Off the Wall

The Newsletter for Let’s Look at Art Autumn ~ 2017

Welcome to a Wonderful Year

By Cathy Fraser

Welcome to our new school year of 2017-2018. It promises to be a great

one! First of all it was wonderful seeing so many of you at our kick off general
meeting last week. I heard many of you say how much you enjoyed it and I did
as well. Susan, Alysia and Jeff put on a great refresher training. I am most
anxious to try some of those new ideas when I do my first grade presentations
later this week. I think the younger ones will really have fun with the museum
movement strategy. It will be helpful that the training days for new docents are
open to any of us who would like to come for further instructions on how to
use these methods. I am definitely planning on taking advantage of their offer. As I mentioned at the
meeting, the museum put on a wonderful and successful gala again this year. Close to $450,000 was
raised that night. And Let's Look At Art was recognized more than once. Our docents who attended
had a wonderful time. Another fun evening that should be mentioned was our annual docent end of
summer party. This year it was held at Susan McGowan's lovely home in Morgan Hill. A good time
was had by all.

So, our year has started and many wonderful adventures await us. Our first field trip sounds terrific.
Rosie the Riveter on October 20. I am hoping for that 90 year old docent. And. I hope to see many of
you there. Please note that we are hoping for a large training class this year. Thank you to the many
who offered to help Beth distribute flyers. Pass the word to your friends that this is a great place to
volunteer. Hats off to the start of a wonderful year!

Cathy Fraser
President ~ Let’s Look At Art

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 The Wonder Ball
a gala to support the
San Jose Museum of Art
and honor Beverly and Peter Lipman
Saturday September 16 2017

To view the complete Auction Booklet follow the link

https://issuu.com/sanjosemuseumofart/docs/the_wonder_ball_gala_and_art_auctio

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 SJMA Gala “Wonder Ball”
By Toby Fernald

Toby Fernald, Cathy Fraser, Linda Foster, Tricia Hill, and Karen Lantz

WOW! What a Fantastic Party! The SJMA Gala, named the “Wonder Ball”, honored Beverly and
Peter Lipman, longtime supporters and major collection donors (of 89 works) to our Museum. Karen
Lantz, Cathy Fraser, Linda Foster, Susan McGowan, Tricia Hill and I attended the Gala Saturday
evening, September 16th. Due to the Lipman’s wonderful relationship with artists they support, many
artists attended the party. William T. Wiley and wife Mary Hull Webster sat at our table and Karen
was seated next to Mr. Wiley. How special is that! Conversations were stimulating and delightful. The
Gala was attended by close to 400 guests and the lively after-party brought in many more.

Our LLAA/AITD team was praised in a variety of ways during the evening. Director, Susan Sayre
Batton and Gala Co-chair Cheryl Kiddoo shared words of appreciation for our arts education outreach;
a photo of Susan Curtin was included in the Fund-a-Need portion of the auction; and yours truly is
included in the evening’s video which was shown on the big screens. It was a meaningful tribute to us
all and I was deeply honored to represent LLAA. A special thank you to Development Director,
James Leventhal, Associate Director, Kristin Bertrand and all the Gala Committee members for
their superb support of us as well! Hope to see you there next year!

Toby Fernald & Tricia Hill

Gala PlanningCommittee

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 Notes from the Coordinators
By Susan Curtin

Happy Fall! While the weather does not feel the least bit
autumnal, school is back in session and the Coordinators are
making assignments. This year, Barb Nelson (from the training
class of ’17) has joined me as the Assistant Coordinator. She
is enthusiastic and talented, which is a wonderful combination.
Quite a few teachers have signed up for LLAA over the summer
and, as I write this, the e-blast from the county is going out so
most of you have been given at least one assignment. So far, we
have received quite a few requests for the younger classes and not too many for the older kids. If you
present to only the 4th and 5th grades, you may not have heard from us yet. Don’t worry - your time
will come!

