U Museum reaching out!

U Museum reaching

September will be an even busier month than usual at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Its major exhibition, “Whistler: the Later Years, 1879-1903,” which opened on August 27, will continue through the month.

But on Friday, the museum begins an “out reach” effort with a cultural awareness program for university residence hall staff members.

Its purpose is to acquaint the staff members with the art museum and its activities, and with the other cultural resources of the university as well, so that they in turn can pass on such information to students.

REPRESENTATIVES of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the School of Music, the University Musical Society, the Professional Theatre Program, the Pendleton Room, and the university’s dance companies will describe their groups’ activities and performances for the coming term.

The residence hall staff members then will have the opportunity to join sample tours of the art museum — tours of the sort than can be arranged specially for student groups.

On Sept. 8, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Friends of the Museum will welcome members of the university and Ann Arbor communities to an informal open house in the museum.

THERE WILL be behind-the-scenes tours of the working and art storage areas of the museum, a live performance of Music for Synthesizer, Electric Guitar, and Tape by Composer-performer Mark Sullivan, and opportunities for visitors to enjoy the Whistler exhibition and the special exhibition of large scale models of urban sculpture projects by important contemporary sculptors.

Light refreshments will be served. The open house is free, and everyone is invited.

The noted Whistler scholar Margaret F. MacDonald of Glasgow will present a public lecture entitled “From Concept to Realization: Whistler’s Working Drawings” on Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Angell Hall Auditorium A. A reception will follow at the museum. Both the lecture and the reception are free.

ALSO IN September, the museum will begin training a new class of docents to give guided tours. The training program consists of a one-year course in the history of Western and Asian art. Works in the museum’s own collections are used as examples and illustrations.

The course also includes intensive training in teaching and touring techniques. Twenty qualified applicants were selected earlier this year to join the program as docent-trainees.

Last year, the museum’s docents gave more than 270 tours in which 3,260 persons took part. The participants included preschoolers, students of every age, members of civic and educational groups, the elderly and the disabled.

Docent Carolyn Bailey With Student Tour