Adjunct Curator of Music Peter Hoyt discusses David Holding Goliath’s Head in a “Music 101” course.
cultural history as well as highly specialized
topics, such as “Italian Music and Art from
Caravaggio to Canaletto.” These lectures
characteristically emphasize works found
in the collection, such as Bernardo Strozzi’s
David Holding Goliath’s Head, which was
profoundly influenced by Caravaggio.
Look for a new “Music 101” class in the
Spring.
“Art of Music” has offered our community
many unique ways to think about the
collection. The first concert was based
on Greek art and featured replicas of
ancient instruments, while a recent concert
explored chamber music from Colonial
South Carolina. Hoyt is never at a loss for
inspiration.
“First, the large Baroque gallery is one
of the best acoustics spaces in Columbia
for music,” says Hoyt. “So it is a delight
to hear performances there. What I just
love about what I do is the diversity of the
collection pushes me to explore corners
and byways of music that are outside of my
academic specialty, and I just love that. It
is a great quirk to get outside of the things
you know really well.”
Partnerships with the community and the
connection between the visual arts and
other mediums led to the development of
other events based on the collection as the
Museum became a place to gather. “Arts
& Draughts,” now in its fourth season and
the most popular reoccurring event at the
CMA, celebrates the collection through
Unique Perspective tours, music, gallery
scavenger hunts, and creative do-it-yourself
projects. Unique Perspective tours turn
the traditional gallery tour on its head
by taking an anything-goes approach to
the content. The tour guides are not art
historians or docents, but rather members
of the community inspired by the art.
Larry Hembree, managing director of
Trustus Theater, led the first Unique
Perspective tour.
“I was asked to take the audience on a
journey through the collection of my
favorite pieces of art,” says Hembree. “It
was a blast as I picked out the four most
dramatic pieces and made up a bizarre
story about how they were connected. I
had much audience participation with
singing, poetry reading, and improvisation
based around the works. My journey was
constructed around de-masking the work if
you will.”
Hembree brought a theatrical element to
Unique Perspective tours, making them a
new, whimsical approach to the collection.
At first, these were the only gallery tours
at “Arts & Draughts,” but patrons let us
know they wanted traditional tours too.
So, the event now also offers a traditional
tour of the collection for an untraditional
audience at an unconventional program.
It is all about listening to how people want
to connect with the art and creating that
opportunity.
Some people want a deeper connection and
understanding than others. So this year
the CMA created the “Kress Anniversary
Lecture Series,” made possible by a grant
from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Renowned art historians gave talks on
topics that highlighted the Kress Collection
through their particular field of expertise.
Audiences gained a greater knowledge of
the collection through in-depth talks on
the conservation, provenance, and history
of master works including Canaletto’s View
of the Molo, Botticelli’s The Nativity, and
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