janzen and Willamette Professor Rebecca Dobkins, the exhibition features a selection of contemporary prints by Native American artists created at the Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts on the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon.

The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon is on display through Jan. 18 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Organized by Dobkins in partnership with tribal leaders, artists and collectors, the exhibition introduces nontribal audiences to the history, beauty and function of ceremonial regalia within tribal life and thought.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Mondays. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Artist Demonstrations and Films Planned in Conjunction with Regalia Exhibition

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will present regalia-making demonstrations and a series of films in November and December in conjunction with its current exhibition The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon.

Regalia makers will demonstrate their techniques Nov. 1 and 2 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the museum. Among the tribes represented will be the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Confederated Tribes of Siletz; Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw; Coquille Indian Tribe; and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians. Admission to the demonstrations is free with the price of admission.

A series of films on the tribes of Oregon will be shown Nov. 20 and 22 and Dec. 4 and 6 at 2 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum. The films will introduce the various tribes of Oregon and help contextualize the historical and contemporary regalia in the exhibition. Admission is free.

The Art of Ceremony, a major exhibition of historical and contemporary ceremonial regalia from the nine federally recognized tribes of Oregon, is on display through Jan. 18. Organized by Willamette University Professor Rebecca Dobkins in partnership with the tribes, the exhibition is designed to introduce non-tribal audiences to the history, beauty and function of regalia within tribal life and thought.

The Oregon Arts Commission, with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, selected the exhibition as the state’s 2008 American Masterpieces project. Additional support was provided by an endowment gift from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, and by grants from the Siletz Tribal Charitable Fund, the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds, the Oregon Arts Commission, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a Millicent McIntosh Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Mondays. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Celebrates 10th Anniversary, Dedicates Outdoor Art Piece

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will dedicate a major new piece of outdoor art and celebrate its 10th anniversary the first week of October.

“It’s hard to believe that we’ve been around for 10 years,” Museum Director John Olbrantz said. “It seems like yesterday that Willamette President Lee Pelton, benefactor Hallie Ford and I cut the ribbon to officially open the museum.”

The new piece of outdoor art, entitled Portals through Time, was created by Ellensburg, Wash., mixed-media artist Dick Elliott for the 45 windows on the second floor of the museum. Each panel measures 69 ¼ x 21 ¾” and consists of safety reflectors in amber, blue, clear, green and red. The piece will be dedicated at a free public ceremony Oct. 1 at 5 p.m. at the museum.

“Each individual panel will represent a unique geometric design, but when viewed as a whole, the panels will add color and excitement to the second floor of our building,” said Olbrantz, who has known Elliott for 25 years. “In addition, Dick’s reflector installation will help raise the visibility of our building and will add a subtle elegance to the structure while respecting the existing architecture.”

Elliott is a nationally recognized mixed-media artist who creates artwork from safety reflectors. His installations have graced the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, the Sun Dome in Yakima, Wash., and numerous schools, transit centers, colleges and airports throughout the U.S. Elliott was recently awarded a Governor’s Arts Award in Washington state for his contributions to the visual arts.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art also will celebrate its 10th anniversary October 3–5 with free admission; cake and refreshments; tours of its permanent collection; door prizes; tours of the special exhibition The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon; drawings for memberships and books; lectures by Olbrantz on the history of the museum; and behind-the-scenes tours of its recently remodeled basement and Print Study Center. All events are free; for a full schedule, visit www.willamette.edu/cal/event.cgi/9010.

The museum was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural, and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the City of Salem, the mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. In just one decade, the museum’s accomplishments have included raising more than $4 million toward an endowment fund; publishing 10 major books; creating 14 exhibitions that traveled regionally, nationally and internationally; and increasing visitation from 10,000–15,000 visitors the year it opened to more than 30,000 annual visitors today. The museum includes four permanent galleries focusing on European, Asian, American, Native American and regional art, and two temporary exhibition spaces featuring historical and contemporary art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday from 1–5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Seeks Volunteer Docents

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is recruiting volunteer docents to provide permanent gallery and special exhibition tours for K–12 students, college students, adults and senior citizens.

The next class for docents begins in September. Training for new and active docents is held every Monday from 9 a.m. to noon from September through April. Training includes lectures and gallery sessions on the museum’s permanent collections and special exhibitions, as well as touring techniques and lessons on how to view and talk about art.

Trainees attend weekly classes for eight months, do occasional homework assignments and give guided tours in the spring. Docents are asked to make a two-year commitment once they graduate from training, although most docents remain active for many years. In addition to becoming a member of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at the individual level or above, docents must pay yearly dues of $15 per person.

Applications may be picked up at the museum Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. Aug. 15 to Elizabeth Garrison, the Cameron Paulin Curator of Education. Interviews will be held in August.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the city of Salem, the mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. It includes four permanent galleries and two temporary exhibition spaces. Permanent galleries focus on European, Asian and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper. Temporary exhibitions feature historic and contemporary art.

The museum is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Mondays. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Museum Hosts Retrospective by Seattle Painter

A major retrospective exhibition of work by Michael Dailey, a Seattle painter and influential professor emeritus at the University of Washington, opens June 7 and continues through Aug. 31 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Michael Dailey: Color, Light, Time, and Place was organized by museum Director John Olbrantz and features 20 paintings and 24 works on paper spanning a 45-year period. Works have been selected from public and private collections throughout the region.

Dailey and Olbrantz will discuss the artist’s life and work Friday, June 6, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum, followed by a preview reception from 6 to 8 p.m. in the lobby and galleries downstairs. The exhibition will include a full-color, 48-page hardcover monograph, distributed by the University of Washington Press, with an essay by Robin Updike, former art critic for The Seattle Times.

Born and raised in Iowa, Dailey received his bachelor of arts and master of fine arts degrees from the University of Iowa and taught at the University of Washington from 1963 until his retirement in 1998. An abstract painter of tremendous skill and prowess who focuses on landscapes, Dailey has been featured in numerous one-person and group exhibitions during the past five decades.

Dailey’s early landscapes from the 1960s are big, expressionistic compositions of towering mountain peaks, dark forests and chiseled slabs of rock. By the early 1970s, his work became increasingly refined and abstracted as he sought to reduce the landscape to its basic elements of horizon, color, light and atmosphere. “By suggesting rather than defining,” he has written, “much is left for the viewer to imagine.”

His early work is reminiscent of the abstract expressionist painters Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, but his work of the past 35 years reflects a number of diverse art historical sources: Chinese landscapes; Mark Rothko’s luminous, saturated color; and Piero della Francesca’s glowing light. Color and light are important elements of Dailey’s mature work.

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1970s, Dailey switched from oil to acrylic and gradually began to reduce the size of his canvases as it became increasingly difficult for him to paint on a large scale. In spite of his physical challenges, he has continued to make lush, sensuous and evocative landscapes that, in his words, “create the mood and presence of the landscape by means of atmospheric color and abstract form.”

The exhibition is supported in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Exhibition Features Photos of Western Wilderness

A small exhibition of color photographs by Adam Bacher, a Portland photographer who captures the remote alpine regions and backcountry wilderness of the western U.S., will be on display May 24–July 27 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Adam Bacher: Earth, Water, and Sky will showcase an array of subjects photographed by Bacher, including the Oregon and Washington Cascades, the Sierra Nevada of California, the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and the rugged terrain of Glacier National Park in Montana.

In conjunction with his exhibition, Bacher will deliver a free lecture about his work Thursday, June 12, at 7 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum. He also will offer a free nature photography workshop for adults Saturday, June 21, from 1–4 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall and at Bush’s Pasture Park. Enrollment in the workshop is limited to 15; pre-registration is required by calling (503) 370-6855.

Bacher was born, raised and educated in Michigan and came west to work on a PhD in international relations at the University of Oregon. He enrolled in a photography class at the university for fun, and it literally transformed his life. He abandoned his graduate study, took additional photography classes and has worked as a professional photographer ever since. Bacher has exhibited at the World Forestry Center and the Seges Art Gallery in Portland, and the governor’s office at the Oregon State Capital in Salem.

The exhibition is been supported in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Announces 2008–09 Exhibitions

A wide variety of exhibitions are planned at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art for 2008–09, Museum Director John Olbrantz announced recently.

Major exhibitions scheduled for the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery include:

Michael Dailey: Color, Light, Time, and Place (June 7–Aug. 31). Michael Dailey is a Seattle abstract painter and professor emeritus from the University of Washington. His work focuses on the deconstruction of the landscape to its basic elements of horizon, color, light and atmosphere. The exhibition features 44 paintings and works on paper, spanning a 45-year period, drawn from public and private collections throughout the region.

The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon (Sept. 28, 2008–Jan. 18, 2009). This exhibition features historic and contemporary regalia from native Oregon, offering visitors a rare glimpse at the beauty, history and meaning of regalia in tribal life and thought. Included are objects made of buckskin and beadwork from the Plateau region of eastern Oregon, objects with condor feathers from the Columbia River Gorge, and objects with feather and abalone shell decoration from the Oregon Coast. The exhibition was chosen as Oregon’s 2008 American Masterpieces project and was awarded $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Harry Widman: Image, Myth, and Modernism (Jan. 31–March 29, 2009). Harry Widman is a Portland painter and professor emeritus from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. The exhibition surveys his career over a 60-year period in works that explore the possibility of a “meaningful shape” in abstract painting, the role myth can play in contemporary expression, and the interplay between the physical strength of the athlete and the intellectual delicacy of the poet or philosopher in expressionist modern art.

Senior Art Majors (April 11–May 17, 2009). Each spring, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art features the work of senior art and art history majors at Willamette. The exhibition includes work in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, ceramics, photography and mixed media. In addition, the exhibition features senior theses in art history.

James Thompson: The Vanishing Landscape (April 11–May 17, 2009). This exhibition focuses on a body of work that the artist has been developing for some time exploring the transformation of the rural western U.S. Thompson holds an MFA degree from Washington University in St. Louis and has been on the art faculty at Willamette University since 1986.

