Band Branding

In addition to being an Art History major, I am a Public Relations major at the USC Annenberg School. When this class began, we were told that we, the student-curators, would be overseeing all aspects of this intervention project; this included publications and public relations. (Below: Exhibition Brochure with, and without the "bellyband.")

The publication that we created for re:View is an exhibition brochure, one that is exactly the same size as the existing brochure for Four Rooms and a View. We bound the two exhibition brochures together using a strip of paper called a "belly band."

On the front of the belly band is Susan Silton's work that was commissioned specifically for re:View, and that now hangs on the Exposition-side of the Fisher Museum. Once this band is removed the two brochures come apart and the title for re:View is revealed. (Below: the exterior and interior of the belly band.)


On the exterior of the belly band are the titles of the five projects that were developed for re:View: Reconstruct, Remember, Reconsider, Reproduce and Retrieve. The title are in white text on a blue background. This color of blue, and the idea of the band became elements of the branding for the intervention. (Below: a walltext designed for re:View.)The wall panels that were added to the museum for the intervention are distinguishable from those that remain from Four Rooms and a View because of their distinctive blue bands across the top of each panel. We also decided to intervene with the main title of the permanent collection exhibition; we designed a custom vinyl title for re:View that covers (but not completely) the title from Four Rooms and a View, and again uses the idea of the band.

Finally we extended this idea of band-branding outside the museum on posters in several locations. The concept was to create a subtle and savvy method to distinguish our student-curated intervention from the permanent collection show. (Below: posters outside the Fisher Museum.)

- Francisco Rosas

Retrieve: The Resulting Display

The transformation of the Quinn Wing is now complete, and will be on view through April 17. The once-virtually empty space now holds 35 landscapes in a storage-like display; the works include drawings, paintings and prints spanning from the 17th-21st centuries, some in greater condition than others, and many by relatively unknown (or even just unknown) artists. Here's just a glimpse of how things have changed:



















--Raylene Galarze

Shots from the Opening Reception

Some pictures of the student-curators with their projects at the opening reception for re:View, which happened this past Saturday.  The intervention will be up until April 17; admission is FREE.

Los Angeles Times article

Amazing piece about the exhibition in the Los Angeles Times this morning! Gerrick Kennedy, a Times' reporter, spent a great deal of time at the Fisher Museum during the actual "interventions," talking to student-curators, the professors and artist Susan Silton -- and his article is a thoughtful and well-informed look at the project and its place within the curatorial world. Some choice quotes:

"We wanted them to develop a constant consciousness that everything you see in museums is choreographed." -- Richard Meyer

"Going into the class it felt really experimental. . . . I didn't know anything about curating. It's an art form within itself." - Jayme Wilson

Read the full article here on the Los Angeles Times Web site.

re:View Installation Complete

The wall text is up, and we're windex-ing the display cases.

Throughout re:View there is a consistent presence of this color of blue, so that the interventions can be easily identified.

The wall labels for re:View have a similar blue band across them, and the intervention brochure has a band around it too.  Look for an update about the design of the brochure next week.

re:View open tomorrow!

- Francisco Rosas

TOMORROW: "Museum of Ideas"

WHAT: The Contemporary Project and the USC International Museum Institute present a symposium exploring the value of placing ideas -- as well as art objects -- on public display. Leading thinkers in contemporary art and curatorial practice will construct a free, one-day-only "Museum of Ideas" at USC.

ALSO: "Museum of Ideas" coincides with the opening of re:View. A free lunch reception and curator-led tours will take place between 1 and 3 p.m. at the Fisher Museum.

WHO:
• Julie Ault, artist and author
• Carol Duncan, art historian and critic
• Helen Molesworth, chief curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
• Connie Wolf, director and CEO, Contemporary Jewish Museum

Moderated by Selma Holo, Richard Meyer and Britt Salvesen, Department Head and Curator of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography and Department Head and Curator of Prints and Drawings, LACMA.


More info here. Hope you can make it!

Reconstruction: Wall stencils

The show opens tomorrow!