Jeffrey Gibson (American, 1972–). I’M TAKING TIME AWAY TO DREAM, 2023, acrylic on canvas, vintage beaded elements, glass beads, acrylic felt and nylon thread in a custom painted frame. Copyright Jeffrey Gibson. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery. Photo by Max Yawney.
Stars align for purchase of work by Jeffrey Gibson
For over two decades, Jeffrey Gibson has created works that bridge his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and mainstream popular culture. His early works stretched elk skin over a traditional drum or an unexpected ironing board painted with high-keyed colors in geometric patterns that were as much Indigenous design as Op Art and rave club decoration. In the 2010s, Gibson’s punching bags decorated in beads, jingles, and ribbons, emblazoned with empowering slogans — KNOW YOUR MAGIC, TRAPPED IN THE DREAM OF THE OTHER, NOTHING IS ETERNAL — caught the attention of the art world. While the sculpture echoed fashion, the embellished paintings Gibson made simultaneously continued the pushpull with Indigenous and Western art’s visual languages. As if they were in a call and response, the two-dimensional works mashed up gay clubbing, hip-hop, and art history. Native American objects immediately cue a narrative deviating from a straightforwardly Western art history.
On a CBS Sunday Morning episode in May 2024, Gibson observed that when people see beads, “they know immediately that this is coming from a different history than a Rembrandt painting.” And while the zig-zag design may evoke Indigenous weaving patterns, the color palette is a reference to both Indigenous and queer culture aesthetics. They could be found as easily in a disco as in fancy dance regalia. Gibson clarifies his use of color, with the “we” referring to queer culture as well as Indigenous.
In a New York Times article about his work, Gibson recalls while working to earn his bachelor’s degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, professors criticized his intense colors as “gaudy, trashy, kitschy and campy.” Gibson combatted this dismissal by making those very design elements the representation of strength and confidence. The work flows easily between Indigenous aesthetics, Chelsea-gallery conceptualism, and commercial design. His powerful pattern and decoration works have steadily moved to larger platforms. In 2018, his large tunics loomed over the champagne-sipping crowd at the New York Armory; major museum retrospectives at Seattle Art Museum (2019) and Portland Art Museum (2023) follows.
This year, Gibson is the first Native American to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in an installation poignantly titled the space in which to place me. For the Venice exhibition, Gibson covered the building’s walls, inside and out, with his vibrant vectors of high-keyed hues. The exterior courtyard hosted an opening Jingle Dance performance by the Oklahoma Fancy Dancers and Colorado Inter-tribal Dancers in traditional dress (the footage is incredible and good clips can be found on YouTube, Venissage.TV, and the Portland Art Museum’s website). Inside, paintings with the same vibrating palette as the walls double the effect. Phrases and beaded objects add another layer to the paintings, each element a talisman — the brilliant triangles pushing our bodies and eyes, the collected objects as a keepsake from someone not present, and the words a guiding mantra from Gibson, which like the objects, are acquired second-hand from another source. (Gibson’s titles often quote poems or song lyrics; the pavilion title references the poem “He Sápa” by Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier.) These are gifts collected by the artist and passed onto us in the same way tradition and heritage makes its way through bloodlines and brethren. In Gibson’s words, “We are all living ends of very long threads.”
Jeffrey Gibson (American, 1972–). I’M TAKING TIME AWAY TO DREAM (detail), 2023, acrylic on canvas, vintage beaded elements, glass beads, acrylic felt and nylon thread in a custom painted frame. Copyright Jeffrey Gibson. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery. Photo by Max Yawney.
The acquisition story
Thanks to the generosity of the Mint Museum Auxiliary, The Mint Museum was able to purchase Jeffrey Gibson’s I’m Taking Time Away to Dream (2023). Annemarie Coyle, the Mint Museum Auxiliary’s 2023-2025 art chair, wanted this year’s Auxiliary donation to be as significant as the magnificent Maria Grazia Chiuri Dior dress purchased last year for the Craft, Design, and Fashion Collection. A work by Jeffrey Gibson has long been on the Mint’s Craft, Design, and Fashion wish list and the Contemporary Art Collection development plan. His intersection of craft traditions and techniques and traditional art methods allow him to cross multiple collection areas for the Mint. That broad relevance to the Mint’s collecting practices and Gibson’s representation at the Biennale made his work ideal.
Stephen Friedman Gallery’s preview of Gibson’s first London solo show hit curators’ inboxes January 11, 2024. Coyle and the Mint’s CEO and President Todd Herman, PhD, and I fell in love with two of the works, but it was essential to see the paintings. The Mint Museum Auxiliary board fortunately had a trip planned to London the week the Friedman show opened. The gallery agreed to hold the two pieces until the group, which included Herman; Senior Curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion Annie Carlano; and president of the Mint Museum Auxiliary Anna Glass, arrived. I’m Taking Time Away to Dream was selected.
The work will be installed in the Contemporary Art galleries at Mint Museum Uptown in fall 2024. The full rainbow spectrum consumes the surface, from canvas to the artist-painted frame. Vintage beaded patches — flowers reminiscent of a 1960s peacenik era and an American buffalo standing stoically beneath a rainbow — quote Indigenous decoration and the appropriation of those aesthetics into mainstream fashion. But the colors and beads also evoke queer culture, as Gibson has created a memorial for those lost at a young age to the AIDS epidemic. “I’m taking time away to dream” is the opening line of “Time Away,” a song by the multifaceted experimental musician Arthur Russell, who was only 40 years old when he died of AIDS-related causes. Gibson’s work evolves directly from his life: a gay, Indigenous man, born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a military kid, who grew up on Army bases in Korea and Germany, as well as numerous states, including North Carolina. Because of this, his work straddles many forms of American culture — indigenous and colonial, domestic and international.
In a June 2024 Bomb magazine interview with Anthony Hudson, Gibson states: “I’ve also tried to make work over the last 20 years that speaks to the many facets of my experience, which isn’t only rooted in Native cultures but also in the many places I’ve lived and the family I have. Dare I say, many intersections make up Jeffrey Gibson, and I feel responsible to them all.” As well as many more — Gibson layers multiple lost stories and marginalized voices into an image so vibrant and resonate, it cannot be overlooked easily or forgotten quickly. Gibson says of his viewers: “I want them to see survival, I want them to see innovation, I want them to see empowered people because so often, at least in my lifetime, we’ve been represented through our trauma. I want to present us as being very present and aware and powerful.”
–Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum.
Maya Goded (1967- Mexico City). “Iquique, Chile,” 2022, digital print. Museum purchase with funds provided by Allen Blevins and Armando Aispuro, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes.
Documenting the lives of women lost in the shadows
By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD
For the past three years, the Mint has been building a significant portfolio of works by Mexico City-based photographers Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded. Over the decades, the two photographers have created revealing, poignant, and powerful images that examine the intersection of contemporary life and centuries-long practices throughout North and South America.
The artists, who are a generation apart in age, both grew up in Mexico City and have worked in various places throughout the world. Their primary focus, however, has been indigenous communities stretching from Los Angeles to Chile. Over decades of exploring communities, whether urban or isolated, Iturbide and Goded have found women as the consistent force holding these fragmenting societies together.
The exhibition is primarily drawn from The Mint’s collection, and celebrates a recent gift from Allen Blevins and Armando Aispuro, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes that allowed the museum to purchase significant portfolios by both photographers.
Maya Goded
Born in Mexico City in 1967 to political activists (her mother immigrated from New York City), Maya Goded has long sought out the unseen or actively ignored people in our spaces: prostitutes, the missing, laborers, healers. Goded’s photographs feature women whose essential roles are supporting and sustaining communities but are considered dispensable when it comes to their care and protection.
Over the last decade, Goded noticed that the healing practices women traditionally used on the sick in their communities were increasingly turned to the land on which they lived. Decades of strip mining, nuclear testing, and chemical dumping had poisoned the earth and water in many Central and South American countries Goded documented. As a result, the portfolio of images the Mint has collected includes many ways in which women’s bodies move through the world with the attempt to heal.
The photographs featured here are an overview of Goded’s work that will be included in Women of Land and Smoke.
Learn more about Graciela Iturbide and her portfolio in the next issue of Inspired.*
Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, is chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum.
*This article originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Inspired magazine, the Mint’s member magazine.
Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Mint Museum will donate all admission proceeds from Oct. 3–10 to the Craft Emergency Relief Fund to help artists affected by Hurricane Helene
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA (October 1, 2024) — In an effort to support artists living in Western North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene, and as part of our steadfast commitment to supporting arts throughout North Carolina, The Mint Museum will be donating 100% of admission proceeds from October 3–10 to Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+).
For over 40 years, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) has been a vital resource for craft artists, offering emergency relief and building educational tools to help artists navigate crises and rebuild. CERF+ remains a passionate advocate for the craft community, ensuring that artists have the support they need in the wake of disasters.
Additionally, the Mint is actively coordinating with local arts organizations and artists to identify opportunities for displaced artists to continue their work in Charlotte’s studios and creative spaces, offering them a place to practice their craft until they can safely return to Asheville.
“Our hearts go out to the residents of Western North Carolina who have been deeply affected by the ongoing crisis this past week caused by Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina is a cornerstone of North Carolina’s artistic community, and home to some of the state’s most talented artists, craftspeople, and makers,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum.
People from Florida to the Ohio River Valley have been profoundly impacted by this storm, and every little bit counts, so we encourage you to visit the museum during this period and donate to organizations like CERF+, American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, United Way, MANNA FoodBank and others.
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ABOUT THE MINT MUSEUM
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts on South Tryon Street — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Mindfulness at the Mint offers a welcoming space for self-care and gaining knowledge about art
By Diane Lowry and Joel Smeltzer
Mindfulness at the Mint programming contributes to the emerging field of mindfulness in museums. Mindfulness programs in museums have become increasingly popular in recent years.
Join one of the following mindfulness programs offered at the Mint:
Mindful Looking: Mindful Looking provides space for connections to happen between participants, the artwork and the facilitators. Experience increased mind-body awareness with works on view as the focus of contemplation and discovery, enhanced by guided slow looking and mindful breathing, followed by a group discussion to open dialogue and discover personal connections and interpretations. Free with registration.
Mindful Sketching: In these sessions, mindfulness techniques, such as mindful breathing and guided slow looking are integrated and prompts are provided. Participants can sketch a work of their choice and then return for a conversation with the group. Free with registration.
Meditation at the Mint: Immerse yourself in a calm and contemplative atmosphere as you experience mindful breathing and guided slow-looking meditation surrounded by art. Sessions include a 20-minute guided, slow-looking meditation and 10-minute closing discussion. Free with admission.
This year’s staff art exhibition, titled Origin, centers on staff origins — ancestry, race, and the beginning of existence. It symbolizes a rise, a commencement, and the source from which something derives its being or nature.
In addition to physical works of art created by Mint staff, Origin hosts an innovative digital component that complements the works on view. The dynamic display features items relevant to the origins and ancestry of Mint staff, including photos, family records, and various memorabilia. Each item will have an accompanying description of what it is and why it is important to the individual’s roots. The Mint Museum collaborated with Charlotte-based digital artist Alexander Newman Hall to create the interactive experience.
Origin will be on view through September 29 in the STAR Gallery, Level M, at Mint Museum Uptown.
—Hailey Black, multimedia strategy manager
By Leslie Strauss, head of family and studio programs
For the fourth consecutive summer, visitors had the chance to meet animals up close and try out creative art activities at Wild Wednesdays. Artists of all ages enjoyed making homemade bubble wands, drawing North Carolina’s state mammal the Eastern Gray Squirrel, and crafting snakes out of clay. Families especially loved the free-choice activities in the Art Room at Mint Museum Randolph.
The highlight of the events continues to be the Stevens Creek Nature Center booth where one can choose to touch a corn snake, learn about the habits of the yellow-bellied slider, or hear the story of a box turtle recovering from a forest fire. Nature center educators, and their animal counterparts, did an amazing job of helping museum visitors develop a deeper appreciation of the natural world. In addition to making art and learning about species native to the Piedmont region of North Carolina, families used scavenger hunts to explore museum galleries, played on the lawn, and observed insects in the pollinator-friendly flower garden in front of the museum.
Wild Wednesdays launched during the summer of 2021 when circumstances required the museum to program outdoors for the safety of visitors. Four years later, the initiative has grown to include both indoor and outdoor experiences and continues to resonate with visitors who love celebrating the natural world.
Hats off to two of the Mint’s senior leaders who were named in Charlotte Business Journal’s top executive honoree lists.
Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of the Mint, was selected as an honoree in CBJ’s Most Admired CEO awards under Arts and Culture. CBJ’s Most-Admired CEO Awards program recognizes established leaders in the Charlotte region who have demonstrated a strong vision for their companies and a commitment to the community.
Gary Blankemeyer, the Mint’s chief operating/chief financial officer, leads the 2024 class of CFO of the Year honorees and will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from CBJ. CBJ seeks to put a spotlight on the Charlotte area’s brightest financial executives through the CFO of the Year Awards program.
The medium is a metaphor
By Page Leggett
Kenny Nguyen is both creator and destroyer. The native of Vietnam, who now lives in Concord, explains, “If you want to do something new, you have to destroy something and rebuild it.”
His elegant, ethereal art made from paint-soaked silk looks serene. There’s no trace of the demolition involved in making it. The reason he tears down only to build back up goes deeper than aesthetics. The deconstruction (and reconstruction) mimics his own seismic cultural shift.
Nguyen and his family left Vietnam for Charlotte when he was 19. His use of silk is an homage to his homeland; Vietnam produces some of the world’s finest. Once he arrived in the United States, he felt as though he had to start everything all over again. “It was like I was being deconstructed,” he says. “I had to reconstruct my identity. If you move somewhere and don’t know anybody and don’t speak the language, it’s very isolating. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”
Portrait of the artist as a young child
Nguyen grew up in a small village in the Mekong Delta. Its size and remoteness forced him to make his own fun.
“We were very isolated,” he says. “There was no road connecting us to anything, so we traveled by boat. I didn’t have access to a playground or toys. If I wanted to play with something, I had to make it myself. My mom and dad introduced me to watercolors when I was 4 or 5, and I spent much of my childhood painting and drawing. It never left me.”
At 17, he moved to Ho Chi Minh City to study fashion design. But that wasn’t the biggest culture shock he’d experience. That happened three years later in 2010 when the family moved to Charlotte. Nguyen switched course and studied fine art, earning a bachelor’s degree in painting from UNC Charlotte in 2016. After graduation, he pursued art while also working part-time at a nail salon. The pandemic, while devastating for many, brought Nguyen good fortune. Thanks to social media, that is when he made the leap to full-time artist. Social media has no geographic boundaries, so when he shared his work online, collectors all over the world took notice. Prestigious galleries found him and he sold more in 2020 than ever before.
Nguyen is now among Sundaram Tagore Gallery’s artists, all of whom, according to the gallery’s website, “produce museum-caliber work.” The contemporary gallery, with locations in Singapore and London, specializes in “work that is aesthetically and intellectually rigorous, infused with humanism and art historically significant.” He’s exhibited in France, Iceland, and South Korea and recently returned from Büdelsdorf, Germany, where he was part of an international group show.
A melting pot of materials
There’s a lot of physicality to Nguyen’s art-making process. He creates his large-scale work on the floor of his studio. He cuts the silk and soaks the strips — often, hundreds of them — in acrylic paint. While those strips are still damp, they’re affixed to a canvas. The wet, thick paint acts as an adhesive.
The finished work has three layers: silk, paint, and canvas. Although they are tightly integrated, it is hard to tell where one piece ends and another begins. The fabric maintains its character while also becoming something new once he assembles the strips with pushpins, a holdover from his fashion design days. Once he finishes a work on the floor, he hangs it on a wall in his studio for more tinkering. The painted silk strips can be placed in different configurations on canvas. Pushpins allow him to gently sculpt the pieces into undulating folds. “One piece can take many different forms, just like our identities, which are always changing.”
Performance art
Nguyen’s collectors often tell him they have never seen anything like his art. His installation process is as labor-intensive as his creative process. It is not uncommon for a collector to film him working. One New York collector, born and raised in Vietnam, tells him it reminds her of home. “It’s always meaningful when collectors connect with my work,” he says. “These aren’t typical ready-to-hang paintings,” he explains. “My work is much more complicated. It needs to be installed. When I do an installation, it’s sort of like a performance. My collectors witness the art come alive as I rebuild it on their wall. I think it adds to the joy of collecting.”
When Nguyen invented the process he uses to make his “deconstructed paintings,” he wasn’t sure others would get it, but Sozo Gallery founder and owner Hannah Blanton did. Shortly after Nguyen’s graduation, Blanton’s now-closed uptown gallery began representing him and did so until Blanton closed Sozo and opened her art consultancy business seven years later. Today, she serves as studio director for Nguyen. Nguyen credits Blanton with promoting his work and helping explain its complexities to potential patrons.
Indeed, his work is mysterious. “People always want to take a closer look, because it’s almost an illusion tricking you,” he says.
The artist who once felt like a stranger here now considers Charlotte his second home. (Vietnam is still first.) “I’m grateful for the large art community here that encouraged and supported me,” he says. “When I talk to young people who want to start an art career here, I’m happy to tell them they don’t have to move to New York to make it.”
Page Leggett is a Charlotte-based freelance writer. Her stories have appeared in The Charlotte Observer, The Biscuit, Charlotte magazine and many other regional publications.
A native of Charlotte, human resources coordinator Justin Williams is a creative and musician who enjoys being involved in the arts and finds himself consistently pushing the envelope to try new things. Justin’s favorite piece currently on display at The Mint is ‘Hyper Ellipsoid’ By Gisela Colon.
“I really enjoy how the piece dominates a space and interacts with light. It evolves based on where you stand in front of it. I also like the concept of organic Minimalism.”
Whitfield Lovell(American, b. Bronx, NY). Deep River, 2013, fifty-six wooden discs, found objects, soil, video projections, sound, dimensions variable. Courtesy of American Federation of Arts, the artist, and DC Moore Gallery, New York.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Consisting of two monumental installations and approximately 30 additional works, Passages is the most comprehensive exhibition of artist Whitfield Lovell’s work to date
Charlotte, North Carolina (May 30, 2024) — Through intricate drawings, three-dimensional storytelling, compelling assemblages, and multisensory installations, Whitfield Lovell: Passages, presents lesser-discussed aspects of African American history that raise universal questions about identity, memory, and America’s collective heritage. The exhibition, organized by the American Federation of Arts in collaboration with artist Whitfield Lovell, will fill galleries on Level 3 and Level 4 of Mint Museum Uptown June 29–September 22, 2024. Museum admission will be free June 29 and 30 to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
A 2007 MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient, Whitfield Lovell is internationally renowned for his installations that incorporate masterful Conté crayon portraits of anonymous African Americans from the period between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights Movement. Using vintage photography as his source, Lovell often pairs his subjects with found objects, evoking personal memories, ancestral connections, and the collective American past.
Passages references a central theme of Lovell’s work that explores the struggle for equality, physical migration, social progress, and self-sufficiency that have been part of the African American experience. Lovell’s work seeks to elicit a visceral response in viewers by tapping memories and emotions through sound, smell, and touch, as well as sight, says Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum.