Smaller exhibitions scheduled for the Study Gallery include Adam Bacher: Earth, Water, and Sky (May 24–July 27); The Collector’s Eye: Contemporary Art from the Leo Michelson Collection (Aug. 2–Oct. 5); The Second Crow’s Shadow Institute for the Arts Biennial (Oct. 11–Dec. 21); Mary Randlett: Artist Portraits (Jan. 10–March 8, 2009); and From Hestia’s Sacred Fire to Christ’s Eternal Light: Ancient and Medieval Lamps from the Bogue Collection (March 14–May 17, 2009).

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Wins Grant from Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University received a $15,000 grant from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to publish a catalog on the work of multimedia artist Joe Feddersen, a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes.

The National Museum of the American Indian announced 13 recipients Thursday for the inaugural Visual and Expressive Arts Grants program. This new program offers support to a wide range of arts activities with the goal of increasing knowledge, understanding and appreciation of contemporary Native American arts.

The grant will allow the Hallie Ford Museum, in partnership with the University of Washington Press and The Evergreen State College, to co-publish the exhibition catalog “Joe Feddersen: Vital Signs.” The exhibition is a retrospective of Feddersen’s best work in prints, glass and weaving since the mid–1990s. The book accompanies an exhibition organized by faculty curator and anthropology Associate Professor Rebecca Dobkins that will be on display at the Missoula Art Museum in Montana June 2–Sept. 20, at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington Sept. 12, 2009–Jan. 10, 2010, and at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art Jan. 30–March 28, 2010.

The “Joe Feddersen: Vital Signs” catalog will include a biographical essay by Dobkins, an introduction by artist Barbara Thomas and a critical essay by artist/writer Gail Tremblay. The book, available later this spring, will be a new volume in the prestigious Jacob Lawrence Series on American Art and Artists of the University of Washington Press. Feddersen’s work explores the interrelationships between urban place markers and indigenous design through powerful combinations of contemporary media and native iconography.

The Smithsonian grants were made in two funding areas, the visual arts and expressive arts. The Hallie Ford Museum received a visual arts grant, which supports exhibitions and installations of contemporary Native American art, as well as publications and critical writing.

Another visual arts grant given to the Art Association of Jackson Hole, Wyo., will support a traveling exhibition by Willamette alumna Marie Watt, a 1990 graduate who serves on Willamette’s Native American Advisory Council. Organized by the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, Wyo., the traveling exhibition, “Marie Watt: Blanket Stories,” will allow the artist to lead gallery talks, present a slide lecture and organize a family sewing circle to encourage discussion about contemporary and historical Native American art, traditions and personal inspiration.

For more about the Visual and Expressive Arts Grants and a list of the other winners, go to www.nmai.si.edu/press/releases/20080314_Grant_Recipients.pdf.

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Artist, Professors Discuss Properties of Paint

In conjunction with its exhibition James Lavadour: The Properties of Paint, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art is hosting a free symposium Thursday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m. in Cone Chapel, on the second floor of Waller Hall at Willamette University.

The symposium will bring artists and scientists together to discuss the material and philosophical properties of paint and the interconnections between art, geology, the environment, physics and human creativity. Participants will include painter James Lavadour and Willamette University faculty members Andries Fourie (art), Scott Pike (environmental and earth science) and Rick Watkins (physics). Faculty curator Rebecca Dobkins (anthropology) will moderate.

James Lavadour: The Properties of Paint features a range of recent work by this nationally recognized Native American painter and printmaker. Since 2000, Lavadour has focused intensely on the properties of paint, creating works that he describes as “intersections” between his better-known landscapes and his lesser-known architectural structures. The exhibition runs through March 30.

Both the exhibition and symposium are supported by an endowment gift from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, through the Spirit Mountain Community Fund. Additional support has been provided by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Scholar Presents New Findings on Ancient Religious Icons

A noted art history scholar will present his groundbreaking findings on the origins of religious icons in a free lecture Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

“Icons in Antiquity: The Symphony of the Gods” will feature Thomas Mathews, emeritus art history professor from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. The event is the first in a new annual series called the Lane C. McGaughy Lectureship in Ancient Studies, established by the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology (CASA).

Thomas Mathews is leading an interdisciplinary project that has uncovered fresh evidence of the icon phenomenon from Egypt in Roman times. Icons, which are panel paintings of sacred subjects, are the most characteristic genre of art of Orthodox Christianity, and currently accepted theories trace their origin to the Roman cult of the imperial image or to the use of funeral portraits. Mathews’ project team is studying panel paintings of the 1st–3rd centuries that bear strong resemblances to the Christian icons that followed them, constituting an important bridge between “pagan” antiquity and Christianity.

Mathews, who holds degrees in classics, philosophy, theology and art history, has devoted himself to the interpretation of religious art of the early Christian and East Christian worlds. He is the author of 13 books and many scholarly articles, and his research has been supported by numerous prestigious grants and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The event is co-sponsored by CASA and the Mark and Janeth Hogue Sponenburgh Lectureship Fund of the department of art and art history. The Lane C. McGaughy Lectureship in Ancient Studies honors the George H. Atkinson professor of religious and ethical studies emeritus who founded Willamette’s classical studies program and is a founding member of the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Northwest House of Theological Studies.

For more information, call (503) 370-6250 or visit www.willamette.edu/centers/casa/research_grants/lane_mcgaughy.

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Distinguished African Art Scholar Visits Willamette

Pamela McClusky, one of the foremost African art historians in the country, will deliver a free lecture on Yoruba art and thought at 7 p.m. Jan. 31 in the Paulus Lecture Hall at the Willamette University College of Law.

The lecture is in conjunction with the Hallie Ford Museum of Art exhibition Yoruba Sculpture: Selections from the Mary Johnston Collection, on display through March 16. The exhibition features ritual objects from the Yoruba people of West Africa.

According to McClusky, Yoruba art is filled with ashe, or “the power to make things happen.” In performances, masqueraders called Egungun, or “beings from beyond,” enact movements that no one can explain. Gelede masks are worn to enact parodies of different personalities. In sculpture, the Yoruba depict a wide array of deities that are akin to those of the ancient Greeks. In her lecture, McClusky will discuss these traditions and describe how Yoruba rituals still thrive in Western Nigeria as well as Brazil, the Caribbean, London and even New York.

McClusky has published extensively about African art and has organized numerous exhibitions on the topic. While a graduate student at the University of Washington, she discovered African art in the basement of the Seattle Art Museum and convinced the director to place the collection on view. In 1980, she helped establish the Department of African and Oceanic Art at the museum, and she has served as its curator since 1996. She also established a series of permanent galleries to house the Seattle Art Museum’s collections of African and Australian Aboriginal art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art to Close for Winter Break

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art will close Dec. 22 to Jan. 1 to correspond with the closure of Willamette University for winter break. The museum will re-open Jan. 2.

Two special exhibitions are currently on view at the museum. Don Bailey: Spider and the Bureau, The Blanket Series continues in the lobby and Study Gallery through Jan. 13. The exhibition presents a new body of work by this Native American painter and teacher. Women’s Work: Contemporary Women Printmakers from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation continues through Jan. 20 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. The exhibition presents a broad range of prints from the past 35 years by artists from the U.S., Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Native American Artist Featured at Museum

An exhibition of work by Don Bailey, a highly regarded painter and art teacher at Chemawa Indian School in Salem, opens Dec. 1 and continues through Jan. 13 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Don Bailey: Spider and the Bureau, The Blanket Series, organized by Professor Rebecca Dobkins, presents a new body of paintings created during the past four years that reframes the complex legacy that formal and informal institutions have had on Native American life. Bailey, a Hupa tribal member, was raised on the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California. For nearly 30 years, he has taught art at Chemawa Indian School, the oldest federal Indian boarding school in the U.S.

Bailey will give a free lecture about his work Friday, Nov. 30, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum. A free reception follows from 6 to 8 p.m. in the lobby and galleries. A free full-color brochure with an essay by the artist and eight color illustrations accompanies the exhibition and will be available at the museum.

Don Bailey: Spider and the Bureau, The Blanket Series is supported through an endowment gift from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, through the Spirit Mountain Community Fund. Additional support has been provided by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Exhibition Selected for Oregon American Masterpieces Grant

The Oregon Arts Commission has selected “The Art of Ceremony,” planned by the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University in Salem, as Oregon’s 2008 American Masterpieces project. The commission has awarded the project a $50,000 grant using funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The Oregon Arts Commission reviewed many strong proposals in this second round of special American Masterpieces grant funding. 'The Art of Ceremony' project was selected because of its potential to show work rarely seen by the public and to examine the concept of a 'masterpiece,'" said Christine D’Arcy, executive director of the commission. “We are very pleased to announce this award.”

Organized by Willamette anthropology associate professor Rebecca Dobkins in collaboration with Native community curators, “The Art of Ceremony” will be a groundbreaking exhibition of and book about historic and contemporary ceremonial regalia from Oregon tribes.

“Ceremonial regalia is perhaps the most highly regarded art form within American Indian groups and thus truly represents an indigenous definition of master work,” Dobkins said. “‘The Art of Ceremony’ promises to contribute profoundly to the national conversation about what constitutes American art and American masterpieces. We are honored to be working in partnership with Oregon tribes on this project.”

Museum staff will work closely with the Siletz, Umatilla, Warm Springs and other Oregon tribes in the development of the exhibit, which will open at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in fall 2008 and then travel to the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute and the Museum at Warm Springs at no cost to those institutions. “We are extremely honored to have the exhibition selected as Oregon’s 2008 American Masterpieces project, excited to be able to work with Native communities on the exhibition’s development and thrilled to be able to share the exhibition with audiences throughout the state,” Museum Director John Olbrantz said.

The collaborative curatorial process will identify the complex aesthetic criteria by which regalia-makers judge their own and others’ work, apply these criteria to the selection of work for the exhibition, and then articulate them within the exhibition itself. In this way, the public will come to understand the multiple meanings of “masterpiece,” “beauty,” “excellence” and “innovation,” as expressed in Native community standards.

