Right on, Lynda!!
 

So, how is it that, when it comes to art education, California comes in dead last out of all 50 states – even below Guam? According to State Councilman Bobby Shriver, California’s public schools no longer even offer arts education. … If art means as much to you as it does to me, or even if you’re just exploring the art world for the first time, I invite you to turn off the boob tube, pry the Wii controllers from your kids’ hands, and drag them to a museum….

Read the original:
Lynda Resnick: Why Art Education Matters

Regular readers know that this is one of my favorite art related blogs for its deep thoughtfulness and uncommercial concerns in discussing the modern museum experience. Rock on, Museum 2.0!

One of my favorite theoretical constructs is “social objects” –the idea that the most consistent social and dialogue experiences are mediated through shared experience of artifacts, stories, or images.
 
In 2005, Jyri Engestrom coined the term “social objects” and the related “object-centered sociality” in the context of designing successful online social networks, and I’ve been applying the idea in the physical design of exhibits. The basic idea is that by providing tools for people to discuss and share objects, they can come together in collective experience.
 
In a physical setting, I’ve found that successful social objects tend to be provocative, relational, active, or personal. Dogs and stuck elevators are social objects. Exhibits that visitors point at or photograph themselves with are social objects. Exhibits that ask visitors to work together or compete are social objects. Social objects help us connect with others, and they become focal points for conversations with friends and strangers alike.
 
Today, a colleague introduced me to a different description of social objects, one that comes from the world of poetry instead of technology. The term is “the third thing”…..

Continue reading here:
A Poetic Take on Social Objects: The Third Thing

This sounds really cool– if you’re a Picasso fan.
 

HELSINKI.- An exhibition space on the third floor of Ateneum has been transformed into Picasso’s Living Room, which was created by the Company design office of Helsinki, consisting of the designer couple Aamu Song and Johan Olin. This interactive space invites you into the world of the master – Picasso was always an inspiration for this space and the objects placed in it. Try out the furniture, read the newspapers and magazines, be happy and inspired. An extensive exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) work is currently on view at the Ateneum Art Museum. This unique exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation ever seen in Finland of all the different periods of Picasso’s career.

Go here to see the original:
Ateneum Transforms Third Floor into Picasso’s Living Room

Explorer’s tale of polar trek undertaken in temperatures of -60F to be sold at Bonhams

Even in a forbidding landscape where human endeavour has been tested to the limit, it was one of the most insane adventures ever undertaken: 67 miles and back in the Antarctic winter through relentless winds, appalling blizzards and numbing temperatures for the sole purpose of gathering Emperor penguin eggs from their remote breeding grounds.

Nearly 100 years later, the three men who made the journey from Cape Evans to Cape Crozier are still seen as Antarctic exploration heroes. But few would now view what has become known as “the worst journey in the world” as worth it.

Next month, Bonhams is to auction one of the most significant items of memorabilia from the Edwardian era of Antarctic exploration to come on the market for 20 years: Edward Wilson’s 40-page handwritten account of the 1911 journey.

Read more here:
Edward Wilson’s handwritten account of the 1911 Antarctic journey up for sale

Another excellent article from Max Donner’s San Diego Fine Arts Examiner blog about the art of the Olympic Games anniversary celebration on for another week up in Los Angeles.

 Southern California is paying tribute to the heritage of the 1984 Olympic Games during the 25th Anniversary July 28 to August 12. These events are focusing attention on the area’s extensive collections of Olympic art and memorabilia. The …

Preview of Max Donner's latest San Diego Fine Arts Examiner column

Read the original:
Olympic spirit rekindled in 25th Anniversary events