New gallery at the Kennedy Art Museum entertains eyes and mind.
The Kennedy Museum of Art is exhibiting new ways of thinking.
This museum, which is showing exhibitions such as “Hidden Mother” and “Encounters Beyond Borders,” added a new work to the collection. The collection, “Creating Visual Meaning,” illustrates the process of visual thinking.
The process of visual thinking consists of learning art through visual and cognitive skills through different mediums.
Edward Pauley, the director of the Kennedy Museum of Art, said “Creating Visual Meaning” is important because it helps validate the audience’s observations on artistic value, giving them meaning and internal value.
“The ideas are important because they introduce ways of looking and thinking that cross the boundaries of disciplines and personal experience,” Pauley said in an email. “It’s not about art history, but observing and seeing an object in a broader context.”
Abby Carlson, the Spanish Language Programs Coordinator at the Kennedy Museum of Art and a recent graduate with a major in Spanish, said galleries such as those are important for understanding artistic purpose.
“When we consider why and how a work of art was created and have profound, thoughtful discussions about it, we can derive so much more meaning from the work,” Carlson said in an email. “Having these conversations about the deeper meaning of work personally gets me more excited about art.”
Sally Delgado, curator of education at the museum, said the artistic work reflects daily mental processes we encounter.
“We are constantly engaging in ‘visual thinking,’ whether consciously or unconsciously, as we are surrounded by massive amounts of visual information on a daily basis,” Delgado said. “We interpret and digest these interpretations as quickly as we absorb visual stimuli.”
Delgado also stressed the importance of analyzing the artwork not just for entertainment.
“There are two paintings in this gallery and the visitor is asked to slow down and really take their time in looking at the imagery in these paintings and to consider how meaning is formed from what they see (or) interpret in the paintings,” Delgado said in email.
Besides “visual meaning,” Carlson said there are many other important fundamentals that artists must use.
“You have to know that not everybody will like what you create,” she said in an email. “It’s good to know when to stand up for your artistic choices and when to take a criticism and make a positive change to your work.”
Carlson hopes the museum can go forward in the future with this open thinking to continue to draw a diverse audience.
“As both a museum and art lover, I am inspired by the spread of artful thinking as it opens up a discussion, which only produces more art and inspiration,” she said in an email. “ ‘Creating Visual Meaning’ opens up the realm of ‘Artful Thinking’ to more than just art students.”
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