Regalia from Oregon is exceptionally diverse, from the Plateau area’s buckskin and beadwork, to the Columbia River region’s use of condor feathers, to the coastal area’s feather work and abalone shell decoration. “A lot of people attend intertribal events such as powwows and mistake what they see there as our traditional dances and regalia,” said Bud Lane, vice chairman of Siletz Tribal Council. “Each tribe has its own regalia and dances that go way back. We want people to see that each tribe has its individual traditions and cultures that vary from region to region.”

In all areas, regalia reflects environmental and cultural transformations and generates spiritual power and social status. The exhibition will include contemporary regalia from the Siletz, Umatilla and Warm Springs communities and borrow historic regalia from major American collections. “It’s extremely rare for the public to see this traditional regalia,” Lane said. “Outside of our dance houses, we don’t do many public appearances.”

A full array of public programming, including artist demonstrations and workshops, is envisioned. The accompanying book will be completed following the exhibit.

In addition to the NEA American Masterpieces grant, the project is supported by a Millicent McIntosh Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation granted to Rebecca Dobkins for 2007–09.

The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, special initiatives and services. Nine commissioners, appointed by the governor, determine arts needs and establish policies for public support of the arts. The commission is supported with general funds appropriated by the Oregon legislature and with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust. More information about the Oregon Arts Commission is available online at: www.oregonartscommission.org.

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Museum Hires New Exhibition Designer/Chief Preparator

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has hired David Andersen of the Frye Art Museum in Seattle as its new exhibition designer/chief preparator.

“We are extremely pleased to have someone of David’s background, training and many years of experience join our staff,” Museum Director John Olbrantz said.

Andersen will begin his new position in early October. He will be responsible for the design and installation of permanent and temporary exhibitions, the transportation of artwork and related duties. He replaces Keith Lachowicz who left last spring to accept the position of collection manager/registrar at the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland.

A native of California, Andersen holds an associate of arts degree from American River College, a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Davis, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Idaho. From 1992–96, he worked as chief preparator at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, and he has been exhibition designer/chief preparator at the Frye Art Museum since 1996. There he coordinated and installed more than 150 permanent and temporary exhibitions and managed 12,000 square feet of gallery space comprising permanent and temporary galleries.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the city of Salem, the mid–Willamette Valley and beyond. Four permanent galleries feature European, Asian and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper. Two temporary exhibition spaces include historic and contemporary art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call 503-370-6855 or go to www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Museum to Remodel Basement and Print Study Center

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will undergo a major renovation of its basement and Print Study Center this summer.

Contractors will be on site beginning this month to transform the basement and several areas on the second floor into state-of-the-art support spaces for collections and exhibitions. The $850,000 renovation is possible thanks to a major gift from benefactor Maribeth Collins. Work is scheduled to be completed by the end of September.

“When we opened our doors in October 1998, we had raised enough money to complete the first two floors of our building but not enough to finish the basement,” museum Director John Olbrantz said. “The basement was turned into a functional, if not particularly efficient, support space. We always knew that it was a good space, but it took a generous benefactor like Maribeth Collins to step forward to bring it up to the same standard as the rest of our facility.”

The new basement will feature a large collection vault with high-density mobile storage units for the permanent collection, temporary storage space for special exhibitions, offices for the collection curator and designer/preparator, and several work and support spaces. The Print Study Center will include a new conference table and print cabinet and an adjacent storage space to hold the museum’s collection of works on paper, increasing its capacity from 2,500 prints, drawings and photographs to about 15,000.

Prominent San Francisco architect C. David Robinson came up with the initial layout of the basement and developed the design documents for the project. At the local level, Arbuckle Costic Architects, Inc., of Salem developed the construction documents and will oversee the renovation this summer and fall, while LCG Pence Construction of Salem will be the general contractor.

The museum originally was scheduled to close for September to install a new and larger elevator, but the cost proved prohibitive. As a result, the museum will remain open and both summer exhibitions will stay on display until the end of September.

When 6 WAS 9: Rock Posters from San Francisco, 1966-71 features 56 posters and related ephemera from the collection of Gary Westfjord of Salem. The exhibition continues through Sept. 16 in the Study Gallery and Print Study Center and coincides with the 40th anniversary of the “Summer of Love,” when thousands of young people flocked to San Francisco for free love, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.

Ken Butler: Hybrid Visions features 56 of the mixed-media artist’s inventive and humorous “hybrid” musical instruments, including film-reel guitars, cowboy-boot violins, axe cellos and Styrofoam-packaging pianos. Organized in collaboration with the Art Gym at Marylhurst University, the exhibition continues through Sept. 30 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is a free admission day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Ken Butler Workshop and Concert Canceled

A children’s workshop and concert by Ken Butler planned for Saturday at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and the Historic Elsinore Theatre have been canceled.

Artist Ken Butler had to cancel both events due to health reasons. He had planned to offer an afternoon sound workshop for youths at the museum and an evening concert at the Elsinore. Anyone who had purchased tickets for the Elsinore concert may contact the theatre at (503) 375-3574 for a refund.

Both events had been planned in conjunction with Ken Butler: Hybrid Visions, an exhibition opening Saturday and continuing through Aug. 26 at the museum. The exhibition features Butler’s inventive “hybrid” instruments made from found objects, including film reel guitars, cowboy boot violins and axe cellos. The exhibition will continue as planned.

For more information about the exhibition, call (503) 370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

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Exhibition of 'Hybrid' Instruments Includes Concert, Sound Workshop

Film reel guitars, cowboy boot violins, axe cellos and Styrofoam packaging pianos are among the “hybrid” musical instruments that will be on display this summer at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. Ken Butler: Hybrid Visions, featuring 56 of the mixed media artist’s inventive and humorous instruments, opens June 9 and continues through Aug. 26.

Butler studied viola as a child and maintained an interest in music while studying art at Colorado College and Portland State University. He has shown and performed at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has been featured on PBS, CNN, MTV and NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His music and performances have been described as “Kurt Schwitters meets Rube Goldberg meets Laurie Anderson meets Miles Davis.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, Butler will lead a free sound workshop for youths (grades K–8) June 9 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum. He will show how simple instruments can be created from household objects, and participants will discover the relationship between sound, noise and music and hear their voices altered with electronic effects. Enrollment is limited to 25 students plus their parents, and pre-registration is required. To register, call (503) 370-6855.

Also on June 9, Butler will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Elsinore Theatre in Salem. The concert will be an evening of mesmerizing sounds and melodic grooves as Butler performs on an arsenal of amplified hybrid string instruments made from household objects and tools. Neil Strauss of The Village Voice has said of Butler, “It’s not just that Ken Butler knows how to bow stringed instrument parade rifles, play dental dams like trumpets and construct keyboards from aluminum crutches, it’s that he knows how to play them well.”

Admission to the concert is free to Hallie Ford Museum of Art and Historic Elsinore Theatre members, but a ticket is required at the door (tickets may be picked up at the museum or theatre). Tickets for non-members are $10 and may be purchased at the museum or theatre, or online at www.elsinoretheatre.com. The box office and doors open at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or (503) 375-3574.

Ken Butler: Hybrid Visions was organized in collaboration with the Art Gym at Marylhurst University. Local support for the exhibition was provided in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855 or go to www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

Please note that the concert and workshop scheduled for June 9 have been canceled due to health reasons. More Information

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Museum Presents Lecture, Discussion and Documentary Film

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will present several free educational programs to help contextualize its exhibition When 6 WAS 9: Rock Posters from San Francisco, 1966-71, on display through Aug. 26.

All events are free and will be held in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum.

Salem collector Gary Westfjord, whose 56 posters are featured in the exhibition, will present a lecture June 8 from 5 to 6 p.m. on the history of rock posters during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The posters, used to promote concerts at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom, were created by Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse and other major poster artists. They are characterized by their psychedelic colors and powerful imagery.

The documentary film “Monterey Pop” will be shown June 14 at 7 p.m. The film features the Monterey International Pop Festival, held in June 1967, which captured the mood, spirit and tempo of the 1960s and helped launch the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others.

Bob Schnepf, a 1960s poster artist and longtime Portland resident featured in the exhibition, will participate in a roundtable discussion with Westfjord and Museum Director John Olbrantz on June 23 from 2 to 3 p.m. They will discuss the San Francisco music scene.

In addition to these programs, the Humanities and Communications Department/Film Studies Program at Chemeketa Community College and the Historic Elsinore Theatre in Salem will present “Altered States: The Cinema of the Sixties,” at the Elsinore during the summer months. For more information on films in that series, call (503) 375-3574 or visit www.elsinoretheatre.com.

When 6 WAS 9: Rock Posters from San Francisco, 1966-71 has been supported in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Exhibition of Rock Posters Marks Summer of Love Anniversary

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will mark the 40th anniversary of the “Summer of Love” — when thousands of young people flocked to San Francisco for free love, drugs and rock ’n’ roll — with an exhibition featuring rock posters created in the Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s. When 6 WAS 9: Rock Posters from San Francisco, 1966-71, featuring 56 posters from the collection of Salem resident Gary Westfjord, will be on display May 26 to Aug. 26.

The museum will present a free lecture, roundtable discussion and film in conjunction with the exhibition. On June 8 from 5 to 6 p.m., Westfjord will give a lecture on the history of rock posters. The museum will show the documentary film “Monterey Pop” June 14 at 7 p.m. Poster artist Bob Schnepf, Westfjord and Museum Director John Olbrantz will have a roundtable discussion June 23 from 2 to 3 p.m. about the San Francisco music scene. All events are free and will be held in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum.

Included in the exhibition will be posters by major San Francisco poster artists of the period, including Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Bonnie Maclean, Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Bob Schnepf and Wes Wilson. These posters, remarkable for their strong design, psychedelic colors and powerful imagery, promoted concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom by such legendary performers as Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and others.

Originally tacked on telephone poles and displayed in storefronts, the posters were commissioned by music impresarios Bill Graham and Chet Helms and were often given away at weekly concerts. In recent years their value as works of art has been firmly established as they have been featured in major exhibitions in San Diego, New York and elsewhere.

