Center for the Study of Arts and Design
The Center for the Study of Arts and Design is an ambitious new museum educational model. The Center will provide multiple portals of entry into the vibrant and inter-connected world of art, craft, and design, bridging contemporary artifacts and hands-on workshops with electronic media and online content. The Center will comprise the permanent collection galleries; a classroom studio for art-making, professional level artist-in-residence studios, an education gallery, a public program and education seminar room, and an online presence. The digital element will be available in terminals throughout the Museum, and will include an accessible database of the Museum's artists and collections including a Video Library of Techniques.
Visitors will be able to see works on view in our changing and permanent collection galleries, observe the creation of art in our artist-in-residence studios, participate in the creative process through master classes and demonstrations, and research other works that relate to the works on view in the Museum's online Collections Database and Video Library of Techniques. The Center will also offer a wide range of programs and services including artist lectures, symposia, conferences, and opportunities for independent study.
The Center for the Study of Arts and Design is comprised of the following elements:
PERMANENT COLLECTION
For the first time in its history, the Museum will be able to have its permanent collection on view. The second floor of the Museum will house a permanent collection jewelry gallery to house and display the Museum's expanding permanent collection of over 450 works of contemporary art jewelry.
THE EDUCATION FLOOR
The Education Workshop will include a full range of hands-on art-making activities. Separated from the three Artist-in-Residence Studios by retractable glass walls, the Workshop is designed to be a flexible space that accommodates groups of different sizes. Wet sinks, kilns, wood-working tools, and work areas will allow for hands-on workshops and art classes in all media, from ceramics and woodworking to textile and jewelry-making. Individually, the Workshop will accommodate 35 people. Each Artist-in-Residence Studio will accommodate an additional 8 - 10 people.
The Workshop will host programs tailored to schoolchildren, families, audiences with special needs, seniors, and adults. Underscoring the Museum's mission to integrate the experience of learning into the greater Museum experience, the Museum is designed so that all audiences will pass through the education center as they tour the Museum galleries.
All visitors to the Education floor will see the Education Gallery, a display area dedicated to the rotating works of students. Made entirely of special art glass, the interior wall of the classrooms and studios will form a gallery corridor. The design of the glass casework will allow art to be displayed while also allowing visitors to view artists working in their studios and students participating in classes, connecting the works on view in the galleries with the creative process.
The Seminar Room will be a multi-use space for seminars, teacher training sessions, docent training, artist slide lectures, and other wide-ranging events. The room will be equipped with state-of-the-art audio video technology and will accommodate up to 45 people.
LIBRARY
The Center will also house the Museum's extensive library, which includes catalogues and publications from past Museum exhibitions as well as those from partnering institutions and related material.
ONLINE
The Collection Database and the Video Library of Techniques will be accessible through numerous kiosks throughout the building as well as online. Touch-screens will enable visitors to access immediate information on specific works in our collection as they relate to temporary exhibitions. As well, these kiosks will serve as electronic gallery guides. A link from the Museum's website will enable outside access to all online materials.
Online Collection Database
The Museum's online Collection Database will be a resource unique among museums and singular in size and scope. For the first time, the Database will take our permanent collection out of the Museum and into the homes, offices and study carrels of visual arts devotees and scholars all over the world. More than just images with names and dimensions, the Collection Database will contain up to six images of each object, information on materials and techniques, biographical background on artists and designers, links to allied museums and cultural organizations, and access to artist interviews and oral histories from the Archives of American Art. The Collections Database will serve as an interpretation of the Museum's distinctive collection from various perspectives while providing a progressive learning tool for Museum audiences.
The Video Library of Techniques
The Video Library of Techniques will be a comprehensive visual documentation of the role of process in decorative arts and design post-World War II. The Library will offer extensive videos of artists demonstrating the techniques involved in the creation of artwork in glass, ceramics, metal, fiber, and wood. The Library will house between 75 and 100 newly created digitally mastered videos averaging three minutes in length. Each video will show artists in our core media demonstrating essential techniques of craftsmanship. It will be available to visitors both at the Museum and online.