A few reminders:

 If you are going on an extended vacation or know that you won’t be able to accept assignments
for any reason, please send a quick email to Barb and I at llaa@sjmusart.org.
 Reach out to the teacher within a few days of receiving the assignment.
 Put your presentations on the LLAA calendar on the website.
 After completing an assignment, immediately email your numbers to Barb and me.

Thank You!

Susan Curtin
Coordinator ~ Let’s Look At Art

Correction & Invitation from the Editor

By Kathleen Callan

Dear All,
As Editor of Off The Wall, I do my best to report an informative and fun Newsletter for our program.
However, in the last edition (Summer 2017) I inadvertently made an omission of Board Member, Lisa
Gallo, Hospitality Chair. Please see the next page for the corrected Board Members.

As LLAA Docents, our experiences out in the classrooms often leave us feeling exhilarated, inspired,
and overjoyed. If you have a favorite presentation experience you would like to share, I invite you to
please submit your article to me, and feel free to include a picture.

Kathleen Callan
Newsletter Editor ~ Let’s Look At Art

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 Let’s Meet & Welcome the Let’s Look At Art Board 2017 - 2018

President Cathy Fraser

Vice President Susan McGowan

Secretary Tony Misch

Treasurer Chuck Lucchesi

Art In The Dark Toby Fernald Tricia Hill

Continuing Education Susan McGowan

Coordinator Susan Curtin

Historian MaryAnn Lewis

Hospitality Lisa Gallo

Membership & Ways
Beth Herner
and Means
Newsletter Kathleen Callan

Portfolio Julia Hartman

Training Jean Kellett

Webmaster Carrie Ross

Parliamentarian Amy Rapport

SJMA Alysia Caryl

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 General Meetings
&
Continuing Education Events ~ 2017 - 2018
By Susan McGowan

Date Event Speaker

October 20th Field Trip to the Rosie the Come see and hear history come alive as we
Friday Riveter Museum visit this special museum on a Friday when
actual “Rosies” come and speak about their
experiences on the home front during WW II.

November 14th General Meeting
Wendel Center, SJMA
Ruby Ming: Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries.
Ever wondered how experts can be duped by
fakes? Come hear the fascinating stories of
how the wool got pulled over some people’s
eyes.

November 28th Bay Area Glass Come join us at a glass fusion class at the Bay
Institute Area Glass Institute ~ 10:00 – 2:00pm

December 12th Holiday Gathering TBD

January 16 General Meeting Art In The Dark Presentation

January Legion of Honor Klimt and Rodin: An Artist Encounter

18th or 25th
March 20 General Meeting Come welcome our new docents and take a
tour of the SJMA galleries. It’s always nice to
become familiar with our own museum and
Say What You Think

April 19 – 23rd Trip to Los Angeles The Getty Center, The Broad, and LACMA

May 15th Year-End Celebration TBD

Susan McGowan
Vice President ~ Let’s Look At Art
susan@themcgowans.com

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 Art In The Dark
By Toby Fernald

Thank you for an amazing year in 2016-17! You all contributed to making it a banner year for
AITD. We think teachers and students will be equally excited to see our beautifully upgraded
presentations this year, with special thanks to Barbara Nelson, Julia Jacobson, Kathi Cambiano, and
Tricia Hill for their many hours over the summer to make this happen!!

Please welcome our new AITD docents Barbara Nelson, Tony Misch and Maria Quillard who just
completed 18 hours of training and will soon be presenting in the classroom. They are off to a great
start, having practiced presenting Middle Ages and Renaissance in training with aplomb!

We have repaired equipment, added a new laptop and are ready to bring AITD to the students. Please
check the AITD website for updates. May this year be one of much accomplishment and heartfelt joy
for each of you!

Tony Misch Barbara Nelson and Maria Quillard

Toby Fernald & Tricia Hill

Art in the Dark ~ Co-Chairs ~Let’s Look At Art

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 LLAA - ANNUAL PARTY !!!

Hosted by Ray and Susan McGowan, Vice President, Continuing Education Chair

Delicious and beautifully crafted food ….

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 Wonderful

friends,

….

Lots

Of

Laughs

Makes us ~
Let’s Look At Art !!!