A companion exhibition, American Music Posters, 1935-2007, will be presented at the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem from July 6 to Aug. 5. The Bush Barn Art Center is located at 600 Mission St., in Bush’s Pasture Park. For more information, call (503) 581-2228.

When 6 WAS 9: Rock Posters from San Francisco, 1966-71 is supported in part by grants from the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Announces 2007–08 Exhibitions

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University plans a wide variety of exhibitions for 2007–08, including musical instruments made from found objects, prints from contemporary women artists and works from a South African Willamette professor.

Major exhibitions scheduled for the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery are:

Ken Butler: Hybrid Visions (June 9–Aug. 26) features the work of this mixed media artist who creates inventive and humorous hybrid instruments from found objects, including film-reel guitars, cowboy boot violins, axe cellos and Styrofoam-packaging pianos. Organized in collaboration with The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, the exhibition will feature about 60 works on loan from the artist.

Women’s Work: Contemporary Women Printmakers from the Jordan Schnitzer Collection (Oct. 27–Jan. 20) includes prints by a number of female artists, including Anni Albers, Louise Nevelson, Louise Bourgeois, Suzanne Caporael, Fay Jones and Kara Walker. A wide variety of themes will be explored, including abstraction, humor and satire, politics, race and gender, and the environment.

James Lavadour: The Properties of Paint (Feb. 2–March 30) features the work of this nationally recognized Oregon artist known for his exploration of landscape as both inspiration and subject. Since 2000, Lavadour has focused on the properties of paint, creating works he describes as “intersections” between his better-known landscapes and his lesser-known abstract architectural structures. The exhibition will examine the conceptual layers underlying Lavadour’s work of the past eight years.

Senior Art Majors (April 12–May 11) showcases the work of senior art majors at Willamette. The exhibition includes painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, ceramics, photography and mixed media. In addition, the exhibition features senior theses in art history.

Andries Fourie: Recent Work (April 12–May 11) will introduce audiences to the work of the newest member of the art faculty at Willamette. Born and raised in South Africa and educated in California as a painter and sculptor, Fourie’s work addresses the horrors of war and the tragedy of apartheid. The exhibition will feature a range of work from the past few years.

Smaller exhibitions scheduled for the Study Gallery include When 6 WAS 9: Rock Posters from San Francisco, 1966–71 (May 26–Aug. 26); Amanda Snyder: Structures (Oct. 13–Nov. 25); Don Bailey: Spider and the Bureau, The Blanket Series (Dec. 1–Jan. 13); Yoruba Sculpture: Selections from the Mary Johnston Collection (Jan. 19–March 16); and Piranesi: Views of Rome (March 22–May 18).

The museum will be closed Aug. 27 to Sept. 30 for renovation and will re-open Oct. 1.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Museum Plans Lecture and Discussion on George Johanson

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will present a lecture and discussion on artist George Johanson, who has been a major force in the Portland art scene for nearly 60 years. Both events are free and are in conjunction with the museum’s current exhibition, George Johanson: Image and Idea.

Prudence Roberts will present a slide show and lecture about Johanson as a printmaker, March 3 from 2 to 3 p.m. in the museum's Roger Hull Lecture Hall. Roberts is an art history instructor at Portland Community College and the author of numerous publications on regional art.

Curator Roger Hull will join Johanson to discuss his art and career, April 1 from 2 to 3 p.m. in the museum's Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Hull is a Willamette art history professor, curator of the Johanson exhibition and author of numerous monographs on regional artists, including Johanson, Carl Hall, Jan Zach and Charles Heaney.

George Johanson: Image and Idea chronicles the life and times of this distinguished Portland painter, printmaker and teacher whose work focuses on bathers, swimmers, artists and the streets and vistas of Portland, a place he has called home since the late 1940s. The exhibition is on display through April 1.

The exhibition has been supported in part by grants from the City of Salem Transient Occupancy Tax and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Mondays. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call (503) 370-6855.

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Museum to Open on Sundays Beginning in January

Beginning Jan. 7, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will be open Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. The museum also is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The added hours on Sunday are in response to requests from visitors, members and others in the community.

“Although it is too soon to tell, it is anticipated that Sundays will become very popular days, especially for people who have Saturday commitments and who can’t get to the museum during the week,” said Director John Olbrantz, who has been lobbying for Sunday hours for a number of years.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University, Salem, the mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. It includes four permanent galleries focusing on European, Asian and American art; Native American baskets; historic and contemporary regional art; and European and American works on paper. Two temporary exhibition spaces feature historic and contemporary art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call (503) 370-6855.

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Museum to Close for Thanksgiving and Winter Break

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will be closed Nov. 23–24 for Thanksgiving and Dec. 23–Jan. 2 for winter break.

Current special exhibitions on view at the museum are The First Crow’s Shadow Institute Biennial and Fay Jones: Painted Fictions.

The Crow’s Shadow Institute exhibition is on display until Dec. 22 in the Study Gallery and Print Study Center. Organized by faculty curator Rebecca Dobkins, the exhibition features a selection of prints created by Native American artists at the Crow’s Shadow Institute on the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon.

Fay Jones: Painted Fictions opens Nov. 18 and will be on display until Jan. 20 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Organized by Director John Olbrantz, the exhibition features work by this highly regarded Seattle narrative and symbolist painter who deals with a host of autobiographical issues in her work.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Museum Hosts Teacher Workshop and Gallery Talks

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will host a free workshop for teachers interested in bringing their classes to see the forthcoming exhibition Fay Jones: Painted Fictions.

Elizabeth Garrison, the museum’s Cameron Paulin Curator of Education, will teach the workshop from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at the museum. Advance registration is required; to register, call (503) 370-6855. The workshop will help teachers prepare students for a field trip to the museum, develop strategies to tour the exhibition and propose ideas that reinforce the gallery experience and broaden curriculum concepts once back in the classroom. Garrison has written a teacher guide on Seattle painter Fay Jones that is available online at www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art.

The museum also will offer a series of free gallery talks on the exhibition from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Nov. 21 and 28, Dec. 5 and 12, and Jan. 9 and 16. Gallery talks will be presented by Garrison or a museum docent.

Fay Jones: Painted Fictions features 24 works by this Seattle narrative and symbolist painter who deals with a host of autobiographical issues in her work, from growing up in New England in the 1940s and ’50s to an exploration of a broad range of personal symbols. The exhibition runs from Nov. 18 through Jan. 20.

Fay Jones: Painted Fictions has been supported in part by grants from the City of Salem Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum Hires New Collection Curator

Jonathan Bucci has been hired as the new collection curator at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Bucci currently is the assistant director and collection curator at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C. He will start his new position Oct. 2.

“We are extremely pleased to have someone with Jonathan’s background and training join our staff as collection curator,” museum Director John Olbrantz said.

Bucci will oversee the proper care, storage, preservation and security of the university’s permanent art collection. He also will oversee the processing of purchases, gifts and bequests to the permanent collection; assist with organization and implementation of temporary exhibitions, including shipping, insurance and installation; and work with Olbrantz on developing strategies to make the permanent collection more accessible to faculty, students, scholars and others.

A native of New England, Bucci holds a bachelor of arts degree in art from Connecticut College and a master of fine arts degree in painting from American University. For the past seven years, he has worked as curator for the Watkins Collection at American University, and most recently as assistant director and collection curator. Since 1999, he has been an adjunct instructor in the art department at American University and has participated in numerous one-person and group exhibitions on the East Coast.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University and the region. Four permanent galleries focus on European, Asian and American art; Native American baskets; historic and contemporary regional art; and European and American works on paper. Two temporary exhibition spaces feature historic and contemporary art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call (503) 370-6855.

This entry was updated on August 17, 2006. It had previously been stated that Bucci was the assistant director and collection curator at the Watkins Gallery at American University and that he worked as curator of the Watkins Gallery, which was not correct.

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Museum Volunteer Docent Program Deadline Extended

The deadline to sign up for the Hallie Ford Museum of Art’s volunteer docent program has been extended to Aug. 11 at 5 p.m.

Docents are required to attend weekly classes on a wide variety of topics, including art history and tour techniques. They also must complete occasional homework and reading assignments, prepare written reports on objects in the permanent collection and develop and present tours of special exhibitions.

Training for new and active docents is ongoing each year from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Mondays from September through mid-May. Volunteer docents are under the supervision of Elizabeth Garrison, the Cameron Paulin Curator of Education at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.

Once docents successfully complete their first year of training, they are expected to give a certain number of tours per year for at least two years beyond their training. In addition to becoming a member of the museum, docents are required to pay yearly dues of $15 per person.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University and the region. Four permanent galleries focus on European, Asian and American art; Native American baskets; historic and contemporary regional art; and European and American works on paper. Two temporary exhibition spaces feature historic and contemporary art.

The museum is located at 700 State St. (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday and will be closed Dec. 23 to Jan. 1 for winter break. They will re-open Jan. 2. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children younger than 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. Call (503) 370-6855 for an application packet or more information.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Seeks Volunteer Docents

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University is currently recruiting volunteers for its fall docent class. Docents help the public understand works of art from a variety of time periods and cultures.

“We are looking for people who are able to speak in public, are flexible and dependable, have a strong desire to learn and can be accurate yet creative in the presentation of information,” said Elizabeth Garrison, the Cameron Paulin Curator of Education at the museum.

Training for new and active docents is Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., September through the middle of May. Docents are required to attend weekly classes, complete occasional homework and reading assignments, prepare written reports, and develop and present tours.

Training includes lectures and gallery sessions on art and art history, the museum’s collections and special exhibitions, and touring techniques. In addition to becoming a member of the museum, docents are asked to contribute annual dues of $15. Docents are expected to lead a certain number of tours each year for at least two years beyond their training.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University and the region. Permanent galleries focus on European, Asian and American art; Native American baskets; historic and contemporary regional art; and European and American works on paper. Temporary exhibitions feature historic and contemporary art. The docent program, under the supervision of Garrison, started in 2005 with nine volunteer docents.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. Call 503-370-6855 for an information/application packet.

