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Hello, educators!
This month’s newsletter offers a free poster, a free family day, and a peek behind the frame.
Read on to find out how to request a free, teacher-tested teaching poster for your classroom. Scroll down to preview SAAM’s Día de los Muertos family day and access a set of holiday crafts. Finally, don’t miss an interview with frames conservator, Martin Kotler, at the bottom!
With my best,
Elizabeth
[email protected] |
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Teacher-Tested Poster
Subway, 1934 A student favorite, Lily Furedi’s Subway invites you to learn about the Great Depression and tell stories about riders in New York City’s underground transit. Close looking questions and activities engage learners, coast-to-coast!
Learn more about the painting. |
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Celebrate Día de los Muertos
Saturday, October 28, 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Smithsonian American Art Museum
8th and G Streets NW
Kogod Courtyard
Free | Registration encouragedBring family and friends to see exciting live performances, including traditional Mexican folk dance, and an exhilarating mariachi performance. Día de los Muertos-themed crafts will also be available to visitors of all ages to try throughout the day.
Visit SAAM’s Family Zone. |
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Meet Martin Kotler, Frame Conservator
What is your job?
I evaluate a frame by asking, “Is it historically correct for the artwork? Are there better examples? Are there issues that can have future conservation concerns? Can the artwork be glazed [put under glass] using this frame? Is the frame’s edge [rabbet] covering too much of the artist’s imagery?”
What kind of training is needed to do your job?
Traditionally a Frame Conservator today would follow the same path as any other art conservator: Chemistry, Studio Art and Art History. I was from an earlier training where I apprenticed under a museum Frame Conservator. I first learned gilding as an undergraduate while I was studying as a Painting Major. I later studied other disciplines like wood working and sculpture for casting.
What skill do you use most often?
Both my hands and eyes. The recipe for creating a frame is not printed on the back, so reading a frame’s surface is an ability that evolves over time.
What’s something that has surprised you about working in museums?
How little museums know about frames, their history and who made them. This is changing, but unfortunately mistakes continue and museums take frames off without knowing the history, so important art history information is lost.
What’s something you’re most proud to have done?
I have created and conserved more frames than I can count and can proudly walk through the museum galleries and remember my hands working on many hundreds of frames in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection. |
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Image Credits:
Photo by Mary Tait
Lily Furedi, Subway, 1934, oil on canvas, 39 x 48 1/4 in. (99.1 x 122.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1965.18.43
Photo by Norwood Photography |
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