This is a great book about all the changes museums today are “needing” to do to receive funding and more patronage. It questions the values of the museums that are changing and the challenges of the museums who are not. Seeing as how this topic has come up in past seminars and my museum is dealing with these problems now, I thought it was a helpful read into this new phase for museums.

2. Helen E. Vogt, Charlie Frye and his time (Seattle: SCW Publications, 1995).

Charlie Frye’s grandniece writes an amazing book on her grandfather and all that led to the opening of The Frye Art Museum after the death of his wife, Emma, and himself. This was a great guide to the background of the Frye’s and their love for art first handedly. Through this story I was able to witness the history of the Northwest as well.

3. Cassandra Tate, “Frye Art Museum (Seattle),” History Link, March 3, 2002, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3711.

This was a great website article all about The Frye Art Museum. It not only told about the museum, but also the history of the founders, the art work in the collection, the public’s perception of the museum through the years, obstacles the museum has had to overcome, and much more. This was the more helpful article I found giving information on The Frye. This article helped me on every assignment I needed information for.

4. “Frye Art Museum announces new director,” The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA, August 5, 2009), sec. Local News.

The story of the Frye announcing a new director in the local newspaper more shows the way the community perceives this museum. The local art community is very interested in the museum and the steps it takes with its art and staff.

5. Priscilla Long, “Frye Art Museum on Seattle’s First Hill opens on February 8, 1952.,” Online Encyclopedia, HistoryLink, March 22, 2001, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3126.

This online encyclopedia article documents the first opening of The Frye Art Museum and what led up to that day. Through this story I was able to get better information into The Frye’s opening and some of the works of art shown on that day for my museum history assignment.

6. “Frye History,” Museum Website, The Frye Art Museum, 2012, http://fryemuseum.org/history/.

The Frye Art Museum’s webpage is a great way to learn information about the museums present, past, and future. This particular webpage from the site it a short of The Frye’s history and the history of Emma and Charles Frye, the founders of the museum. It is a helpful look into the history the museum wants displayed for itself and what the staff believe are the important key notes from its past.

7. Charles and Emma Frye Free Public Art Museum, “Frye Museum Collection List,” The Frye Art Museum, 2012, http://fryemuseum.org/collection_list/.

This is a list of the original works in Emma and Charles Frye’s private collection; the collection that Founded The Frye Art Museum. This list includes the artist, title, medium and year of each work if applicable. I was able to utilize this information for my quantitative research assignment graphing the percentage of the different mediums in the collection.

8. Tim Caulton, Hands-on exhibitions: managing interactive museums and science centres (Taylor & Francis US, 1998).

Hands-on exhibitions: managing interactive museums and science centres shows different sides and arguments to the world of interactives in museums. This helped me to understand more about why museums are switching to these new methods and also gave me knowledge as to why more private museums are trying to stay away from this change. The Frye Art Museum is one such museum and having the understanding behind the museums decisions allows me to connect to the Frye’s community.

9. “Ida Kay Greathouse: A Tribute,” Institution, The Frye Art Museum, September 9, 2010, http://fryemuseum.org/exhibition/3572/.

The Frye has been through many different directors both professional and not. This started with the Frye’s personal lawyer, but when he passed his wife took over the museum and added much more to the already large collection. This article shows her intent for the museum and collection and all that she did to ensure it be successful.

10. Stephanie Eva Koester, David Bearman, and Belinda Wright, Interactive multimedia in American museums, vol. 16 (University of Virginia: Archives & Museum Informatics, 1993).

Interactive multimedia in American museums speaks on interactive multimedia in museums and why this is the new age of the art world. It shows how multimedia can positively affect the museums and their patrons. This book changed some my views on museums that are adding interactive multimedia.

11. Susan M. Pearce, Interpreting objects and collections (Psychology Press, 1994).

Interpreting objects and collections gives sight into the world of private collectors; why people are attached to such material things that a collection may become obsession. Through reading this book, I was given more knowledge as to why the private collection of The Frye Museum may have started and background into the workings of not only private art collectors, but collectors of all objects.

12. LOIS HELAYNE SILVERMAN, “Of us and other “things’’| The content and functions of talk by adult visitor pairs in an art and a history museum,” online library, ScholarlyCommons: Repository, January 1, 1990, http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9101220/.

