Dedicated to welcoming and connecting people to our shared cultural heritage through exhibitions and programs that provoke, delight, and inspire.
They say good things don’t last, but the Girls Scouts also say, “Make new friends and keep the old.” Today we said goodbye to one of the paintings in John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women, - Polly Barnard, or The Girl in White Muslin - but said hello to a new friend, Madame Errazuriz, or The Lady in Black.
Eugenia Huici, was born in Chile and married the wealthy diplomat Jose Thomas Errazuriz, with whom she moved to Paris around 1880. Eugenia’s husband was an artist himself, and they shared many mutual friends with Sargent. She was known as an attractive and outgoing woman with impeccable taste who enjoyed socializing with her circle of friends, all qualities that appealed to Sargent. They became lifelong friends in Paris and later in London.
It is likely that Eugenia met Sargent while visiting Venice on her honeymoon. He painted her a number of times in the early 1880s, always in informal compositions like the one now on view. The portrait is an exceptionally engaging depiction of her, as her smile indicates a friendly familiarity with the viewer. Sargent’s striking contrast of the black in Eugenia’s evening dress with the reds in the upholstery and fan lend an air of elegance to the picture.
Installing Madame Errazuriz
Sometimes, things change fast in the Exhibitions world. One minute there’s a painting in a gallery, the next minute it’s swapped out for a different one. But that’s ok because we get to share with our visitors the old and the new and it makes for an organic, lively presentation. Polly will miss you but Madame Eugenia welcomes you!
Are you thinking, “What is this?!” Or maybe you’re thinking, “Wait, where’s my phone?!” Yep, I said phone. For many smartphone users, this funny looking box is a gateway to new learning opportunities. Does that sound too stodgy? How about this – if you have an iPhone or Blackberry or Android, you know that this code can direct you to the coolest stuff you never knew about, and that these codes can be found anywhere from water towers to magazines to cupcakes to museum galleries. 
They’re called QR codes – as in quick response. They’re two-dimensional codes that are very similar to barcodes. They can look slightly different depending on the company that created them. The phone applications are varied, too, but the vast majority are free. What does this have to do with our museums? As you can see in the picture above, we are using QR codes in our galleries this year. But let’s back up a sec. Remember our sister blog, American Folk Art @ Cooperstown, run by our VP & Chief Curator Paul D’Ambrosio? Last fall, the Exhibitions team at Fenimore dreamed of bringing our social media efforts into our galleries. We knew that we could run a poll on Paul’s blog, asking readers to vote for their favorite posts and we could then install the artifacts that the posts addressed. But that was kind of boring. Not very innovative. Thankfully, two fellow staff members, Kajsa Sabatke and Erin Crissman, suggested we use QR codes. We jumped on the opportunity to allow our onsite visitors to participate in our online conversations.
Each artifact in the exhibition is accompanied by the original blog post, the original comments associated with that post, and the QR code that directs users to the post itself. We’re encouraging on site visitors to use the codes to link to the comments section and leave their own thoughts about the artifacts and the exhibition.
We also have plans to incorporate more QR codes throughout the museum. The exhibition Watermark: Michele Harvey & Glimmerglass includes a code that links to Michele’s website. The exhibition In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers includes a code for The George Eastman House and Magnum Photographers.
Why are we doing this? Just for fun? Well, sure it’s fun, but of course there’s more to it than that. We believe in giving our visitors every opportunity – whether traditional, innovative, or downright wacky – to use, explore and engage with our collections in ways that they find appropriate and satisfying. What do you think? Let us know!
As I write this, we are about to “put the catalog to bed.” It has earned a good night’s sleep for sure. For the past few weeks I and my colleagues have been editing and proofing the new catalog that accompanies our traveling exhibition, Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection which debuts at the Cleveland Museum of Art on March 7th. I am absolutely in love with this book. It includes new essays by several authors including Janet C. Berlo, Ruth B. Phillips, Joe D. Horse Capture, Aldona Jonaitis, Steven A. LeBlanc and Norman Vorano. Several other scholars also contributed: D.Y. Begay, Marvin Cohodas, Chuna McIntyre, Scott Meachum, Marla Redcorn-Miller and Megan Smetzer.
By: Michelle Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
It’s true what they say – all good things must come to an end. January is always a bittersweet month for us here at Fenimore. It’s sad to see the exhibitions we’ve come to love taken down, but it’s very exciting to prepare the road for new exhibitions. This week, we packed up America’s Rome, and several staff dropped by the gallery to say goodbye to their favorite works. 
While we are all looking forward to re-opening in April with a bevy of new exhibitions (cant wait for John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women!), this is the time to lovingly pack up the old friends. Here’s a picture of Chris Rossi affixing a painting to its crate using Oz Clips.
As my colleague Christine Olsen noted in her blog Making an Exhibition Happen, there’s just as much involved in taking an exhibition down as putting one up. Thankfully, we have a new Preparator to help us out. Stephen Loughman comes to us from the Plattsburg State Art Museum where he was a Preparator. Look for his blogs soon, too.
