San Diego Exhibit Explores Intersection Of Art And Music

As one of its last exhibits for the Balboa Park Centennial celebration the museum is showing more than 200 paintings sculptures and photographs alongside contemporary video installation and sound art. Together the exhibit explores the art of music. Joining me is Roxanna Velasquez she is Executive Director of the San Diego Museum of Art. Roxana welcome. Welcome, very nice thank you for having us your. You are very welcome. I'm glad you can make it. And Britney Salyers is coordinator of public programs for the museum Britney welcome to show progress Thank you much for having me. Roxana this is an ambitious exhibit for the museum. Can you give us a sense of the size and the scope of that? Absolutely as you very well said this is one of the most [ Indiscernible ] projects has had for the last almost 4 years I would tell you. It took us a long planning and organization we included a lot of [ Indiscernible ] expertise outside the United States of course nationally and inside and it is exhibition that is exploring this interconnection intersection between the arts and the music. Originally these two pieces of art of course there'd two subjects were connected to we tend to divide them as artists [ Indiscernible - heavy accent ] so in this exhibition with the audience will be enjoying is how music has been a fundamental part of our civilization of humankind for centuries across cultures and through very different objects. As he said this is not only about paintings or sculptures there's also includes instruments for example or sound art. Right, now Britney this exhibit opens rather dramatically with a piece by San Diego artist John Montessori tell us about the sculpture. Absolutely, you walk into the gallery and you were almost overwhelmed by a giant year with trumpet out of it is called Beethoven's trumpet and you actually can speak into the trumpet and it will plate music to you, Beethoven's physics so it's a really exciting piece, much bigger than you would imagine until you walk in their. Great opening. Roxana how is this related? This art of the six exhibit to Balboa Park Centennial subregion? Service of the last exhibition that we are using to celebrate to commemorate the Centennial of the park. 1915 as you probably already know there was an event name to 365 days of music. Basic was played in the park on the organ Pavilion for many many days of that year and they had incredible performances take the New York Symphony and it was a long run event so we are commemorating that. Of course we're re-creating the history but giving this contemporary [ Indiscernible ] to this type of event. And as Britney was describing this incredibly piece by [ Indiscernible ] welcomes us all but then you walk and you see how are we able to accommodate this 220 pieces from such a diverse array of background? And this was fascinating. All decorators in-house with the external of course advisors were thinking how can we present to our community this pieces? And we started by the most obvious way which is the motif the musician itself as an inspiration and the music played the making of the music so you will see pieces of art that are very obvious and if I may I would like to tell you about one piece of this. Please do, yes. For example the coral we have a great painting by coral [ Indiscernible ] you get this monumental oil from 1861, 1863 where the representation is just amazing. It's the moment where [ Indiscernible ] has gone into pages to recover her -- his beloved. They are walking out from Haiti's the other figures in the back are morning. You can see the suffering there and all this precise imprecision of[ Indiscernible ] who was himself a fan of Glock and Burley is in the musician is paying homage to that. [ Indiscernible - heavy accent ] is the son of Apollo who played [ Indiscernible ] and was always related with the perfection of music how music has touched us all. And bringing music to let say into the 20 century was very excited Britney to hear about this all 20 works of[ Indiscernible ] jazz series are going to be on view during this exhibit. And they are going to be also [ Indiscernible ] inspiration for those paintings and the music that might have accompanied them because they are the chassis series. Tells puppet. Absolutely, it's really fantastic display that we have. Will often see all 20 of these works together so it's very exciting to see them but motif was really also inspired by African cubit [ Indiscernible ] and they has some of the similar obstruction motifs in the actually have a photo of his studio that shows not these particular ones we have on this display but once that he owned cubit textiles on the wall that he was being inspired by some have brought some of those examples and[ Indiscernible ] them of the walls next to these prints. We also have a really productivity not just for kids but for anyone who wants to come and experience this idea. We have some jazz music from the era that these prints were created playing and you can listen to that jazz and then create your own visual composition inspired by the jazz. Roxana, there are so many incredible artists on display, so Dolly you have Botero [ Indiscernible ] we just talked about Matisse are these pieces from the museum's collection or have they also been on loan from other museums around world? For the show we have counted on around 50 lenders to tween museums and private collectors of the world. It is a huge endeavor as you are telling you and he has now that you mentioned Ontario is a great way to jump and get into the second section which is social. That's about dancing. Was the role of music and how has visit been part of our lives? So [ Indiscernible ] is a humongous painting the country the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it's precisely the action of the musicians behind and