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“Camels and Leopards and Bears, Oh My!” Workshop

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has planned a family workshop, “Camels and Leopards and Bears, Oh My!” The workshop has been scheduled for Saturday, March 18, from 12-4 p.m. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Under the guidance of art educators Sarah Mace and Julie Perko, children and their parents will create sculpture and wearable art inspired by the animals in the exhibition. In addition, storyteller Sarah Stein will offer colorful animal folktales from ancient Mongolia at 1 and 3 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to pick up a family guide and follow the clues to find other animals hidden in the exhibition and throughout the permanent galleries.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation has been supported by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Closed for Holidays

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will close for the holidays, from Dec. 23 through Jan. 2. It will reopen Tuesday, Jan. 3.

“Tom Foolery: Miniature Environments” will open Jan. 7.

“Foolery is a highly regarded mixed media artist from Montana,” said Hallie Ford Museum of Art Director John Olbrantz. “Foolery creates miniature tableaus in theater spotlights and vending machines that poke fun at the contemporary art scene.”

“Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands” will open Jan. 21. Organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in New York, the exhibition features more than 80 works that bring to life the cultures that flourished across the Asian grasslands, from northern China and Mongolia to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The exhibition includes bronze belt buckles, plaques, weapons and other masterpieces of steppe art from the late second and first millennia BCE.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is a free admission day. For more information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art to Close for Thanksgiving

In observance of Thanksgiving, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will close Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 3 p.m. and reopen Saturday, Nov. 26 at 10 a.m. In addition to permanent galleries devoted to historical and contemporary art, the museum features two special exhibitions through the end of the year.

“Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread” continues through Dec. 22. The exhibition features superb examples of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving, including kakahu (high quality woven cloaks), whariki (woven floor mats), kete (finely woven baskets) and other exquisite woven pieces.

“Albert Patecky: Abstractions” continues through Dec. 22. Organized by Willamette University Professor Roger Hull, the exhibition focuses on Patecky’s experimental, abstract work from the late 1940s through 1966. Works have been selected from a number of regional collections, including the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Patrick Harrington and Ken and Linda Patecky, the artist’s son and daughter-in-law.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call 503-370-6855.

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Maori Exhibition to Open at Hallie Ford Museum of Art

A major exhibition of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving will open Sept. 24 and continue through Dec. 22 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. “Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread” features more than 100 woven items from New Zealand collections and is the first time a major exhibition of Maori weaving has been presented in the United States. Willamette University is one of only three venues in the world chosen for this exhibition tour. Maori weavers will be on site, explaining their craft, and will conduct an opening ceremony and procession, wearing visually stunning cloaks woven from native plants and the feathers of kiwi birds.

The exhibition demonstrates the spiritual significance of weaving within Maori culture. Among the Maori, cloaks provide mantles of leadership and spiritual protection, reflecting the status of tribal leaders, and finely woven cloaks ornamented with feathers are worn for important ceremonial occasions.

In the 1950s, New Zealand witnessed a major revival of traditional Maori weaving. The exhibition honors that revival as well as a new generation of artists who have created innovative, contemporary art anchored in the concepts, materials and techniques of the past.

Some artists in the exhibition explore nontraditional materials, including paper “cut-out” cloaks, film leader and wire. Artist Diane Prince has created an ethereal, semi-transparent cloak of copper wire, while multimedia artist Lisa Reihana has created digital interpretations of weaving in her evocative video, “Tauira,” and Moana Nepia’s “paintings with feathers” challenge traditional notions of Maori weaving.

A number of traditional weaving techniques are represented, including whatu, used to weave the cloak’s materials together, and raranga, used to create finely woven baskets and floor mats. Traditionally, looms were not used to create cloaks; instead, the work was suspended between two upright pegs and woven by hand. Cloaks are distinguished by their decoration and have evolved over the years. Those ornamented with feathers are highly prized and considered the most prestigious.

In addition to the exquisite cloaks, text panels will introduce visitors to the history, materials and techniques of Maori weaving, while photomurals of ancestors will portray the significance and continuity of the cloak within Maori culture. Lectures, panel discussions and weaving demonstrations will introduce visitors to the history and beauty of Maori art and culture.

Organized by the Pataka Museum of Arts and Culture in Porirua City, New Zealand, in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearea-Maori Arts New Zealand, the exhibition is supported by a major grant from Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand. Local sponsorship has been provided by grants from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through their Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call 503-370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/go/maori.

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Maori Activities Scheduled

Festivities, lectures, panel discussions and weaving demonstrations are planned for the last week of September and the first week of October to celebrate the opening of the “Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread” exhibition at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. The activities will introduce visitors to the history and beauty of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving.

On Friday, Sept. 23, the museum and university, in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Siletz, will host a Procession of Nations on the Willamette campus. The procession, which will convene at 4 p.m. at Jackson Plaza, will welcome the Maori people of New Zealand to the ancestral homeland of the Willamette Valley tribes and will include representatives of the native nations of Oregon and beyond.

On Saturday, Sept. 24, the museum will present lectures and panel discussions in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall upstairs and weaving demonstrations in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery downstairs.

From 11 a.m. to noon, Darcy Nicholas, director of the Pataka Museum of Arts and Culture in New Zealand, will deliver a slide lecture on contemporary Maori art and culture. A painter and sculptor, Nicholas is one of the organizers of the exhibition.

From noon to 2 p.m., Maori and Native American weavers will participate in two separate panel discussions on indigenous weaving materials, techniques and traditions. Rebecca Dobkins, associate professor of anthropology at Willamette University and faculty curator of Native American art at the museum, will moderate.

From noon to 4 p.m. in the Melvin Henderson-Gallery, Maori weavers will demonstrate traditional and contemporary Maori weaving techniques. They will also hold demonstrations Sept. 27–29 and Oct. 3–6 from noon to 4 p.m.

Organized by the Pataka Museum of Arts and Culture in Porirua City, New Zealand, in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearea-Maori Arts New Zealand, the exhibition is supported by a major grant from Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand. Local sponsorship has been provided by grants from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through their Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy Tax funds. “Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread” features more than 100 woven items from New Zealand collections and is the first time a major exhibition of Maori weaving has been presented in the United States. Willamette University is one of only three venues in the world chosen for this exhibition tour.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. In celebration of Willamette’s Homecoming Weekend, admission on Sept. 23–24 will be free. For more information call 503-370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/go/maori.

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K-12 Educators Invited To Maori Workshop

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will host a workshop for teachers interested in bringing classes to the “Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread” exhibition. Elizabeth Garrison, the Cameron Paulin Curator of Education at the museum, will teach the workshop.

The workshop will help teachers prepare students for a field trip to the museum and will help them develop strategies to tour the exhibition. Teachers will learn how to design gallery activities for students, reinforce the museum experience and broaden curriculum concepts back in the classroom. Garrison has developed a teacher kit on Maori weaving and culture that will be available to participants. For those who cannot attend the workshop, the teacher kit is available online at www.willamette.edu/go/maori.

The workshop will be held Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Light refreshments will be served. As a special feature, Maori weavers will be available at the beginning of the workshop to meet with teachers and answer questions. Admission to the workshop is free, although advance registration is required. Please call 503-370-6855 by Sept. 26 to register.

“Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread” is a major exhibition of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving on loan from New Zealand collections. The exhibition features exquisite woven cloaks, floor mats, baskets and other pieces. The exhibition runs from Sept. 24 through Dec. 22 and represents the first time that a major exhibition of Maori weaving has been presented in the United States. Willamette University is one of only three venues in the world chosen for this exhibition tour.

Organized by the Pataka Museum of Arts and Culture in Porirua City, New Zealand, in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearea-Maori Arts New Zealand, the exhibition is supported by a major grant from Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand. Local sponsorship has been provided by grants from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through their Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, call 503/370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/go/maori.

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Polynesian Scholar to Speak at Hallie Ford Museum of Art

Patrick Kirch will deliver a free slide lecture on Polynesian prehistory Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m., in the Paulus Lecture Hall at the Willamette University College of Law.

“Patrick Kirch is one of the foremost Polynesian scholars and archaeologists in the world,” said John Olbrantz, director of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

“Professor Kirch will situate Maori culture within the broader framework of Polynesian cultures and prehistory,” Olbrantz said. “He will discuss the archaeological evidence for Polynesian origins and migrations, and speak to the record of ancient Polynesian art. Maori art is a reflection of thousands of years of artistic tradition that can be traced back in time to the ancestors of the Polynesians.”

Born and raised in Hawaii, Kirch has led archaeological excavations in the Pacific Islands, served as a consultant for documentary films on Polynesian archaeology and navigation, and directed the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. He currently teaches anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as curator of oceanic archeology at UC Berkeley’s Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

“His landmark book, ‘On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact,’ remains the definitive book in the field,” Olbrantz said.

Kirch’s lecture is presented in conjunction with “Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread,” a major exhibition of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving on loan from New Zealand collections. The exhibition, which features exquisite woven cloaks, floor mats, baskets and other pieces, runs from Sept. 24 through Dec. 22, at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. The university is one of only three venues in the world chosen for this exhibition tour.

Organized by the Pataka Museum of Arts and Culture in Porirua City, New Zealand, in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearea-Maori Arts New Zealand, the exhibition is supported by a major grant from Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand. Local sponsorship has been provided by grants from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde through their Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Oregon Arts Commission and the City of Salem’s Transient Occupancy funds.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. The hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information, please call 503-370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/go/maori.

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Installation Honors Donation to Hallie Ford Museum of Art

A new installation at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University celebrates promised gifts to the museum’s permanent collection. The installation features the work of C.S. Price, Charles Heaney, Amanda Snyder and Harry Wentz. The art has been donated from the collection of Frances Price Cook, a niece of C.S. Price who lives in Portland, Oregon, and Ruth West, of Longview, Washington.

