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Walter N. Koelz

by muffy

Currently on view at the University of Michigan Museum of Art is a collection of Buddhist Thangkas and Treasures from the Walter N. Koelz Collection, an exhibition in conjunction with the U-M Museum of Anthropology. Because of the fragile nature of these devotional objects, they are rarely exhibited. The show closes on June 9th, 2013.

The awarding-winning docents at UMMA were curious about Dr. Koezl and asked Old News to dig up the Ann Arbor News clippings on this local legend and his incredible collection, amassed through years of travel, with a shrewd collector's eye.

A retired U-M professor of Ecology, Koelz "never drove a car, never slept in a bed, never wed and rarely wore shoes even in winter". He left his estate valued at $1.6 million to the Nature Conservancy in his will. Besides his treasures, he is remembered for the collection of exotic flora and fauna donated to the University, brought back from his travels.

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Draw Robots with C. Jason DePasquale!

by mariah

Beep Bleep Boop!

Do you love robots? Artist C. Jason DePasquale digs robots too! As a teacher and longtime robot fan, Jason has had plenty of chances to perfect his robot drawing — through his work with Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair and beyond!

Saturday, March 16, 2-3 pm, come to the Downtown Library and watch Jason draw some simple robots, get ideas, follow along, and create colorful robo-drawings of your own to take home!

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Martha Rock Keller, Local Artist and Ambassador

by oldnews

Martha Rock Keller (obituary), well-known local artist and educator died Wednesday, February 13, 2013. She was 86.

An alumnus and faculty at the University of Michigan and other local colleges, she is also a frequent contributor to the Ann Arbor News. She has served as a juror for the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.

In 1985, her work was included among other American women artists in an exhibition at the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi (Kenya). In the summer of 1989, Martha Keller was selected to exhibit her paper fountains at Tubingen, one of the Ann Arbor Sister Cities, in the Ann Arbor-Tubingen Exchange Program to promote international understanding.

The Old News team had digitized many of the Ann Arbor News articles on and by Martha Rock Keller.

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DIA's Faberge Exhibit Virtual Tour

by beesleya

Tuesday December 11, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Travel inside this amazing exhibit with DIA docent Ken Szmigiel at this special AADL event at the Downtown Library! Ken's presentation will colorfully illustrate items in the DIA's exhibit as well as provide fascinating background to Faberge and this collection.

More than 200 precious objects made under the direction of Karl Faberge provide a glimpse into a bygone era of Russian imperial glory in the exhibition Faberge: The Rise and Fall, The Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, currently on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) through Jan. 21, 2013.

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #369

by muffy

Writing for the first time as B.A. Shapiro, Barbara Shapiro's The Art Forger is a richly-detailed and well-researched literary thriller based on the 1990 art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum where 13 works of art (download the images) worth over $500 million were stolen, making it the largest unsolved art crime in history.

In this "classy and pleasurably suspenseful debut", "a cleverly plotted art-world thriller/romance with a murky moral core", Claire Roth, on the 21st anniversary of the heist, is presented by Aiden Markel, the handsome owner of a prestigious gallery with a Faustian bargain: if she agrees to forge one of the Degas masterpieces (fictional) stolen from the Gardner, he would arrange for a one-woman show of her works in his gallery. But when the Degas is delivered to her studio, Claire begins to suspect that it too, may be a forgery. Luckily for both of them, Claire is as fine a sleuth as she is an artist because their freedom (and their lives) are now hanging in the balance.

"The result is an entrancingly visual, historically rich, deliciously witty, sensuous, and smart tale of authenticity versus fakery in which Shapiro artfully turns a clever caper into a provocative meditation on what we value most".

Shapiro’s next project is a novel about the early years of the abstract expressionists, when many worked for the Works Progress Administration. Eleanor Roosevelt is a character. Can't wait.

Will appeal to fans of the popular television seriesWhite Collar (about to start its 4th season in January), Carson Morton's Stealing Mona Lisa, The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber, and Theft : a love story by Peter Carey.

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Happy Birthday Georgia O'Keeffe

by manz

November 15 is the birthday of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Born in Wisconsin in 1887, O'Keeffe spent a large part of her career out west where her work the focused on the landscape of the area. It is there she found inspiration for her large-format paintings of flowers, blooms, and desert imagery, which she is best known for. O'Keeffe died in 1986 at the age of 98. 2012 marks her 125th birthday and the 15th anniversary of The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The museum is dedicated to her life and and her art. Be sure to check out some of the wonderful books AADL has featuring her beautiful work.

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AADL Talks to Cheryl Chidester, Argus Museum Curator

by oldnews

We would like to thank the Argus Museum, located in the original Argus Building at 535 W. William St. for generously sharing its resources, artifacts, and archival materials in preparing this AADL exhibit on the Argus Camera, Inc.

A special thank you goes to Cheryl Chidester, the Argus Museum curator. In this podcast, she shared the history of the company, its products and innovations, and its role in United States’ victory in World War II. We also learned about the founding of the Argus Museum, its missions in preserving the history and material culture of this early Ann Arbor industry significant to generations in the community.

We can see photos of the Museum and its exhibits as well as samples of the Argus Eye, a monthly newsletter produced by the Argus employees from the Museum’s archive.

Attachment Size
AADL_Talks_To-Cheryl_Chedister.mp3 13.14 MB

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Vicki C. Wright Of The Kalamazoo Institute Of Arts Discusses The Art Of The 2012 Ann Arbor Women Artists' Exhibition

by hillary dorwart

Thursday October 18, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

In conjunction with their annual exhibition, Ann Arbor Women Artists join the Library to present this lecture/reception. The lecture will feature the juror for this exhibition, Vicki C. Wright, Director of Collections and Exhibitions for the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. The winners of the Ann Arbor Women Artists Fall 2012 Juried Exhibition will be announced and a reception will follow.

Please join us for this fascinating evening of local art and artists and for the unveiling of the Ann Arbor Women Artists Fall 2012 Juried Exhibition at the Library!

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September 22 - Drawing Lab: Sketching the Human Head

by K.C.

Saturday, September 22 | 1:00-4:00 PM | Downtown Library - Multipurpose Room | Gr. 6-Adult

Instructor Patricia Candor of the College for Creative Studies has developed a new way to look at drawing the human head that can be as simple or as complex as the artist chooses.

She will demonstrate and explain her method using an action line system, and then you can try your hand at sketching the human head. Here's your chance to grow artistically, whether you're an amateur or a professional artist!

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A Visit To The Grand Canyon With Artist-in-Residence Nancy McKay

by hillary dorwart

Wednesday September 12, 2012: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

This May, local artist Nancy McKay served as artist-in-residence on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, helping visitors experience and express a deeper connection with nature's wonders through art.

Nancy will share a photographic overview of the North Rim as well as an overview of key geologic features as they relate to earth's history. She will also discuss how she used the theme of color to help park visitors more deeply connect with this amazing National Park.

Nancy's medium, Digital Silk, combines watercolor-style painting on silk, digital printed imagery, and stitching.