Celebrating Moore

Today's guest blog is submitted by Tracy McClendon, our education director. Tracy has been with the Garden since 1998, beginning as a horticulturist to work on the Children’s Garden. She then spent two years managing Youth Programs before becoming the Director of Education in 2002. She has a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from New College of Florida, fell in love with public gardens while volunteering at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, FL, and has also worked at Cheekwood in Nashville, TN and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Here is Tracy's blog:

I first met David Mitchinson when he came to Atlanta for an early site visit for the Moore in America exhibition. David, who first began working with Henry Moore in 1968, is the Head of Collections and Exhibitions for the Henry Moore Foundation. As such, has curated Henry Moore exhibitions in more than 40 countries. Struck by his British charm and encyclopedic knowledge of Henry Moore’s work, I immediately asked him if he would present a lecture sometime during the Moore in America exhibition, and he was gracious enough to accept.

The lecture, which will be followed by a book-signing will be on Wednesday, September 30, 2009, from 7:30 – 8:30 pm. Admission is free, and you don’t need to register ahead of time—just come on out!

In the run-up to the lecture, I spoke with David and asked him a few of my burning questions.

David Mitchinson, Head of Collections and Exhibitions,
The Henry Moore Foundation

T: What makes the exhibition here in Atlanta different from others you have staged?

D: The key thing for me about Atlanta is that it’s a very special garden. The flora is different, and colors are different because it’s a different part of the world. It’s visually exciting.
Movement around the Garden with these large sculptures was challenging. Also, the Atlanta Botanical Garden was under construction during the planning process, so we were planning from paper for part of the show. It was very difficult to know what it was going to look like before it was all planted.

T: What makes this particular exhibition different from the same show staged at Kew Gardens and The New York Botanical Garden?

D: All three gardens were very different venues, and all were exciting to do for different reasons. Kew and the New York Botanical Garden are both very large and feel a bit more like parks.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a garden within a park; a small, controlled, and confined space. That was challenging for placement. It’s a question of scale, where we were placing very large sculptures in small garden spaces. I don’t mean that as a detriment. Sculpture does need some sort of containment. It’s just figuring out how to use it.

T: What's your favorite placement at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and why?
D: I have three. I love the way Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped turned out. Of course, it’s in a new garden, so it was placed “blind”, before we knew exactly what the garden would look like.

Goslar Warrior was a marvelous opportunity to place a piece in water. I like that visitors can get close to it and view it all around.

Goslar Warrior

And I personally loved putting the Upright Motives in the cactus garden. That was a great moment—combining two of my enthusiasms—cactus and Henry Moore.

Upright Motives

T: Are there any placements you don’t care for?
D: Reclining Figure: Arch Leg is pushed back too close to the boundary. I know that we had to do that because of fire truck and crane access, but for me it doesn’t quite work there.

Three Piece Reclining Figure Draped

T: What was Henry Moore like?

D: Incredibly active. Not “precious”—how would Americans say it? So many artists are “fussy”, you know, but he was very down to earth and straightforward. He was never really happy unless he was working—a workaholic.

T: What do you like most about your job?
D: Meeting so many lovely people. Travelling with the work, I’ve had the opportunity to meet creators and designers and exhibition managers through the world. At the end of the day, everyone is working very hard to achieve a good result and present the work of a great artist to the public.

Those were a few of my questions. Come out to the Garden for the lecture on September 30th to hear more from David Mitchinson and ask him your own questions.