“For Lovell, the design of the exhibition is integral to the experience he wants to transmit to his audiences,” Edwards says. “While this is a traveling show, Lovell and his team work closely with each institution, so each iteration best relays the intention of his work.”
The exhibition brings together for the first time two of Lovell’s experiential, immersive installations: Deep River (2013) and The Richmond Project (2001). Through a combination of video projections, sounds of lapping water and bird calls, a mound of soil, music, drawings, and everyday objects, Deep River documents the perilous journey freedom-seekers took by crossing the Tennessee River during the American Civil War.
The Richmond Project is a profound homage to the first major African American entrepreneurial community in Jackson Ward, Richmond, Virginia. Through a series of intimate domestic interior settings, the emotionally stirring installation pays tribute to the lives, names, and faces of the people who lived in this historic neighborhood.
The exhibition also includes works from Lovell’s past series, Kin (2008-2011), and his newest, The Reds (2021-2022). The Reds are presented alongside two operational telephones that, when their receivers are lifted, emit the familiar and galvanizing refrain of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The late 19th-century song conveys faith and freedom, allying exodus from enslavement to the Biblical concept of the promised land.
Charlotte is one of six stops for the national exhibition tour of Whitfield Lovell: Passages. The exhibition in Charlotte is generously presented by PNC. Individual support is kindly provided by Kelle and Len Botkin and Marshelette and Milton Prime. Major support for the national tour and exhibition catalog is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
“PNC’s support for Whitfield Lovell: Passages builds on our longstanding collaboration with The Mint Museum to deliver world-class art that both inspires and informs local audiences,” said Weston Andress, PNC regional president for Western Carolinas. “All of us at PNC look forward to helping The Mint Museum welcome visitors to this meaningful exhibit.”
UPCOMING PROGRAMMING
Artist Talk: Whitfield Lovell June 27, 7:15 PM
Mint Museum Uptown
Artist Whitfield Lovell joins Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, will discuss Whitfield Lovell: Passages and the process and motivations behind Lovell’s work. The event is free.
EXHIBITION CURATOR
Michèle Wije, PhD, is a former curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts. She began her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has organized several exhibitions, including Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show (2019) and Bisa Butler: Portraits (2020) for the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York.
TICKET INFORMATION
The Mint Museum exhibition is free for members and youth ages 18 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older and college students with ID. Admission is free 5-9 PM on Wednesdays. Purchase tickets at mintmuseum.org.
Museum admission will be free June 29 and 30 to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
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ABOUT THE MINT MUSEUM
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts on South Tryon Street — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS
The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit organization founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing exhibition catalogues featuring important scholarly research, and developing educational programs.
Robert W. Ebendorf (American, 1938−), various artists. ECU Charm Necklace, 2017, silver, copper, brass, enamel, mixed media, found objects, 19 × 12 1/2 × 1 3/4 in. Collection of The Mint Museum. Gift of Porter • Price Collection. 2022.49.7
Objects of Affection: Jewelry by Robert Ebendorf from the Porter • Price Collection
The story of how a twig necklace led to decades of friendship and a comprehensive collection of works
By Rebecca E. Elliot
You could say that the story of this exhibition starts with a necklace made from twigs. In 1996, Joe Price was working in San Francisco, where his partner (now husband) Ron Porter frequently visited him. They had become interested in contemporary craft during the 1980s through visits to New York and had begun exploring galleries and museums in the Bay Area.
At the Susan Cummins Gallery in Mill Valley, California, Porter and Price saw The Opera Show, for which Cummins invited artists to interpret an opera of their choosing through jewelry. But instead of evoking a specific opera, Ebendorf presented Twig Necklace — a ruff of radiating twigs accented by gold spirals and pearls — provocatively suggesting that this adornment be worn to an opera.
For Ebendorf, this combination of precious and nonprecious materials was typical, but for Porter and Price — and the world at large — it was quite unusual. Porter and Price were fascinated, later describing it as “one of the defining moments of our experience with jewelry.” Yet, they did not purchase the necklace because they perceived it as needing to be worn by a woman to an event. It was only later that they would view jewelry as sculpture that could adorn a wall or simply be owned and admired.
Twig Necklace remained on their minds until two years later when Porter met Ebendorf at the Penland School of Craft Auction and asked about the necklace. He was delighted to learn that Ebendorf still had the necklace. Ebendorf was impressed by this collector who remembered his work from years ago. Not only did Porter and Price purchase the necklace soon after, but the conversation ignited a friendship that has lasted around 25 years and a collection of hundreds of pieces of jewelry.
Building a collection
Prior to buying Twig Necklace, Porter and Price purchased a ring by Ebendorf from the Susan Cummins Gallery. After buying the necklace, they purchased other works by Ebendorf, but in the spring of 2009, their collecting of jewelry became more ambitious.
Robert Ebendorf (American, 1938- ), Twig Necklace, circa 1994, wood, pearl, 18k gold, steel, 14 1/8 X 13 1/4 x 1/2 in. Collection of The Mint Museum. Gift of Porter * Price Collection. 2019.93.28
At Ebendorf’s invitation, they visited the undergraduate and graduate jewelry and metal design programs at East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, North Carolina where Ebendorf taught from 1997 to 2016. After meeting Ebendorf’s faculty colleagues Linda Darty, Tim Lazure, and Mi-Sook Hur, and students (some of whom were setting up their thesis exhibitions), Porter and Price were impressed by the originality of the students’ work. After that visit, Porter and Price began collecting works by ECU faculty members and students, becoming an important source of friendship and support especially for the students and graduates at an early stage of their careers.
During that same trip in the spring of 2009, Porter and Price joined Ebendorf to view a retrospective of his work at the Imperial Arts Centre in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. This was the first time they had seen so many works from Ebendorf’s then 50-year career. They were blown away by his craftsmanship and range, which includes vessels, jewelry, drawings, and installations, extending from sleek, modernist silver objects of the 1950s and early 1960s to his innovative use of found 19th-century photographs on jewelry in the late 1960s, experiments with plastics and torn newspaper in the 1970s and 1980s, and provocative use of squirrel paws and crab claws in the 1990s.
Porter and Price decided to build a comprehensive collection of Ebendorf’s work to include not only jewelry, objects, and drawings, but also archival materials such as exhibition catalogues and correspondence. As they built this collection (in addition to collections of contemporary ceramics, art in various media, and jewelry by artists not connected to ECU), Porter and Price became more involved with museums, including The Mint Museum. Their goal of preserving Ebendorf’s and the other ECU artists’ work to benefit artists, scholars, and the public aligned with the Mint’s goal of acquiring jewelry by regional, national, and international artists.
In 2019 the museum acquired the Porter • Price Collection as part gift, part purchase (with subsequent gifts in 2022 and 2024) along with the gift of the Robert W. Ebendorf Archive. The Porter • Price Collection comprises around 200 works by Ebendorf and approximately 100 objects by ECU faculty and graduates, while the archive comprises 13 cubic feet (about half the volume of a large refrigerator) of documents, audio-visual materials, and the hundreds of letters and collaged postcards exchanged between the artist and collectors.
Ebendorf gifted and sold works to Porter and Price that he had held back, such as his Colored Smoke Machine brooch (above) from his 1974 series of that name. This was inspired by the work of German jeweler Claus Bury, who was combining colored acrylic with gold on his own work of the time, and who visited Ebendorf that year when Ebendorf was a professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz. The series title, and this brooch’s form, were inspired by Bury’s fanciful drawings of Ebendorf’s house with colored smoke coming from the chimney, which Bury explained changed color according to the occupant’s moods. The brooch thus speaks to Ebendorf’s experimentation with materials and his friendships with international artists and represents one of the many stories told through the objects in the exhibition.
The exhibition Objects of Affection celebrates the oeuvre of Ebendorf, the work of his colleagues and former students at ECU and the friendships among the artists and collectors. It traces Ebendorf’s career since his first jewelry in the 1950s, concentrating on his work in the 21st century, and shows how he influenced his field by approaching materials and people the same way — connecting what was previously unrelated to create a new and compelling whole. This he did as a jeweler, metalsmith, collage artist, professor, teacher of workshops, and friend and mentor to many.
Objects of Affection is generously presented by Bank of America. Individual sponsorship is kindly provided by Posey and Mark Mealy, Jeffrey and Staci Mills, Emily and Bill Oliver, Beth and Drew Quartapella, Ches and Chrys Riley, and Ann and Michael Tarwater.
Rebecca E. Elliot is assistant curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion and curator of this exhibition.
CELEBRATING SOUTHERN ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE
Deadline: April 1, 2024
Overview:The Mint Museum, in collaboration with Young Affiliates of the Mint, invite artists living or working in the Southern United States to submit works for consideration in the upcoming exhibition Coined in the South: 2024.
The juried exhibition bridges the gap between museums, galleries, and studios by showcasing thought-provoking works by emerging artists at the heart of the Southern arts community. Artists who were born/raised in, work in, or currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Virginia are eligible to apply.
Coined in the South: 2024 will be on view December 14, 2024–April 27, 2025 at Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Eligibility: Submitted artwork should have been created within the past two years, be non-perishable, not generate excessive noise pollution, and cause no harm to living beings. Installation, video, and performance artists are encouraged to apply. Clear instructions for installation and space requirements are necessary, along with recordings or documentation of previous performances, if available.
Fees: $40 allows submission of up to three (3) works + Additional $10 for up to three (3) more submissions, totaling six (6) pieces per artist.
Delivery Period: Works must be delivered and ready for installation between August 1, 2024, and November 1, 2024. Artists are responsible for covering shipping expenses.
HONORARIUM AND AWARDS
Prize Awards:
One $10,000 Atrium Health Foundation juror-awarded grand prize
One $5,000 Young Affiliates of the Mint member-awarded prize
One $1,000 “People’s Choice” prize awarded by the public at the conclusion of the show. All selected artists will receive a $350 stipend to assist with shipping and travel expenses.
Distinguished Jurors:
Marshall N. Price, PhD, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Duke University
Victoria Ramirez, PhD, executive director at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
Stephanie J. Woods, assistant professor, Interdisciplinary Art, University of New Mexico
Contact: Patwin Lawrence and Mariama Holman, Coined in the South 2024 Biennial Co-Chairs at info@coinedinthesouth.org for more information.
Organizers:
The Mint Museum Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Young Affiliates of the Mint The Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAM) is the Mint Museum’s young professional auxiliary group. The organization’s mission is to expand access to the arts for children by raising funds for subsidized classroom trips to the museum each year. YAM annual programming focuses on supporting the museum and fostering community through cultural and social events. Established in 1990, the Young Affiliates is the premier social organization for young art enthusiasts in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mint Board Member Charlotte Wickham and Charlotte Ballet dancer Humberto Ramazzina will dance together at the 2024 Dancing With the Stars of Charlotte to support The Mint Museum and Charlotte Ballet.
‘Take more chances, dance more dances’
Mint Board Member Charlotte Wickham is stepping out to support The Mint Museum
By Michael J. Solender
After Charlotte Wickham relocated to Charlotte from New York City with her husband in 2008, she knew she wanted to get involved with supporting the arts and cultural community in Charlotte. While she couldn’t know it at the time, her enthusiasm for, and recognition of, how arts engagement impacts the development of children and young adults in her newly adopted community would lead her to dancing her heart out in support of The Mint Museum.
Wickham, a Mint Museum Board of Trustees member, is one of six local community leaders paired with a professional dancer from the Charlotte Ballet in its annual Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala. The event will take place March 2 at the Knight Theater to raise funds that support the Charlotte Ballet and the local leader’s charity of choice. Wickham has selected The Mint Museum and earmarked funds raised to support museum admission for Charlotte-area K-12 school children and post-secondary school students.
“I’ve always thought that arts and culture are an important part of learning for children,” Wickham says. “I grew up in Raleigh. My family often went to the ballet, the symphony, and to the museums. That was such a rich part of our life. Many studies show how art, dance, and music help develop children’s brains and help them to think in different and more critical and creative ways.”
Since 2020, Wickham’s role at the Mint is fueled by her passion for arts education and community engagement. She is a believer in exposure and access to the arts for all ages.
Wickham has seized upon the metaphor of taking positive steps and enthusiastically allowed herself to be “hotboxed” by her husband and a good friend into performing with the 2024 group of dancers to support The Mint Museum and the Charlotte Ballet.
“I believe life is often done best by embracing the places our steps take us,” she says in an email to friends. “This journey is going to be a bit different, and it makes the thought of participating that much more exciting.”
Different means physical for Wickham whose pre-dance assignment exercise routine has been primarily weekly Pilates classes.
Wickham is paired with Charlotte Ballet’s Humberto Ramazzina. The São Paulo, Brazil native began his formal dance training at age 8 and is in his fifth season withCharlotte Ballet. The two share a love for salsa, contemporary and classical dance, though Wickham is keeping close to the vest the pair’s ultimate three-minute dance and music choice a surprise.
“I don’t want to give away too much and prefer to tap into what I know will be high energy from the audience at the gala performance.”
Choreographing support
Dance pairs receive support online at Charlotte Ballet’s Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala site in the run up to the event with top vote-getter ($1 per vote) receiving the People’s Choice Award. Dancers who wow the judges with the “best moves” are awarded the Judge’s Choice recognition. Since 2013, Charlotte Ballet’s Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala has raised more than $10 million including nearly $4.5 million for local charities. Funds raised via ticket sales per dance pair are divided equally between the pair’s designated charity and the Charlotte Ballet.
“That our [community] star dancers have the opportunity to generate financial support for charities of their choice has such tremendous impact for our city,” says Alysha Brown, Charlotte Ballet’s special events and volunteer manager. Brown coordinates all things Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala for Charlotte Ballet and is the liaison between company dancers and their community dance partners.
“Historically we’ve had a variety of charities chosen for support alongside the ballet from housing nonprofits to other arts institutions in Charlotte. Charlotte Ballet is honored to play a role in this level of community development. The event is unlike any other in the city and shares an incredible amount of pure joy for those involved.”
In addition to identifying funds to support student access to The Mint Museum, Wickham is hopeful to encourage arts outreach beyond the walls of the museum buildings, especially into area hospitals. Her passion and enthusiasm for community collaboration aligns well with the goals of the Mint.
“Charlotte is one of our most dedicated board members,” says Todd Herman, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “She is also an avid collector and incredibly involved in so many things that we do. I’m thrilled she shares one of the goals that our museum has, which is to collaborate with other arts organizations here in Charlotte. Her being part of Dancing with The Stars of Charlotte Gala fits her enthusiasm and her love for the arts. This event underscores the Mint’s role as a cultural hub partnering with organizations throughout the city and encouraging everyone in our community to embrace the arts.”
For Wickham, expanding her reach to embrace and support arts impact in the community is meaningful and more than worth the extra effort. “Museums are places of culture and conversation where we can think deeply and be empathetic,” she says. “We need places where we can appreciate and learn from others.”
Michael J. Solender is a Charlotte-based features writer. Reach him at michaeljsolender@gmail.com or through his website, michaeljwrites.com.
24 Hours in the Life of Mike Wirth
By Page Leggett
Mike Wirth, associate professor of graphic design at Queens University of Charlotte, is probably best known locally for his murals. He is a founding member of the Talking Walls Festival, Charlotte’s first annual, citywide mural and public art festival. He’s known way beyond the city limits, too. His art has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Croatia, Poland and Germany. Social justice is a frequent Wirth theme, as is his identity as a Southern, Jewish American. He participated — virtually — in Contemporary Art Week in Paris during the last week in October 2022 where he exhibited with a group called Jada Art (jadaart.org), or Jewish Dada. “They’re creating platforms and international art spaces for Jewish artists, which is amazing,” Wirth said. “I was part of their digital exhibition. It was great to be selected from among international applicants.”
He is one of 15 local artists participating in The Mint Museum’s Picasso mural project. It’s a local tie-in for the Mint’s blockbuster exhibition, Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, organized by the American Federation of Arts Wirth’s mural is a landscape scene from Freedom Park. “I chose it because every Yom Kippur, hundreds from the Jewish community come out for a ritual called tashlich,” he says. “You toss bread into the water and speak your transgressions at the same time. That’s how you release sin.” When Wirth is in a creative or emotional low, he’ll wander. “I just go for a walk with no agenda. I don’t have any destination in mind. I’ll just throw myself to chance. And I find that it’s a tremendous way to reset when the need arises.” He’s a “girl dad” whose oldest daughter, a student at North-west School of the Arts, is already a budding artist and wants to be an illustrator. His youngest also loves to draw. Artistic talent runs in this family. Wirth’s days revolve around his daughters, his students, and his art.
5 OR 5:30 AM I wake up on my own — no need for an alarm. That’s when my internal body clock dictates that I get up. I say my morning prayers, and have a bagel and coffee.
5:30–6 AM I spend a little time every morning reading on my couch or my porch. I love Jewish folklore and the daily lessons I can take from it. I’ll get some wisdom from the Oracle, so to speak. All these stories are allegories, so they unpack a lot for me. If I can spend 30 minutes reading in the morning, it’s a miracle. But that’s what I aim for.
6 OR 6:30 AM I wake my daughters up — they’re 13 and 10 — and make them breakfast and get them ready for school. We have to be at the bus stop by 7 AM.
7:15 AM I drive to campus where I teach in the graphic design department — illustration, typography, ideation, animation, and web design. I’ve taught at Queens University for 14 years. When I’m not teaching, I have office hours. The seniors working on their capstone projects often need to consult with me then. During the day, I try to carve out a little time for my scholarship. As a professor, I have an obligation to stay current in my field and to accrue a certain amount of scholastic achievements. I’m either applying for shows or hunting for the next opportunities and conferences.
4:30 PM I meet the kids at the school bus, get them home and settled with a snack and help them get started on their homework.
5:30ish PM Dinnertime. I’m a one-pot-meal type of cook. My kids know my famous chickens, vegetables and rice dish — one of my go-to’s. Once the kids are fed, clean and educated, we all have our free time. AFTER DINNER I head to my studio, which is in our garage. Art projects have a way of expanding, and I can’t currently get my car in the garage. When the weather’s colder, I have to scale back the amount of space I have dedicated to art so I can use my garage for its intended purpose. I turn on some music; get a cold beverage. My cat, Garfield, will come hang out with me. I digitally paint, illustrate, and animate and make my interactive projects. I’ve been concocting a giant interactive installation that explores the “big bang” moment in the Jewish creation story as described in the Zohar — The Book of Radiance. The story describes the moment HaShem (God) poured their essence into a series of glass spheres that then shattered due to being overwhelmed with power. The broken shards of glass then spread across the universe. My vision is that viewers will enter a room filled with panoramic wall and floor video projections of shards of broken glass that, over many minutes, will spread outward from a center point in the room and then rewind back into a singular sphere. Viewers can interact with the shards while exploring the space.
I don’t have a home yet for that interactive installation. It requires funding because it needs projection, sensors and a larger space. I also get commissions from individuals or institutions. I’ve been creating a lot of custom hamsas. Those are hand forms that originated in the ancient Middle East. Once the client has commissioned me, we’ll talk through their wants and needs, the purpose of it — is it purely for aesthetics, or is there a spiritual purpose to it? Then, I’ll send them a mockup and we’ll proceed after they give me the OK. I design each one digitally and then paint the final version with acrylic, spray paint or paint markers. My girls and I aren’t big TV watchers, and we definitely try to avoid it on the Sabbath, but we will occasionally watch a show together. We also like playing image-based board games. Usually, free time lasts until it’s bedtime for everybody. 8:30 PM Bedtime for all of us. I’m not very exciting.
