The LSU Museum of Art has added new pieces to the museum that not only make for a festive holiday season, but might have a profound impact on University students.
The museum’s exhibit, titled “Getting There,” focuses on travel and how the journey is often more influential than the destination, Museum Executive Director Jordana Pomeroy said. The exhibit also includes a steam-powered model train running throughout the exhibit.
The exhibit displays toy vehicles, paintings and even china from old train cars. It is organized by Fran and Leroy Harvey, the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders and Carriages Fine Clothiers.
“Getting There” is a holiday show that usually attracts families, however, University art or even engineering students could be inspired by the uniqueness of the exhibit, Pomeroy said.
Pomeroy also said the exhibit could have an impact on students because “Getting There” represents not only the physical travel but a metaphoric sense of discovery and drive that most students experience in their college years.
The other two collections are those from renowned artists Clementine Hunter and Keith Sonnier. As two artists from Louisiana to achieve international recognition, the pieces are a great example for University students studying portraiture and sculpting art, Pomeroy said.
The museum has just installed the 17 works it has by Hunter. The works depict the daily life of the self-taught painters who may be the most iconic artist to come from Louisiana, Pomeroy said. Hunter’s work can be found in museums all over the United States as well as in the Louvre in Paris.
To have a collection of such an established artist presents a great advantage from an educational standpoint because Hunter is an example of a self-made artist from rural Louisiana who built a career around her culture and home, Pomeroy said.
The Sonnier piece was actually donated by the artist himself and adds a more modern look to the museum with the sculpture entitled “Tetrapod Wall.” The work will be unveiled Friday in the atrium of the Shaw Center for the Arts, where the piece will stay.
“The absence of a work by Keith Sonnier—one of the few artists from Louisiana with an international reputation—represented an obvious gap in the Museum’s collection,” Pomeroy said in a news release.
The sculpture will be installed in the atrium for at least a year to add an artistic feel to the space downstairs, she said.
“The absence of a work by Keith Sonnier—one of the few artists from Louisiana with an international reputation—represented an obvious gap in the Museum’s collection.”
A model train travels around a track created by the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders in the "Getting There" exhibition at the LSU Museum of Art at The Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge.
