The 2008 Birds in Art exhibition closed on November 9 and after a week of installing four new exhibitions, I’m now busy preparing crates for the year-long four-venue tour. This year’s exhibition will travel to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, California, February 15 – April 18, 2009; the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, May 8 – August 16, 2009; Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, Vermont, September 5 – October 12, 2009; and the Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, November 14 – December 31, 2009. The artworks then return to the Woodson Art Museum for unpacking, a condition check, and repacking for shipment back to the artist or lender.
While I work on crating details, my colleague Jane Weinke prepares a condition report binder with images, a description of the condition of each work, and space for each venue to record the subsequent incoming and outgoing condition. We also share an exhibition checklist, a list of frame sizes and sculpture dimensions as well as recommended pedestal sizes to best display the sculptures.
The touring Birds in Art exhibition consists of 60 artworks, 50 two-dimensional and 10 three-dimensional works. A more manageable size than the 126 or so works presented at the Woodson, the touring exhibition requires 2000 square feet of gallery space.
While some of us are working on the tour, others are already focusing on next year’s Birds in Art. In fact, office manager Shari Schroeder has already posted the 2009 prospectus on the Museum’s web site. The prospectus also has been mailed to artists who do not have internet access. The prospectus provides all of the information an artist needs to submit artworks for jury consideration. Before we know it, entries will begin to arrive in anticipation of the April 15 postmark deadline. The jury convenes in May and Birds in Art 2009 quickly begins to take shape.