Page Leggett is a Charlotte-based freelance writer. Her stories have appeared in The Charlotte Observer, The Biscuit, Charlotte magazine and many other regional publications.
Hnin Nie’s response to Picasso’s Landscape of Juan-les-Pins (1920), 2023.
Playing Pablo
10 Local artists create murals in response to works in Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds
By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, organized by the American Federation of the Arts, is a major initiative for The Mint Museum. It not only brings major Picasso paintings to Charlotte from all around the world, but also offers an opportunity for the museum to bring together multiple cultural entities in collaborations and partnerships. One of these projects is a mural series enlisting 10 artists and collectives (some of whom will be familiar to the Mint audience from past projects) to create murals around the city.
The initiative is a partnership with Carla Aaron-Lopez, curator of the Local/Street exhibition series that was on view at The Mint Museum in 2021 and 2022; and Talking Walls, the organization that has been supporting mural installations across the city for the last five years.
Together with Aaron-Lopez and the Mint’s Curatorial Assistant Jamila Brown, a group of local artists were invited to paint a mural in response to Guernica — Picasso’s powerful, mural-size antiwar painting — or any of the landscapes included in the Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds. The result is a diverse range of styles and images that will dot Charlotte’s urban landscape and the two Mint museum locations beginning mid-February 2023.
Involving Charlotte contemporary artists was always central to the Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds. As Aaron-Lopez and local artist ARKO have pointed out, Picasso continues to be a major influence on contemporary artists both as an inspiration and as a foil. The exhibition allows local artists to study the works up close and in person, to break down the structure, and analyze the compositions and brushstrokes to further their own education and experimentation. This partnership reminds us that one of the museum’s primary goals is to preserve and present art’s history so that the next generation can push it forward.
The Picasso Mural project is generously supported by a grant through the North Carolina Arts Council and Infusion Fund.
Mural artists and locations
ARKO and Dammit Wesley Mint Museum Uptown
Brand the Moth Mint Museum Randolph
CHD:WCK! Mint Museum Uptown
HNin Nie Optimist Hall
Emily Núñez Queens University
Kalin Reece Elder Gallery
Mike Wirth Camp NorthEnd
Frankie Zombie and 2Gzandcountin Optimist Hall
Jen Sudul-Edwards, PhD, is chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum.
Charlotte, North Carolina (January 3, 2022) — The Mint Museum, a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design, announces its plans for a breakthrough year in 2023, while closing out a record-setting 2022. Major 2023 exhibitions, include Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, Bearden/ Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations, Fashion Reimagined, as well as dozens of community-based featured activities, that are expected to attract record-breaking crowds.
“2023 is anticipated to be a year of powerful art and opportunities for transformation at The Mint Museum,” says Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO at The Mint Museum. “We will be offering the first-ever museum exhibition in Charlotte dedicated to works by Pablo Picasso and the first chance for anyone in the world to see this particular exhibition. Beyond bringing this experience to the Queen City, we have multiple other exciting activities and exhibitions planned. There’s never been a better time and place to engage with art in the Southeast than at The Mint Museum and in Charlotte this coming year.”
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds opens February 11, 2023 and runs through May 21, 2023. The exhibition is part of The Picasso Celebration 1973-2023, structured around some 50 exhibitions and events that are being held in renowned cultural institutions in Europe and North America to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death. The Mint’s ticketed exhibition is the only museum exhibition that is part of The Picasso Celebration 1973-2023 that will be on view in the United States April 8, the date of Picasso’s death.
In addition, The Mint Museum will serve as the opening venue and the only museum on the East Coast to host the traveling exhibition. Organized by the American Federation of Arts with exceptional support of Musée national Picasso-Paris, and curated by Laurence Madeline, chief curator for French National Heritage, the exhibition is comprised of approximately 40 paintings spanning Picasso’s full career and is the first traveling exhibition to explore the breadth of the artist’s lifelong innovations in the landscape tradition. The dynamic grouping of works in the exhibition offers visitors an unparalleled window into the artist’s creative process, from his earliest days in art school (1896 when then artist was just 15 years old) to months before his passing in 1973.
Partnering cultural organizations working with The Mint Museum to create a multilayered experience of innovative programming for Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds include the Charlotte Symphony, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Theater Charlotte, JazzArts Charlotte, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and Opera Carolina. The Mint Museum will also welcome school students for free tours and students in grades K-12 and art teachers to experience the exhibition free of charge.
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds at The Mint Museum is generously presented by Bank of America, City of Charlotte, Duke Energy, Mecklenburg County, M.A. Rogers, Ann and Michael Tarwater, North Carolina Arts Council, and Moore & Van Allen, and other generous individual contributors. The exhibition also is generously supported by Monique Schoen Warshaw. Additional support has been provided by Lee White Galvis, Clare E. McKeon, and Stephanie R. La Nasa. Support for the accompanying catalogue has been provided by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.
Bearden / Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations runs concurrently with Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds at The Mint Museum in uptown Charlotte and presents a rare opportunity to see the work of Romare Bearden displayed alongside one of his most important sources of inspiration.
The exhibition, curated by Jonathan Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum, examines the impact of Picasso and his artistic influences on Charlotte-born artist Romare Bearden’s work. The works of art in Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations are primarily drawn from the Mint’s deep holdings of Bearden’s work, as well as from private collections and other selected museum collections. While Bearden’s later collages and prints will comprise a significant portion of the exhibition, nearly half of the works by the artist will include his rarely seen early paintings from the 1940s when he was immersed in the New York art world, also a time that Picasso was frequently exhibiting there.
Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations is generously presented by Bank of America, City of Charlotte, Duke Energy, Mecklenburg County, M.A. Rogers, Ann and Michael Tarwater, North Carolina Arts Council, and Moore & Van Allen.
Fashion Reimagined: Themes and Variations 1760-NOW Fashion Reimagined: Themes and Variations 1760-NOW, curated by Annie Carlano, senior curator of Craft, Design and Fashion at The Mint Museum, is on view through July 2 at The Mint Museum in uptown Charlotte. The exhibition celebrates 50 years of the Mint’s fashion collection and the museum’s dedication to the art of fashion and design. The stunning ensembles span four centuries and are drawn from The Mint Museum’s own renowned collection of historic and contemporary fashion.
Through the lens of three distinct themes: minimalism, pattern and decoration, along with the body reimagined, 50 ensembles include bustled dresses and historic menswear along with contemporary fashion and haute couture. In recognition of the 50th anniversary, the museum hired renowned architecture firm DLR Group to build out the exhibition space. Following the likes of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the exhibition design was reimagined to create spaces that pay homage to the exhibition themes with swooping arches and translucent tapestries that elevate the fashions to a new level.
Fashion Reimagined also includes an interactive component. Titled “Shape Shifters,” a dressing room with magnetic forms on mirrors allows visitors to envision themselves in garments worn in the 18th and 19th centuries. Examples of undergarments – think hoops and bustles – will also be on display. Fashion Reimagined is generously presented by Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management and Mint Museum Auxiliary, with additional support form Bank OZK.
Ticket Information The Mint Museum exhibition is free for members and children ages 4 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; $10 for college students with ID; and $6 for youth ages 5–17.
Tickets to Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds are $10 in addition to museum addition. Students in grades K-12 and art teachers are admitted free of charge.
For museum hours, visit mintmuseum.org.
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THE MINT MUSEUM
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.<
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS
The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit organization founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing exhibition catalogues featuring important scholarly research, and developing educational programs.
ABOUT THE PICASSO CELEBRATION 1973-2023
April 8, 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and thus the year will represent the celebration of his work and his artistic legacy in France, Spain and internationally. The commemoration, accompanied by official celebrations in France and Spain, will make it possible to take stock of the research and interpretations of the artist’s work, especially during an important international symposium in autumn 2023, which also coincides with the opening of the Center for Picasso Studies in Paris. The Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Spanish National Commission for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso are pleased to support this exceptional program.
Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications at The Mint Museum clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)
Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704-564-0826 (c)
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds debuts February 2023 at The Mint Museum
The Mint Museum is the first, and only venue on the East Coast, to feature the traveling exhibition that includes many of Picasso’s greatest landscape paintings
For Immediate Release
Charlotte, North Carolina (May 19, 2022) — The Mint Museum is pleased to announce that Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, a major traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts, will debut at Mint Museum Uptown February 2023. Comprised of approximately 45 paintings spanning Pablo Picasso’s full career, Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds is the first traveling exhibition to explore the breadth of the artist’s lifelong innovations in the landscape tradition.
The Mint Museum is the first of only three venues in the United States — and the only venue on the East Coast — to feature this exceptional exhibition filled with works from private collections and international museums together for the first time.
Assembling some of Picasso’s greatest landscape compositions in one traveling exhibition, Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds coincides with the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death. The dynamic grouping of works in the exhibition offers visitors an unparalleled window into the artist’s creative process, from his earliest days in art school (1896 when then artist was just 15 years old) to months before his passing in 1973.
“This is the first time these Picasso paintings will be seen together and is the first time an exhibition of this magnitude will be held at The Mint Museum,” says Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO at The Mint Museum. “We also recognize the enormous opportunity to collaborate with other local arts organizations and artists to take the magic and energy around this exhibition beyond the walls of The Mint Museum.”
Partnering cultural organizations working with the Mint to create a multilayered experience of innovative programming, include the Charlotte Symphony, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Theater Charlotte, JazzArts Charlotte, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, and Charlotte Ballet.
The museum plans to host free school group tours in conjunction with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, in addition to numerous free community days at the museum.
A special component to the Mint’s iteration of the exhibition is Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations, which examines the impact of Picasso and his artistic influences on Charlotte-born artist Romare Bearden’s work. The works in Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations will be drawn from the Mint’s deep holdings of Bearden’s work, as well as from private collections and selected museum collections.
“The AFA is delighted to organize the first traveling exhibition of Picasso’s engagement with landscape, offering a new perspective on the artist’s oeuvre in this important show that will debut at The Mint Museum,” says Pauline Willis, director and CEO of the American Federation of Arts (AFA). “Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds is curated by the brilliant curator and Picasso scholar Laurence Madeline, with whom we are pleased to again collaborate following the great success of the acclaimed AFA traveling exhibition Women Artists in Paris 1850-1900.”
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds at The Mint Museum is presented with the generous support of Bank of America and Duke Energy, and numerous individual contributors.
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The Mint Museum Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
The American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts is the leader in traveling exhibitions internationally. A nonprofit organization founded in 1909, the AFA is dedicated to enriching the public’s experience and understanding of the visual arts through organizing and touring art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishing exhibition catalogues featuring important scholarly research, and developing educational programs.
The Mint Museum celebrates the re-installation of The Mint Museum Craft + Design Collection — with FREE admission and a weekend full of conversations with internationally acclaimed artists and makers
Charlotte, North Carolina (May 12, 2022) — The Mint Museum is excited to announce the opening weekend of Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things May 21–22 at Mint Museum Uptown with complimentary admission throughout the weekend. As part of the celebration, highly acclaimed makers and educators Joseph Walsh, Hideo Mabuchi, and Silvia Levenson will present on their design inspirations, processes, and practices.
Examined through the lens of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, Craft in the Lab tells the story of how makers and designers use knowledge from the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math in their artistic processes.
From 2 to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 21 internationally acclaimed and Ireland-based maker Joseph Walsh and Stanford University professor and maker Hideo Mabuchi discuss how science, technology, engineering, and math are used in their design processes, followed by an artists reception. From 2-3 p.m. Sunday, May 22, renowned international glass artist Silvia Levenson highlights her use of glass and printing techniques to reflect tensions in daily life, domestic violence, discrimination, and refugee issues. These conversations are being presented in partnership with Müller Corporation and the Craft & Trade Academy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing trades and craft in Charlotte.
The installation, which officially opened February 12, 2022, represents highlights from more than 3,000 works in The Mint Museum’s world-renowned collections of regional, national, international handmade glass, wood, jewelry and metal, fiber ceramic, and design objects. Presented by Müller Corporation, Craft in the Lab also celebrates the reinstallation of The Mint’s highly acclaimed Craft + Design galleries — the first since its opening in 2010 at Mint Museum Uptown.
Co-curated by the Mint’s Senior Curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion Annie Carlano and Assistant Curator for Craft, Design, and Fashion Rebecca Elliot, the installation includes 100 objects organized by material and subject throughout the galleries, touchable material panels, and videos of makers at work in their studios.
“The reinstallation of the Craft + Design galleries allow us the opportunity to bring new works out on view and to interpret the collection through new pairings and themes,” says Todd Herman, president and CEO at The Mint Museum. “Craft in the Laboratory examines how investigation, experimentation, and critical thinking are common to both science and art, and the correlation of art with science, technology, engineering, and math that effectively changing STEM to STEAM concepts.”
The installation is accompanied by an important and timely catalogue on the topic, with contributions by several scholars and a lead essay by Elliot. The fully illustrated catalogue of the same name, published by Dan Giles Ltd., also includes contributions from museum staff, and guest essayists.
“Craft in the Laboratory is the first publication in over 20 years to discuss The Mint Museum’s Craft and Design collection in depth,” Elliot says. The book is available for purchase at The Mint Museum Store or at store.mintmuseum.org.
Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things is generously presented by Müller Corporation. Generous individual support provided by Beth and Drew Quartapella, Mary Anne (M.A.) Rogers, Ann and Michael Tarwater, and Rocky and Curtis Trenkelbach. Additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The catalogue is supported by the John and Robyn Horn Foundation.
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Müller Corporation
Founded in Germany, and family owned and operated, Müller provides commercial surface installation, and cleaning and maintenance services to the solar, hospitality, automotive, food and beverage, and other industries. European standards and in-house trained craftsmen ensure superior results and unmatched client service. To learn more, visit mullercorporation.com.
Craft & Trade Academy
Founded in 2019, the training programs and apprenticeships are based on the international recognized German model. In order to develop apprentices into quality craftsmen, the Academy runs classroom and workshop training, as well as on-the-job training recognized by the Department of Labor. The Craft & Trade Academy is a public 501(c)3 nonprofit higher education institution committed to providing paths and expanding skills within the construction industry. To learn more, visit craftandtradeacademy.org.
Contact:
Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)
Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Rebecca Elliot, assistant curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion.
‘Art can be a source of joy for people, and I like to make those experiences happen’
Rebecca Elliot is one of the creative minds behind the new exhibition Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things and lead author of the catalogue by the same name.
Rebecca Elliot is the assistant curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion at The Mint Museum. Her journey with art has taken her around the globe, from her student days studying abroad in London and frequenting the British Museum, to her jobs at the Cranbrook Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and finally to the Mint in 2012, where she’s currently the assistant curator of craft, design and fashion. Here, Elliot shares a glimpse into her life inside the museum, from the glamorous (handling 18th-century men’s suits and thrifting with iconic fashion designer Anna Sui) to the decidedly unglamorous (copy editing and emails). — As told to Caroline Portillo. Lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
I grew up in central Ohio in a town called Delaware, Ohio, about 30 or 40 miles north of Columbus. I loved to read fiction and liked writing. I loved art, especially drawing. My sister and I — she’s three years older than me — would have coloring contests. I even tried to design clothes. I would play with my Barbies and have them do fashion shows. For me, it was more about Barbie having a job, a career, and wearing stylish outfits.
For undergrad, I went to Smith College, a women’s college in western Massachusetts. I took art history during my sophomore year, and then I spent my junior year studying abroad at University College London, where I took a lot of art history classes. UCL was close to the British Museum and I would often go after school. In London, I also visited the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Tate Gallery. It was really cool actually seeing the scale of the paintings and what the texture looked like, knowing what it felt like to stand in front of it, and noticing what other people did when they were there. That’s when I first started thinking about working with museums. The interface between the art and the public was interesting to me.
Here’s a snapshot of a recent day in my life. First, I helped Annie [Carlano, the Mint’s senior curator for craft, design, and fashion] lay out the jackets from two 18th-century gentlemen’s suits for a Zoom call with a curator from the V&A in London. Because I’m the copyeditor for all the Mint’s exhibition texts, my afternoon was spent answering emails and reviewing exhibition label proofs. I spent the evening on one of my hobbies: ushering for a show at Actor’s Theater. I enjoy theater, and ushering is a great way to help out and see a show for free.
I love thrifting and actually got to join fashion icon Anna Sui on a thrifting expedition. Anna was in Charlotte in November last year for the opening of The World of Anna Sui at Mint Museum Randolph. After lunch, we ventured to Sleepy Poet Antique Mall. I have admired Anna Sui’s style ever since her clothes started appearing in my favorite ’90s teen magazine, Sassy. I was thrilled when I got to join her entourage and go thrifting in Charlotte. I walked around with Anna and Vogue’s Senior Fashion News Editor Steff Yotka, observing which items they gravitated to and occasionally commenting about things that reminded me of Anna’s style. I was with them as Anna found and inspected a tablecloth — the three of us unfolded it together — and decided it was worth the $20 price. It’s fun to know that I was there when she found a small souvenir to take back and enjoy in her home.
Speaking of Sleepy Poet, I made a point to go there just before they moved out of their old location, knowing there would be bargains. Sure enough, I found a Heywood-Wakefield wood headboard and footboard, possibly mid-century modern, for $25. Whenever I’m thrifting or antiquing, I look for interesting mid-century modern items. I like old stuff, decorative stuff, fashion, and art.
When I’m visiting a museum, I nerd out. I look at the objects and the labels — how are they written? Would I do it the same way? I look at what objects are next to each other, how they play off each other. I look at what’s in the room, how the wall colors are, the pathway.
I love working at a museum because museums give people so many different kinds of experiences. Art can be a source of joy for people, and I like to make those experiences happen. Art can also be something that makes people uncomfortable, that makes them question and think about things they may not have before. We are facing many difficult issues, everything from the environment to social justice to politics. The work I do matters in those areas. We’re not trying to be political, but we are trying to make society better.
Curator’s Pick: Baseball Pitcher by Ott and Brewer
Curator of Decorative Arts Brian Gallagher discusses this modeled sculpture of a baseball pitcher, made at the Trenton, New Jersey ceramics manufactory run by Joseph Ott and John Hart Brewer. In 1873, they hired the Canadian-born sculptor Isaac Broome to create a prototypical American work for their firm to display at the Centennial International Exposition that opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1876. This sculpture is made of Parian, a type of porcelain that has more feldspar in its body than conventional porcelain and is fired at a lower temperature. These conditions give the Baseball Pitcher its ivory color and smooth, marble-like texture.
5 things to shout about at The Mint Museum
While uptown Charlotte is alive with events during Charlotte SHOUT, there is also a lot to shout about at The Mint Museum. Mark your calendar for these don’t-miss happenings.
Wednesday Night Live: Rothko Becoming Rothko
April 13, 5–9 PM, 6:30 PM
Mint Museum Uptown
Free
To celebrate the two Rothko paintings on view at Mint Museum Uptown, Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Art, presents a lecture about the life and works of Mark Rothko as part of the Wednesday Night Live Series presented by Bank of America. Enjoy free admission and a cash bar.
