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| Vol. 17, No. 18 | Feb. 5, 1998 |
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| Vol. 17, No. 18 | Feb. 5, 1998 |
The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., not only houses the nation's treasure trove of art, it also serves as an important educational institution, teaching individuals from all over the United States and the world to become more knowledgeable about art.
Hilton Brown, Harriet T. Baily Professor of Art, Art Conservation, Art History and Museum Studies, is in the forefront of this effort, working in several different capacities with Anne Henderson, who heads the Teacher and School Programs, and with Julie Springer, coordinator of Teacher Programs.
Brown is a "wonderful educator who has a new way of looking at the the collection. We receive excellent evaluations of his lectures, and he is invited back by demand," Henderson said.
Springer calls him one of the most popular educators at the museum. "He is a consumate craftsman and master teacher who conveys his passion for art and makes complex technical material interesting and comprehensible," she said.
Most recently, Brown has been working on a project with Hendrickson to redesign and reconstruct art carts used to illustrate talks to the groups of school children and adult learners before they tour the galleries with docents.
"We are in the process of designing. renovating and equipping two art carts about traditional Western artists' materials and techniques-one for painting and the other for sculpture. The idea behind the art carts is to demonstrate what materials artists have used to create paintings or sculptures," Brown said. "The museum has used art carts since the mid-1960s, and they were successful but not professionally designed and equipped. The new ones will provide learners with a quick overview of what art materials are made from, as well as a demonostration of the tools and technqiues artists have used to make art objects."
The art carts are portable cabinets with drawers and shelves that store art materials and tools and also contain display panels.
The painting art cart illustrates what paint is, how an egg tempura painting is made, the use of oil paints and the preparations required for painting.
The sculpture art cart demonstrates how a stone carver chisels a marble sculpture and contains several traditional items for making sculptures, including clay modeling, wood and stone carving, and bronze casting.
"The carts are interactive. Children and adult visitors will be able to handle the various tools, such as the different kinds of chisels used for wood and stone carving. When the groups are taken to the galleries by docents and view the works of art, such as a 15th-century carved wooden figure from an altar by German sculptor Tilman Riesmenschneider, they have a better understanding of what was involved in its manufacture," Brown said.
"The art carts are effective tools in engaging children's and adult visitors interest and helping them to learn firsthand about artists' materials and the completed artifacts," Brown said.
Brown has been lecturing and teaching at the National Gallery since 1990, when he was invited to give summer lectures for the gallery's National Teachers Institute, headed by Springer, for educators and administrators from all parts of the United States, South America, Asia and Europe.
Brown, who also trains docents at the Delaware Art Museum, was then asked to help train the National Gallery volunteer docents about how to lecture about how works of art are made. Many of the volunteers are retired professionals from the greater Washington, D.C., area and several are fluent in other languages and conduct gallery tours for foreign visitors.
"The educators and docents are enthusiastic and energetic people who are eager to learn and therefore a pleasure to teach," Brown said, "and they, in turn, transmit their interest and knowledge of the visual arts to a wider audience."
Brown's lectures, demonstrations and gallery tours have been based on art in the gallery's collection, ranging from egg tempura paintings of the Italian Renaissance to contemporary works of art.
His lectures for the institute include "The Renaissance in Europe 1250-1520," "American Art from Colonial Times to the Armory Show," "French Impressionist and Post Impressionist Painting," "Modern Art from the Armory Show to the Second World War" and "Myth and Symbol in Western Art" among others.
One painting that he uses in his lectures is François Boucher's (1703-1770) Allegory of Painting, not only because of its intrinsic value as a work of art but, more pointedly, because it demonstrates some of the tools and techniques of the painter's craft.
"It is an allegory of painting. Painting is symbolized by the image of a beautiful young woman at work on an oval canvas with Cupid, surrounded by putti in the background, as her model. The artist's tools are an integral part of the painting, from the gray, prepared canvas itself to the brushes, palette, drawing chalk and a sheaf of drawings," Brown said.
As a painter and historian of the technology of art, Brown said part of his teaching mission for the past 36 years has been to expand people's knowledge and appreciation of art.
Serving as a lecturer and consultant with the National Gallery is challenging, he said, but also gratifying and complements his teaching graduate and undergraduate students at the University.
-Sue Swyers Moncure