“Price was a legend in Oregon modern art,” said Museum Director John Olbrantz. “He was an inspiration to his younger contemporaries, Heaney and Snyder.”

Born in 1874 in Iowa, C.S. Price worked as a cowhand in Wyoming, where he drew range animals. He attended the St. Louis School of Art for one year, met the legendary Montana artist Charles Russell, and developed skills as a Western illustrator. Some of his early illustrations are represented in the exhibition, including those he drew for the Pacific Monthly magazine.

Price saw modern European painting for the first time at the 1915 exposition in San Francisco and his artistic interests shifted from illustration to expressionism. He settled in Portland in 1929 and was befriended by Snyder, Heaney and other artists interested in European modernism.

“Although Price never entirely abandoned representational form, his later work focused on the texture of paint, the expressive power of color and the arrangement of flat shapes,” said Roger Hull, professor of art history at Willamette University.

The Cook collection features paintings, prints and illustrations from throughout Price’s career, culminating in an untitled mountain abstraction painted two years before his death. In addition to paintings, prints and drawings, visitors can view Price’s carvings of farm animals, including a wooden rocking horse made for his grandnephew.

“Animals were central to Price’s vision as an artist,” Hull said. “They embodied calmness, endurance and connectedness to universal forces.”

“The promised gifts from Frances Price Cook are of enormous significance to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art,” said Olbrantz. “Until recently, the work of C.S. Price has been absent from our collection. This generous donation fills a major gap.”

The exhibition includes paintings and prints by Charles Heaney donated by Ruth West. She and her late husband, Rex West, were friends of Heaney and were avid collectors of his work. The exhibition also includes work by Harry Wentz, an Oregon painter and teacher at the Museum Art School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art), donated earlier by Dan and Nancy Schneider of Chicago, Illinois, and Bill Rhoades of Madras, Oregon.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day. For more information call 503-370-6855 or visit www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art/.

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Museum Seeks Docents

The deadline for signing up for the Willamette University Hallie Ford Museum of Art volunteer docent program is Monday, Aug.15, at 5 p.m.

Docents guide visitors of all ages and backgrounds in an active exploration of works of art from a variety of time periods and cultures. Training for new and active docents is on-going throughout the year. Classes run from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Mondays from September through the middle of June. Docents will be required to attend weekly classes, complete occasional homework and reading assignments, prepare written reports, and develop and present tours.

Once docents successfully complete their first year of training, they will be expected to give a certain number of tours per year for at least two years beyond their training. In addition to becoming a member of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, docents will be required to pay yearly dues of $15.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art includes four permanent galleries and two temporary exhibition spaces. Permanent galleries focus on European, Asian, and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper. Temporary exhibitions feature historic and contemporary art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette campus. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Announces 2005-06 Exhibition Schedule

Salem, Ore. – The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has announced its exhibition schedule for 2005-06.

Major exhibitions scheduled for the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery include:

The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy features work by this highly regarded Portland landscape painter. Through works that depict the savage beauty of the altered landscapes of Oregon’s rivers, forests, and mountains, Brophy carefully engages the social and political forces reshaping the national dialogues that define environmental preservation and sustainability. Organized by the Tacoma Art Museum in collaboration with the Hallie Ford Museum, the exhibition includes 24 works from the past 15 years. It will run June 4 to Aug. 27.

Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread features superb examples of traditional and contemporary Maori weaving. Organized by the Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures in Porirua City, New Zealand, in partnership with Toi Maori Aotearoa-Maori Arts New Zealand, and with major funding from Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand, the exhibition includes kakahu (high quality woven cloaks), whariki (woven floor mats), kete (finely woven baskets), and other exquisite woven pieces. The show will run from Sept. 24 to Dec. 23.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation features more than 80 works that bring to life the complex cultures that flourished across the Asian grasslands from northern China and Mongolia to Central Asia and Eastern Europe during the late second and first millennia BCE. Organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in New York, the exhibition includes bronze belt buckles, plaques, weapons, and other masterpieces of steppe art. This exhibit runs Jan. 21 to April 1, 2006.

Senior Art Majors is an annual exhibition that features the work of senior art majors at Willamette University. The exhibition includes work in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, ceramics, photography and mixed media. This show runs April 15-May 13, 2006.

Andrea Wallace: Recent Work features recent work by this highly regarded Willamette University art faculty member, who teaches photography and digital art. This exhibit shows April 15-May 13, 2006.

Smaller exhibitions scheduled for the Study Gallery include Darius Kinsey: Big Trees (May 14-Aug. 13, 2005); Michael Aschenbrenner: Damaged Bones (Aug. 20-Oct. 22, 2005); Albert Patecky: Abstractions (Oct.29-Dec. 23, 2005); Tom Foolery: Miniature Environments (Jan. 7-March 11, 2006); and Dean Porter: Taos Landscapes (March 18-May 20, 2006).

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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An “Artists’ Conversation” on Charles Heaney

In order to celebrate the conclusion of Charles E. Heaney: Memory, Imagination, and Place, a special “artists’ conversation" on Heaney will take place Sat., March 19, at 2 p.m. in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Artists Jack McLarty, Paul Missal and Harry Widman will share their personal insights about Heaney and discuss his painting techniques and methods. Willamette Professor Roger Hull, who guest-curated the Heaney exhibition, will moderate.

Charles E. Heaney (1897-1981) was a highly regarded Oregon painter and printmaker who created a powerful body of work over a 60-year period that is remarkable for its consistency, enormity, and complex emotional expressiveness. A major retrospective of Heaney’s work continues through March 19 at the Hallie Ford Museum. The exhibition features more than 100 works drawn from regional collections.

In addition, a number of new donations will be featured in the Carl Hall Gallery, which houses the Hallie Ford Museum of Art’s permanent collection of historic and contemporary regional art. New donations include Alan Flavelle’s Indian Canoe Race from 1941 and Martina Gangle Curl’s Poor Sadie from 1942, among others. Both Flavelle and Curl were contemporaries of Charles Heaney.

Charles E. Heaney: Memory, Imagination, and Place has been supported by Willamette University and by contributions from friends, relatives, and collectors of Charles Heaney.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday.

In honor of regional art in general and Charles Heaney in particular, admission to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art will be free on Saturday, March 19.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Museum Offers Free Lectures and Tours

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Charles E. Heaney: Memory, Imagination, and Place, a special evening of free lectures, as well as a series of free tours, are planned for the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum, Roger Saydack, a Eugene attorney, collector, and C.S. Price scholar, will present a slide lecture on the relationship between Charles Heaney and C.S. Price.

Following Saydack, Margaret Bullock, associate curator of American art at the Portland Art Museum, will present a slide lecture on Charles Heaney and the WPA in Oregon. Each lecture will take about 30 minutes and will be followed by a question and answer period.

Elizabeth Garrison, The Cameron Paulin Curator of Education, will lead a series of tours of the exhibition. Free tours will be offered Tuesday afternoons from 12:30 to 1 p.m. on Feb. 8, 15, 22, March 1, 8 and 15.

Charles E. Heaney (1897-1981) was a highly regarded Oregon painter and printmaker. A major retrospective of Heaney’s work continues through March 19 at the Hallie Ford Museum. The exhibition features more than 100 works drawn from regional collections.

Charles E. Heaney: Memory, Imagination, and Place has been supported by Willamette University and by contributions from friends, relatives, and collectors of Charles Heaney.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art to Close for Winter Break

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art will be closed for winter break from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2 and will re-open Jan.4.

Two special exhibitions are currently on view. Between the Wars: American Printmaking of the 1920s and 30s continues through this Thursday in the Study Gallery. The exhibition features the work of a number of American printmakers who rejected the tenets of European modernism in favor of a realistic style firmly rooted in the work of the American painter Robert Henri. Included in the exhibition are works by artists such as John Sloan, Rockwell Kent, Thomas Hart Benton, Gordon Gilkey, Raphael Soyer, and Isabel Bishop, among others.

Mary Henry: American Constructivist continues through Jan. 8 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Mary Henry is a highly regarded Washington painter who creates large scale, abstract works based on geometric shapes and patterns. A student of Moholy-Nagy at the Illinois Institute of Design in the 1940s, Henry has maintained a consistent vision firmly rooted in geometric abstraction and constructivism for over 60 years. The exhibition features a range of paintings and drawings created over the past two decades.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and admission is free on Tuesdays.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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University Museum Given Large Endowment

Elizabeth Garrison, education curator at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, has been named The Cameron Paulin Curator of Education. The newest endowed position is funded by a $1 million gift from Portland resident Maribeth Collins and is named after the late Cameron Paulin, who taught art and art history at the University from 1949-76.

Maribeth Collins has a long history of philanthropy with Willamette University. In addition to this most recent endowed gift, she also created the The Maribeth Collins Endowed Directorship at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, currently held by Museum Director John Olbrantz.

“Maribeth has given our community a legacy of art, art appreciation and art education,” said Willamette President Lee Pelton. “Because of her philanthropy, thousands of visitors to the Hallie Ford Museum have enjoyed exhibits of uncommon distinction.”

As education curator, Garrison is responsible for organizing, implementing and evaluating education programs related to the University's art collection and temporary exhibitions. She serves as the liaison with local and regional school districts and will supervise and train docents. A native of California, Garrison holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., and a master’s degree from the University of California, Davis.

From 1990-91, Garrison was an intern in the Education and Outreach Department at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and from 1991-96, served as docent and outreach coordinator at the Jocelyn Art Museum in Omaha. In 1998, she was hired as assistant education curator at the Portland Art Museum, and in 2000, she was promoted to the position of education curator.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the City of Salem and the mid-Willamette Valley. It includes four permanent galleries and two temporary exhibition spaces. Permanent galleries focus on European, Asian and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper. Temporary exhibitions feature historic and contemporary art.

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Printmaking Workshop for Children Planned

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Keys to the Koop: Humor and Satire in Contemporary Printmaking, a workshop for children is planned for Saturday, Oct. 2, from noon to 4 pm in the lobby of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. Graduate students from the School of Education will introduce children and their parents to a wide variety of simple printmaking processes. Admission is free.

