Open House - Transcript
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[NARRATOR]
For nearly a year, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery has been closed to the public for rennovation.
[WOMAN]
There is a tape gun over there.
[NARRATOR]
For far too long, Sheldon’s staff has been living in exile in temporary quarters at the State Historical Society. But now, their lease is up.
[Karen Janovy]
This is not where our art is. This is not why the little children come to Sheldon. We are so pleased and so eager to get back into our space.
[NARRATOR]
Borrowed offices have been boxed up. It’s moving day. Time for Sheldon’s staff to go home.
Before it closed, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery looked like this. Since 1963, Sheldon has been the crown jewel of modern American art in the Midwest and a center of excellence at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The building itself is a masterpiece of modern art, designed by a Lincoln Center Plaza architect Philip Johnson.
[Janice Dreisbach]
American artists discovered that they have the kinds of themes and ...
[NARRATOR]
And at the helm of the collection is gallery director Janice Dreisbach.
[Janice Dreisbach]
This place is an absolutely remarkable collection of primarily American art, particularly strong in American impressionism and modernism. One of the very unusual characteristics of this collection is that so many museums attempted to be comprehensive. This is a museum that has really, for decades, had a focus on American art.
[NARRATOR]
Surprisingly, that focus began more than one hundred years ago when 67 Nebraskans formed an art club. The year was 1888. Just 14 years after Nebraska became a state, the Nebraska Art Association made its first purchase. This painting for one hundred fifty dollars, today their vision has amassed more than 12 thousand modern American art objects valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
What no one imagine in all the years of planning its future was that Sheldon would now sit as an empty shell, closed to the public for nearly a full year. What the planners forgot was that the building, like any masterpiece, needed careful conservation. So when cracks appeared in the majestic vaulted windows, the heating and ventilation system began to falter and marble walls leaked water. Conditions got so bad that twenty-degree temperature swings in a single day threatened the entire collection. Saving the museum from itself called for drastic measures. Close the museum. Pack everything away for safe keeping, and begin a massive maintenance project.
[WOMAN]
During the last year, we replaced both the window wells in the museum and also virtually gutted the building to replace the heating ventilation and air conditioning system, and so we’ve made a number of physical changes to the building.
[NARRATOR]
But just weeks before the museum’s opening, there are glitches in the system.
[Ed Banks]
We have a problem with air flow in the building right now. There is so much art work in this building that unless we maintain the proper humidity and temperature in the building, it could damage millions of dollars of artwork.
[Ron Peters]
We have to maintain 72 degrees of 50 per cent humidity at all times, and we’re not allowed to have any temperature or humidity swings throughout any part of the building. But right now, the building’s looking pretty good. I think we’re maintaining within a half a degree of 72, and I think the humidity is right on mark.
[NARRATOR]
Sheldon’s renovation for staff members to create a refuge for its entire collection. [tease] For much of the past year, more than [tease] twelve thousand irreplaceable artworks have been safeguarded at a secret location. But the collection has not been in mothballs. It’s been a hub of activity, with inventory, conservation, and documentation.
[MAN]
Bellman H2126.
[WOMAN]
We were able to digitize, take photographic images of large percentage of the collection. We have had a fair amount of our collection up on the web. But it also allows people access to the works without those having to be drawn out of the boxes, moved, and handled, which really saves uh wear on the pieces in the collection. Going high-tech is a big change for museums.
[NARRATOR]
And Sheldon has been at the forefront of accessing its collection directly to the public and educators, through an aggressive web site, that has already received two million visitors. Now work is underway to bring the real art back home.
For nearly a month, professional art movers have been taking painstaking efforts to move thousands of art objects. (drill noise) With only weeks remaining until Sheldon reopens, curators are unveiling a new exhibit strategy.
[Dan Siedell]
Just move the Lincoln about right here.
[NARRATOR]
In the past, the permanent collection showcased masterpieces by renowned modern artists. Now Sheldon is breaking with tradition organizing galleries by theme and even mixing media within a single exhibit.
[Dan Siedell]
Tilt him so his head is this way, just for now. I’m trying to set up a contrast with these two formal portraits. I’d like to have Charlie to be seen coming off here. I—I think I like the contrast with Charlie, with that arrogant smug look—looking at the viewer, contrasted with Lincoln, this kind of—this pensive reflective turning away.
[MAN]
Okay.
[Dan Siedell]
Just—I want to be as—as eclectic and diverse uh with the media as I am with um with the subject matter, with how the artists are—are going about uh representing portraiture as a subject matter.
This is a uh this is a wedding portrait painted by this man, Robert Weaver, and um he’s from Lincoln and you have a—a sacred moment, a celebratory event, and I like bringing that private aspect, something internal in the family, out in the public. This is akin to in someway of having your wedding album out um in public. And I just—I love the size of it. I like to have it—a little—a sense of humor in each of the rooms just so that—that I can create these little juxtapositions that might, you know, crack a smile on a—on a viewer’s uh part. Art is serious business, but it’s also a fun business, and I like trying to emphasize that as much as I can. It’s one of my favorite portraits in the entire collection. It’s a work uh done by Charlie Friedman, an artist who is from Lincoln. It’s about acting in the world. He was making an illusion to a very famous painting uh done by—uh the realist painter, Chuck Close. And uh, it was a painting that was done um that it was a self-portrait that Close did. It represented this very arrogant self-confident um uh role of the artist. Charley is really bringing to the fore, the fact that portraiture and self-portraiture are very much about putting on costumes, playing roles, but what he was doing was actually performing Chuck Close.
[Dan Siedell]
Tilt him so his head is this way, just for now. I’m trying to set up a contrast with these two formal portraits. I’d like to have Charlie to be seen coming off here. I—I think I like the contrast with Charlie, with that arrogant smug look—looking at the viewer, contrasted with Lincoln, this kind of—this pensive reflective turning away.
[NARRATOR]
The rush is on to beat the clock for the grand re-opening.
[Dan Siedell]
I’m looking forward actually to begin providing opportunities for us to get as much work out as possible so that our viewers can see as much of the twelve thousand objects that we have.
[NARRATOR]
As last minute adjustments are made, Sheldon’s long-awaited reopening is fast approaching.
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