Dance it out at Mint 2 Move
April 14, 7-11 PM
Mint Museum Uptown
$9 members; $12 nonmembers with $1 off before 8 PM
Feel the rhythm, dance, laugh, and enjoy sizzling salsa, cha cha, bachata, line dancing, live musicians, and a live DJ playing Latin rhythms and Afro-beats, plus free dance lessons, a cash bar, complimentary party favors, and live painting at Mint 2 Move. Museum galleries open until 9 PM.
See works by more than 40 artists, all hailing from the Southeast. An array of mediums, some less conventional than others, make up the collective body of work that converges to become a mellifluent symphony of styles, perspectives, and approaches in the exhibition. On view: Level 4 Brand Galleries at Mint Museum Uptown.
Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things is the first project of its kind in the Southeast to examine how artists and scientists think and work alike, and how designers of all types use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in their making. It also celebrates the first re-installation of the Mint’s Craft + Design Collection in more than 10 years. Organized by medium, more than 100 objects from the Mint’s permanent collection are featured. On view: Level 3 Craft + Design galleries at Mint Museum Uptown.
Stop by Mariposa at Mint Museum Uptown for dessert, a cocktail, or to share a plate before or after visiting the museum.
And of course, be sure to take a turn on the Impulse illuminated seesaws on Levine Avenue of the Arts, all part of Charlotte SHOUT!
Curator’s Pick: Farol by Elaine de Kooning
Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American Art at The Mint Museum, discusses Farol, Elaine de Kooning’s 1958 painting inspired by bullfights she attended Sunday afternoons in Juarez, Mexico. “Farol” refers to the movement made by bullfighters, sweeping their capes out of the way as the bull charged by. The piece captures the motion, energy, and action of the fight itself. Although long overlooked, the work of de Kooning and her other female Abstract Expressionist colleagues has recently received greater attention thanks in part to exhibitions like Women of Abstract Expressionism hosted at The Mint Museum hosted in 2016.
Curator’s Pick: Rookwood Pottery Vase by Kataro Shirayamadani
This tall, elegantly proportioned earthenware vase is one of the great standouts in The Mint Museum’s Historical Decorative Arts Collection according to Curator of Decorative Arts, Brian Gallagher. It was created in 1892 at Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols. Nichols had long desired to introduce an authentic Japanese style to her factory’s wares, when she hired china painter Kataro Shirayamadani, born in Kanazawa, Japan. Shirayamadani went on to become one of Rookwood’s most accomplished decorators, and Rookwood became one of the most commercially successful and artistically accomplished of all American art potteries.
Curator’s Pick:Spectral Boundary by Tom Patti
Senior Curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion, Annie Carlano, discusses Spectral Boundary by artist Tom Patti. Incombining more than 30 laminated and fused layers of glass, interlayer and woven fiber materials, Spectral Boundary exemplifies Tom Patti’s pioneering artistic effort to interpret the relationship between an advancing industrial culture and North Carolina’s textile heritage. The 40-foot monumental glass wall was made with the same compression machinery that manufactured the skin on the Stealth bomber, thus the wall is bulletproof and bombproof. Spectral Boundary is an outstanding example of how artists and scientists think alike.
Curator’s Pick: Figures Eight by Doris Leeper
Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum, explains the significance of works by mid-century modernist Doris Leeper. Leeper, who worked in painting and sculpture, hints at her interest in the three-dimensional in the painting Figures Eight. Leeper was born in Charlotte in 1929 but moved out of state. She maintained a presence in North Carolina, however, participating in the Mint’s juried competition series Piedmont Exhibition.
Coined in the South: 2022 spotlights thought-provoking works by artists living in the Southeast
Charlotte, North Carolina (March 15, 2022) — The Mint Museum is pleased to present Coined in the South: 2022, on view March 26–July 3 at Mint Museum Uptown. The second installment of the juried biennial exhibition, created in collaboration with the Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAMs), features works by 41 artists selected from 375 artist submissions.
The name Coined in the South refers to both The Mint Museum’s origins as the first branch of the U.S. Mint, as well as the act of inventing. Many of the works selected for Coined in the South: 2022 reflect on personal narratives and cultural myths, power structures and pressures of society.
Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum, and Kaitlyn McElwee and Patwin Lawrence, Young Affiliate of the Mint members and Coined in South: 2022 co-chairs, worked together to plan and produce the exhibition.
“An array of mediums, some less conventional than others, make up the collective body of work that converges to become a mellifluent symphony of styles, perspectives, and approaches in the exhibition,” McElwee says.
Jurors for the 2022 exhibition are Hallie Ringle, curator of contemporary art at Birmingham Museum of Art: Lydia Thompson, mixed-media sculptor and professor of art and art history at UNC Charlotte; and Ken West, photographer and digital experience designer and winner of the inaugural Coined in the South People’s Choice Award. A $10,000 grand prize presented by Atrium Health Foundation and $5,000 YAMs Choice Award will be awarded at the preview celebration March 24. A $1,000 People’s Choice Award will be announced May 9 after the viewing public has an opportunity to cast their ballots. Awardees will speak at a panel discussion June 1 as part of the Mint’s Wednesday Night Live program series.
“With so much important, innovative, and nationally recognized art coming out of the South in recent years, YAMs-sponsored exhibitions like this one keep the Mint ahead of the curve. We are consistently showing this art in real time, as it is being made,” Sudul Edwards says. Coined in the South: 2022 is generously presented by Atrium Health Foundation and will be on view March 26–July 3 in the Level 4 Brand Galleries at Mint Museum Uptown.
Artists Selected for Coined in the South: 2022
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER WINSTON SALEM, NC
SUKENYA BEST RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
KAMAU BOSTIC TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI
S. ROSS BROWNE RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
ANNA BUCKNER BANNER ELK, NC
J.B. BURKE CHARLOTTE, NC
LIZA BUTTS BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
CORNELIUS A. CAKLY COLUMBIA, SC
EMMANUELLE CHAMMAH ATLANTA, GEORGIA
NATALIE CHANEL ROCK HILL, SC
CORINNE COLARUSSO ATLANTA, GEORGIA
TAMECA COLE BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
CARLA CONTRERAS SANDY SPRINGS, GEORGIA
MARGARET CURTIS TRYON, NC
LINDSY DAVIS NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
ANNA DEAN FORT MILL, SC
BRENT DEDAS COLUMBIA, SC
ERIN ETHRIDGE FLEETWOOD, NC
HOLLY FISCHER RALEIGH, NC
CYNTHIA FLAXMAN FRANK CHARLOTTE, NC
SOPHIE GLENN STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI
KING NOBUYOSHI GODWIN RALEIGH, NC
DONTÉ K. HAYES KENNESAW, GEORGIA
EMILY JAHR DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA
CHLOE KAYLOR MOUNT HOLLY, NC
BRIANNA LITCHFIELD CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE
CHIEKO MURASUGI CHAPEL HILL, NC
MASELA NKOLO DULUTH, GEORGIA
MALIK J. NORMAN WAXHAW, NC
SERENA PERRONE ATLANTA, GEORGIA
KRISTIN ROTHROCK CHARLOTTE, NC
HANNAH SHABAN CHARLOTTE, NC
SHARON SHAPIRO CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
RANDY SIMMONS PADUCAH, KENTUCKY
LIZ RUNDORFF SMITH TRAVELERS REST, SC
ANNE STAGG TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
LEIGH SUGGS RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
SABA TAJ DURHAM, NC
CORNELL WATSON DURHAM, NC
AJANE’ WILLIAMS CHARLOTTE, NC
APRIL WRIGHT GERMANTOWN, TENNESSEE
Ticket Information
Admission to The Mint Museum is free for members and children ages 4 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; $10 for college students with ID; and $6 for youth ages 5–17.
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAMs)
The Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAMs) is a diverse group of young professionals promoting and supporting The Mint Museum through cultural engagement, social leadership, and fundraising events. Established in 1990, the YAMs are the premier social arts organization for young professionals in Charlotte.
Curator’s Pick: Autarchy by Formafantasma
An intriguing installation created by the design group Formafantasma in its studio in the Netherlands, Autarchy explores the idea of how we might make functional vessels for the home from locally sourced, natural materials, while paying homage to the craft of baking and cooking. Autarchy is an outstanding example of the way in which designers and makers think and work like scientists, researching and experimenting with materials and formulas to create, solve problems, and achieve amazing results. This piece was made especially for The Mint Museum with the assistance of Mint staff and is on view in the Craft + Design permanent collection galleries at Mint Museum Uptown in the installation Craft in the Laboratory: The Science of Making Things.
Wednesday Night Live Presents
The QC GarMINT District
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts
Welcome to the QC GarMINT District, part of the Wednesday Night Live event series, presented by Bank of America. Tonight’s event highlights the Mint’s recognition of fashion designers’ work as art, and is a prelude to the December 2022 exhibition and catalogue Fashion Reimagined that celebrates 50 years of the Mint’s fashion collection. It also links Charlotte designers to the celebration of world culture and street fashion on view in The World of Anna Sui at Mint Museum Randolph through May 1.
5:30-9 PM
Sounds by DJ Dammit Wesley and cash bar
in Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium
Pop-up market in Level 5 expansion space
and Mint Museum Store
7-8 PM
The QC GarMINT District runway fashion show
in Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium
MEET THE DESIGNERS
TARA DAVIS is the founder of Flow by Tara Davis. Her designs are created with lifestyles of modern, eclectic women on her radar. Inspirations of architect and modern art transform her concepts into chic and sophisticated apparel. Through the aesthetic of style lines, color, and comfortable fabrics, Davis has defined the art of bold simplicity. The foundation of Flow by Tara Davis started with signature dresses and custom designs, evolving into desk-to-dinner styles, including separates, leather belts, and handbags along with her newest design venture in home décor. @flowbytaradavis
MEGAN ILENE is a fiber artist who makes clothes and created the zero- waste, biodegradable clothing brand Megan-Ilene. All materials used are completely biodegradable and many are organic (no pesticides are used to facilitate growing or harvesting). Dyes used are either natural or minimal- impact synthetic with a focus on low-immersion techniques to prevent water waste and are safe for city water reclamation. Patterns are either designed to prevent textile off-fall or any fiber waste is reconfigured, reused, or revitalized creating a closed loop, zero-waste system. Silhouettes are forgiving and functional, and are meant for myriad of body types, shapes, and genders. All items are made in North Carolina and produced by entities receiving a fair, livable wage. @megan.ilene
GORDON HOLLIDAY uses remnant textile and fibers to construct sustainable garments that tell stories about culture, history, and identity in the fashion industry. A Brooklyn Collective Artist in Residence, Holliday received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a concentration in photography and a minor in retail studies at UNC Greensboro. He currently is featured in the Waste Management Design Challenge and was published in “Forbes” for the work he has committed in the community. Holliday is an up-cycle designer, utilizing donated fabric/materials, remnant scraps, previously owned items, or thrifted clothing into new garments. RENEW REWORK ROOLĒ is a brand created by Holliday that documents how reconstructed garments reach their final form through up-cycling. His latest project, the Yasuke Collection ROOLE F/W 21, details the story about the first African samurai. Inspired by Japanese quilting techniques (Sashiko and Boro) 10 quilted kimonos were constructed out of donated and leftover materials. @roole.co
BREHON WILLIAMS is a native of Chesapeake, Virginia who currently resides in Charlotte. He graduated from The Art Institute with a bachelor’s degree and is currently working on a Master of Science degree. Initially a womenswear-only designer, Williams has expanded his portfolio to now include menswear. His bold, innovative, and forward-thinking aesthetic has allotted him the opportunity to participate in numerous shows across the United States. The award-winning designer has won numerous design competitions and has been featured in national and international publications, including Veer, New Pittsburgh Courier, Ink Magazine, and The Virginian Pilot.
GEGE GILZENE is the creative designer, lead designer, and owner of Gege J. Gilzene, LLC, a luxury women’s line for every event and a man’s casual, yet upscale, label designed and produced in Atlanta. His designer clothing line is composed of jaw-dropping statement pieces, and wardrobe staples with a hint of distinction. The collection’s masterful use of colors and silhouette, makes the G-three women and men the centerpiece of every event and stand out in a crowd. Every garment is carefully designed and crafted to exude the joie de vivre (to express a cheerful enjoyment of life, an exultation of spirit) and sexiness, while maintaining character, and class. gegegilzene.com
THANK YOU
The QC GarMINT District is coordinated in partnership with Davita Galloway, co-owner of DUPP&SWATT, and Charlotte-based stylist Jennifer Michelle, owner of J Model Executives. Charlotte influencer Ohavia Phillips will emcee the event, music provided by DJ Dammit Wesley, plus an additional performance by B&C Ballroom, and cash bar. Admission is free, but seating is first come, first served.
Marcus Amerman, a multimedia artist who is best known for his pictorial beadwork that combines Native American tradition with imagery from contemporary popular culture, designed and created these two cuff bracelets depicting the Dalai Lama and agents Mulder and Scully from the television hit series X Files. Amerman grew up in a family of artists and learned beading at age 10 from his Choctaw aunt who had married into the Hopi tribe. In 1982, he drew upon the multitude of cultural influences he had experienced to create his own style of beadwork.
Assistant Curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion, Rebecca Elliot offers insight on the sculpture Weathervane by artist-blacksmith Brent Kington, part of a series of sculptures inspired by the weathervanes of Kington’s youth in Kansas. With nothing but gravity holding the two parts together, Weathervane is able to spin, but also to pitch and roll slightly in a breeze or if touched. While the sculpture is meant to be enjoyed indoors rather than to gauge the wind’s direction on a farm, it alludes to nature with the two differently sized disks representing the sun and moon.
In My Loan Dinh’s series “(Re)constructing the space in-between,” objects, covered in eggshells, appear fragile; but they are strong — strong enough to break glass. “I reach for these tools not only to break barriers, but also to build, forge, and construct new paths towards freedom and equality. Many things, like stones and bullets, can shatter glass. I am here to build,” Dinh says.
‘Broken, but in one piece’
Charlotte artist MyLoan Dinh explores the human condition – and the search for home
By Page Leggett
MyLoan (pronounced “mee-LAHN”) Dinh has been working with an unusually delicate medium: eggshells.
The Vietnamese-American artist, who splits her time between Charlotte and Berlin, uses them to encase objects — passports, hammers, boxing gloves. “With boxing gloves, you think of fighting,” she says. “I love the idea of pairing things that are complete opposites. There’s a tension there — a deeper meaning that starts a conversation.”
People might see the eggshell mosaics and think of the destructiveness of violence or the fragility of life. But for life to begin, the egg has to be open, to be broken, Dinh says. And brokenness is part of being human.
“I like creating something whole out of fragments,” she continues. “I like this idea that even though we might be broken, we’re in one piece. We’re going to be OK.”
MyLoan Dinh, United States (born in Vietnam), 1972– . “Off White,” 2019. Boxing gloves, eggshells, acrylic. Museum purchase made possible by the Charles W. Beam Endowment Fund.
From coop to kitchen to studio
Working with eggshells is tedious and time-consuming. Dinh starts by procuring eggs. She has to boil the eggs, crack and peel them. Then, she methodically places each tiny piece onto the object with an adhesive. She uses a stick pin or a needle; her fingers are too big for the job. Once the entire object is covered, she fills in with even tinier shell shards. She doesn’t want too much of a gap between fragments.
Each object gets covered in five or six protective layers. Something fragile has been made durable.
Some of the “eggshell art” was featured in Dinh’s installation for Constellation CLT — an exhibition series that spotlights local artists — this spring and summer at Mint Museum Uptown.
“I think it’s wonderful that museums are starting to look for artists in their backyard,” Dinh says. “There’s a lot of talent here. And why not expose the community to those artists? It’s wonderful that part of the community can now see themselves in these spaces.”
The part of the community she’s referring to: Asian-Americans. “When I was growing up, I couldn’t see myself in a museum setting because I didn’t have any role models,” she says. “I couldn’t name a single Asian artist. I saw some Asian art, but it was more like artifacts. So, this Constellations program is really amazing.”
‘A place we can call home’
She and her family were on one of the last ships out of Saigon in 1975. Dinh was 4. She has no memory of her homeland but still feels connected to her culture.
Her story is deeply personal, but there’s a universality to it. “Everyone deserves safety,” she says. “We all deserve the same basic human rights, the opportunity to live in dignity and to somehow find a place we can call home.”
Finding her way to safety was harrowing. For six days, they were forbidden to dock because the ships belonged to the now-defunct South Vietnamese government. “We were stateless,” she says.
The U.S.S. Kirk was the first, and then dozens of former South Vietnamese Navy ships, cargo and fishing boats lowered the Vietnamese flag and raised the American one. That was just the beginning.
Dinh’s family went to three different U.S. refugee camps before a Lutheran church in Boone agreed to sponsor them. “We’re still in touch with the pastor and his wife,” Dinh says. “At the time, there was this — not really, anti-Asian hate — but fear. People were afraid for different reasons: Would we be able to adjust? Were we Communists? Half the congregation wasn’t sure should they take us in. The minister told them, ‘As people of God, we have to.’”
They came to Charlotte because there was a bigger Vietnamese population here and it’s a bigger city. Dinh’s parents wanted to find their community.
Dinh herself has found a large creative community here. She and her husband — Till Schmidt-Rempler, a former dancer and choreographer — frequently host musicians, poets, storytellers and dancers in the 1935 log cabin that’s home to the couple and their teenage daughter. (Their son is working toward a PhD in art history in London.)
Evolution of an artist
Dinh’s work has evolved a lot since she first picked up a paintbrush to create what she calls “representational, figurative work.” It didn’t take long for her to expand her subject matter and media; she experiments to stave off boredom. In recent years, she’s been diving into storytelling.
“I began revisiting stories about what my family faced when I was growing up,” she says. “Much of that stuff, you just push away. You focus on your survival. You don’t want to bring it up because you think: ‘I’m resilient, I need to move on.’ But I felt it was time to pull it out slowly because of this shift in America, this racial reckoning.”
She doesn’t consider herself a political artist, but rather an artist concerned with social justice.
She hopes viewers see that concern in her work. “I think it’s good to let viewers enjoy the pieces for what they are, but I also like the idea of them reading my artist’s statement to understand why I made the piece. My message is that we need to find a way to share space with each other.”
‘My daughter ate it’
Dinh doesn’t always use food in her art — although she has coated everyday objects in candy conversation hearts — but she was inspired to create an installation last year using a ubiquitous Asian dessert.
“I created a fortune cookie installation the day after six Asian women were murdered [in Atlanta],” she says. “I just made it, held it in my hand and photographed it for social media. And, when Jen [Sudul Edwards] said she wanted to show it, I had to tell her: It was a real fortune cookie, and my daughter ate it. But I can get more.”
There are six fortune cookies in that little installation, she says, one for each of the six women murdered. The fortunes have numbers on them, and they are real telephone numbers to an actual hotline, Dinh says.
With her eggshell art, Dinh is a purist. She leaves the shells the colors nature intended. But she wanted dark brown eggs for several pieces — and went searching.
“There’s a chocolate brown egg that comes from a fancy French chicken called the Marans chicken, she says. “I joined a Facebook group of people who raise chickens and asked if anybody had Marans chickens. They were so responsive; I’ve been getting eggshells in the mail. Chicken people are really good people.
“You never know where you’ll find your community. And community is really another word for ‘home’.”
