From the New York Times, July 3, 2010, By Robert Peele

A Quick Trip to the Nascar Hall of Fame

“In short, I was impressed. Glory Road, the sweeping exhibit that greets fans as they enter the museum’s Great Hall, features 18 classic Nascar vehicles parked on a track whose banking gradually increases as the cars progress into the modern era. It’s the museum’s green flag, in a sense, and it offers a neat snapshot of the history of stock car racing. Not surprisingly, cars from the sport’s earlier decades — back when they actually looked like stock cars, in other words — were the highlights. Favorites included Herb Thomas’s 1952 Hudson Hornet, Fireball Roberts’s 1963 Ford Galaxie and the Plymouth Belvedere in which Richard Petty won 27 races, including 10 in a row, in 1967.”

“Killer Ring” By Tobias Wong, Photo Courtesy the New York Times

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Tobias Wong. Tobias was a young artist / designer living in New York City. Tobias blurred the lines between Art and Design and made us more aware of the american consumer culture.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/27/style/20100627WONG.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/fashion/27Wong.html

I have started a group on LinkedIn called “Artists, Science and Museums”.

Click to join

LinkedIn Link:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2869188

A networking group for artists, designers and museum professionals working in the field of Science Centers and Children’s Museums to share ideas about incorporating sculpture into science exhibitions.

4 of 5 Stars

Posted: February 7, 2010

Museo Pambata
Roxas Boulevard corner South Drive
Manila, Philippines 1000
Telephone: (632) 523.1797
Facsimile:(632) 522.1246
Email:info@museopambata.org

Website: http://www.museopambata.org

Admission Price: 100 Pesos ($2.17 USD)

Size: approximately 30,000  sq. ft. of exhibits

Wheelchair Accessible: Yes

My Review:

The museum is just doing so many things right!

• A mobile library
• An in museum library
• Fun entrances to spaces
• Layers of information
• Spending money on theming as appropriate
• Including Children’s Art
• Cultural Galleries

Summary:

• A collecting Museum
• A “true” Children’s Museum in the model of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (The first museum for children)
• Excellent Exhibits
• Lighting, painting, finishes could be improved
• Issues of ergonomics, tables to tall, graphics hung too high
• Exhibit cover a wide range of topics in a relatively small space

Ground Floor:

• Old Manila
• Environment
• Children of the Global Village

Second Floor:

• My Body Works
• Science Through Discovery
• Marketplace
• Career Options
• Money Matters

Antoine Predock skiing on the roof of one of his buildings.

I am sitting on the deck in Ubud, Bali, thinking “who are my heroes?”.  Below is a short list.  They all are:

• Free thinkers
• Live life as an adventure
• Keep trying, keep pushing
• Have managed to change the discipline of Art and design.

-Mark

Antoine Predock – He has combined Architecture, Art, Motorcycles, Scuba, Skiing and Dance, and his buildings are damn sexy!

Ingo Maurer – Has combined sculpture with lighting using a atelier structure for his business

Gaetano Pesce – An artist /designer, who creates “one off” functional Art.

Vito Acconci – Started as a Poet, then Sculptor, crossed over into architecture, industrial design and landscape architecture. Link to MIT Show Recent article about studio

James Ossi – I met James in 1990 and it changed my life.  An artist who makes machines that create square bubbles?!!  He was living in a farmhouse with a studio in the back and teaching.

Ron Arad – Industrial Designer, started by making Hi fidelity stereo equipment out of concrete, went on to have a furniture studio and now an architecture firm.

Review of 2009 Art Exhibitions

2009 in Review: Museum Exhibitions – ARTINFO.com

Cherwell – C2 – Review: Turner Prize 2009

Posted using ShareThis

I visited the War museum in Singapore and its own way it reminded me of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.  I thought how could I have forgotten my favorite Museum!

Web Site Link

The Museum is located at:

9341 Venice Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232
Telephone: (310) 836-6131
email: info@mjt.org
http://www.mjt.org

One of my favorite museums anywhere!

Just what any museum should do, make you think!  Is this real?  Is this a joke?  Is this Art?  I believe the most important skills in life are:

1. Critical Thinking
2. Tolerance
3. Empathy

The museum calls on the visitor to use the their crtical thinking skills and examine the museum and their own acceptance of information as fact.  The museum is created by David Wilson a conceptual artist.

Wikipedia Link

From New York Times article

by Ken Johnson

“Tim Burton’s career is the ultimate revenge of the art nerd. Mr. Burton, the self-professed alienated child of a dysfunctional family in Burbank, Calif., who funneled his loneliness, pain and grief into drawing cartoons, has found fame, fortune and a beautiful companion (Helena Bonham Carter) by telling cinematic tales of sensitive misfits triumphing over, or succumbing to, a world of repressive mediocrity.”