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 Food, Art and Fun in Scandinavia
By Carrie Ross

My friend, Lena was making plans to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden in

May to greet her new grandson. She suggested that since she was already in
Sweden she would love to be our tour guide for a month and invited 4 of us
from my art group to join her. We spent the next 18 days traveling through
Sweden visiting family, old friends, museums, art galleries and discovering
the Swedish tradition of "Fika." It is similar to the British tradition of taking tea and pastries in the
afternoon.
The first leg of our trip started in Copenhagen, Denmark. We wandered into the National Gallery of
Denmark. http://www.smk.dk/en/. I found these sculptures in the atrium fun. They are constructed
from recycled electronics.

Next stop Gothenburg, Sweden and a visit to the Gothenburg

Museum of Art. http://goteborgskonstmuseum.se/en/. We were on
an elusive hunt for Rembrandt's painting, "The Conspiracy of
Claudius Civilis” only to be told it was being displayed at a later
date. The museum also has one of the foremost collections of
Nordic colorists.

Jul Paulsen, 1895

I feel museums should be educational and fun. These two pieces were in the sculpture hall that
featured contemporary works with modernist classis by Marino Marini, Alexander Calder and Louise
Nevelson using a broad range of sculptural expressions, diversity of artistic practices and materials.

Pole Dancer Red Coat

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 Our trip continued on to Karlstad, Sweden to visit my friend's family and to tour the
art gallery of Lars Lerin, a contemporary living watercolor master. His paintings
depict both natural and social environments that span place and time with a strong
Nordic temperament.
They range from the chill of the Lofoten Islands to the heat of India, from the forests
of his childhood in Sweden's Varmland province to unexplored places in Iran.
http://sandgrund.org/in-english/. He was in the gallery the day we visited and felt
very fortunate to meet him.

About 30 minutes drive from Karlstad is a town called Kristinehamn. We were able to see one of the
worlds' largest Picasso Sculptures: Tete de Femme, 1965. This is one of Picasso's biggest works of
its kind in the world. It is 15M tall and has two wings, one of which weighs about 8 tons and has a
span of 6x4m. It is made of natural concrete

Driving about two hours north of Kristinehamn is a little town called Mora. This was the home of
Anders Zorn. I saw the exhibition of his works in 2014 at the Legion of Honor so it was on our
bucket list to visit his home and museum in Mora. http://www.zorn.se/en/visit-us/zorn-museum/

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 Archipelago Study Midnight

Anders Zorn and Carl Larssen were contemporaries and friends and lived fairly close to each other.
It took us about an hour and a half to drive to Carl Larssen's Garden and home from Mora.
http://www.carllarsson.se/en/. Carl's wife, Karin was a talented artist as well. Much of Karin's
needlework was still in the house. The family of Carl Larssen still stays at the house when they
visit.

We were not allowed to photograph inside the house, which was disappointing. His studio is on the
left of the building. The house, grounds and his family were the inspiration for many of his paintings.

I have made several trips to Sweden to visit friends but always find there is much more to see. I
finally made it to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. It is located in Gamla Stan (Old Town)
Stockholm near the Royal Palace. http://www.nobelmuseum.se. It is truly a fascinating place. I
couldn't find Dylan's picture but being a big fan of "The Big Bang Theory" on TV I found the
display for the experiment to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson.

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The museum has pictures of the Nobel winners and some examples of the artifacts that led to their
award.
The winners of the Nobel Prize are on a belt positioned above the floor. This rotates around the
museum.

Thank you for letting me share my trip through Sweden. I hope many of you will have the opportunity
to visit Sweden to experience its' culture, food and people. Take a Fika break!!! They have wonderful
pastries!

Carrie Ross
Webmaster ~ Let’s Look At Art

Photographs courtesy of:

Marilyn August, Kathleen Callan, Susan Curtin, Toby Fernald, Karen Lantz, and Carrie Ross
Please send your contributions, comments, and suggestions to
Kathleen Callan Kathleen@sk82win.com
Copyright © 2017 Let’s Look at Art

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