Page Leggett’s writing appears regularly in The Charlotte Observer, Business North Carolina and SouthPark magazine. Besides writing, her other great passions are travel and art collecting. The first art lessons she took were at Mint Museum Randolph.
This story previously published in the Winter 2021 Inspired member magazine.
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”
By Rubie Britt-Height, director of community relations at The Mint Museum
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1963) was a major American icon whose life, though cut short far too soon, profoundly impacted the state of our country in the 1950s, 1960s, and today. He was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday that marks the birth of this profoundly courageous leader who addressed the challenges existing in the United States relative to poverty, racism, and war.
The Mint observes the official Martin Luther King Jr. holiday throughout the month of January with goals ongoing throughout the year to invoke dialogue and transformative programming, exhibitions, and equity for diverse artists, vendors, and staff. The museum is committed to its mission, vision, and strategic plan, of which diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are a part.
Throughout 2022, the Mint will provide members and guests opportunities to view and have dialogue about meaningful works of art, attend performing arts programming, read historical nuggets about artists of color, and recount through socially conscious works of art the ongoing challenges identified by Dr. King’s speeches, writings, and sermons that continue to illuminate “the dream still deferred” in many ways.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech spoke metaphorically and strategically to an environment that blighted African Americans, with the hope of a transformed country of equity, equality, justice, and fairness.
The Jim Crow Museum notes that “the civil rights movement reached its peak when 250,000 blacks and whites gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which included the demand for passage of meaningful civil rights laws when Dr. King, Jr. delivered his famous speech.” Among those words, throughout his ministry are many other notable quotes that raise our consciousness and speak to courage, community, and commitment to a better America for all.
Here are just a few of his thought-provoking and enlightened perspectives as one influenced by his Christian faith, Ghandi’s non-violence philosophy, and his commitment to balance the scale of humanity in America:
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but it comes through continuous struggle.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
We invite you view this curator video featuring Senior Curator of American art Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, about the painting Selma by artist Barbra Pennington that focuses on the events that unfolded 55 years ago in Selma, Alabama.
Curators’ Pick: Untitled by Beauford Delaney
Beauford Delaney was one of the most highly regarded Black artists working with abstraction in the 1940s and ’50s. Senior Curator of American Art at The Mint Museum Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, discusses Delaney’s captivating untitled painting from 1959. Its energy, life and gorgeous palette of dashingly applied yellows, pinks, blues, and greens, are among key factors that distinguished it from other works by Delaney.
Curators’ Pick: The Birth of Venus, after Botticelli (Pictures of Junk) by Vik Muniz
The Birth of Venus, after Botticelli (Pictures of Junk), from 2008 by the American artist Vik Muniz is a play on the 15th-century Renaissance masterpiece Birth of Venus by Botticelli. To create his image, Muniz and assistants assembled thousands of pieces of recyclables on a warehouse floor and photographed the assembly from a high platform. Muniz’s images are a critical reflection on the vast waste created throughout the world and its ability to be recycled into compelling, beautiful objects.
The Birth of Venus, after Botticelli (Pictures of Junk) is on view in the contemporary galleries on Level 4 at Mint Museum Uptown.
Curators’ Pick: Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (No. 3) by Mary Cassatt
Mint Museum Senior Curator of American Art, Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, discusses Mary Cassatt’s Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (No. 3). Painted at the turn of the 20th century, this is a striking image of the artist’s best-known subject: the intimate relationship between mothers and children. It is even more noteworthy for its combination of distinctive features: the unusual pose of the sitters, the use of a mirror to reveal the face of the mother whose back is turned to the viewer, the tightly-compressed space of the composition, and the expansive use of the color. These qualities distinguish it from many other treatments of the subject by the artist.
Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art shares insight on Transporter, a sculpture by the New York City artist E.V. Day. In this work, Day’s undergraduate studies of nudes and objects in still life collide with her study of architecture and the psychology of space. She explodes those artistic concerns with gender theory that relates both to women and queer culture which was coming into its own in the 1980s and ’90s when Day started her Exploded Couture series.
Four uptown Charlotte cultural institutions partner to launch new event series Wednesday Night Live
For Immediate Release
Charlotte, North Carolina (October 25, 2021) — The four institutions that comprise the Levine Center for the Arts in uptown Charlotte — The Mint Museum, The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, and the Knight Theater — are partnering to launch a new weekly event series known as Wednesday Night Live. Presented by Bank of America, Wednesday Night Live will include free admission to the three museums between 5-9 p.m. every Wednesday, as well as live entertainment or programming at one of the four institutions each week. The special programming, which will rotate among the partners, includes everything from Brazilian dance performances to spoken-word artists to film screenings. The first Wednesday Night Live will be October 27 at Mint Museum Uptown, as the Youth Orchestras of Charlotte perform a series of Halloween-themed nocturnes — a nod to the Impressionist nocturnes on view in the Mint’s John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist exhibition, currently on view.
While cross-collaborations and after-hour programs are not new to these cultural institutions, the idea of Wednesday Night Live grew out of a desire to further solidify partnerships between four of the city’s key arts institutions and to rebuild engagement within the heart of uptown Charlotte, an area hit particularly hard by the economic impact of Covid-19. The concept was developed in conversations with Bank of America and the chief executives of each institution: Todd D. Smith of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art; Todd A. Herman of The Mint Museum, David. R. Taylor of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, and Tom Gabbard of Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and the Knight Theater.
All organizations will follow CDC guidelines, as well as state and local regulations, with regard to Covid-19 protocols. In accordance, all attendees of indoor events must wear a mask. “We believe in the power of the arts to help communities thrive and to create greater cultural understanding,” said Kieth Cockrell, president of Bank of America Charlotte. “Extending the hours and offering complimentary admission on Wednesday nights offers our community even more access to the city’s best art and programming.”
Wednesday Night Live 2021 Schedule October 27: The Mint Museum and the Youth Orchestras of Charlotte present a series of Halloweenthemed nocturnes — a nod to the Impressionist nocturnes on view in the Mint’s John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist exhibition, currently on view. Cash bar.
November 3: The Mint Museum presents a performance and videos by Cherrie Yu, a fall 2021 McColl Center artist-in-residence, in collaboration with the McColl Center and the dance department at UNC Charlotte dance. Cash bar.
November 10: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art presents a Brazilian dance performance and drop-in tours of Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement.
November 17: Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture presents an evening of Spoken Word featuring Boris “Bluz” Rogers that will include a writing workshop and a live performance from several esteemed poets and spoken word artists.
November 24: Head to the Knight Theater lobby as Blumenthal Performing Arts shows off some of its nerdiest content from its new Nerdy Night Out series. Enjoy a sampling of the Heroes Debate show, the Ladies Who Rocked History Show and the new Science for Comedians Show. Start off with a little Biology 101 with Professor Andrew Goff as he discusses the biology of hops and barley, and then get a taste of history with Jenny Kabool and Tiffany Bryant Jackson, as they share about the unknown women from the first Thanksgiving. Then round out the night with a fun-filled debate about which superhero would host the best Thanksgiving meal featuring Charlotte’s top local comedians.
December 1: The Mint Museum film showing of Sisters with Transistors, the remarkable story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to transform how we produce and listen to music today. Enjoy popcorn and a cash bar.
December 8: The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art features music and performances and drop-in tours of all exhibitions.
December 15: Join Blumenthal Performing Arts for outdoor, holiday cheer at the Knight Theater Plaza and on Levine Avenue of the Arts. The evening will include Christmas carols performed by a local traditional choir, a local trap choir, and a few Blumenthal Performing Arts Acoustic Grace alumni performers. Stroll along Levine Avenue and do some “reverse caroling,” where you visit different performance stations, rather than have carolers ring your doorbell. Make the experience complete with a cup of apple cider or hot chocolate.
December 22: No programming. Free admission 5-9 p.m. at the three museums.
December 29: Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture will celebrate Ujamaa (or cooperative economics), the fourth principle of Kwanzaa, with a candle-making workshop, an African dance class, and an informational session about the history and traditions of Kwanzaa. The Gantt will also feature local artisans and an array of hand-crafted treasures for sale during the evening.
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is the only museum in the Southern United States exclusively dedicated to European and American Modern Art and its legacies. Capturing a remarkable era of art history from the collection of the Zürich-based Bechtler family, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art collection includes works by some of the most important and influential figures of modernism, including Alexander Calder, Le Corbusier, Edgar Degas, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Jasper Johns, Paul Klee, Alfred
Manessier, Joan Miró, Kenneth Noland, Pablo Picasso, Bridget Riley, Nicolas de Staël, Andy Warhol and a wealth of other 20th-century notables. The museum, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta, prominently features the Niki de Saint Phalle’s iconic Le Grand Oiseau de Feu sur l’Arche on its entrance plaza. Located in the heart of Uptown, the Bechtler is a light-filled community space created to inspire and engage firsttime visitors and long-term supporters alike.
Blumenthal Performing Arts
Blumenthal Performing Arts serves the Carolinas as a leading cultural, entertainment and education provider. For more information, call 704.372.1000 or visit BlumenthalArts.org. Blumenthal Performing Arts receives operating support from the North Carolina Arts Council. Blumenthal Performing Arts is also supported by PNC Bank, sponsor of the PNC Broadway Lights.
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture is a multidisciplinary arts institution located in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1974, the Gantt Center’s mission is to present, preserve, and celebrate excellence in the art, history, and culture of African-Americans and those of African descent through visual and literary arts, dance, music, film, educational programs, theatre productions, and community outreach. The Gantt Center features fine art exhibitions from around the world and is home to the nationally celebrated John and Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American Art, which was generously donated by Bank of America, and is accessible online. Named for Charlotte civic leader and former mayor Harvey Bernard Gantt, the Gantt Center is housed in an iconic, award-winning structure designed by architect Philip Freelon, co-designer of the Smithsonian National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). For more information about the Gantt Center, visit ganttcenter.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and welcomes all to be inspired and transformed through the power of art and creativity. mintmuseum.org
Media contacts
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
Hillary Hardwick, Deputy Director for Marketing and Communications hillary.hardwick@bechtler.org | 704.353.9204 (o)
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
Bonita Buford, Chief Operating Officer
704.547.3700
The Mint Museum
Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org | 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Curators’ Pick: Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing by John Leslie Breck
Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum, discusses the color, light and shadow, and inspiration behind artist John Leslie Breck’s painting “Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing.” It is one of fewer than a dozen paintings of Breck to be held in a public collection. John Leslie Breck was instrumental in introducing Impressionism to America. The exhibition “John Leslile Breck: American Impressionist” is on view at The Mint Museum’s uptown location through January 2, 2022. The exhibition includes this painting, as well as more than 70 other paintings by Breck.
Curator’s Pick: Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing by John Leslie Breck
Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing,was created in 1888 by American artist John Leslie Breck. Breck was born in 1860, grew up near Boston, and trained in Germany, Belgium, and France. In 1887, he and seven of his colleagues visited the village of Giverny which lies approximately 40 miles northwest of Paris where the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet had settled in 1883.
Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing was painted in the summer of 1888, not long after Breck had converted to Impressionism. In the painting, Suzanne sits in dappled sunlight under a leafy tree and in front of a field of golden hay. Breck’s skill at capturing the play of light and shadow is on full display. Acanvas by Monet, completed at the same time, features his stepdaughter Blanche at work at her easel and in the distance, Suzanne, who peers over Breck’s shoulder as he, too, works on a painting.
See this painting and 70 others by John Leslie Breck in the exhibition John Leslie Breck: American Impressioniston view at Mint Museum Uptown through January 2, 2022.
Credit: John Leslie Breck (American, 1860-99). “Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing,” 1888, oil on canvas. Gift of the Mint Museum Auxiliary and courtesy Heather James Fine Art. 2016.25
Curator’s Pick: Siamese Twins and Statue by Virgil Ortiz
Virgil Ortiz was born there and lives in Cochiti. Coming from a place where clay and life are synonymous, Ortiz did not know that making things out of clay was art until he was a teenager. The earliest Cochiti hand-built clay figures may have been inspired by circus performers or other itinerant entertainers, since the characters are usually depicted in an active state with an open mouth, suggesting singing. Those early figures were much smaller in size than Ortiz’s sculpture, but the way he made and decorated this form is consistent with the way historic objects, including those made by his mother and grandmother, were made. This figure was made with clay that Virgil Ortiz collected on Cochiti Pueblo land, and it has a characteristic cream and black body.
Credit: Virgil Ortiz (American, 1969-). “Siamese Twins,” 1997, clay, stain, and slip. Gift of Gretchen and Nelson Grice. 2002.124.1. (c) Virgil Ortiz Creations 1997.
The Mint Museum renames its planned giving program The Dwelle-McBryde Society in honor of longtime supporter Neill McBryde’s commitment to the museum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Charlotte, North Carolina (July 20, 2021) — The Mint Museum’s planned giving program, The Dwelle Society, is being renamed The Dwelle-McBryde Society in honor of Charlotte attorney Neill McBryde’s steadfast support of the museum.
McBryde was recognized as one of the top 45 estate planning lawyers in the U.S. by Town & Country magazine in the course of his career, and was named in Best Lawyers in America, Trusts and Estates, 1983-2021; Litigation & Controversy – Tax, 1983-2021; Tax Law 1983-2021. He also was a leader in the Charlotte-based Moore & Van Allen law firm for decades. A champion of legacy giving, he understands the value of planned giving programs for the long-term sustainability of institutions and nonprofits, whether The Mint Museum or his beloved Myers Park Presbyterian Church and its outreach ministries. This honor also marks the occasion of McBryde’s retirement from the practice of law at the end of 2021, after many years of dedicated service to his clients, the firm, and the community.McBryde was a driving force behind the establishment of the Mint’s Dwelle Society in 1996. In 2010, he was a founding member of the Mint’s Crown Society, an annual giving circle comprised of museum patrons contributing $1,200 or more to The Mint Museum’s Annual Fund. He also served on the Mint’s board of trustees for multiple terms, once as board chair, as well as on numerous committees, and is now a member of The Mint Museum’s advisory board. In addition, his wife Peggy McBryde served as the publicity committee chair for the 1997 Antiques Show and co-chaired the Antiques Show committee in 1998, and has held multiple committee leadership roles with the Mint Museum Auxiliary.
The Mint Museum’s planned giving program was originally named for Mary Myers Dwelle, who in 1933 began to raise funds to relocate the Charlotte Mint building to house the first art museum in North Carolina. Her pioneering efforts inspired the establishment of the Dwelle Society, now the Dwelle-McBryde Society, which recognizes the generosity of donors who make a planned gift or bequest to The Mint Museum.
“This renaming and the generous gifts in honor of Neill McBryde have invigorated our planned giving program at the Mint,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO at The Mint Museum. “We are optimistic that Neill’s stature in the community and commitment to lifelong giving will serve as a catalyst for growth.”
Moore & Van Allen has been a longtime corporate supporter of The Mint Museum and has sponsored many exhibitions, ranging from Portals to the Past: British Ceramics 1675-1825 (currently on view at Mint Museum Randolph) to The Glamour & Romance of Oscar de la Renta in 2018, and most recently Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporaries in 2020.
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The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Moore & Van Allen
Moore & Van Allen PLLC (www.mvalaw.com), founded in 1950, has more than 330 attorneys serving clients in over 60 areas of focus. The attorneys at Moore & Van Allen provide sophisticated legal services within nationally recognized Litigation, Corporate, Financial Services, Intellectual Property, Bankruptcy, Wealth, Trust and Estate, and Commercial Real Estate law practices for international banks and financial services companies, domestic and global manufacturers, retailers, individuals, and healthcare and technology organizations. The firm is ranked in the prestigious “Am Law 200” list, and U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers have recognized Moore & Van Allen in their 2021 “Best Law Firms” rankings, both regionally and nationally.
Contact: Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org | 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
The Mint Museum organizes the first-ever retrospective of works by Impressionist painter John Leslie Breck in its exhibition John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Charlotte, North Carolina (July 16, 2021) — The Mint Museum is pleased to announce the premiere of John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist, an exhibition showcasing more than 70 works by one of the first American artists to introduce Impressionism to the United States. The exhibition — the first ever organized by a museum to be dedicated to works by John Leslie Breck — will run from September 18, 2021 through January 2, 2022 at The Mint Museum’s uptown Charlotte location (known as Mint Museum Uptown).
Drawn from public and private collections, as well as the acclaimed Terra Foundation collection of American art, many of the works have not been on public view in more than a century. In addition to Breck’s landscape-inspired works, the exhibition highlights his exploration of new styles and approaches to painting in the years before his early death at the age of 38. More than 10 related paintings by Breck’s French and American Impressionist colleagues, including Theodore Robinson, Willard Metcalf, and Lila Cabot Perry, are also featured in the exhibition.The exhibition, presented by Bank of America, is inspired by The Mint Museum’s acquisition of Breck’s canvas Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing. “I have been an admirer of John Leslie Breck’s beautiful, trailblazing paintings ever since my first encounter with his work at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the late 1990s,” says Jonathan Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum. “When we had the opportunity to acquire one for The Mint Museum in 2016, it was the perfect catalyst for the museum to begin organizing this exhibition — the first retrospective of his work since his death in 1899.”
“The importance of John Leslie Breck’s works and his introduction of French Impressionism to an American audience has largely gone unrecognized but is an important part of American art history,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “Through dedicated research and work by the staff at the Mint, Breck and his beautiful paintings will be brought back into the conversation of American art.”In addition, a 208-page, fully illustrated exhibition catalogue will be available when the exhibition opens in September. Stuhlman collaborated with leading Breck scholars Royal Leith and Jeffrey Brown to bring together Breck’s finest paintings, as well as to create the first ever monograph produced about the artist, which also includes contributions from Erica Hirshler, PhD, and Katherine Bourguignon, PhD. After debuting at The Mint Museum, John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist will travel to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee in the winter of 2022 and the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa in the spring of 2022.
“Bank of America believes the arts are fundamental to a culturally healthy community,” shared President of Bank of America Charlotte Kieth Cockrell. “We are pleased to support The Mint Museum in hosting the Breck exhibit to showcase his talent, encourage appreciation of Impressionism and inspire future artists.”
John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist is generously presented by Bank of America, with additional support provided by The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts and the Mint Museum Auxiliary. Individual support provided by Charlie and Susan Murray in honor of Welborn and Patty Alexander, and Mary and Dick Payne.
Ticket Information
The Mint Museum exhibition is free for members and children ages 4 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; $10 for college students with ID; and $6 for youth ages 5–17. Frontline workers and their immediate families also receive complimentary admission through December 31, 2021.
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,300 retail financial centers, including approximately 2,700 lending centers, 2,600 financial centers with a Consumer Investment Financial Solutions Advisor and approximately 2,400 business centers; approximately 17,000 ATMs; and award-winning digital banking with approximately 40 million active users, including approximately 31 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Contact: Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org| 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Curators’ Pick: King’s Voyage by Bertil Vallien
Bertil Vallien is recognized as the pioneer of the sand-casting technique, in which molten glass is poured into a firm sand mold. Much like the cire perdue or lost wax technique, the delicate nature of the mold material prevents more than one sculpture from being produced. Thus, Vallien’s sand-cast sculptures are unique works of art.
