Blogs

Curator's Corner

Pioneering Photographer: Frances Benjamin Johnston

Monday, June 9, 2025 | Karl Cole

It’s high time we celebrate the art of photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. She is considered by most art historians to have been the first “press photographer,” photographing fam ...

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Davis Desk

6 Guidelines for Differentiating Instruction

Friday, June 6, 2025 | Heather Fountain

Differentiated instruction provides multiple options for students to take in information and make sense of ideas. Differentiated instruction requires teachers to be flexible in their approach to teach ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: George Rickey

Friday, June 6, 2025 | Karl Cole

George Rickey evolved from a painter with a love of history, to a kinetic artist who transformed stainless steel into lyrical, mesmerizing, precisely calibrated moving sculptures. Kinetic sculpture be ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Conrad Marca-Relli

Thursday, June 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Conrad Marca-Relli was part of the “first generation” of Abstract Expressionism, along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. His artistic vision, however, was uniquely apart from eit ...

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Curator's Corner

National Cheese Day: Clara Peeters

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | Karl Cole

Although little is known about her upbringing or training, Peeters was one of a growing number of women artists who were widely acclaimed as professional artists. She was also a pioneer in the relativ ...

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Curator's Corner

World Bicycle Day: Josef Müller-Brockmann

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

Starting in the late 1800s, posters began to be designed by fine artists, and what ensued what has been called the Poster Renaissance. After World War II, Swiss artists developed the International Typ ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Ryōhei Tanaka

Monday, June 2, 2025 | Karl Cole

My gem of the month for June is a fantastic printmaker from Japan, Ryōhei Tanaka. If you ever want to teach a lesson about use of line to depict nature, this artist fills the bill for imagery. His ama ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Richard Long

Monday, June 2, 2025 | Karl Cole

Richard Long has been a committed environmental artist since Land Art had its beginnings in the 1960s. His works are thoughtful, beautifully arranged, and elegantly simple compositions that reflect hi ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Audrey Flack

Friday, May 30, 2025 | Karl Cole

Having matured as an artist shortly after the “revolution” of the Abstract Expressionism movement, Audrey Flack became one of the earliest and archetypal Photorealist painters, working fro ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marlow Moss

Thursday, May 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

Marlow Moss was a major figure in abstraction between the world wars. She was very active in the Abstraction-Creation group of abstract artists in the between-the-wars School of Paris, and she was act ...

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Curator's Corner

Jewish American Heritage Month: Jim Dine

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | Karl Cole

I will wrap up Jewish American Heritage Month with a great artist who has transcended the label “Pop Art” in brilliant ways in his art. Jim Dine emerged from the generation of American Pop ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Wols (A.O.W. Schulze)

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | Karl Cole

Wols was a major figure in the School of Paris that developed after World War I (1914–1918). He was a pioneering artist in Lyrical Abstraction, and was a major influence on the Tachisme movement ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Chunghi Choo

Friday, May 23, 2025 | Karl Cole

Chunghi Choo works in the ages-old tradition of gold or silver overlay on copper vessels. Like other far Eastern cultures, Korea had a great reverences for all art forms, including those considered &l ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marisol

Thursday, May 22, 2025 | Karl Cole

Marisol Escobar was one of the few women artists’ names associated with Pop Art. While she was renowned for her sculptures of celebrities and politicians, her anonymous figure sculptures contain ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Leon Polk Smith

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | Karl Cole

Leon Polk Smith was an American artist of Cherokee descent who was a pioneer of modernism long before Abstract Expressionism evolved in New York. His works throughout his career emphasized a pure geom ...

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Curator's Corner

AAPI Heritage Month 2025: Tadashi Sato

Monday, May 19, 2025 | Karl Cole

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I’m featuring the work of Tadashi Sato. Sato was an American artist of Japanese descent who introduced traditional Japanese ...

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