Extra, Extra- Read (and hear and see) all About it!

Are you ready for football? The season is not quite on TV, but it just kicked off at the Neville! Football the Exhibit charged into the Museum on May 19^th, and with that came some great media coverage!

NBC 26, one of our Football sponsors, visited last Friday and interviewed Neville Director Rolf “Wisconsin” Johnson. They also created our Public Service Announcement which will air on their station throughout the exhibit run. Stay tuned!

Last Saturday, Channel 5 stopped by to cover the opening day of Football. To see the segment, visit their website at http://wearegreenbay.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=130652

Warren Gerds of the Green Bay Press Gazette also published an article today on Football. Check it out here: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012205220457

Finally, tune in to WTAQ Radio this Sunday and you’ll hear Rolf “Wisconsin” Johnson discuss Football. If you’ve heard Rolf speak before, you surely won’t want to miss this!

Thanks to everyone for their interest in Football the Exhibit! We hope you discover the science behind the game with us!

Football has been developed by the Museum of Discovery, Little Rock, Arkansas.

By Jenny Seim, Marketing Assistant

Time Flies!

May 6 marks my 25^th anniversary of working at the Neville Public Museum.

I can’t believe it, nor can I believe the photo on my old ID badge!

I came to the Neville Public Museum Corporation (now the Neville Public Museum Foundation) from the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra where I made many friends I still have today. The former NPM Corporation hired me as the Development and Marketing Officer; I raised funds to pay for exhibitions and did promotion/publicity for Museum exhibits and events. At the time, in 1987, there were two other employees of the Corporation—a gift shop (or sales gallery, as it was then called) manager, Loretta Murphy (also just hired), and Mary Flatley, who was in charge of membership and bookkeeping.

My first project was getting the funding for Dinosaurs: Rediscovered, the immensely popular exhibit featuring the robotic Dinamation figures. Yes, that exhibit opened in 1989!  Bears! followed, and Mysteries of Egypt, and many, many others too numerous to mention. The Endowment Fund was also established while I worked for the Corporation, thanks to the foresight of community giants John (Jake) Rose, Fred Baer, the Board members, and a crew of volunteer fundraisers.

Six years ago this past March, I decided to utilize my Master of Fine Arts degree (Michigan State University) and apply for the Curator of Art position, which is through Brown County, and here I am today, six years and 64 art exhibits later (with lots more to come)!

So, I have seen first-hand “both sides now,” to coin a phrase.

And I have never been bored. 

Thanks to everyone for a great 25 years, with a great future ahead!

  

 

 By Marilyn Stasiak, Curator of Art

Cleaning with a Cause

You may have noticed that, at times, the Discovery Room gets messy. When I first investigated museum Discovery Rooms, the professionals said that despite your efforts and signage to prevent disorder, they will get messy- deal with it.

For a while, I scheduled high school students and interns to do the cleaning. Eventually, though, I was approached by the Green Bay Public Schools Work Experience Program who provided me with help. One student now comes each week during the school year and maintains the Discovery Room. Overall, this program allows students to practice job skills while working in the community and encourages students to work independently.

Our star student for the last two years has been Juan Campos. I would hate to think what the Discovery Room might look like if Juan did not regularly help clean it! He does an outstanding job of keeping the Discovery Room organized and has been one of the most efficient workers at the Museum.

Juan Campos sorting baskets in the Discovery Room.

But the skills Juan learns in this position are not only cleaning. He discovers many new things, including supervisor/subordinate interaction, appropriate conversation and time management. To a young person new on the job market, these skills are not necessarily things you learn in a classroom. Thus the Museum provides an environment that can positively ease a person into the workforce.

When I asked Juan about his work at the Neville, he says, “I like working at the Museum. I like keeping the kid’s room clean. If I see something dirty, I clean it right away. I grew up in a clean house and I just don’t like seeing places dirty. My job keeps me focused. I like knowing that my job helps others in the community.”

Students in this program primarily work in Discovery Room clean-up, but may also work in prepping for a school group, room setup, or prepping materials for a weekend event.