One of the most prominent vessel themes in his stoneware sculptures of the late 1970’s, the boat became a hallmark of Vallien’s later sand-cast sculptures (1984-88). Vallien’s boats are containers for messages and metaphors for man’s existence. They explore universal themes, like the journey of life and the unknown destination.
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Gallery Chat with Curator and Community, Part 3
Coming together for another discussion surrounding works of art in the Mint’s permanent collection is Jon Stulhman, PhD, senior curator of American art, and Rubie R. Britt-Height, director of community relations at the Mint.
This series is a part of video series that examines and compares works of art currently installed in the Mint’s Contemporary Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown.
Watch the first two videos in this series using the buttons below:
The Mint Museum to Display Masterpiece by Mary Cassatt in American Galleries
Charlotte, North Carolina (June 10, 2021) — The Mint Museum is delighted to announce that it will display in its American galleries Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (No. 3), a stunning work by iconic American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, as a long-term loan from the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation.
The Foundation purchased the piece from The Brooklyn Museum, as well as Thomas Cole’s The Arch of Nero (deaccessioned by the Newark Museum of Art), on May 19 at Sotheby’s, and immediately offered to lend the Cassatt to The Mint Museum and the Cole to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Cassatt was the only American artist to exhibit with the French Impressionists, and Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (No. 3) is a classic example of her mature work. An intimate portrait of a mother and her child — whose unique composition, with the mother’s back to the viewer — allowed Cassatt to demonstrate her strength as a colorist as well as a creator of innovative compositions. The Cassatt will go on view in July at The Mint Museum’s uptown Charlotte location, known as Mint Museum Uptown, as part of annual rotations in the American art galleries.
“We have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Jacobsen and her Foundation for a number of years,” says Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, the museum’s senior curator of American art. “Dr. Jacobsen is a champion of American art, striving to acquire the finest paintings and sculptures by a diverse range of artists who worked from this country’s earliest years to the present day. The Mint does not currently own a painting by Cassatt, and the loan of this fabulous painting will allow us to tell more fully the story of American Impressionism, as well as to highlight the important contributions of female artists to the story of American art.”
The Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation’s close relationship with The Mint Museum is also evident its participation in the museum’s upcoming exhibition John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist, a retrospective featuring 70 of Breck’s finest works, which will be on view from September 18, 2021 to January 2, 2022 at Mint Museum Uptown. In 1887, Breck was one of the founders of the American art colony at Giverny and was among the earliest American artists to embrace the Impressionist style. He was also one of the first to exhibit his Impressionist paintings in America and helped to popularize the style during his years working in the Boston area in the 1890s. The exhibition, inspired by The Mint Museum’s 2016 acquisition of Breck’s canvas Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing, features a number of works that haven’t been on public view in more than a century.“We are excited to be able to share this exquisite painting by Mary Cassatt with our community,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “Dr. Jacobsen and her Foundation believe great art should be shared and have enriched our American galleries by lending a number of unforgettable works. Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (No. 3) will become a must-see piece in our galleries.”
The planned donation of the Jacobsen Foundation’s collection The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design will also be displayed at The Mint Museum in the near future, after it concludes its tour of 28 institutions across the country. And alongside the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, The Mint Museum is co-organizing an exhibition of over 100 highlights from the Foundation’s collection of American art. After its debut in Charlotte in fall 2022, the exhibition will travel to four additional venues and be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue of the collection.
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.Contact:
Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org | 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Curators’ Pick: Ring of Iron, Ring of Wool by Kay Sage
Kay Sage was one of the few American artists to be closely involved with the French Surrealist movement. “Ring of Iron, Ring of Wool” was completed at the height of her career and incorporates all of the hallmarks of her signature style: a haunting, desolate landscape; beautifully-rendered yet enigmatic forms; and sophisticated variations in tone and color. The title is thought to be a reference to the traditional gifts for a couple’s sixth and seventh anniversaries. 1947 marked the sixth anniversary of Sage and Tanguy’s move to Woodbury, Connecticut and the seventh of their marriage.
Curators’ Pick: Beloved (Reering Deer) by Beth Cavener
The sculpture “Beloved” is from a body of work by the artist Beth Cavener, that, somewhat autobiographical, captures intense psychological states of the human condition, in anthropomorphic forms, usually feral mammals. These life-size portrayals function as a sort of camouflage for her own feelings, or her observations of other people going through some sort of inner turmoil.
Yann Gerstberger creates murals, sculptures, and textile tapestries from his home in Mexico City. In Flowerbed Gerstberger uses inspiration from his world travels, both in person and electronically, to create imagery of lush rainforest and desert flora and fauna.
Curated by the Mint’s chief curator and curator of contemporary art, Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, sees the exhibition as a wonderful way to showcase the collaboration of local artists who are producing intriguing and inspired works of art. “One of the things I’ve found really wonderful about this city is the number of collectives that were created for artists to support each other. I rarely have encountered that in the other places I’ve lived.”
Building artist communities
Collectives build something special for artists, says Todd Stewart, a member of the artist-led residency program Goodyear Arts. “There’s a reciprocal relationship within an art community, creating and seeing things,” he says. “Personally, I feel like I get more than I give.”
For Stewart, a trained sculptor who also explores painting in his mixed-media creations, working as an artist can be lonely. He says collectives really help to push past the feeling of isolation, even if you’re not actively collaborating with the artists around you. “That to me is just a huge boost of energy … seeing what these folks are up to really propels me forward,” he says.
The wide spectrum of artists—visual, performing and literary—and creative work at Goodyear Arts helps draw diverse audiences to events, most of which are free and offered in an accessible location. This expands relationships and exposure for other artists, too.Having the opportunity to show their work in a museum the caliber of the Mint is an exciting for collective members, Stewart says, with the potential to reach people who don’t yet know them and what they contribute to the community.
People often think of art coming from “meccas” like Los Angeles, New York, or London, Stewart says, “but Charlotte is building this creative capital, too. It’s rewarding putting your buckets down where you’re at and creating where you are,” he says.
Artists collectives depend on public and private support to continue their work. Goodyear Arts, for example, turns donated space into art galleries and studios. This kind of partnership is key to building opportunities for artists to create.
The fruits of such collaborations can already be seen around Charlotte through various public art initiatives.
What public art brings to the city
Besides beautifying and enriching the city’s landscape, public art like murals serve important social functions. Art inspires conversation and brings different communities together, says painter Sam Guzzie, partner and director of programming for Brand the Moth.
Last summer, Brand the Moth and BlKMrktClt were two of the key groups leading local artists in creating the Black Lives Matter mural on Tryon Street. The iconic project involved 20 different artists, who were each able to put their own distinctive mark on this collaboration.
Bringing community members into the creative process is important, too. For example, Brand the Moth’s 16th Street Bridge Mural was directly inspired by conversations with homeless residents at the nearby Men’s Shelter of Charlotte, who then volunteered side-by-side with Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department officers, and others to revitalize the area. Such efforts help create community dialogue over the paintbrush, says Hannah Fairweather, partner and director of curation at Brand the Moth.Another unique collaboration took place at the McGill Rose Garden, where the Brand the Moth created a mural with UMAR, a nonprofit that promotes community inclusion for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Efforts like these strengthen community bonds and allow people all over the city to experience the arts. For some people, seeing or participating in a public art initiative may be the only chance they have to experience art. “Often public art is the gateway into that world for them,” Fairweather says.
Visitors to The Mint Museum can gain an appreciation for the role artist collectives play in our community through this exhibition. “It’s really something to be proud of and to invest in,” Sudul Edwards says.Liz Rothaus Bertrand is a Charlotte-based freelance writer who has a love of the arts in all its forms.
This story was originally published in the January, 2021 issue of Inspired, the Mint’s biannual member magazine.
The Mint’s community relations director recognized as an icon of the Latino community
By Rafael Prieto
The Comité de Fiestas Patrias y Tradiciones de Charlotte (CFPTC) recognized Rubie R. Britt-Height, director of community relations at The Mint Museum, as an Icon of the Latino community, for her contribution to culture and the preservation of the Hispanic heritage.
“For years, we have wanted to cherish Rubie’s support to the local Hispanic artistic talent and the presence of the Afro Caribbean rhythms on the Charlotte Region,” says Rafael Prieto, co-founder of CFPTC.
The award was presented in person to Britt-Height by Charlotte’s Patriotic Celebrations and Traditions Committee on June 25 at CFPTC’s Third Encounter of Directors, Founders, and Volunteers on the Artesan Gelato Ice Cream place in Matthews. The award recognizes her initiative Mint to Move, created in 2012, which represents the spirit of Afro-Latino culture through music and dance by Africans in the Caribbean and the rest of Hispanic America.
“We intended to honor Rubie in the Third Afrolatinos-Black History Month commemoration, held at Johnson C. Smith University on February 27, 2020, but imponderable circumstances prevented it,” Prieto says. The Third Encounter of Directors, Founders, and Volunteers was a perfect event to recognize Britt-Height. Representatives of many Hispanic nationalities affiliated with Fiestas Patrias applauded her work and accomplishments.
Thanks to the intervention of Britt-Height, the idea of preserving the beautiful and meaningful Colombian tradition of Candles’ Day became a reality. With the help of artist Edwin Gil, CFPTC proposed the commemoration be held at the Mint after the Colombian painter closed his gallery. Since 2016, Fiestas Patrias, Soy Latino Como Tu (SLT), Colombian American Foundation (COAMFO), Lideres Colombianos en Charlotte (LCC), and Manolo’s Bakery have been proactive partners of Candles’ Day.
Britt-Height created the event’s motto, “celebrate the LIGHT in CommUNITY, Family, Oneness, Sharing, Faith & Love for All of Humankind, based on a Colombian tradition.”
Manolo Betancur, from Manolo’s Bakery, and owner of Artesan Gelato, provided the appetizers and pastries for the CFPTC Third Encounter of Directors, Founders, and Volunteers.
Curators’ Pick: Wood Branches, Diversity N. 17
Nacho Carbonell views his creations as living beings and in doing so, he captures the life-force and expressive qualities of the wood that was chosen to create this work of art.
Wood Branches, Diversity N. 17 is on view at Mint Museum Uptown.
The Mint Museum to showcase work of 25 local artists, three artist collectives in upcoming exhibition It Takes a Village
Charlotte, North Carolina (May 21, 2021) — In celebration of the vibrant, grassroots art happening throughout Charlotte, The Mint Museum has organized It Takes a Village: Charlotte’s Artist Collectives, an exhibition presenting works of art from three of the city’s innovative artist collectives: Goodyear Arts, BlkMrktClt, and Brand the Moth. The exhibition runs June 12- September 12 at Mint Museum Randolph.
About the collectives
Goodyear Arts is an artist-led residency program that supports visual, performing, and literary artists annually by providing time, space, money, and community in which to create. Alumni have formed a collective and continue using free studio space and volunteering their time to support the organization. goodyeararts.com
BlkMrktClt was created to provide a safe creative environment for artists of color. The organization, located at Camp North End, focuses on developing emerging artists and creating a more diverse and robust community. blkmrktclt.com
Brand the Moth uses public art programs and projects as a vehicle to spark creativity and connection, provide a trusting space for artists to grow, offer educational opportunities for professionals, and produce projects which reflect and empower the community around them. brandthemoth.com
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Contact:
Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org | 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Funding for this exhibition is provided by ASC and NCAC. A special thank you to our media sponsor Charlotte is Creative.
Gallery Chat with Curator and Community, Part 2
Coming together for another discussion surrounding works of art in the Mint’s permanent collection is Jon Stulhman, PhD, senior curator of American art, and Rubie R. Britt-Height, director of community relations at the Mint.
This series is a part of new video series that examines and compares works of art currently installed in the Mint’s Contemporary Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown.
Brian Gallagher, curator of decorative arts, tells us about this peculiar object found at Mint Museum Randolph.
A monteith was used to cool wine glasses, which were suspended upside down into iced water. The glass stems rested in the monteith’s notches. This particular monteith and stand were made for Thomas Lamb (1753–1813), a Boston shipping merchant who was very active in the early years of the American China trade.
Zuleyma Castrejon Salinas is a teaching artist living and practicing in the Queen City. She has experience teaching art at all life stages from child to senior adult. Her practice is very versatile and she likes to explore anything and everything from painting to jewelry making and everything in between.Tell us a bit about your background
I was born in Huitzuco, Guerrero, Mexico to a young mother and father. I spent my first couple of years living there with my mother. My father made his way to the U.S when I was 1 year old to help provide for us, since we were scarce on money and resources.Early artistic roots
Because mom and I didn’t speak English, and mom didn’t know how to drive, we passed our time walking to the nearby Family Dollar. From a young age, Mom and dad always bought me coloring books, puzzles, crayons, watercolor paints, and notebook paper.Observe. Bridge. Respond. Art (OBRA)
Early in college, I joined a Latinx-led art collective called OBRA collective. We are an art collective made up of Latinx and ally artists that create art that celebrates our heritage and raises awareness about issues that the immigrant community faces.As an art collective, we:
• Lead community workshops
• Plan and execute art exhibitions
• Collaborate with different partners, including the city of Charlotte
• Listen and respond to the needs of our communityOBRA collective tapestry mural
This is one of our largest projects. We partnered with the city of Charlotte and the community of East charlotte to design and create a mural that was representative of the people of East charlotte. You can see the mural at the intersection of Monroe and Idlewild roads. The people of East Charlotte come from many parts of the world. These countries were represented through their fauna, flora, and traditional textile patterns.Photography
These two photographic series were both inspired by my parents. I am forever grateful for all of their sacrifices because I wouldn’t be where I am without them.
Celebrando Artistas Mexicanos Por El 5 de Mayo
Llegar a saber Zuleyma Castrejon Salinas
Soy un artista docente que vive y ejerce en la Cuidad Reina. Tengo experiencia enseñando arte en todas las etapas de la vida, desde niño hasta adulto mayor. Mi práctica es muy versátil y me gusta explorar cualquier cosa, desde la pintura hasta la fabricación de joyas y todo lo demás.¿DE DONDE SOY?
Nací en Huitzuco, Guerrero, México a unos padres jóvenes. Pasé mis primeros años viviendo allí con mi madre. Mi padre se dirigió a los EE. UU. Cuando yo tenía 1 año para ayudar a mantenernos, ya que éramos escasos de dinero y recursos.Primeras raíces artísticas
Debido a que mamá y yo no hablamos inglés y mamá no sabía conducir, pasamos nuestro tiempo caminando hacia el family dollar cercano. Desde temprana edad, mamá y papá siempre me compraron libros para colorear, rompecabezas, crayones, pinturas de acuarela y papel para cuadernos.Observe. Bridge. Respond. Art (OBRA)
Temprano en la universidad me uni a una colectiva de arte latinx llamada obra colectiva. Somos una colectiva de arte hecha de artistas latinx y aliados que crean arte que celebra nuestra herencia y que sensibiliza los temas que enfrenta la comunidad inmigrante.COMO COLECTIVA NOSOTROS:
• OFRECEMOS TALLERES COMUNITARIOS
• PLANIFICAMOS Y EJECUTAMOS EXPOSICIONES DE ARTE
• COLABORAMOS CON DIFERENTES SOCIOS, INCLUYENDO LA CIUDAD DE CHARLOTTE
• ESCUCHAMOS Y RESPONDEMOS A LAS NECESIDADES DE NUESTRA COMUNIDADTapestry mural
Este es uno de nuestros mayores proyectos. Nos asociamos con la ciudad de charlotte y la comunidad de east charlotte para diseñar y crear un mural representante de la comunidad de east Charlotte. Puedes ver el mural en la interseccion de Monroe Road Y Idlewild Road.
La gente de east charlotte proviene de muchas partes del mundo. Estos países estuvieron representados a través de su fauna, flora y patrones de textiles tradicionales.Arte Personal
Mi arte refleja mucho mi cultura y herencia mexicana a través de sus imágenes y colores brillantes y atrevidos. La mayor parte de mi arte está muy influenciado e inspirado por mi experiencia como mujer mexicana.
One year after Covid-19 shutdowns began, Silent Streets: Art in the Time of Pandemic reflects how it shaped a societal shift
By Liz Rothaus Bertrand
When the world came to a halt in early spring 2020, so did museums everywhere. Doors closed, shipments stopped, planned exhibitions were put on hold. Then cities across the nation erupted in protest, as communities faced a reckoning with long-term injustices and systemic racism. The concurrent events posed a challenge: How could the Mint best serve the community through the crisis and uprising, while also facing financial uncertainty and logistical challenges caused by the pandemic?
“This gave us [an] opportunity,” says Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, the Mint’s chief curator and curator of contemporary art. “Instead of showing an exhibition that seemed incongruous with the times, we were able to construct something that reflected the times.”
Silent Streets: Art in the Time of Pandemicopened April 21 at Mint Museum Uptown. The Mint commissioned new works by three North Carolina artists—Amy Bagwell, Antoine Williams, and Stacy Lynn Waddell. Their task: create works of art that respond to something that has happened since the pandemic began and reflects some change in their practice.
CAPTURING A MOMENT WE’RE STILL EXPERIENCING
As poet and mixed-media artist Amy Bagwell reflects on the past year, she lands on one overriding sensation: dissonance. Bagwell, who also teaches English at Central Piedmont Community College, watched her students grapple with both the dire consequences of COVID-19 and racial injustice. And yet she also heard people deny the virus’s existence and claim the protests were unjustified.
“That dissonance is terrifying,” Bagwell says. “Absurd in a painful way.”
Poetry she wrote during the Covid-19 pandemic inspired the three large-scale collages she created for Silent Streets. “As artists we’re trying to document this moment of multiple vexations,” Bagwell says, “but it will be an interim document because we’ll be going through this during and after the show. We don’t yet have the benefit of distance.”
CONFRONTING SYSTEMIC RACISM
Greensboro-based artist Antoine Williams says 2020 was shaping up to be a great year—but ended up being one of the worst. The pandemic upended his personal and professional lives while exposing, once again, systemic racism across the nation.
An assistant professor of art at Guilford College, Williams says his work is influenced by critical race theory. For Silent Streets, his mixed-media work looks at the uprisings and their meaning. He explores the objectification of Black labor and culture, and the absurdity of public shock when Black people speak up against injustice.
Creating during this challenging time has been cathartic, Williams says. “It’s a way of me shouting at the universe … or to feel like I’m contributing to this conversation.”
RECLAIMING SYMBOLS OF POWER
Artist Stacy Lynn Waddell of Durham often takes tools and uses them in new ways, redefining how we communicate. She has used branding irons on paper and acid to paint, among other experimental techniques.
For Silent Streets, Waddell explores themes like representation and inclusion in symbols of power. Working alongside a master quilter, she used homemade textiles to create flags. By using a technique from a domestic realm and bringing it to a public sphere, she envisioned a way to reclaim symbols such as flags that are often weaponized, and explored how they could be redesigned to be more inclusive.
“I think we’ll look back on this years later [and say] ‘This was an opportunity, even in all the bleak, difficult, sad lolling out of all of it,” Waddell says. “It’s still been an opportunity.”
OTHER PANDEMIC-BORN PERSPECTIVES
These three commissions form the core of the exhibition, but Silent Streetsalso featuresa wide spectrum of artists’ works during the pandemic. The exhibition also includes photo highlights from Diary of a Pandemic, a collaboration between Magnum Photos and National Geographic that features images taken by stranded photojournalists around the world in 2020.
