Current and Upcoming Exhibits

June 7, 2003 - August 28, 2004
Dinosaurs of Texas

Bring your students to see the most dino-mite exhibit this year! Designed and supported by Abilene area teachers and students, this special exhibit features fossil and cast specimens from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras found in Texas. The multifaceted exhibit is curated in collaboration with the Texas Memorial Museum at The University of Texas at Austin and the Dallas Museum of Natural History.

October 4, 2003 - January 3, 2004
Paintings by Mondel Rogers

A West Texas native, Mondel Rogers, grew up on a small ranch near Sweetwater. His love of the area is conveyed through his paintings. His work revisits the people and the architecture of his childhood.

October 28, 2003 - January 10, 2004
Censored and Sanctioned: Soviet Art of the Cold War from 1956-1986, Part VI: Fantasy and Reality

Art provides an avenue for people to experience imaginative play, illusions and dreams—the natural social behavior of human beings. Sanctioned artists, charged with the job of reflecting Communist ideals, and often their perception of reality, were prohibited from illustrating the real human experiences of the subconscious and dreams. Despite the perilous consequences, other artists dared to create and express fantastical images through Nonconformist art styles.

October 28, 2003 - January 10, 2004
Vaquero: A Vanishing Tradition

In 1970, photographer Bill Wittliff documented the lives of the Mexican cowboys or vaqueros at a ranch in northern Mexico. These photographs show scenes of life recognizable to Texans (cattle drives, branding, breaking horses), but actually take place south of the border.

January 9, 2004 - February 25, 2004
Inside/Outside: Work by Texas Women Photographers

This exhibit features the diverse work of ten female Texan photographers. Their varying subjects, styles, and processes show each photographer’s unique views and feelings of the Lone Star State.

January 20, 2004 - March 27, 2004
Censored and Sanctioned: Soviet Art of the Cold War from 1956-1986, Part VII: Role of Women Under Communist Rule

During the Soviet period, International Women’s Day celebrated the “heroic female worker.” Socialist Realist art supported the images of women as described in Article 122 of the Constitution of the USSR: “Women in the USSR are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social, and political life.” Instead of veneration of female laborers, Nonconformist art portrayed the struggles and burdens women experienced while meeting the demands of work and family life.

January 20-March 20, 2004
Sydney Philen Yeager: Little Mysteries

Found within the layers of this female artist’s work, the inter-reliant relationship between mankind and nature is found. Complex textures and layers show the artist’s perspective of simplistic subjects.

Coming Soon! Youth Art Month (March 2004)

Come and see works by area students of all-level art experience, and celebrate with us at the opening on March 4th from 6-8 p.m.!

Specialized Tours? You bet!

Did you know that The Grace Museum can offer specialized tours or lessons connecting one of our exhibits with an element you are teaching to your class? Ann Hurst, theatre teacher at Wylie J.H., asked for a program connecting our Censored and Sanctioned:Soviet Art of the Cold War, 1956-1986 exhibit to a lesson in creative playwriting. A tour along with five classroom lesson plans was created integrating world, art, and theatre history as pertaining to the Cold War. Hurst said, “The collaboration with The Grace gave my students an outstanding opportunity to make a connection between art and the artist. They realized that every work of art is a reflection of a person; a soul.”

The students also learned about the two schools of Soviet art during the Cold War that are found in the exhibit, the social realist (sanctioned) and the non-conformist (censored). “I believe that my students benefited greatly from the understanding that every work of art should be considered within its cultural context,” Hurst said. This program is both art and theatre TEKS aligned and is geared toward middle school and high school students. This lesson and tour is available this year only, as the exhibit closes in June 2004. If you are interested in this tour and lesson or if you are interested in creating a tour or lesson, please contact Melissa Green, Marcus Project Director at 673-4587 for more information.

Got art? The Grace does!

Look for a new flyer listing curricula-driven art activities available for free to all our partner districts: Abilene, Hawley, and Wylie. All other districts pay a nominal fee.

Supplies are included with each program.

Distance Learning

The Grace Museum has raced into the 21st century with the help of Region XIV ESC in launching a Distance Learning program.This year’s program involves the Dinosaurs of Texas exhibit. Students take a inter-active virtual tour of the exhibit and travel through geologic time studying the Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods by looking at fossils. Several specimens in the exhibit will be shown to students. Students also get an introduction to paleontology, along with the duties of the paleontologist. The education and curatorial staff at The Grace serve as presenters in the fifty-minute interactive program.

The curriculum was developed by educational staff at The Grace and local teachers. The teacher’s packet that comes with the program features lesson plans and interdisciplinary activities.

Some of the activities included in the teacher’s packet include creating fossil casts, making their own geologic time lines, and creating a landscape painting of one of the four periods discussed within the program.

The Grace has given over sixty virtual tours since launching the program in September. Various Region XIV students have taken the virtual walk through geologic time, as well as students across the nation and even internationally in Reading, England.

Each Region XIV school will receive one free program, otherwise a discounted fee of $50 will apply. Contact Tommy Bearden, Region XIV Distance Learning Consultant at 675-8668 for more information and to schedule a program.

The Grace Museum has renovated their website!

Visit www.thegracemuseum.org to see the changes made to The Teacher’s Lounge. Now you can apply for membership and learn about workshops on-line.

Celebrate Science Saturday!

Endangered and Extinct
January 17, 2004 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
A Day Camp for children in K - 5th grades

• Featuring Animal Planet's "Critterman"!
• Young Audiences of Abilene
• Registration is required!

For more information, call (325)673-4587

Newsletter made possible by funding from The Edward & Betty Marcus Foundation, Abilene Cultural Affairs Council, The City of Abilene, Taylor County, The Downtown Revilalization Program of the Tax Increment Finance District, Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, The Abilene Independent School District, and The Wylie Independent School District.