the dancers in the first plane but when you turn your head uses all see also [ Indiscernible ] 17th-century Dutch painter who is of course a wedding scene in a village perfection there the image [ Indiscernible ] or turn your head to see this incredible[ Indiscernible ] of the 18th century where the instrument turns into a piece of art. Yes, that's fabulous. You both must have been doing a lot of thinking about the way that music and musicians and musical instruments have been depicted in art. What have you come up with? What you think is important about music to visual art? Let me start with you Roxana. Absolutely, definitely as I was seeing at the beginning music has always been part of the art. Music has been an inspiration for all artists and in the other way around as well. And what we think about Whistler or Kandinsky the obstruction of art they devote their works of art to music just thinking in the titles easiest way to grab this is just take a look to the titles of minty of the pieces like improvisation or something number eight or the rock 'n roll by [ Indiscernible ] of the 1981 this incredible American artist that is hanging right now the San Diego [ Indiscernible ] that comes through the Smithsonian American Art BCM's you can see just how using the titles the visual art is being done paying homage to music but again we talk about census which [ Indiscernible ] one would remember that when you are sad you feel like you are in a blue mood so how these words connect so it is really the sound of music or the sound of poetry and suddenly we see that music is there embedded in all of us from the African textiles that Britney was describing to the Latin American artists or more to the pre-Columbian instruments that you would also find so I think the summary is music has been and always is and will continue being part of all of us. And Britney, you mention the fact that the jazz series might be really a good thing for families to maybe explore together. What are the other parts of this exhibit that might be particularly family-friendly that kids might enjoy? Of course, I think certainly all the sound that is going on in the exhibition is really going to be interest.'s connect followed as a? Is not overpowering but we do have a certain number of works that mostly instruments represented that have sounds so you actually can walk up and we have directional speakers adhere it break when you are in front of the instrument himself which is really exciting and of course a couple of sound pieces like the Baltazar he. We have worked like contemporary artists [ Indiscernible ] but we also have a lot of activities that you can take part in in the galleries. The jazz activity as he mentioned to. We also have another drawing activity where people not just families can design their own instrument so they get a little inspiration card and can go from instruments they see or use their imagination to create her own instrument and think about the sounds that they heard instruments making the galleries and what their instrument might sound like. Also produced a family activity guide for the exhibition which is geared towards family looking and family discussions so this would take you through the exhibition to find works of art. There's a great roomful of rock posters we have a section activity guide that asks you to design your own brought poster. Is a think about what the colors in the letters are as art but also related to the music in your own activity. Besides great. This is been a big year for the museum Roxana there starting out early in the year to Warhol exhibit and now the art of music exhibit. Wondering in terms of showing these exhibits during the Centennial, has museum seen a boost of attendance during the Centeno gear? What is up in my? Absolutely, I'm very very happy to share with you that this is the largest attendance numbers that we have had in the last 67 years so we really had an increase. We had 340,000 people in the last 10 months and again this number had a great increase probably does more than 60% of over having so we have noticed that. We have together with the other pieces we have added like the Panama 66 restaurant that we have their the art after hours we are opening the doors after hours on Fridays at a great boost as you say people are really enjoying the show starting with [ Indiscernible ] but we are thinking here and what is important for your audience to know is that we are really thinking in the audience. Want the audience to hear to learn and to be proud of what is there so we are facilitating through this extraordinary exhibition and the activities and ways for them to more attached.'s we want to really celebrate the centennial were more so we want to bring the best art that has been produced here too cynical. And I would be remiss if I can finally ask you to tell us how the musicians in San Diego has some of the music groups in San Diego have contributed to this exhibit? Absolutely, as we said this project that has taken more than four years to organize some of the privilege of partnering with several institutions here intended go of course the youth Symphony [ Indiscernible ] was part of this organization since beginning we had concerts in front of our BCM. We have the art of [ Indiscernible ] as well we have work with UCSD[ Indiscernible ] created the shows. We took also relation with the symphony so we are connecting with all the musicians musical institutions that we have here. It's that natural thing to do so we are pleased to collaborate with all of our peers. I want everyone to know that the art of music exhibit is open now at the San Diego Museum of Art and it continues through February 7 and I've been happy to speak with Roxana Alaska's issues executive director of the San Diego Museum of Art and Britney Salyers was chlorinator of public programs with the Museum. People try much.