In the Pandemic Comics part of the exhibition, the focus is on how syndicated comic strips such as “Pearls Before Swine,”“Liō,” and “Tank McNamara” changed course suddenly as COVID-19 upended our lives. Silent Streets will also featuresAs the Boundary Pulls Us Apart, a video and soundscape projection created by Charlotte artists Matt Steele and Ben Geller.
Liz Rothaus Bertrand is a Charlotte-based freelance writer who has a love of the arts in all its forms.
This story was originally published in the January, 2021 issue of Inspired, the Mint’s biannual member magazine.
Some of our favorite photos from Coveted Couture Gala: A Little Night Magic
Our annual Gala fundraiser was virtual this year, but that did not stop the party. These guest went above and beyond to set their tables, get dressed, and support the Mint’s mission of serving the community. Here are some of our favorite photos from the night.
“Lost Soul Found Spirits” by Robert Ebendorf – Curators’ Pick
Rebecca Elliot, assistant curator or craft, design, and fashion, shows us a necklace constructed of crab claws by Robert Ebendorf on view at Mint Museum Uptown.
Robert Ebendorf created his “Lost Souls Found Spirits” series of necklaces during a period of introspection and recovery while going through a divorce. He collected the crab claws during walks on the beach; on other pieces in the series, he incorporated found squirrel paws and bird heads. Ebendorf often uses found objects on his jewelry, an act he describes as making order out of chaos. However, the materials of “Lost Souls Found Spirits” are especially startling: claws, nails, and beaks, once lacerating, then dead, now live on as jewelry.
Embrace the blossoms of spring with new items from the Mint Museum Store
Sarah Cavender Metalworks Jewelry
All of Sarah Cavender’s Jewelry is handcrafted by local artisans under her supervision. Each piece is unique, and every aspect of its creation is hand done. Her pieces are light and airy, beautiful, and extremely special.
The sister scarf to our black Salvador Dali inspired scarf, this tone-on-tone scarf has charming wool flowers melting off white chiffon. This scarf is handmade and felted by artisans in Nepal and is a Fair Trade piece. $68.
Miss Ellie beautifully captures the elegance of a regal garden in this hammered cuff. It is cast in pewter and electroplated in 10 karat gold. An antique patina is hand-applied to bring out the unique features and contains small cream pearls. This is proudly handcrafted in New York City. $108.
This incredibly special necklace from Miss Ellie features a bird cage with crystal rhinestones, an antique gold finish and a tiny white bird swinging on its perch – complete with a cage door that opens. This piece is proudly handcrafted in NYC. $88.
Inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting, this scarf has a Merino wool night sky motif felted over silk chiffon. This scarf is handmade and felted by artisans in Nepal and is a Fair Trade piece. $68.
Turn heads with this stunning hand sculpted statement piece from the studio of Sarah Cavender Metalworks in Alabama. This showstopper features dogwood blooms (the North Carolina state flower), leaves, and twisted “branches” with a tubular mesh chain. There are oxidized brass meshes with hand painted mixed metal lacquered details. $240.
A bright and tropical display of papayas displayed across a felted white background. This scarf is handmade and felted by artisans in Nepal and is a Fair Trade piece. $60
Embrace spring with this beautiful hand-crafted necklace from the studio of Sarah Cavender Metalworks in Alabama. This enchanting passion flower bloom necklace, with an equally special scalloped mesh chain, is sure to dazzle and impress anyone! This necklace is like a sculpture you can wear! It is made of oxidized brass meshes with hand painted mixed metal lacquered details. $180.
Inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies painting, this Merino wool and silk chiffon scarf is full of color, art and texture. This scarf is handmade and felted by artisans in Nepal and is a Fair Trade piece. $68.
This delicate pair of drop earrings feature a beautifully handcrafted metal mesh pansy blossom and are proudly made by Sarah Cavender Metalworks in Alabama. They are made of oxidized brass meshes with hand painted mixed metal lacquered details with a small stone center accent and a hypoallergenic titanium post. $104.
Beautiful colors interlocked together with a ring design. Bring some color to your world! This scarf is handmade and felted by artisans in Nepal and is a Fair Trade piece. $62.
“The Poetry of Science” by Carlos Estévez – Curators’ Pick
Cuban artist Carlos Estévez uses his art to explore the relationship between the natural world and the one made by human ingenuity. Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at the Mint, gives a close look at this newly accuisitioned work of art in the Mint’s permanent collection. On view at Mint Museum Uptown.
Jon Stulhman,PhD, senior curator for american, modern, and contemporary art, and Rubie R. Britt-Height, director of community relations at the Mint, look at two pieces of contemporary art in the museum’s collection. This video is a part of new video series that examines and compares works of art currently installed in the Mint’s Contemporary Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown.
Black Stacked Circles by Ibrahim Said – Curators’ Pick
Annie Carlano, Curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion, shares one of her favorite works in The Mint Museum’s Collection. Black Stacked Circles by Ibrahim Said is an intricately carved ceramic sculpture on view at Mint Museum Uptown.
From famous fashion soirees to NBA takeovers, some of the Queen City’s biggest events have been held at Mint Museum Uptown.
By Ellen Show, Archivist
September 25, 2010
The Metamorphosis Gala celebrated the opening of Mint Museum Uptown. Partygoers were serenaded by an opera diva from the grand staircase.
April 29, 2011
The Mint Museum Auxiliary’s Room to Bloom celebration kicked off with the Art of Style gala at Mint Museum Uptown with guest of honor, Oscar de la Renta. The event included a runway show of the designer’s fall 2011 fashion line, and a display of more than 30 de la Renta pieces owned by Charlotteans, as well as items from the Mint’s Fashion Collection.
July 13 & 14, 2012
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited The Mint Museum in conjunction with the Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection exhibition. The weekend included an exhibition walk-thru, VIP reception, an education program for college students, “A Conversation With Madeleine Albright” program that packed Mint Museum Uptown ’s James B. Duke auditorium, plus a book-signing by Albright.
September 3–6, 2012
Mint Museum Uptown hosted events related to the Democratic National Convention and launched its “Vote for Art” campaign that allowed guests to vote for their favorite work of art from six candidates on display. Even Queen Charlotte cast her ballot! Voting continued through November and the top three pieces were purchased by the museum.
February 18, 2013
Motoi Yamamoto created Floating Garden, a saltwork on the floor of the Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium. During a community dismantling ceremony on March 3, 2013, the piece was removed from the floor by participants who were invited to return the salt to the sea.
May 6–20, 2013
Charlotte-based artist John W. Love, Jr., performed his interdisciplinary work FECUND, which combined a residency, interactive installation, and one-man performance.
June 19, 2014
Redesigned Charlotte Hornets basketball uniforms were unveiled in Mint Museum Uptown’s Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium.
October 22, 2016
The Year of the Woman kicked off with the opening of two exhibitions at Mint Museum Uptown: Fired Up: Women in Glass and Women of Abstract Expressionism on the 80th anniversary of the opening of The Mint Museum.
October 28, 2017
Devolar y Detonar (Reveal and Detonate) made its debut in the United States at The Mint Museum, featuring the work of over 40 contemporary Mexican photographers, and was the central exhibition in a community-wide initiative celebrating Mexican photography titled InFocus/Enfoque. Other participating organizations include the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the Light Factory, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, and LaCa Projects.
February 2019
When Charlotte hosted the NBA All-Star Weekend, Mint Museum Uptown became the home for Nike and Jordan Brand events. A fully enclosed basketball court was built in the Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium, and a temporary gallery of Nike shoes was also on display.
Mint Música & Poesía Café
This event will premiere at 7 PM on March 31.
Mint Música & Poesía Café features talented poets, dancers, and musicians from the Charlotte area. Special guests: Singer Joseph Gallo, and poets Irania Patterson and Kurma Murrain.
This biannual event conveys renowned artists and rising stars. Listen to the voice of the classics through our guest artists or be inspired by new lyrics and verses. Mint Música & Poesía Café celebrates Women’s History Month, and it is also tied with the current Latin American exhibitions at the Mint.
The Mint Museum’s upcoming Silent Streets: Art in the Time of Pandemic puts spotlight on works created in isolation by local, regional and international artists
Charlotte, North Carolina (March 26, 2021) — When the city streets fell quiet in March 2020 due to Covid-19, followed by social justice reckoning across the country, people and communities were changed. The Mint Museum’s newest exhibition, Silent Streets: Art in the Time of Pandemic, opening April 17 at Mint Museum Uptown, showcases thought-provoking works of art by regional, national, and international artists. From collage and comic strips to abstract painting, video and photography, the exhibition installations illuminate discord while also providing solace and insight in challenging times.
At the core of the show, which is presented by Fifth Third Bank, are commissioned pieces by North Carolina artists Amy Bagwell of Charlotte, Stacy Lynn Waddell of Durham, and Antoine Williams of Greensboro. Each artist created works during isolation that reflect how the pandemic and events of 2020 affected their worlds.
“In March 2020, we found ourselves looking at a depleted exhibition schedule, between pandemic-related shipping delays and budget cuts,” says Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at the Mint. “The Mint’s President and CEO Todd Herman said, ‘Why don’t we reallocate those remaining spaces and funds directly to artists?’ I selected these three artists, confident we could do remote studio visits and it would still be a successful collaboration. By April, artists around the world were creating profoundly powerful and poignant work responding to all that was going on, and I realized the show could go beyond three North Carolina voices and become an international chorus.”
Bagwell, a poet and mixed-media artist, who has more than 20 public murals throughout Charlotte, produced three large-scale collages inspired by poetry she wrote during the pandemic. Mixed-media work by Williams addresses social injustice, systemic racism, and the objectification of Black labor and culture. And Waddell, working alongside a master quilter, used textiles to create flags that explore themes of representation and inclusion in symbols of power.
Also included in the exhibition is As the Boundary Pulls Us Apart, a short film by Charlotte-based artists Matthew Steele and Ben Gellar. The digital project enabled the two artists to collaborate and volley ideas from separate spaces, ultimately creating a piece that embodies a spirit of unity while being apart.Additional installations include Diary of a Pandemic and Pandemic Comics. Through a collaboration between Magnum Photos and National Geographic, Diary of a Pandemic showcases images taken by photojournalists around the world stranded during the pandemic. Pandemic Comics highlights syndicated comics—La Cucaracha, Liō, Curtis, Pearls Before Swine, and Tank McNamara—that suddenly changed course, as long-planned strips were replaced with ones that related directly to the pandemic.
The one work that predates the pandemic—Gregory Crewdson’s Funerary Back Lot (2018-19) from his An Eclipse of Moths Series—eerily relays an aura of isolation and quiet destitution that feels consistent with the pandemic times, reminding us that these are human states, not temporary or conditional ones.
“Artists are often the first to respond and react to societal forces and create work that manages to encapsulate abstract concepts of emotion,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO at The Mint Museum. “I am excited to see the result of their efforts and to celebrate the necessary role that creatives play in healing communities.”
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, National Association, a federally chartered institution. As of September 30, 2020, Fifth Third had $202 billion in assets and operated 1,122 full-service banking centers and 2,414 ATMs with Fifth Third branding in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In total, Fifth Third provides its customers with access to approximately 52,000 fee-free ATMs across the United States. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending and Wealth & Asset Management. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of September 30, 2020, had $422 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $53 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations through its Trust and Registered Investment Advisory businesses. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq® Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.” Fifth Third Bank was established in 1858. Deposit and Credit products are offered by Fifth Third Bank. Member FDIC.
Contact:
Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org | 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
A charmingly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofskyt highlights the achievements and stories of 50 notable women in the arts, from well-known figures like painters Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe to lesser-known names like 19th-century African American quilter Harriet Powers and Hopi-Tewa ceramic artist Nampeyo. $16.99
These dolls are handcrafted using natural fibers and eco-friendly resources by talented artisans in Kyrgyzstan, and make a great bookend while reminding us all who blazed a path before us. All details are hand stitched and embroidered. $36.
This mug commemorates some of the most influential women artists who have made their stamp. If there’s one thing to say about the accomplishments of women, it’s this: Girlfriends, we’ve come far! $26.
These dolls are handcrafted using natural fibers and eco-friendly resources by talented artisans in Kyrgyzstan. All details are hand stitched and embroidered. $24.
This puzzle features seven beloved women poets and lyricists spanning centuries and continents whose wisdom and words continue to influence the world, including Sappho, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Miriam Makeba, Kamala Das, Li Qingzhao, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in a lush, heavenly floral garden. Illustrated by Jennifer Orkin Lewis. $24
Through the Lens
New photography installations tell the stories of people and places, past and present
By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Chief Curator & Curator of Contemporary ArtIn addition to these two photography shows on view in the galleries, the Mint’s first online exhibition: Expanding the Pantheon: Women R Beautiful launched on the Mint’s website in November 2020. It presents 26 portraits by Ruben Natal-San Miguel, whose Mama became an audience favorite when it joined the collection in 2018. Natal-San Miguel photographs subjects not historically seen on museum walls, and his new series continues that project, presenting feminine beauty in a myriad of shades—literally and symbolically. In addition to Mama, two other online images—Mary C. Curtis (Journalist) and Three Muslim Women—can be seen in the Contemporary Galleries. They were donated to the museum last year thanks to the generosity of Dana Martin Davis (who also donated Mama) and Natal-San Miguel.
As art historian Coco Fusco observes in the book Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, “The photographic image plays a central role in American culture.” We have seen this most prominently in the press, advertising, and social media, and we will continue to examine its effects through our photography exhibitions at the Mint. Look for an increased presence of photography online and in the galleries in the coming years.
Stephen Compton: From Jugtown Pottery to hyalyn Porcelain: A Collector’s Journey
Delhom Service League Studio Visit
Steve Compton discusses his history as a collector of NC pottery, and how his interest led him to become a noted researcher and author. Steve shares details about his collection of pottery, now including over 2,000 pieces, and some of the many books he has authored.
Call for Artists
Coined in the South: 2022
The Young Affiliates of the Mint, in collaboration with The Mint Museum, are seeking works of art produced by southeastern artists for the second installment of Coined in the South. This juried exhibition will be held from March 25, 2022 to July 3, 2022 at Mint Museum Uptown.
Coined in the South is about bridging the gap between the museum, the gallery, and the studio, to highlight the innovative and thought-provoking works produced by the creative innovators of the southeastern arts community. The show is not confined to any single aesthetic, theme, or medium.
Prize money will be awarded. There will be a $10,000 juror-awarded grand prize, a $5,000 Young Affiliates of the Mint member-awarded prize, and a $1,000 “People’s Choice” prize awarded by the general public at the conclusion of the show. All selected artists will be provided with a $200 stipend to offset shipping and travel costs.
The Details:
UPDATE: Call for submissions is closed. Artists who submitted works for consideration will be informed whether they were selected by August 25.
Jurors
• Hallie Ringle, curator of contemporary art at the Birmingham Museum of Art
• Lydia Thompson, artist and chair of the Art and Art History Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Ken West, photographer and digital experience designer. Winner of the inaugural Coined in the South “People’s Choice” award
What’s eligible: Submitted works of art must be less than two years old, non-perishable, do not produce excessive noise pollution, and do not result in physical harm to any living beings. Installation, video, and performance artists are encouraged to apply but must provide instructions for installation and space requirements, as well as recordings and/or documentation of past performances when available.
Exhibition dates: March 25, 2022 to July 3, 2022
Where: Mint Museum Uptown, 500 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
Deadline for submissions: Due at 11:59 PM June 4, 2021 at https://form.jotform.com/210624429601044. All works of art must be delivered ready to install between February 28 and March 18. Artists are responsible for the cost of shipping. Each accepted artist will be given a $200 stipend to offset shipping and travel costs.
Entry Fee: $50. Each artist may submit up to five works as part of their application. The one-time $50 fee covers all submissions.
Just part of the story: A chat with Constellation CLT artist de’Angelo Dia
By Rubie R. Britt-Height, Director of Community Relations at The Mint Museum
In September 2008, after 20 years away from Charlotte, I was drawn back to the Queen City and its art scene by what felt like a magnetic force and wide-open door. I was coming from the prestigious Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as its community affairs director. I had worked with numerous amazing statewide artists, yet the springing up of talented Charlotte artists was nothing I had experienced. Charlotte and the Carolinas were rich with young, creative, thoughtful minds, and The Mint Museum was where I saw myself. At that time, it was showcasing a Charlotte-born, renowned artist whose work I loved—Romare Bearden. At the same time, the Mint was presenting an exhibition called A Contemporary Look at the Black Male Image. Two wows! I was impressed.
As I settled in the City once again, in summer of 2009, I was invited by God City artist-educator John R. Hairston, Jr. to the opening night of a NoDa art show that he and artist de’Angelo Dia had put together to debut their latest works. The atmosphere, the creative works, and the vibe of North Davidson were soulful, and light. I knew Hairston as this hip surrealist artist, and he introduced me to Dia. We chatted, he showed me his work, and we discussed his artistic views, society, and what he envisioned. It was a great show.
After that, I engaged the God City art collective members, including Dia, to engage with the Mint’s Grier Heights Community Youth Arts Program as enlightened artist-educators that our students could engage with, and who were young, cool, and looked like them. God City connected with the students like a magnet, and Dia’s sessions brought out the best in the students’ abilities to be critical thinkers. They talked about current events, what they would do if they were the mayor, and how they could change their community by changing how they viewed themselves and “Griertown.” He was a newer member of the God City, and art, education, and social activism seemed his platform too, especially with young minds.
As an instructor at Trinity Episcopal School and through the Mint’s Grier Heights art program, Dia challenged his students and they enjoyed his teaching style and socially-conscious poetry. I also invited Dia to the Mint to present on his service projects, where youth were introduced to the concept of being more spiritual, with introspection, and of giving back to the community, and learning to delve deeper within to discover their own style and individuality.
Over a short time, Dia branched into several modes of art exploration, including photography, poetry, creative writing, oral presentations, and painting. Interestingly, he also was drawn into religious studies and received a Master of Divinity degree. He intertwined his growth as a young radical artist and theologian with his desire to be a social activist through his works of art and his engagement with youth in the Black church. He currently serves as the minister of social justice at St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte where he is known as Reverend de’Angelo Dia.
Dia’s Constellation CLT installation is on view at Mint Museum Uptown through March 7. I had a chance to recently chat with Dia and see where he was with creating this body of work on exhibition at Mint Museum Uptown, his art projects, his religion, his thinking, and his latest vibe.RBH: What was your inspiration in creating these works featured in Constellation CLT?
Dia: Works featured in Constellation CLT are part of an on-going passion project. At this point, I have created 70 large-scale pastel drawings exploring representation and the celebration of creating cultures within a culture. The works of Maurice Sendak and Shel Silverstein inspired this collection. The book Where the Wild Things Are was the Holy Grail for me as a kid, however, I couldn’t identify with the main character Max, so I decided to place my cultural embodiment into Max and the Wild Things and create a pantheon of original characters. Each drawing was created at Goodyear Arts while listening to the works of assorted jazz artists (Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Ghost Tree). Each drawing has a poem reflective of what I was theologically and culturally processing at the time.
RBH: In relation to your installation and viewing today’s America amid a divide, at what phase do you see African American art and culture as social commentary/activism?