This paper speaks on why objects are chosen for views in museums and how the viewers interpret what they are seeing. This has helpful information about what is behind curation of museums.

13. Suzanne Macleod, Reshaping museum space: architecture, design, exhibitions (Taylor & Francis, 2005).

This book explains the design and architectures of exhibit space and museums; what works best and why. When I was first doing my Evocative Object assignment, I chose the architecture of the museum, but first I needed to understand museum architecture as a whole a little better, which this book was perfect for.

14. “Seattle Now & Then: A Secret Crash,” Archive, Seattle Now and Then, March 6, 2010, http://pauldorpat.com/seattle-now-and-then/seattle-now-then-a-secret-crash/.

Although this blog was written to show Charles Frye’s meatpacking company being crashed into by a secret plane, it goes into much detail about Charles Frye and his life, which includes The Frye Art Museum. This allowed me to learn new information about The Frye’s outside of just their museum. It gave me a look into their other companies that had funded their art collection in the first place.

15. T. J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson, The Age of Mass Migration: Causes and Economic Impact (Oxford University Press, 1998)

This book explains about the mass migration from Europe to America that took place between 1850 and 1914. Since the founder of the Frye, Charles, was part of this migration from Germany, this book was recommended to me by a staff member to get a better look into the way Charles Frye grew up.

16. Martin S. Feldstein and National Bureau of Economic Research, The Economics of Art Museums (University of Chicago Press, 1991).

The Economics of Art Museums explores the economic issues facing art museums of the United States. It also talks on the management and growth of museum collections, the museums relationship with the public, and the role of the government in supporting art museums. Understanding what is going on around the country with different art museums allows me better understanding of the functioning of The Frye Art Museum.

17. Rick Sundberg, The Frye Art Museum: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects (Seattle, WA: Seattle Documentary Media, 2007).

Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects published a book on their renovations of The Frye Art Museum from 1995 through 1997. This book contains pictures and information of the restoration. It is very interesting to see the many changes they made, but also kept the original requests left in Charles Frye’s will, such as natural lighting.

18. Regina Hackett, “The Frye at Fifty,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA, February 9, 2002), sec. Local.

This newspaper article was written when The Frye Art Museum had its 50th birthday. it not only documents the event and all the happenings, but also give a bit of information on the history behind the museum and its founders. seeing how the community views the Frye and its years in the art world is a great tool to have during this field study.

19. Matthew Kangas, “The Frye: Tradition Renewed,” Art Guide Northwest, December 1, 1998, http://www.artguidenw.com.

This article talks about the traditions behind The Frye collection. In his will Charles left very traditional instructions on how he wanted his museum run and what art types were to be added or displayed and how. The museum staff have stuck true to these requests from Charles to this day and are refusing to give into the multimedia interactives other museums are heading towards.

20. Paul Dorpat, “The Frye’s Salon,” Pacific Magazine (April 1997).

The article, The Frye’s Salon, gives information and pictures of Emma and Charles original gallery in their mansion. This was a build on for their private art collection that covered the walls top to bottom. I learned where the idea originated for their museum as well as how they liked their art curated in their own house.

The Frye Art Museum Quantitative Chart of Original Collection Mediums

 The chart above shows the percentage of the different mediums of the art pieces in Charles and Emma Frye’s private art collection that now makes up The Frye Art Museum. I choose to represent this information that I collected by way of a pie chart of which I made 3D and broke up for an easier visual of the data. I was able to gather the type of medium of each work in the private collection and use a tally system to calculate the number of all mediums and then compute those figures into percentages. It fascinated me to find how much a difference there was between the highest number medium in the collection, Oil, and the lowest numbers, wood engraving and pencil. With oil paintings being 46% of the entire collection, this research shows that the couple favored oil pieces over other mediums. When we put side by side this percentage in relation the percentages of the other mediums, we can see that there is no comparison; no other medium comes close to the number of oil paintings in this collection. Based on these numbers, we see that mediums such as pencil, pigment, wood engraving, and pastel, are barely existent in the Frye’s collection. This chart also shows a category of Other in which mediums that only contained a few pieces in the collection were added into. What surprised me in this research was the lack of sculptures of any sort. This tells us that Emma and Charles were solely into paintings and drawings. While this chart shows popularity in the original collection being more conventional paintings with such mediums as oil, this is not necessarily the case in the museums traveling exhibits. Although the museum does stick close to its more traditional roots, the exhibits brought in tend to be more unconventional means of art.