 

  By Matt Welter, Curator of Education

Evolution of the Art Annual

The Neville has been presenting its Art Annual Juried Exhibition since 1942.  Back then, it was open to artists living only in Brown County or in the immediately surrounding counties. Today, it is open to artists living throughout Northeastern Wisconsin- from Marathon County to Lake Michigan and through Sheboygan County to the south. Northward, it extends through Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

There were only three years without an Art Annual.  The first was when the Museum was literally moving from it’s former location on Green Bay’s east side to the current building. The second occurred when everyone decided to try it as a biennial exhibition- a very unpopular idea. The last time it wasn’t on the exhibit calendar was when the Museum was between art curators for an extended period of time.

As soon as one Art Annual closes, work begins on the next. The prospectus is tweaked; new jurors sought. Jurors are from outside of the area, beyond the boundaries of the exhibition.

 

 

 By Marilyn Stasiak, Curator of Art

National History Day 2012

April 14, 2012 was the 10^th annual Wisconsin Northeastern Region National History Day competition, and I helped! Rebecca Looney, Curator of History, and Jeanine Mead, Project Operations Manager for the Neville’s IMLS grant, also helped.

We started our day with coffee, pastries and introductions in the Ecumenical Center on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus. The room was filled with anxious volunteers, some waiting to look at the student’s projects, others serving as room monitors. The projects included performances, exhibits, websites, documentaries and papers all from students in middle and high school. Deb Anderson, Archivist at the Area Research Center- Cofrin Library, and host of this annual competition, made introductions and gave us some house-keeping rules. Then we heard from Sarah Aschbrenner, the programs’ State Coordinator, who gave us judging tips and reviewed this year’s topic: Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.

Next for me, it was off to the Kress Center on campus to view the junior individual exhibits. I was part of a group of three, reviewing six exhibits- though there were 230 projects in total. The exhibits are reviewed based on set criteria such as compatibility of the subject to the annual topic. Students also provide a process paper in which they chronicle their experience putting the project together and outline their sources. For me, the best part of  judging is the interview. Each student has fifteen minutes of conversation with the judges during which they act as advocates for their project. It is such a good learning experience for the student and a pleasure for the judges.

When we finished with the reviews and interviews, we ranked the exhibits and submitted two that would go on to a second round of judging. The ranking is completed over lunch. If you are asked to be a run-off judge, you review the chosen exhibits and select those that will go on to the state level competition. At the state competition, projects are selected to go on to the national competition in Washington D.C. If you are not a run-off judge, there is still data to be entered into the online report. This is the judge’s opportunity to commend the students on their good work and to make suggestions that could help them make it better for next time.

I’m happy to report that one of the exhibits I helped select will be going to the state competition on May 5th. We’ll have to wait and see which projects will be going on from there!

By Louise Pfotenhauer, Curator of Collections

A Fragment of Ancient Peru

People bring all types of objects into the Museum for identification. Just in the past month, I’ve seen a 19^th century Prussian sword, a 20-foot-long school history timeline printed in the 1880s, and a hat from a mysterious (and still unidentified) fraternal organization. They’re all amazing in their own way, but recently I’ve had contact with an object that reminded me why museums exist.

Richie Plass—local radio show host, musician, comedian, and exhibit curator—brought in a doll that he had acquired off of eBay. He wanted to find out where the doll was from and if it was possible to return it to its home.

Richie Plass with the doll

Here’s a photograph of the doll. It was clearly hand-sewn and stuffed with a plant that Richie thought was tobacco. As I brought the doll back into collections for safekeeping, I found myself cradling the doll gently in the crook of my arm. And while I’ve been referring to it as an it, I have to admit that while we cared for it here I always referred to it as she.

Luckily, Richie had already narrowed the search for the doll’s origins to Peru. And through the magic of the internet, I was able to find an amazing article on this type of doll at the UW-Madison textile museum: http://textilecollection.wisc.edu/featured_textile_articles/peruvian_dolls.html.

The doll became even more fascinating to me as I learned its history. It was a wonderful amalgam of old and new. Peruvian women created the dolls from a mixture of modern and ancient cloth in the mid-20^th century. The dolls were modeled after dolls found in the burial sites of the Chancay of Peru, a pre-Columbian culture that thrived around Lima from 1000 to 1400 C.E. Using fragments of thousand-year-old cloth looted from ancient burial sites, 20^th century Peruvian women made these dolls and sold them for a few dollars to tourists. From scraps of their ancient culture, they were able to make a living for their family. Holding that doll here in Green Bay, I felt a part of the continuum that connects us to other worlds and other times.

