Museum of Arts and Sciences equips advanced tech to usher in new exhibit

A new exhibit opens Friday at the Museum of Arts and Sciences marking expanded capabilities at the museum to present works of immersive, multimedia art.

The exhibit is called “HOSHI,” and it runs through Feb. 15 in the museum’s Burgess Gallery during normal museum hours, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum admission covers entry to the exhibit and is $10 for adults with discounts for children, seniors, students and military. Museum members get free admission.

The exhibit is the first of five such exhibits spanning the next two years thanks to a partnership with Wonderspaces, Inc. and funding from the Knight Foundation which enabled the museum to equip the gallery with needed electrical, projection, audio and other systems for such presentations.

Wonderspaces is an art installation company representing more than 100 artists. It operates permanent spaces in Austin, Scottsdale and Philadelphia with the Museum of Arts and Sciences being part of an extended pilot program, the only such program in the Southeast.

“This is an advanced step in our redefining the definition of art and making a place for it as we see art and science intersect,” said Susan Welsh, the museum’s executive director. “That’s an important mission of the museum. Of course, we will always showcase traditional fine art, other forms of art and the sciences at the museum, but this is an area we need to explore and make available right here in Macon. Otherwise, people would have to travel quite a long way to experience it.”

Welsh said though each of the five exhibits was distinctive and different, offering viewers various experiences, they could all be classed as immersive, multimedia presentations, some with sound, some without, but all using science-based, digital technologies.

“It’s at a very advanced level beyond anything we’ve been able to do in the past and it features national and international artists we wouldn’t have been able to bring apart from our partnership with Wonderspaces.”

Welsh said another advantage of working with Wonderspaces is the training museum staff are receiving on how to set up and maintain such technologically advanced exhibits.

The “HOSHI” exhibit is from the Paris-based NONOTAK Studio, a partnership between visual artist Noemi Schipfer and light and sound artist Takami Nakamoto. Their installations and performance pieces are said to create ethereal, immersive and dreamlike environments built to envelop viewers through Nakamoto’s approach to space, light and sound and Schipfer’s experience with kinetic visual and geometric drawings.

Since 2011, their work has been utilized and exhibited throughout Europe, Asia and the United States.

As a side note for those familiar with the “John Wick” films, particularly the fourth, Schipfer and Nakamoto designed the eerie, light-framed, museum-like setting of the near-final fight scene.

The appearance of “HOSHI” bears some similarities.

In addition to increasing the museum’s capacity to host large-scale multimedia works and the skill sets of staff to display them for the benefit of members and guests, the museum is adding value to the series through ART-TECH workshops held in conjunction with each
exhibit.

“Complementing each exhibit, we’ll host five onsite ART-TECH workshops with the Wonderspaces team and four additional onsite virtual sessions with the exhibiting artists,” Welsh said. “But for this first installation, we’re honored to actually have the artists here in person for their workshop Friday at 10 a.m.,” Welsh said. “Thanks to the Knight Foundation, these workshops are free and should be of interest to regional technical and curatorial professionals, artists, photographers, IT professionals, exhibit/event presenters, curators and scholars, media representatives and students, even teachers and others who wish to bring groups.”

Welsh said they don’t intend to limit attendance but advise reserving a spot in the workshop series by emailing swelsh@MASmacon.com.

For future exhibits, the virtual workshops with artists will be the Friday before opening and Wonderspaces workshops the day of opening.

Dates for the four remaining shows are:

— “On a Human Scale,” opening Feb. 21, 2025, running through June 21, 2025

— “Plume” opening June 27, 2025, running through Oct. 25, 2025

— “Fuji” Oct. 31, 2025, running through Feb. 28, 2026

— “Erupture” opening March 6, 2026, running through July 11, 2026

Though the ability to offer such exhibits is a major advancement for the museum, Welsh said its roots go back to immersive fulldome films shown annually in the museum’s Mark Smith Planetarium as a partner with the Macon Film Festival. The Fulldome Festival has drawn the best-of-the-best fulldome creators in educational, artistic, narrative and other fulldome genres.

Through Welsh’s leadership, the museum and Fulldome Festival have become internationally recognized for their use and advancement of fulldome works. Now, it’s set to play a similar role regarding new art and its place in art and science spaces.

“When we started incubating the Fulldome Festival, we realized many of fulldome creators were doing extraordinary things in other areas of art that we just weren’t able to present,” Welsh said. “Now we’re developing that ability. Reaching that goal is a big part of this project and partnership with Wonderspaces. We hope we can help other professionals to curate such spaces, inspire those in the sciences with what we present and definitely hope to inspire and help inform local creatives in working in these new forms.

“Again, the intersection of science, technology and art is important to our mission. Fulldome was a new step for us and allowed us to use our planetarium in additional ways. We’re continuing to think about what type of artwork or experience visitors should expect when they go to a science center, especially one where art has its own importance. What type of innovative experiences can we deliver that will resonate with our visitors? Especially knowing a large majority of them are coming because of our science programs. We want to bring them that art-science intersection at a very advanced level.”

For more on Wonderspaces and NONOTAK Studio, visit www.wonderspaces.com and www.nonotak.com. Find out more about the many offerings of the Museum of Arts and Sciences at masmacon.org.

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Of course, Friday is November’s First Friday with art openings, artist talks and frequently light refreshments in galleries and spaces across downtown along with shopping, dining, entertainment and other things to do. More on each can be found on their websites, Facebook or Instagram pages, plus search Facebook events for “First Friday Art Crawl Downtown Macon” and “November First Friday Downtown Macon” for summaries and times.

But here’s a touch of who and what is where art-wise:

— NewTown Macon, in partnership with Dashboard, presents a new exhibit on Second Street Lane — the alleyway between Poplar and Cherry streets — called “Bright City: Cultural Confluence.” The outdoor exhibition features illuminated photographs by seven artists expressing their lineages and identities. Artists are Randy Kemp, Hotvlkuce (Hadulgagee) Harjo, Jessi Sands, April Holder, Carrie Lind, George Alexander and Britt Postoak.

— Claudia Hartley presents a series of portraits titled “Faces of Macon” at Green Light Gallery on 1st Street. You will likely recognize quite a few of her subjects.

— “Favorite Things” opens at the 567 Center for Renewal on 1st Street featuring artwork, fine crafts and handmade ornaments by local artists for $100 or less. 

— The third annual “Small Works” exhibit opens at the Macon Arts Alliance gallery on 1st Street featuring work by 20 different artists with each piece less than 12×12 inches.

— Nashville photographer Jeff Fasano comes to Gallery West on 3rd Street for a book signing and exhibition of his work. As you might well expect, his work is music-centered.

— Documentary photographer DSTO Moore will show work from his “Macon Music Project,” a series of photo portraits celebrating 51 musicians who make Macon the music city it is today. It’s at Third Street Studio on 3rd Street.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram at michael_w_pannell.