Art Museum opens travel show

It might be hard to visit Italy this weekend, but the IU Art Museum can give students a similar experience with its new exhibit, The Grand Tour: Art and Travel.

This specialty exhibit kicks off with an opening concert and reception starting at 6 p.m. Friday.

The theme of the Grand Tour is travel and how people from the mid-18th and early-19th centuries represented travel through Europe, said Jenny McComas, IU Art Museum’s curator of Western Art.

During this period, both Americans and northern Europeans had a great passion for travel, especially to Italy. As a result, the era became known as the “Grand Tour.”
“The topic is interesting and educational,” McComas said.

She encourages people to explore the similarities and differences between tourism today and 200 years ago.

There are about 90 works in the exhibit from the Art Museum’s permanent collection and from the Lilly Library.

Although the majority of art is drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, that does not mean it has been seen before. In fact, most of the art is new – even for those who visit the museum on a regular basis.

“We purposely wanted to save the works for this exhibit,” McComas said.

The selection of works is mixed and includes styles such as oil paintings, watercolors and prints along with 10 books borrowed from the Lilly Library.

“It is a good way for students to see the depth of our collection,” McComas said.
The opening concert will feature classical music by a local chamber choir Voces Novae with direction by Susan Swaney. Swaney has been the director of Voces Novae since 1998 and is a former director of the IU Children’s Choir program.

“It is a short program of beautiful music in a beautiful space,” Swaney said. 

The performance will complement the exhibit’s theme through works by European composers who were inspired by the thought of traveling to real and imaginary lands. The musical pieces will include themes of shepherds, gypsies and enchanted lands, she said.

The Grand Tour: Art and Travel will be open until Dec. 21 and is free and open to the public. 

Both McComas and Swaney encourage students to take a journey of their own and see what this special exhibit has to offer.

“It will carry you to a faraway land,” Swaney said.  “It is a vacation of the mind.”