At Richie’s request, I contacted the Peruvian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and, after a few weeks, we were excited to learn that the Peruvian Ministry of Culture was interested in the doll’s return. Since then, the doll has been shipped to D.C. and is now making its way back to Peru. It was wonderful to be a part of her long journey home!

     

 

By Rebecca Looney, Curator of History

An Introduction to the World of Red-Shouldered Hawks

This illustrated blog will feature the 2012 field research on nesting Red-Shouldered Hawks. Stay with me as I travel along on a journey deep into the dark, mature, forests of Wisconsin to intimately explore the lives of these hawks. Mosquitoes, ticks, and other blood sucking and disease-spreading vermin will not bite you as you discover where these hawks live, what they eat, what environmental hazards threatened them, how they choose mates and protect their territory. You’ll learn other aspects too, such as pair fidelity, population dynamics, chronology, phenology, reproductive success, gender responsibilities, mortality, molt, migration, and the development of their young. Relax, enjoy your morning coffee, and keep your feet dry as you learn much more than you ever want to know about this state-threatened species.                                                                                                                                                                                            

Brown County and the Neville Public Museum encourage staff to advance their areas of expertise and do research. Fortunately, the U.S. Forest Service is concerned about the population of these hawks living on Nicolet National Forest and have funded this research for the past 20 years. I have been studying these hawks since 1970. Each year I search sites in Nicolet National Forest, Peninsula State Park, Brown County Reforestation Camp and several other places in northeast Wisconsin.                                             

                                                                                                                                

 As you will see, this work can be interesting, informative, invigorating, exhilarating and even fun at times, but then  frustrating, depressing, and exacerbating just minutes later.

Each week I will write about the most recent trip to find nests and monitor active nests to the banding stage. Spring is such an exciting time in the woods- it promises new growth and new life. I can’t wait to get started! The nesting season normally begins about the second week of April, but this spring has been much warmer than normal. Will these hawks be nesting earlier? Join me and find out!

 

By John Jacbos, Curator of Science

Rolling Rugs for Storage

What a success! On Monday we rolled the last of 25 oriental rugs for storage. The rugs belong to the Green Bay & De Pere Antiquarian Society. The Antiquarians purchased the rugs along with paintings and other items of cultural significance from the Brown County Library in 2007. They are all housed at the Neville.

These beautiful oriental rugs were cleaned and minor repairs were made by Antiquarian, Laurie Weyenberg in association with L.P. Mooradian Co. in Green Bay. After cleaning, the rugs were returned to the Neville for storage. Large textile objects such as quilts, coverlets, flags and rugs are best stored flat or rolled so that there are no hard creases. Creases are where the fabric is under the most stress and where the first damage is likely to occur. We don’t have enough space to store the rugs flat, so they are rolled onto acid free card board tubes with the knap side out. Acid free tissue paper protects the rug from the tube, serves as a buffer between the layers and covers the entire exterior of the rug after rolling.

Once rolling is complete, the rugs are hung from a system of wheels and chains created by Neville staff to accommodate our larger textiles. Photographs of the rolled objects and identifying numbers are attached to the outside of each roll to make locating what you need that much easier. The location is entered into the ARGUS database for collections management and we are done.

This would not have been possible without the help of collections department volunteers and student interns. Rolling textiles takes a minimum of two people and as many as three or four depending on the item. It’s great to know the rugs are safely stored. Thanks to everyone who helped with this satisfying project.

By Louise Pfotenhauer, Curator of Collections

Reflecting on the Dinosaur Egg Hunt Plus

Preparing for a weekend event like the recent Dinosaur Egg Hunt takes months of prep time. Setting a date was key. I had to have it within the time of year that people expect an egg hunt and had to avoid other major egg hunts.

