Teagle, Rinder, and Museums!

Rachel Teagle, the founding director of the newest art museum at UC Davis, spoke first and told us about the new UCD Manetti Shrem Museum that opened 5 months ago. Innovation was a key to this museum.

Teagle talked about how you need to enlist lots of partners to open a successful museum. She also talked about making a great argument for the plan you come up with. When you imagine what your museum will look like, you should invite the community to imagine with you, and research the needs of the community. Visit other Art Museums, both new and old, near and far. Develop a clear sense of what you can add to the art environment. Many museums enlist famous architect’s, The Broad Museum in Michigan went with Arch Zola Adid. They had decided to go local with their choice.

Teagle talked about how they took their core values, for the first generation faculty artists, from UCD to fall in line with the spirit of defiant provincialism. From this group, they enlisted their memories to get the history of the art/artists. Poor to no records were found. The museum has 5 gallery rooms, a lecture hall, and a wet studio. 25% of the space is educational.

Lawrence Rinder, from BAMPFA, spoke next. This museum was originally placed on the Berkley campus in 1881. The Bacon Hall Library and Museum is the oldest on the west coast. Its mission is to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film. The issue here was different than the one at UCD. The issue was to take an older established museum and make it locally connected and globally relevant, engaging audiences from the campus, community, and beyond.

In 2013 BAMPFA moved to its current location in the former UC Printing Plant built in 1940 and vacant. BAMPFA has two film theaters , a performance forum, cafe, four study centers for art and film, a reading room, an art-making lab, and various gathering areas. Connected both to campus and the burgeoning Berkeley Arts District and located just a block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Mission statement:"inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film. We aspire to be locally connected and globally relevant, engaging audiences from the campus, community, and beyond."