Director's Note 10/1/14
October is a time for switching gears. School has started and everyone is settling into their schedules. The weather is pointed more determinedly toward the autumnal and we can hear the geese calling as they fly south. It's getting dark earlier, and our Wednesday evening hours have come to an end.
The color at Lynden changes from day to day; just now, the maples are spectacular. It's a good time to put on the boots and raingear (if necessary) and come out for a walk. On your walk, you may notice that the bronze sculptures are looking particularly bright. Our conservator, Doug Kwart, was in town for two weeks at the beginning of September with Kate Glembotzky, who specializes in bronze patinas. Doug and Kate repaired some of the patinas that were showing wear from the difficult winter and did a lot of re-lacquering, followed by waxing. Lynden staff regularly wax the bronzes to maintain their patinas. We also use these trips to work on non-bronze sculptures and to assess the entire collection and make a conservation plan for the next few years (staff members Sergio Salinas and Patrick Kernan handle the bulk of the conservation at Lynden).
We've left some room in the October schedule for switching gears (particularly before our extensive series of holiday giftmaking workshops begins in November). Poet Cole Swensen arrives for a brief residency, a collaboration with Woodland Pattern. Swensen recently read at the deCordova Sculpture Park in Masschusetts, and she will conclude a two-day workshop, Poetry as Pluralistic Process, with a reading on October 12. We'll do some stargazing with Robert Powell on October 15. The following weekend we invite teachers to participate in our Educators' Free Day, and because October 18 also happens to be our dog day, we encourage educators to bring their dogs. On October 19 Naomi Cobb and Anna Grosch provide an orientation to our new Discovery Kits. The kits provide lively, hands-on ways for families to engage with art and nature at Lynden, and are available for checkout from the front desk. We'll be making window suncatchers in the family workshop on October 26. The theme for our programs for the very young, Tuesdays in the Garden and Wednesdays in the Garden, and our homeschool day this month is harvest; and we offer two school's out workshops, one about fractals and the other, in a nod to Halloween, about bones. October is also your last chance to see Inside/Outside: Nancy Popp and Paul Druecke, which closes on October 26. Plenty of details below.
Finally, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists exhibition opens on Friday, October 10 at INOVA with a reception from 5 to 8 pm. This exhibition features the work of the seven fellows chosen last autumn.
