NMC Campus Observer

NMC Unveils the All New Kirsti Aho Museum

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Jan 24, 2008 11:38pm

Last Sunday was a private launch for the re-opening of the Kirsti Aho Art Museum on NMC Campus. The Aho Museum aspires to showcase the finest examples of art that can be found in Second Life. The resources of the museum include the museum and the gardens surrounding it on the NMC Campus as well as the satellite museums, performance spaces, and exterior galleries on the island of Ars Simulacra.

The museum is named after Kirsti Aho, an emeritus board member of the New Media Consortium who has dedicated her life to supporting new media and creative expression. The museum’s curator and guiding force is Tayzia Abattoir, a long-standing and much admired patron of the arts in Second Life.

Anyone is welcome to visit the Aho Museum on NCM Campus at NMC Campus (115, 88, 25). You will need to jon the “NMC Guests” group to visit this sim.

Our Collections

The Permanent Collection, housed within and around the Aho Museum, strives to provide an encyclopedic showcase of virtual art forms and includes sculptures of all kinds, interactives, prim-based recreations of real life art, computer-mediated drawings and paintings, scripted and computer-generated art, virtual photography, and machinima. Inclusion in the permanent collection is by invitation only, and generally only a single piece from an artist will be solicited, although exceptions are made for artists working in multiple forms.

Lobby of the Aho

While much of the art on display at the Aho is bequeathed to the museum by its curator or the artists, a modest endowment also supports the purchase of truly extraordinary pieces. Inclusion in the permanent collection is generally limited to one-of-a-kind works, but exceptions are made from time to time.

The Rotating Collection, housed on the island of Ars Simulacra, is dedicated to showcasing all the forms of art possible in Second Life, including art brought into Second Life such as paintings or real-world photographs. Several times per year comprehensive exhibits of the works of noteworthy artists creating in Second Life are held, as well as art events and artist forums. Ars Simulacra is also the home of the ZeroG Skydancers who perform in a special space created for them by Dancoyote Antonelli that floats 600 meters above the island.

Our Support of the Arts

The Aho Museum is owned by the New Media Consortium (NMC), a real world not-for-profit consortium of leading universities and museums. From its earliest beginnings in Second Life, the NMC and the Aho have been committed to supporting the arts and artists in Second Life, and do so through purchases of art, through art-focused events and programs, through alliances with leading artists and arts organizations in Second Life, and through direct support. The museum provides fellowships to promising artists who need studio space or other forms of assistance.

Our Building

The museum’s current structure, designed and created by architect CJ Holden in the summer of 2007, is the second home of the Aho Museum, and was built on the same spot within the NMC Campus as the museum’s first home.

Kirsti Aho Art Museum on NMC Campus, designed by CJ Carnot

The museum’s first building, an iconic structure that is now archived, was inspired by Mayan pyramids and the Art Dec movement. Designed and built by Forseti Svarog as part of the original NMC Campus, that iconic structure was home to the museum for nearly two years.

Like the original Aho, the museum’s new building features a one-of-a-kind design intended to provide a fitting setting for the artworks which fill and surround it. The galleries in the museum are supremely flexible, and provide a variety of ways in which to display, light, and experience the art of Second Life. The building itself is an interactive piece of art, and over time, the exterior walls slowly change in response to their environment.

Artists in the Permanent Collection

• Nomasha Syaka - Icarus on Ice
• Sunn Thunders - Kokopellis Sculpture
• Ravenelle Zugzwang - Three Metal Horses
• Ravenelle Zugzwang - Lily
• Rezago Kokorin - Ice Age
• DeltaDharmaDawn Aubret - 3da- Farewell Angelina
• LeVey Palou - LHD_GEISHA
• Cubist Scarborough - Hologram of Clive Egginton
• Morris Vig - Multicolor Twist
• Cheen Pitney - Bullrider
• Charlot Dickins - A Boxer Feeling Blue
• Lash Xevious - Severed Connection
• Art Laxness - Squirl black
• Seifert Surface - Moving Hyperboloid
• Mika Korhonen - Hearts
• Solkide Auer - Radiazioni
• Random Calliope - Guardian - Ode in Crimson and Golden
• Damanios Thetan - Primetic II
• Stormy Roentgen - Solitude
• Xenophile Neurocam - XN Self.DeconSphere
• Sasun Steinbeck - Morphing Sculpture
• Nand Nerd - ss-dode
• Shellina Winkler - PURPLE KNOT
• mikeG1 Schuman - Kinetic Sculpture #4
• Elros Tuominen - night flower
• Meleni Fairymeadow - Buddha at Ease
• Damanios Thetan - Primetic
• Sunn Thunders - Schweifen Sculpture
• Vlad Bjornson - Plant Deco
• AM Radio - Marat_AM Radio
• Squirrel Zuhal - “Lilies”
• RacerX Gullwing - Snails On Holiday V2
• Stella Costello - Reflection
• Light Waves - Ballerina
• Meleni Fairymeadow - Grace in Prayer
• Elros Tuominen - fractal flower
• Daruma Picnic - 19 Prim Click Color Art
• Red Randt - Maura, who licked her knee and shamed Zeus
• Forseti Svarog - Primming Diebenkorn
• Stella Costello - The Scream
• Ub Yifu - Don Quichotte
• Nomasha Syaka - Michelangelo’s David
• Stella Costello - The Ship: Moded
• Ub Yifu - Sancho Panza
• Red Levitt - Victoria 13
• Red Randt - Sip Lemonade
• Rob Escape - Mermaid Statue on Rocks
• Rob Escape - Bosk Standing Tall
• Pumpkin Tripsa - Diana the Huntress
• Nomasha Syaka - Sculptie Horse
• Light Waves - Sculpted Skull
• Qarl Linden - fruit plate
• Seifert Surface - Torus Knot
• Random Calliope - One Prim Double Knot
• Morris Vig - Intertwined
• Vlad Bjornson - Sculpted Thoughts
• Fratine Petrova - Polarity
• Vlad Bjornson - Black Hole w/ Tube
• Stella Costello - Primolution
• Shellina Winkler - Crescent Moon
• Jenne Dibou - Automaton Workers
• Jenne Dibou - “The time is all he left.”
• Ravenelle Zugzwang - Women in Hats
• Meleni Fairymeadow - Red Shawl
• Meleni Fairymeadow - At the Window
• Seifert Surface - Moving Hyperboloid

Exhibition of Real Life Paintings by Second Life Artists

• Wolk Writer
• Michaelanglo Montague

Story filed under: Arts, What's Happening
Tags: aho
See all stories by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine)