EUGENE–The University of Oregon Museum of Art is issuing a special invitation for teens to visit the museum for MusEvenings! from 6—7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided.

The evening will consist of poetry and music presented by local middle and high school students, and tours, led by teen docents, of the current exhibition, "The Realm of Revelation: Vision and Imagination in Later Korean Art," which is at the museum through April 9.

Lisa Abia-Smith, the art museum’s director of education, organized the event to promote the teen-targeted activities and opportunities that take place in the museum.

"We thought this would be a great opportunity for the teen docents currently enrolled in our program to show off their skills and introduce the museum to their fellow students," she says.

Each term, the Teen Docent Program trains 10—12 Lane County teens to lead students through museum tours and to visit local area classrooms and assisted-living centers. The result has been increased museum visitation and participation by young adults.

The program offers teen participants an experience that bolsters their skills in critical thinking, public speaking, research and visual thinking, Abia-Smith says. It also provides students and peers of teen docents with an accessible and non-threatening forum for learning about and discussing art.

In addition, the Teen Docent Program represents an opportunity for UO art museum staff to work more closely with middle school and high school teachers to improve curriculum that uses the museum’s resources and supports state educational standards. The UO program helps students meet Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) and Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM) requirements established by the Oregon Department of Education.

Recently, the art museum received a $9,000 grant from the Edna L. Holmes Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation to support the Teen Docent Program.

"The Realm of Revelation," organized by Charles Lachman, an associate professor of art history and the museum’s associate curator of Asian art, is drawn in part from works in the art museum’s collections. The rest have been loaned by Robert and Sandra Mattielli of Portland.

The exhibition consists of traditional folding screens, hanging scrolls and fans, as well as an unusual banner and several intricately folded prints. It explores the idea that many Korean artists of the 19th and 20th centuries functioned essentially as visionaries, using their art to reveal otherwise invisible aspects of the world.

The University of Oregon Museum of Art is a nonprofit state institution supported by the generosity of its membership and by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Operating funds also are provided by the Horton, Museum of Art, Culp, Krause and Autzen endowments. Additional funding for this exhibition was provided by a Lane County Tourism Special Projects Grant.

Accessible to people with disabilities, the Museum of Art is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday and from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Suggested admission is $3, except on Wednesday evenings when the MusEvenings! program offers free extended viewing hours from 5 to 8 p.m. Museum members, students, UO employees and children are admitted free.

For information, browse http://uoma.uoregon.edu or call (541) 346-3027.

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