Class
Article
College
Caine College of the Arts
Department
English Department
Faculty Mentor
Matt Omasta
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Our project is entitled Muses: Finding Women’s Voices. This creative project used museum theatre to highlight and celebrate the work of different female artists in the surrealstic art form. The International Museum Theatre Alliance defines museum theatre as “a term that has been used to refer both to the performance of theatre (i.e. a play) in or by a museum and also to the use of any of a variety of theatrical techniques by museums.” (IMTAL). Museum theatre is a way to enhance the overall educational message of a museum. For this project, we partnered with the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s (NEHMA) exhibit Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction. This exhibit features the artwork of female artists that have gone unrecognized by the public. This goal set forth by the museum to bring attention to female artists and their works motivated us to investigate how the importance of women in art can be shown theatrically. Our project culminated as a performance that included a painter creating a live painting in front of the audience and an actress who performed a script that celebrates the artists featured in the exhibit. The script included stories about the artists in the exhibit and how women have been underrepresented in this art form. The painter created a piece live that was inspired by the script as well as the exhibit as a whole. The actress performed the script live in front of the audience to mix a more traditional theatrical experience with the live painting. By the end of the reading by the actress, the painter had completed a fully realized piece of artwork. This performance gave audiences a firsthand experience of how representation in the art field inspires modern artists. From that firsthand experience, they then had the opportunity to tour the Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction exhibit to experience the artwork for themselves.
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-8-2022 12:00 AM
Included in
Muses: Finding Women's Voices
Logan, UT
Our project is entitled Muses: Finding Women’s Voices. This creative project used museum theatre to highlight and celebrate the work of different female artists in the surrealstic art form. The International Museum Theatre Alliance defines museum theatre as “a term that has been used to refer both to the performance of theatre (i.e. a play) in or by a museum and also to the use of any of a variety of theatrical techniques by museums.” (IMTAL). Museum theatre is a way to enhance the overall educational message of a museum. For this project, we partnered with the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s (NEHMA) exhibit Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction. This exhibit features the artwork of female artists that have gone unrecognized by the public. This goal set forth by the museum to bring attention to female artists and their works motivated us to investigate how the importance of women in art can be shown theatrically. Our project culminated as a performance that included a painter creating a live painting in front of the audience and an actress who performed a script that celebrates the artists featured in the exhibit. The script included stories about the artists in the exhibit and how women have been underrepresented in this art form. The painter created a piece live that was inspired by the script as well as the exhibit as a whole. The actress performed the script live in front of the audience to mix a more traditional theatrical experience with the live painting. By the end of the reading by the actress, the painter had completed a fully realized piece of artwork. This performance gave audiences a firsthand experience of how representation in the art field inspires modern artists. From that firsthand experience, they then had the opportunity to tour the Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction exhibit to experience the artwork for themselves.