From the start of this field study my purpose was to
study the exhibits themselves that were put on display the month I was there. I
was intent on gathering as much information as I could about the artists and
the works trying to get something out of these traveling exhibits. As my time
here is drawing to an end, I have now completely thrown out that whole thought
process. I have come to understand that the museum itself, the history behind
the making, is the real story here. Two individuals put their life into this
creation of a museum solely to introduce the community of Seattle to art around
the world. Even after death the couple contributes to the museum, as well as
many people over time that have come into the life of the museum. This history
is the driving force of the space, the way the museum runs is staying
traditional still to the ways of the Frye’s 100 years later. Coming away from
this study, I have new insight into the workings of private collection museums
and all that goes into their workings. I have also been introduced to the tight
nit community of a smaller scale museum, which is very much different from that
of a larger scale museum. I am grateful for all the help of the staff and
artists at the Frye as I have taken away much more than I could ever put in.

Log

Monday- Used Zotero to
finish my cites for my annotative bibliography (3 hours). Started my paragraph
annotations for each cite (1 hour). Went through many, many, many different
ideas for which chart to use for my quantitative research assignment (1 hour).
Headed to The Frye Art Museum to pick up the information I requested on the
percentages of mediums for my quantitative assignment (2 hour). Worked on my
field journal in the main gallery at the museum (2 hour).

Tuesday- Got together with Dan
and Hannah to work on Zotero with questions (1 hour). Me and Hannah stayed and
worked on our partner They Say letters and corrections (3 hours). After, I
finished my annotations to my citations (2 hours).

Wednesday- Finished up my
correction on my They Say assignments and typed them out along with my peer
letter to Hannah (2 hours). Worked on the creation of my chart for the
quantitative assignment (3 hours). Marked/added all the different mediums into
categories which I turned into percentages of the whole original collection
(almost 300!) (3 hours). Plugged in the percentages into my chart to create a
finished project with keys (2 hours).

Thursday- Went to The Frye to
work on my field study (3 hours). Worked on my blog and field log and made the
rest of my assignments for the week ready to put onto my blog (3 hours).

Hours- 32

Friday- I will be heading to
The Frye to watch the children’s art book reading (2 hours). Will be working on
ideas for my podcast and my field studies (2 hours).

Total Hours- 36 Hours

Emma and Charles

The Frye Art Museum

Yet another exciting week at The Frye Art Museum. My last two weeks has been spent diving into the
history of the museum, which started for our history paper. It has now turned
into something far more. As I have uncovered more and more information about Emma
and Charles, the founders of the museum, I become more enthralled in the
history of the couple as well as the museum itself. Not only did the Frye’s
build this whole museum on their own personal collection and estate, but they
have put their life into their dreams of showing the public the love art can
bring. Even after death Charles is contributing by the direction he put in his
will for the museum and the art in its collection. Although many museums have
tried to come in and “purchase” many of these piece, it has been impossible for
them to acquire anything from the collection due to all of the instructions put
in his will. Other points Charles made in his testament of the museum are the
lighting must be natural, the admission must be free to the public, and no
abstract art can be added into the collection. The rules have been kept over
the years and through many different directors. The history of the Frye’s
themselves is amazing, with all of their accomplishments. I have been
continuing in my research after this assignment out of my own interest. I am
now applying for an internship at the museum due to my new found love for the
works. This museum is true to its patrons and I would love to work in such a
tight nit community of art such as The Frye Museum.

Log

Saturday-
Attened the Exhibition talks of Eternity and Commoner and Of Breath and Rain (3 hours).  Received my books for my Museum History Assignment and started reading those books and
researching for the assignment (4 hours).

Sunday-           Rest day.

Monday-
Researched for my Museum History Assignment (two hours). Worked on/typed very rough draft for History Assignment (two hours). Worked on my They Say Assignment to prepare for my peer partner meeting tomorrow (two hours).