The next step was getting donations. We advertised for prize donations in our Musepaper and on-line, and I was surprised by how many people were either cleaning out their closets, finding old foreign money, or that went out and bought prizes. Prizes also have to be culled for things that might not be appropriate. Donors may have the best intentions, but if a prize has sharp edges we either have to file them down or choose to use that donation in another way (like an example piece).

Advertising happens on all levels from Facebook and Twitter, to posters up on the advertising circuit, to giving out fliers to every school group that comes through and every family that comes through the door.

My interns Jesse and Marcia had to help sort and label prizes. A certain amount of forethought has to go into prepping. What if a 3 year old gets an egg in which the prize is a coin they could swallow? For this we use a coding system so the prize giver chooses the prize based on the age of the child.

Jesse and Marcia working on the Dinosaur Egg Hunt Plus

Getting volunteers takes time. A few dedicated volunteers are willing to commit a week or two ahead of time, but this day takes 10 volunteers in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. High school students and college students sign up, but most of them call or contact me only 2-3 days ahead of time. In this hectic lifestyle world, many people cannot commit until the week of.

The week of, I also prep front desk staff on how to handle questions and money. The most common questions is: how long does the program last?  The answer is 30 – 60 minutes to do the activities, plus time to explore the exhibits and yes, you can come any time between that 9-5 slot as long as you a lot time to do the activity.

Friday is the day for setup of the areas, buying more prizes than you may need (leftovers will be used for the following year) and making sure that signage for every area will be ready to put out just before the Museum closes.

Training those volunteers needs to be done on the fly early in the morning. Even with descriptions ahead of time and sometimes videos sent to them, volunteers sometimes have questions or do not receive the information. The first half hour of the program is a huge learning curve with little tweaks throughout the day, followed by a shift change re-learning curve. Fortunately some of the volunteers stay throughout the day and some of the retraining can be done by the volunteer passing the baton.

Saturday morning comes and I am ready to go when the Museum doors open. Only thing left to do is to pray for cold rain- perfect weather for museum goers to flock indoors!

 

 

By Matt Welter, Curator of Education

Here Comes the Judge!

It has been my privilege to be a judge for several wonderful art events or exhibitions since the first of the year.

In January, the Einstein Project asked me to join their panel of judges for the 2012 Butterflies & Friends on Parade project.  I’ve been lucky enough to participate in this event as a judge for the past several years, and it is always fun to see the great ideas people have.  It’s always a terrific event, and I am looking forward to seeing the colorful critters “on the street.”

Last March, I joined Mary Curran as a judge for new entries to this summer’s Artstreet, sponsored by Arts Events, Inc.  Each year there are lots of applications from artists living from coast to coast, all hoping to join those already with confirmed spots in the festival. Later in the month, I was one of four judges for a photography contest sponsored by the St. Norbert College Women’s Center; there are some very,very talented photographers at the College.  The student who organized the competition (and subsequent exhibition) did a great job.

Art made by high school students has my attention in April.  First, there’s a competition and exhibition at Notre Dame Academy in Green Bay, and, the next day, I’m one of the judges for An Artistic Discovery here at the Museum.  An Artistic Discovery, sponsored locally by Representative Reid Ribble, is part of a nation-wide art competition run through the United States Congress.  Every congressional district in the country is invited to participate.  The pieces selected for An Artistic Discovery here in Wisconsin’s Eighth Congressional District will be displayed at the Neville from April 28 through June 3—come and see it!

All judging is done without knowing who the artists are.  It is the quality of the artwork, whether done by high school students or seasoned veterans, that is important.  It is amazing how much the judges agree on the selections, too. Some entries really stand out—these are the easy choices, one way or the other (“in” or “out”).  It’s tougher to rank those in the middle, but after some discussion and sometimes some re-thinking, a consensus is reached—generally without much difficulty. 

 A word of advice for anyone thinking of entering a juried or judged art exhibition—the first rule is to follow all directions to the letter.  Your work won’t even reach the judges if you don’t, no matter how wonderful your work may or may not be.  The exhibition’s organizers screen all entries before they are shown to the jurors, and those that don’t comply with their guidelines are pulled from the competition.

Thank you to those who invited me to be a judge!  It is an honor, it is a responsibility, and it is fun.

 

 

 By Marilyn Stasiak, Curator of Art