Keys to the Koop: Humor and Satire in Contemporary Printmaking features the work of 16 printmakers who find humor and satire in contemporary art, fashion, food, religion, politics, and popular culture. The exhibition continues through Oct. 30 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Admission to the exhibition will be free the day of the workshop.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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World War II Film Series Planned

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Carl Hall: World War II Drawings, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will present a free three-part film series on World War II.

On Tuesday, Sept. 14, “Island Hopping: The Road Back and Jungle Warfare: New Guinea to Burma” will be shown. On Tuesday, Sept. 28, “Air War in the Pacific and Bloody Ridge of Peleliu” will be presented. Finally, on Oct. 12, “Return to the Philippines and Okinawa: The Last Battle” will be shown. The films will be shown in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall beginning at 7 pm.

The films are from the History Channel's epic television series, “World War II: The War Chronicles.” Combining graphic combat footage and expert commentary, the series provides a commanding view of the battles and strategy, the men and machines, and the horror and heroism that marked this epic conflict. The Museum’s three-part series attempts to place Hall's drawings into the broader context of the War in the Pacific.

Hall (1921-1996), who taught for many years at Willamette, was a combat soldier during World War II and saw action on Leyte Island in the Philippines and on Okinawa.

Carl Hall: World War II Drawings is timed to coincide with World Views, the freshman interdisciplinary course that emphasizes critical thinking, comparative analysis, and writing and whose current focus is on war and peace. Future exhibitions tied to World Views will feature glass sculptures by California artist and Vietnam vet Michael Aschenbrenner in 2005 and a 2006 installation by Georgia artist Nancy Floyd, who lost her brother in Vietnam in 1969.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and Tuesday is an admission-free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Teacher Workshop Offered

In conjunction with its forthcoming exhibition, Keys to the Koop: Humor and Satire in Contemporary Printmaking, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University presents a free workshop for teachers who wish to bring their classes to see the exhibition.

The workshop is Monday, Sept. 13, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the museum. A reception will follow. Advance registration is required. Please call 503-370-6855.

The workshop will be led by Ron Crosier, an education consultant and retired high school art teacher from Portland. Crosier researched and wrote the teachers kit for the exhibition.

The workshop will help teachers prepare students for a field trip to the exhibition, develop strategies to tour the exhibition and/or design gallery activities for students, and to propose ideas that reinforce the gallery experience and broaden curriculum concepts once back in the classroom.

Keys to the Koop: Humor and Satire in Contemporary Printmaking features the work of 16 printmakers who find humor and satire in contemporary art, fashion, food, religion, politics and popular culture. The exhibition opens Sept. 4 and continues through Oct. 30 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission-free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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Museum Hires Curator

Elizabeth Garrison has been hired as the new education curator at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. She begins her new position Sept. 1st.

A native of California, Garrison holds an undergraduate degree from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., and a master’s degree from the University of California, Davis.

As education curator, Garrison is responsible for the organization, implementation and evaluation of education programs related to the University's art collection and temporary exhibitions. She will also serve as the liaison with local and regional school districts and will supervise and train docents.

From 1990-91, Garrison was an intern in the Education and Outreach Department at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and from 1991-96, served as docent and outreach coordinator at the Jocelyn Art Museum in Omaha, Neb. In 1998, she was hired as assistant education curator at the Portland Art Museum and in 2000, was promoted to the position of education curator.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the City of Salem and the mid-Willamette Valley. It includes four permanent galleries and two temporary exhibition spaces. Permanent galleries focus on European, Asian, and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper. Temporary exhibitions feature historic and contemporary art.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission-free day.

For further information, please call 503-370-6855.

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New Membership Benefits

Beginning July 1, dual or family level members ($50) of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art will receive a 10 percent discount on art books and related merchandise as a benefit of membership. Sponsor level members ($100) will continue to receive all of the benefits of dual or family membership, plus a 10 percent discount on lectures, classes, or workshops that require a registration fee.

Membership income helps support collections, exhibitions, education and outreach. Members enjoy unlimited free admission, invitations to preview receptions, an annual subscription to Brushstrokes, invitations to special lectures, films, concerts, and tours, and an annual subscription to The Scene, Willamette's alumni magazine. At the higher levels of membership ($250 and above), members receive special gifts and premiums, discounts on art sales, an opportunity to rent the facility at a discounted rate, and more.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission free day.

For further information, call 503-370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Announces 2004-05 Exhibitions

A wide variety of innovative exhibitions have been planned for 2004-05 at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

Major exhibitions scheduled for the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery include:

• June 12-Aug. 21—“Tom Fawkes: Terra Cognita” features the work of this highly regarded Portland painter who creates landscapes and wood constructions of the southern Mediterranean countryside;
• Sept. 4-Oct. 30—“Keys to the Koop: Humor and Satire in Contemporary Printmaking,” features the work of 16 printmakers who find humor and satire in contemporary art, fashion, food, and popular culture, drawn from the extensive collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation;
• Nov. 13-Jan. 8—“Mary Henry: American Constructivist” features the work of this highly regarded Washington painter who creates large scale, abstract works based on geometric shapes and patterns;
• Jan. 22-March 19—“Charles E. Heaney: Memory, Imagination, and Place” is the most comprehensive exhibition ever organized for this important Oregon painter and printmaker (1897-1981) and features a wide range of work drawn from public and private collections in Oregon and Washington.
• April 2-May 14, 2005—“Senior Art Majors” annual exhibition that features the work of senior art majors at Willamette University.

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Free Lectures and Films at Local Museum

In conjunction with its current exhibition, Lillian Pitt: Spirits Keep Whistling Me Home, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University has planned two lectures, two evenings of film, and a one-day symposium during the run of the exhibition which concludes March 20. All events will be held in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Museum and all events are free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, Jan. 27, “Hands of History,” a film that explores the life and art of four different Native American women artists, starts at 7 p.m.

On Thursday, Feb. 5, from 7 to 8 p.m., Pitt will present an illustrated slide lecture on her life and art, which is deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of the Columbia River people, especially the women who preceded her.

On Saturday, Feb. 21, a one-day symposium entitled “Life Cycles: Native American Women in the Arts Talk about their Work and Times,” will be presented. Facilitated by Willamette University faculty curator Rebecca Dobkins, the symposium will feature Native American artists Lillian Pitt (Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama), Theresa Harlan (Santa Dimingo Pueblo), Gail Tremblay (Onondaga/Mi'qmaq), Marie Watt (Seneca), and Elizabeth Woody (Warm Springs/Navajo). The symposium will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m.

On Tuesday, March 9, “Faithful to Continuance,” a film that explores Plateau Indian culture as revealed by six extraordinary artists, will begin at 7 p.m.

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18, Dobkins will present an illustrated slide lecture on the public arts projects of Lillian Pitt, with an emphasis on those public arts projects in Oregon.

Lillian Pitt: Spirits Keep Whistling Me Home is supported by an endowment gift from The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, through their Spirit Mountain Community Fund.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesdays are free for all visitors.

For further information, please call 503/370-6855.

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Free Lecture and Workshop Offered by Museum

In order to broaden the scope of the Helen Gilkey exhibition at the Hallie Ford Museum at Willamette University, a free lecture and a botanical illustration workshop are being offered free to the general public.

On Thursday, Feb.12, from 7 to 8 p.m., Dr. Aaron Liston, professor of botany and plant pathology at Oregon State University, will present an illustrated slide lecture on the history of botanical illustration. On Saturday and Sunday, March 20-21, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Dr. Linda A. Vorobik will present a two-day workshop on botanical illustration.

The lecture will be held in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Museum. The workshop will be held in the Olin Science Center at University. While the lecture and workshop are free, enrollment is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. To register for the workshop, please contact Sharon Rose at srose@willamette.edu or call 503/375-5355.

Helen Gilkey: Botanical Illustrations has been supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Council for the Humanities. The exhibit continues through March 13 in the Museum’s Study Gallery.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and admission is free on Tuesdays.

For further information, please call John Olbrantz at 503/370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum of Art Closed for Winter Break

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will close for winter break from Dec. 24 through Jan. 1 and will re-open Jan. 2.

Two special exhibitions are currently on view. “In Search of the Real St. Nicholas: Orthodox Icons from American Collections” continues through Jan. 3 in the Study Gallery. The exhibition features Russian, Serbian and Greek icons of the saint that date from the 16th through the 20th centuries. St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in the fourth century AD whose generosity and special affection for children evolved into a custom of gift giving on his feast day of Dec. 6 and his gradual transformation into Santa Claus.

“Robert Jones: Abstractions” continues through Jan.10 in the Melvin Henderson-Rubio Gallery. Robert Jones is a highly regarded Seattle painter and professor emeritus at the University of Washington who creates large scale, abstract works characterized by strong compositional arrangements, bold lines, and intense colors reminiscent of the French Fauves and their German counterpoint, Die Brucke. The exhibition features a range of paintings from the past 15 years.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette campus. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission free day.

For further information, please call 503/370-6855.

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Local Museum Offers Free Films and Demonstrations

In conjunction with its current exhibition, “In Search of the Real St. Nicholas: Orthodox Icons from American Collections,” Rev. George Gray, rector at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Portland, will perform a traditional blessing of the icons Friday, Nov. 14, from 6 to 6:15 p.m. in the Study Gallery at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University.

On Saturday, Nov. 15, from noon to 4 p.m., Oregon iconographer Heather MacKean will give an icon writing demonstration in the museum lobby. MacKean studied iconography in Europe, Canada, and the United States and has art work in numerous private collections throughout the United, Canada, and Great Britain, as well as in St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Portland and St. Innocent Orthodox Church in Everson, Wash.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, and Tuesday, Dec. 2, from 7 to 9 p.m., a four-part film series on the rise and fall of Byzantium will be shown in the museum’s Roger Hull Lecture Hall.

On Saturday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 1:45 p.m., Rev. George Gray and the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Choir will perform a special prayer service in honor of St. Nicholas, whose feast day is celebrated on Dec. 6. The prayer service will be held in the Study Gallery.

