May 4, 2009

News Release

TISD Students Learn About Folk Art  

As a result of the on-going partnership with Tyler Independent School District and the Tyler Museum of Art (TMA), students in the second grade will receive a “Mexican Folk Art Coloring Book” during a special presentation scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5, 2009, at the Tyler Museum of Art, located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave, in Tyler.

Special guests for the event include Tyler Mayor Barbara Bass, Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid, and Tyler ISD Director of Visual and Performing Arts George Faber.  In addition to 30 students representing Tyler ISD at the event, the celebration also will feature a performance by the Tyler Ballet Folklorico dance troupe with brief remarks by the Museum director and special guests.  Copies of the book will be available to all the children attending the event.

The Tyler Museum of Art will unveil a bilingual “Mexican and Latin American Folk Art Coloring Book” from the Laura and Dan Boeckman Collection of Mexican and Latin American Folk Art.

            The English-Spanish coloring book features illustrations of selected works from the Boeckman Collection, with bilingual text and information about the artwork written by Stephen Vollmer, the Museum’s adjunct curator of Mexican and Latin American Art, and translated by John Hays. 

The 24-page coloring book, underwritten by Yvette Brunette and John Merrill of State Farm Insurance in Tyler, and Hudson Printing & Graphic Design of Longview, was inspired by the generosity of Laura and Dan Boeckman, the Dallas-area philanthropists who have made a promised gift of over 300 works from their extensive collection of contemporary Mexican and Latin American folk art – one of the premier collections of its kind in the United States. 

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