Tuesday-
Worked on researching for my Museum History Assignment (two hours). Met with my peer partner, Hannah Baker, reviewing my They Say (two hours). Went to campus to revise my They Say assignment (one hour). Continued editing my rough draft of my History Assignment turning it
into a second rough draft (two hours).

Wednesday-
Spent my afternoon at The Frye Art Museum speaking with staff about published books on the museum and acquiring them (one hour). Attended exhibits in session (two hours). Worked on field journal (two hours). Worked on my final draft of my Museum History Assignment (3 hours).

Thursday-

Finished my Final Museum History Assignment (three hours). Worked on and Finished my works cited page for my Museum History Assignment (two hours). Worked on my Field Journal at The Frye (two hours). Attended a presentation at the museum: Chaos and Order: German Painting Between the Wars/ Expressionism Unravels. (2.5 hours)

Total
Hours= 37.5 hours

Worked on a picture essay of the museum architecture

New exhibits!- Li Chen: Eternity and Commoner/  Susie J. Lee: Of Breath and Rain

Worked on Prezi

Worked on Evocative Object Chapter

Tuesday

Met with staff for a questioning on the architecture of the building and the
remodel.

Spent an hour exploring the new exhibits

 Wednesday

Mindfulness Meditation

Made plans to attend the guest artist lecture series

Worked on Evocative Object chapter

Worked on Prezi

Thursday

(The Plan):

Chaos and Order: German Painting Between the Wars

Worked on Evocative Objects chapter

Worked on Prezi

“The mother art is architecture. Without an
architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization… Every great
architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter
of his time, his day, his age… Art for art’s sake is a philosophy of the
well-fed… Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun… No stream rises higher
than its source. What ever man might build could never express or reflect more
than he was. He could record neither more nor less than he had learned of life
when the buildings were built… Noble life demands a noble architecture for
noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant:
ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

The
Frye Architecture

Here
I am, standing in front of
“my” museum. Although it is not mine to claim, I feel a rather strong
connection to the building in which I am studying for the next few weeks. The
Frye Art Museum will house not only my body, but also all my thoughts on and
off for my near future. It is not a large magnificent building; it is actually
quite opposite. At first glance it is just a concrete building one passes by on
a walk to the park or market, hidden by houses and busy streets. It takes, literally,
a step back to see the real glamour behind the concrete facade. The building is
an architectural relic in its own right. With its squared entry archway and
high cylinder reaching for the sky, topped with glass panes, the view from the outside
of the museum itself draws you in.

Not only is this architecture built for an art aspect, but it plays house to the
museum’s private collection; acting as security against the elements. The
architecture of the Frye was almost nonexistent up until 1997 when the
collaborating duo, Rick Sundberg and Alan Maskin, stepped in to create an
expansive remodel of the building. The design of which brought
an aging institution into the present. The architecture prepares the visitor
by, among other ways, reinforcing a cadence that is conducive to viewing art. A
new entry arcade knits together additions and existing architecture with public
spaces, which include a new café, curatorial wing and sculpture garden, and
brings the life of the building to the street edge. Natural light slips into
the building in strategic places to intuitively guide the visitor through the
museum. The result is a jewel-box of a museum that celebrates the museum
experience as well as the art.

All over the world we are seeing this change amongst museum architecture as the art
community tries to mesh together the ideas of the new with the old in new and
creative ways. Being not only a devotee of architecture but of museums, I am fascinated
with this new modification to the exterior and interior structural design of
these edifices. The combination of museums and architecture, old and new, art
and collection; it is quite remarkable. This shows especially through the Frye
Art Museum, playing on people’s art emotions using visual aspects to draw them
inside.

Upon making my decision to attend The Frye as my study destination, it was originally
for its collection and exhibits. However, the object that fixated me -created the
upmost evocation within me- was that of the architecture, which I have now
become enthralled with. The idea The Frye took on from the rest of the art
world to update their architecture worked increasingly well and added even more
art to their already growing collection.

Two new exhibits are scheduled to open next week Li Chen: Eternity and Commoner and Susie J. Lee: Of Breathe and Rain. I am looking forward to exploring these exhibits as well in the upcoming weeks.

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