Admission to the demonstration, films, and other education programs is free.

“In Search of the Real St. Nicholas: Orthodox Icons from American Collections,” which continues through Jan. 3 in the Study Gallery at the museum, is supported by a generous grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free, and there is no admission fee on Tuesdays. The museum will be closed from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1 for winter break.

For further information, please call 503/370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum Wins Award

At its recent annual conference in Portland, the Oregon Art Education Association (OAEA) recognized the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University and its Director John Olbrantz with a Certificate of Award for outstanding contributions to art education in the mid-Willamette Valley.

In nominating the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and Olbrantz, Cathey Philbrick, an art teacher at McNary High School in Salem, wrote, "Within its five years of operation, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art has significantly improved the cultural depth of visual arts in Salem. Under the leadership of John Olbrantz, the museum has expanded its collection of historic and contemporary art, presented a dynamic array of special exhibitions that have enriched the quality of life in Salem, supported a strong art education program, including lectures, films, and school tours, and offered low admission and free admission to school groups."

The OAEA is a non-profit, educational organization of art educators and others from throughout the state of Oregon. Its purpose is to promote art education through professional development, service, advocacy, and leadership. Each year, the OAEA recognizes several Oregon individuals or organizations for their contribution to art education, as well as a number of individuals within their organization. In total, OAEA bestowed 10 awards this year.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art was founded in 1998 to serve as an artistic, cultural, and intellectual resource for Willamette University, the City of Salem, the mid-Willamette Valley and beyond. It includes four permanent galleries and two temporary exhibition spaces. Permanent galleries focus on European, Asian, and American art, Native American baskets, historic and contemporary regional art, and European and American works on paper. Temporary exhibitions feature historic and contemporary art.

The Museum is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the Willamette University campus. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are admitted free and Tuesday is an admission free day.

For further information, please call 503/370-6855.

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Hallie Ford Museum Announces 2003-04 Season

A variety of innovative exhibitions are planned for the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University for 2003-04, according to director John Olbrantz. "While next year's exhibition schedule does not include any major historical exhibitions like ‘In the Fullness of Time: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from American Collections,’ we have a compelling array of special exhibitions that are guaranteed to educate and delight."

Gaylen Hansen: Tall Tales, June 14-Aug. 23, is an exhibition by a nationally recognized narrative painter who lives and works in the Palouse region of eastern Washington.

Yard Art, Sept. 6-Nov. 1, offers one-of-a-kind pieces created for the backyard by artists from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

Robert Jones: Abstractions, Nov.15-Jan.10, includes paintings and drawings by this highly regarded Seattle artist and professor emeritus from the University of Washington.

Lillian Pitt: Spirits Keep Whistling Me Home, Jan. 24-March 20, offers ceramics, mixed media sculptures, and installations by this important Native American artist that celebrate the rich cultural traditions of the Columbia River people.

Senior Art Majors, April 3-May 15, is the annual exhibition that features the work of senior art majors at Willamette University.

Robert Hess: Recent Work, April 3-May 15, includes recent sculptures by this popular Willamette University teacher and artist.

Smaller exhibitions scheduled for the Study Gallery include Terry Melton: Leda and the Swan/Letters from Jupiter, May 31-August 16; Jacob Lawrence: The Hiroshima Series, Aug. 23-Oct. 25; In Search of the Real St. Nicholas: Orthodox Icons from American Collections, Nov. 1- Jan. 3; Helen Gilkey: Botanical Illustrations, Jan.10-March 13; and Ancient Mexico: Meso-American Art from the Caroline Tarbell Tupper Collection, March 20-May 22, 2004.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are free, and Tuesday is a free day.

For further information, please call 503/370-6855.

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Living Treasures Series To Be Shown

During the month of April, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University will present a two-part film series on contemporary regional crafts. The "Living Treasures Series," sponsored and produced by the Northwest Designer Craftsmen, documents the work, philosophy, and achievements of some of the most influential crafters, collectors, and craft advocates in the region. The series is free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, April 15, the first three films in the series will be shown. "Robert Sperry: A Northwest Master" focuses on the life of this important and influential ceramic artist who taught for many years at the University of Washington. “Ramona Solberg: Jeweler, Teacher, Traveler" highlights the life of this pioneer in the contemporary jewelry movement. Finally, "Russell Day: Living Art" focuses on the artist's early experimentation with glass and light modulation and his influence on a whole generation of glass artists, including Dale Chihuly.

On Tuesday, April 29, the next three films will be shown. "Harold Balazs: Creating Wonder" highlights the artist's career as sculptor, painter, jeweler, woodcarver, calligrapher, and mixed media artist. "Virginia Harvey: A Legacy in Fiber Arts" focuses on Harvey's life as one of the most influential persons of her generation to write, teach, publish, and do research on the textile arts. Finally, "Evert Sodergren: Master Woodworker" highlights the artist's career as a pioneer furniture maker who's innovative designs helped revolutionize the field.

The film series will be held in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art beginning at 7 p.m. Each film runs approximately 30 minutes.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is located at 700 State Street (corner of State and Cottage Streets) in downtown Salem near the campus of Willamette University. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are free, and Tuesday is a free day.

For further information, please call 503/370-6855.

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Asian Film Series At Willamette

Five free films will be shown in the Hull Lecture Hall at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. All films begin at 6:30 p.m. and each one will be introduced by a member of the Willamette faculty. The museum is located on the corner of State and Winter Streets. No food or drinks are allowed in the Museum.

Jan. 31 (Friday): "Maborosi" (1995, directed by Koreeda Hirokazu, in Japanese with English subtitles; 110 min.) A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant. Yumiko remarries and moves from Osaka to a small fishing village and continues to search for meaning in a lonely world. Maborosi means "the beckoning light." This film won awards at film festivals in Vancouver and Venice.

Feb. 14 (Friday): "Not One Less" (1999, directed by Zhang Yimou, in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles; 106 min.) A young woman is ordered to a remote Chinese village to be the substitute teacher and is told that she must keep the class intact for one month or she won't be paid. When one of her students disappears into the city to find work, she goes after him. This film won awards at film festivals in Sao Paulo and Venice.

March 7 (Friday): "Pather Panchali" (1955, directed by Satyajit Ray, B&W, in Bengali with English subtitles; 115 min.) Sometime in the early years of the century, a boy, Apu, is born to a poor Brahmin family in a village in Bengal. The father, a poet and priest, cannot earn enough to keep his family going. Apu's sister, Durga, is forever stealing mangoes from the neighbour's orchards. All these add to the daily struggles of the mother's life, notwithstanding her constant bickering with an old aunt who lives with the family. This is the first film in Ray's celebrated Apu Trilogy, and won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Music by Ravi Shankar.

April 4 (Friday): "Afterlife" (1998, directed by Koreeda Hirokazu, in Japanese with English subtitles; 118 min.) In Koreeda's thought-provoking vision, the newly deceased find themselves in a way station somewhere between Heaven and Earth. With the help of dedicated caseworkers, each soul is given three days to choose one cherished memory for their life that they will relive for eternity. As the film reveals, recognizing happiness and finding a life's worth of meaning in a single event is no simple task. The film won awards at several smaller film festivals & praise from major film critics.

April 18 (Friday): "Baran" (2001, directed by Majid Majidi, in Farsi with English subtitles; 91 min.) Baran ("rain") takes place in the years following the 1989 Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan, amid the rise of the Taliban. Set in Iran, it tells the story of an Afghani refugee father whose injury threatens his family's future, a child too weak to fill his shoes, and a native Iranian son forced to trade places with an immigrant. But, the young man's burning resentment is about to be transformed by a surprising discovery. The immigrant is a young woman. For the first time in his life, he is in love, but, he cannot let on that he knows her secret. This film won two awards at the Montreal International Film Festival.

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Free Film Presentation At Willamette University

The film, “Journey to Enlightenment,” the story of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, teacher of the Dalai Lama, will be shown at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 4 p.m. The film is free and open to the public.

The film’s producer, Gabriella Martinelli, will discuss the movie.

The Department of Japanese/Chinese and the Asian Studies Program at Willamette University will sponsor the event through a grant from the Luce Foundation.

The Museum is located at the corner of State and Cottage streets on the Willamette campus.

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Free Noon Concert At Art Museum

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University presents John Mery on classical guitar and Jas. Adams on flute Tuesday, Sept. 10, at noon. Admission is free.

"Music of Iberia: Old and New World," is a selection of jazzy classical music from Europe, Brazil and Argentina. The program includes pieces by Ravel, Pessard, Ibert, Villa-Lobos, Machado and Piazolla.

Mery received his master’s degree in music in guitar performance from the University of Arizona where he studied under Thomas Patterson. He has participated in master classes with many of today's most prominent guitarists including: Christopher Parkening, Oscar Ghilia, David Russel, Abel Carlevaro and Carlo Barone.

In 1993 Mery won the Schaeffer Memorial Guitar Competition. He has performed in concert in Europe and throughout the Western United States. He currently heads the music program at Portland Community College – Sylvania campus.

Jas. Adams first studied flute while attending Reed College, where he helped start a Young Audience group, playing Renaissance instruments for local school children. He also studied flute with Roger Rostron of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England. A founding board member of the Portland Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, Adams has performed on baroque and modern flute in chamber music recitals and concerts in the Pacific Northwest, Bay Area, and abroad. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Willamette University College of Law.

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Hallie Ford Museum Offers Free Admission For Food Donation

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art will once again be offering free admission to any visitor who brings in a can of food or other non-perishable food item from Nov. 14-Dec. 23, 2000.

This collection of food will be donated to the Marion-Polk Food Share. A food barrel will be set up in the lobby to accept the food donations. The Hallie Ford Museum of Art will be closed the week between Christmas and New Year's, Dec. 24 - Jan. 2, 2001.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for students and seniors and free to children under 12, Willamette University faculty, staff and students. For more information on exhibits or related programs, please contact the museum at 503-370-6855.

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