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Austin360 blogs > Live reports from the Blanton Museum opening > Archives > 2006 > April > 30 > Entry
Musical accompaniment
Determined to catch the “Art Brief: Collective Experience,” I used a quickstep to negotiate the crowds of people still jammed in every gallery of the museum. Eventually the heavens allowed me to catch up with docent Stephanie Nelson as she guided a group of 20 or so through a thought-provoking tour of a few of the museum’s masterworks.
Instead of spouting off her extensive knowledge, Nelson asked the patrons accompanying her what they thought about the various works they examined, including Peter Dean’s “Dallas Chaos II” and Ben Shahn’s transcendental “From That Day On.”
The Art Briefs were as multicolored as the paintings that they examined: Anglo, African American, Latino, Asian and every other ethnicity under the sun were seen perusing the gallery floors, debating the artists’ latent intentions.
It was a beautiful sight. Our sleepy little college town is growing up, and now we’ve got one more first-class museum to inspire our dreams.
“The collection is far better than I thought it was going to be,” Austinite Sean Fleming said. “I’ve really been enjoying all the drawings and sketches.”
Moments later, Austin Symphony Orchestra conductor Peter Bay vigorously lead a note-perfect quintet through the first of eight original pieces (18 short movements) - “Music for the Blanton” - composed specifically to represent a musical depiction of various works in the museum. The elegant orchestral movements were written by renowned composer/UT professor Donald Grantham.
Grantham’s airy, elegant pieces were modeled after Mozersky’s “Pictures in an Exhibition.” And it turned out that the music and audiences both benefited from the fact that the ceremonies began 30 minutes late at 7:30 p.m., just as the Blanton throngs began to thin out a bit about an hour before sunset.
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