The CU Art Museum will remain closed to the public while the university continues to monitor the impacts of COVID-19.
We miss you and are committed to bringing the museum into your home by examining artwork in the collection as seen through a variety of personal perspectives. Please check out our virtual Close Looking programs and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
This month Alisha Geiwitz our Associate Collections Manager and Registrar responds to an artwork in our collection.
A prolific artist, dedicated educator, and accomplished author, Muriel Sibell Wolle (1898–1977), spent her career painting landscapes and town scenes across Colorado. Wolle was the head of the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Fine Arts from 1928–1947, and she helped to shape the museum’s collection during her tenure. Her most intriguing pieces document the decay of once thriving mining towns throughout the Colorado Rockies. One of my most beloved Colorado scenes is of Nevadaville, a small ghost town a few miles outside of Central City. Mining ruins are a familiar subject as many local artists of Wolle’s generation, including Vance Kirkland, Eve Drewelowe, Elisabeth Spalding, and Louise and Arnold and Rönnebeck, often packed picnic lunches and their painting supplies and drove west to enjoy a day of en plein air painting.
Perched on hills on the outskirts of old mining camps, Wolle sketched the remnants of towns that succumbed to the ravages of time, yet the charm and the mystery remains. Wolle’s 1943 sketch Ghosts, Nevadaville is a beautiful example of her dedication to preserving the legacy of Colorado ghost towns. I visit Nevadaville every summer on my annual trip to Bald Mountain Cemetery. In the nearly 80 years since this drawing, not much has changed. When the snow melts and the days warm, I suggest packing a lunch and sketchpad and meandering up to Nevadaville; it is a storied town full of beautiful scenery and ghosts of what once was.
The CU Art Museum has collected over 80 works by Muriel Sibell Wolle, 52 of which are new acquisition depicting scenes from her 1934 trip to Alaska, British Columbia, and Yukon.
Image credit: Muriel Sibell Wolle, American (1898-1977), Ghosts, Nevadaville, 1943, graphite with pen and ink on paper, 11 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches. Chancellor’s Office transfer to CU Art Museum, 88.08.04. © CU Art Museum.
Virtual Activities
During our COVID-19 closure we’ll be sharing artworks from our collection so that you can do some close-looking exercises from wherever you are. Invite a friend and do it together (virtually or physically distanced) to spark conversation or do it by yourself for some relaxation. And check out our new collection object inspired coloring book pages, available for free download here.
Feel Good Fridays goes remote! You are invited to this weekly workshop to learn about a work of art and then participate in a related mindfulness practice. The powerful, guided meditation can undo stress, soothe the nervous system, and help you feel relaxed and revitalized. If practiced regularly, the meditation teaches a method for feeling calm, easeful, and resilient, even when facing life’s challenges. Meditations are open to students, faculty, staff, and the public. All are welcome and there is no need for past experience with meditation. Registration is required.
Spring 2021 Master of Fine Arts Candidates Conversations
Virtual conversations with University of Colorado Boulder Master of Fine Arts candidates and Arielle M. Myers, Wednesdays, May 12, 19, 26, 6:00—7:00 p.m.
Click here for more information.
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