Dia: African American art and culture has always been a mirror to America, exposing its hypocrisy and systemic oppression. The work of AfriCOBRA, Emory Douglas, Elizabeth Catlett, Gordon Parks and so many others exemplify this. However, I want to be clear, African American art and culture are not a monolith. Through this body of work, I am attempting to balance the tension of processing our daily reality of being Black in America, to highlight our resilience and tenacity, and to celebrate our inherent ability to thrive amidst a divisive social and political climate. The childlike elements of these drawings are my attempt to reclaim my own sense of Black Boy Joy with the understanding that joy is an act of resistance. These drawings are reminiscent of my drawing style in the second and third grade before any teacher attempted to socialize a “standard of quality art,” which often hinders the creative spirit.
RBH: Art is a catalyst for change. How do you view that perspective, and how can artists and art today bring about positive change in America?
Dia: Again, this goes back to representation for me. Representation in creatives, and creations and experiences inspire and ignite social movements that supersede any of my academic training.
RBH: Does poetry and theology impact your approach to your visual works of art? If so, in what way?
Dia: Absolutely. Poetry and visual art coexist as theological outlets for me. Every drawing is preceded with a writing prompt intended to help me gain a better understanding of self, others, the communities I navigate and negotiate with. Writing is my primary outlet and my area of academic training, and yet I cannot separate the literary from the visual. This body of work was always intended for me. They are my mind maps, holistic outlet, visual journals. For example, Epiphany, which is on display in this collection, was my template for a poem titled shallow words. With deep investigation, the viewer can find the words “what if I was your child” throughout the drawing. This is in reference to the biblical children of Israel, Isaac, one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites, and in a contemporary context every Black and Brown child of God killed as a result of power and authority. “What if” is also a reference to a Marvel comics anthology series of alternate reality stories titled What If?
RBH: You noted being a comic book scholar? What does that entail and how did you arrive there?
Dia: I earned a master’s in literature from UNC Charlotte. My thesis project was “Black Images in Comics: An examination of what does 200 years of cartoon images depicting Black people tell us about ourselves.” The images displayed for Constellation CLT are a continuation of this study. While the comics scholar in me values and appreciates the impressive archeology of images that present Black history, this work is a visceral reminder of the barrage of racist depictions intentionally created to oppress us. Currently, I am working on my doctorate with a proposed dissertation topic of theopoetics, an interdisciplinary field of study that combines elements of poetics, narrative theology, and postmodern philosophy. My comic passion was sparked by Milestone Media, a comic company created by three Black men with the intent to provide a diverse spectrum of representation in comics. Comics have always been one of the mediums intended for theological analysis (i.e. God is Disappointed in You, 2013, Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler).
RBH: With thoughts of the fantastical and your love for comic books, who are your most celebrated superheroes/sheroes? If you could create one, what attributes would he/she possess?
Dia: I love this question and it is a tough question because there are so many amazing characters to select from. Shaft (Richard Roundtree) was my gateway to superheroes. His Blackness was and is his superpower. I recommend Shaft written by David F. Walker (Dynamite Entertainment). Luke Cage (written and drawn by Genndy Tartakovsky) and Misty Knight (Marvel Knights), who deserves her own comic series, are two street-level characters presenting a slice of Black life that is relatable. Two series I recommend are Excellence and Bitter Root both produced by Image Comics, written and drawn by creatives of color. If there was a comic character I would love to write about, it would be Doctor Voodoo (Marvel Comics with art created by artist Wolly McNair and Marcus Kiser, inked by Reco Renzi. This would be a dream project. If I could create a character, the attributes would be resilience, tenacity, creativity, and the superpower would be superspeed. Often, there is never enough time in a day to accomplish all I desire to do.
RBH: Which world or American leaders and artists have most impacted your life and works of art?
Dia:
• Poet, professor, Jericho Brown (The Tradition) for his narrative transparency.
• Poet, professor, Gary Jackson (Missing You, Metropolis) for his beautiful work that is a hybrid of introspection and comic mythology.
• Poet, educator, and should be the Poet Laureate of Wakanda, Nikki Giovanni for the diversity and scope of her work.
• Artist Brain Stelfreeze for his incredible art and more than that, his compassion and willingness to take time to talk with emerging artists.
• TJ Reddy (August 1945-March 2019) for constantly reminding me that creativity and sleep are acts of defiance.
• My parents, Betty and Charlie Jessup, for providing me with creative outlets for artistic expression, introducing me to the music of Parliament Funkadelic, and affirming Black Boy Joy.
• Growing up I thought Shel Silverstein was Black, so I am going to give him honorable mention.
RBH: What is your preferred art medium and why?
Dia: I love drawing, it is a basic instinct. I have a passion for photography, and it is perhaps the best medium to consistently document our collective narratives. However, writing is in my primal nature. I will always find comfort with writing. It was the first artistic outlet that made me feel at home.
RBH: How do you hope your works of art will impact the viewer?
Dia: I hope viewers see them as a reflection of childhood, joy, and solidarity.
RBH: What’s next for you with respect to art projects, works, inspirations?
Dia: I had work recently published in the anthology 2020: The Year that Changed America edited by Kevin Powell. I am currently working on a chapbook that will be part of my doctoral dissertation, which will include poetry and drawings. I am contributing to a performance titled Codex with performance arts members of the Goodyear Arts Collective. I am also working on a performance inspired by the life and music of Marvin Gaye. This is a collaboration with sound artist Dylan Gilbert.
Get to know artist Gisela Colón
Artist Gisela Colón joins Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Mint, for a discussion on her evolution as an artist, her transition from her home island of Puerto Rico to her adopted home of Los Angeles, and her mesmerizing techniques and unique art projects. Colón’s work was on view in the Mint’s recent exhibition In Vivid Color.
The discussion concludes with a Q&A segment where Colón answers questions previously submitted by the Mint audience.
Studio Visit with Amy Sanders and Ron Philbeck
Delhom Service League
Amy and Ron discuss their individual work, and then discuss their collaboration on a series of work created during the pandemic. While their individual work is very different, their collaborative work has been very popular and a great learning process for them both. If you would like to see more of their work, you can visit their individual websites, amysanderspottery.com and ronphilbeckpottery.com. Both potters are scheduled to be exhibitors at the Delhom’s Potters Market at the Mint on Sept. 25, 2021.
Local artist and educator Jamil Dyair Steele painted this powerful mural after the death of George Floyd and amid the protests that took place around the United States during the summer of 2020. Decorating the chipboard that was used to cover business windows in preparation of the protests, artists around the city of Charlotte subverted the implicit gesture of racism that assumed criminal violence would inevitably be present at a Black Lives Matter march.
Steele’s mural is on view at Mint Museum Uptown in the Carroll Gallery. It is free for the public to view.
Movable Magnet Art inspired by artist Susan Point
You can use recycled bottle caps and a lid to create movable magnetic art, inspired by this carved and painted red cedar sculpture Salmon Spawning Run by artist Susan Point. The magnets can be arranged in different ways to form new works of art.
SUPPLIES:
• Bottle caps
• Mason jar or plastic recycled lid
• Colored paper
• 1” and 1/2” paper punch
• Small magnets
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Newspaper or washable table covering
OPTIONAL SUPPLIES:
•Epoxy Resin (We used Art ‘N Glow Clear Casting Resin for the demo. It is BPA & VOC free, non-flammable, low odor, and non-toxic when used as directed.
Tip: A solid one-piece lid works best
Instructions:
1. Decorate the bottle caps
Start by punching out both 1” and ½” paper circles from your colored paper. Use a dot of glue to attach the larger circle to the inside of the bottle cap. Put a dot of glue on the back of the smaller circle and place over top of the larger circle in the bottle cap. Don’t worry; it does not have to be perfectly centered!
2. Design your centerpiece
Draw and cut out the shape of a fish. Use it to as a stencil to trace a second one on a different color paper. Cut out the second one. You can add eyes or gills if you want.
3. Make your piece pop with a splash of color
If you would like to include a background color, use the lid to trace a circle. You will need to cut inside of your traced line to make the circle a little smaller than the lid itself so that it fits inside the rim. Glue the background circle to the lid. Arrange and glue the fish on top of the background.
4. Fill the bottle caps with epoxy resin (optional)
Pour just enough epoxy liquid into the bottle cap and lid to completely cover the paper shapes being careful not to overfill. Let dry overnight. The epoxy will form a hard, glass-like coating.
Mix epoxy according to manufacturer’s directions. Be sure to work in a well-ventilated area with a table covering.
5. Add the magnets
Once everything is dry, turn the bottle caps and lid over. Glue one magnet to the back of each and let dry.
6. Assemble your work of art
Arrange the magnets on your refrigerator or other magnetic surface.
7. Experiment by arranging magnets in different ways to create new designs
About the Artist:
Native to British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, the Coast Salish First Peoples consist of several groups with distinct languages but similar customs. Each group has a strong spiritual connection to the land and water of the Pacific Northwest, which has provided their livelihood for thousands of years. Artist Susan Point’s knowledge of the style and meaning behind the imagery allows her to honor the traditions of her ancestors while expanding on the designs in a contemporary way. The red cedar roundel Salmon Spawning Run features carved and painted salmon and clusters of eggs. The vibrant eggs complete the fish’s lifecycle, as the renewal of wild salmon (still caught using traditional methods) is critical to keeping Mother Earth in balance.Learn More:
This 1,000-piece puzzle, is both a social statement and a striking graphic. Brightly dressed figures, silhouetted on a colorful, 60’s-inspired psychedelic backdrop, are posed so as to engage us in conversation about love, empathy, compassion, inclusion, and justice. Illustrated by artist Aurelia Durand, and made by “a woman-owned, mother-run, sustainably sourced” company, the puzzle also includes a full-color image reference print. Find Your Voice jigsaw puzzle, $24.
This face covering features artist Willie Cole’s Black Art Matters logo and the artist’s iconic scorch mark. Through the use of simple objects like an iron, Cole creates symbolic designs that have profound meanings. Each reusable mask is made with three layers of fabric and is machine washable. Black Art Matters face mask, $18.
These 100 stunning postcards celebrate 50 groundbreaking African American women, from Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks to Angela Davis and Beyoncé—published in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Each card features the portrait on the front and, on the back, an inspiring quote, short biographical information, and space for writing a message. Brave. Black. First. postcard set, $20.
This book surveys the work of a new generation of Black artists, features the voices of a diverse group of curators who are on the cutting edge of contemporary art, and showcases the art collection of Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi. As mission-driven collectors, Lumpkin and Boccuzzi have championed emerging artists of African descent through museum loans and institutional support, but until now, there has never been an opportunity to consider their acclaimed collection as a whole. Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists, $49.95.
Written by Patrick Diamond, The Incredible Joy of Collecting African American Art: My Journey from Frogtown, S.C. to the National Gallery chronicles the author’s journey from growing up in poverty to avidly collecting African American art. Growing up during Jim Crow restrictions, Diamond describes a childhood with limited opportunities and reinforced social, political, and cultural inequities layered with personal stories of how his love of art began with his grandmother, and how he and his wife joined forces to support and celebrate African American artists. The Incredible Joy of Collecting African American Art: My Journey from Frogtown, S.C. to the National Gallery, $30.
After 13 years in the making, award-winning documentary photographer Ken West releases a book of photographs entitled The Beauty of Everyday Thangs, a first-of-its-kind photo collection inspired by the art of mindfulness as a testament to black humanity. While the majority of the images are of folks in the midst of what West terms “revolutionary normalcy,” the book also features candid moments with cultural icons like legendary lyricists and activists Clifford “T.I.” Harris, stic of dead prez, British actor and musician Tricky, and groundbreaking filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. Photographs taken in Havana, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit using West’s collection of film cameras (some as many as 60+ years old) are included in the nearly 250-page book. The Beauty of Everyday Thangs, $29.95.
Black Lives Matter T-shirts
Stop by either the Mint Museum Store Uptown or at Mint Museum Randolph to purchase an official Charlotte Black Lives Matter Mural T-shirt. Available in sizes XS-XXL. $36 each with $5 from the sale of each shirt going to a charitable organization.
Leah Leitson Ceramics: Then and Now
Delhom Service League Studio Visit
Join the Delhom Service League as they Leah Leitson, ceramic artist and educator based in Asheville NC. She discusses her career in ceramics from her first interest as a studio potter to her current role as Professor of Ceramics at Warren Wilson College. For more information about Leah, you can visit her website at www.leahleitson.com.
Untitled (Shield) by Elizabeth Talford Scott – Curators’ Pick
In celebration of Black History Month, Annie Carlano, Senior Director of Craft, Design & Fashion, shares details about Untitled (Shield) by nationally renowned fiber artist Elizabeth Talford Scott. Untitled (Shield) is on view in the fiber art gallery of the craft and design gallery at Mint Museum Uptown.
Kuba textile project shines a spotlight on the ‘kings and queens’ of Grier Heights Community Youth Arts Program
When the Covid-19 pandemic pushed The Mint Museum to temporarily close its doors in spring of 2020, the Mint’s Learning & Engagement team turned hands-on art classes into virtual Create-at-Home art kits that included art supplies and instructions, as well as information that ties the art project back to works of art in The Mint Museum’s collection. One of the first kits created was how to make a Kuba-style T-shirt based on Kuba textiles in the Mint’s collection.
Children in the Grier Heights Community Youth Arts Program used the Kuba-style T-shirt kits to create T-shirts that showcase their individual styles and artistic talents. Alexandra Brown, a 10th-grade honor student at Myers Park High School, and teen leader at the Mint, created the video above that captures what the Grier Heights students created using the Kuba-style T-shirt kits.
Kuba Textiles
The Kuba people are part of approximately 16 Bantu speaking groups living in the southeastern Congo in central Africa. Kuba textiles are handwoven using strands from raffia palm trees with earth-tone designs created using vegetable dyes. Kuba cloth is known for its complex, bold geometric designs that have been carried through generations for ceremonial purposes.
The Mint Museum re-opens to the public Friday, Feb. 5.
Charlotte, N.C. (February 1, 2021) — After being closed for three weeks to help curb the spread of Covid 19, both locations of The Mint Museum and its stores will re-open to the public on Friday, Feb. 5 with strict safety protocols in place.
All visitors are required to wear masks, and the museum will offer free masks for anyone who’d like to double up on coverage, per new CDC suggestions. Timed ticketing remains in place to ensure the museum stays within occupancy guidelines, and social-distancing signage is in place throughout the galleries.
“We decided to re-open for the benefit of people who adhere to our guidelines and need a safe place to experience art,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “We feel the museum has implemented protocols that create safety measures beyond what one finds in many businesses and public spaces.”
Additionally, the city of Charlotte — which owns both Mint buildings — has partnered with locally based Global Plasma Solutions to outfit the Mint with Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization to remove indoor air pollutants and help neutralize Covid-19. The air-purification system removes up to 99 percent of certain airborne viruses, mold, and bacteria, helping promote the health of employees and the visiting public. All precautionary measures and details about museum visitation are viewable on the Mint’s Know Before You Go site.
As a thank you to essential and frontline workers, The Mint Museum is offering complimentary admission to health care providers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, teachers, custodial staff, transit workers, grocery store and restaurant employees, and their immediate family members through June 30, 2021.
Those interested in viewing the Mint from the comfort of their home can still get their art fix on The Mint Museum from Home site, presented by Chase, which offers curator-led virtual gallery tours, create-at-home activities, community conversations and artist Q&As. The Mint’s first online exhibition, Expanding the Pantheon: Women R Beautiful is also available, featuring 26 striking photographs of New York City-based photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel, who aims to introduce a new range of beauty for our consideration.
The Mint Museum Store also has a newly launched e-commerce site (store.mintmuseum.org), with shipping, curbside pick-up and free gift-wrap options available.
The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts —the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
Contact:
Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org| 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org| 704.564.0826 (c)
W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine explores the use of walls throughout centuries, across civilizations
Mint Museum Uptown’s 10-year anniversary celebration continues with opening of new photography exhibition
Charlotte, N.C. (February 1, 2021)— As a continued celebration of Mint Museum Uptown’s 10th anniversary, W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine examines the historic use and artistic treatment of barriers — whether made of stone, sand, steel, or wire — through photography. The exhibition, presented by PNC Bank, is scheduled to open Feb. 24 in Mint Museum Uptown’s Level 4 Brand Gallery.
Through more than 130 photographs taken by 67 photographers across five continents, W|ALLS explores architectural aspects of these barriers, as well as the stories of people’s lives touched by the boundaries.
The exhibition is divided into six sections — delineation, defense, deterrent, the divine, decoration, and the invisible — with each section anchored by a central photo essay. From the Berlin Wall’s fall to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, as well as barriers built in India, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Northern Ireland, and along the United States’ southern border, W|ALLS includes images that span five continents from photographers of all stripes: documentarians, photojournalists, artists, protestors, commercial photographers, explorers, and even a Tibetan Buddhist monk.Curated by Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum, W|ALLS includes works by nationally recognized artists Carol Guzy, Moises Saman, SHAN Wallace, Banksy, JR, John Moore, and Tanya Aguiñiga.
Charlotte-based artists featured in the exhibition include: Will Jenkins, who photographed Dammit Wesley’s Strange Fruit mural in uptown Charlotte; UncleJut who photographed Darion Fleming’s Pure’ll Gold mural that made The New York Times cover page in March 2020; and Linda Foard Roberts, a recent Guggenheim Fellowship recipient.
“When Katie Hollander and I began working on the W|ALLS exhibition in 2018, we could not have imagined a more divided world, and yet, even though the COVID-19 pandemic has united us in a common anxiety, here we are, even more segmented and antagonistic,” says Sudul Edwards. “The images in this exhibition remind us of our common humanity and why we are stronger together than apart, no matter what our race, ethnicity, or political ideology.”
In concert with the photographic exhibition, artists Candy Chang and James Reeves created Light the Barricades, interactive installations that appeared in three sites throughout Los Angeles before relocating to the plaza in front of the Annenberg Space for Photography. Light the Barricades was inspired by the I Ching, one of the oldest Chinese texts. Nearly 30 feet in length and 8 feet high, each installation features a word that represents an emotional barrier and offers an opportunity for contemplation. One of these walls will be on view in front of Mint Museum Uptown in conjunction with the photography exhibition.
“Walls make up a significant portion of our surroundings, especially in urban settings, and these photographers present us with new ways of thinking about how we are affected by these structures,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “It is impossible to walk through this exhibition and not have it inspire a conversation.”
This is the first exhibition at The Mint Museum with Spanish translations throughout. All object labels include a QR code to scan for a Spanish translation, and there are printed translations on introduction panels.
“With this exhibition, The Mint Museum continues to deliver on its unique ability to engage our community in timely, thought-provoking conversation and reflection,” said Weston Andress, PNC regional president for Western Carolinas. “The themes addressed in the photography hold relevance for all, and PNC is proud to help bring this compelling and ambitious exhibition to Charlotte.”
W|ALLS was originally scheduled to open in May 2020. Shipping crates containing much of the show — gifted to the Museum by Annenberg Space for Photography, which was the originator of the exhibit — were delayed due to COVID-19.
W|ALLS is made possible by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, Calif., and is generously presented by PNC Bank, and supporting sponsors The Mint Museum Auxiliary, Laura and Mike Grace, Leigh-Ann and Martin Sprock, Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes, and Deidre and Clay Grubb. QC Exclusive is the media sponsor.
The Mint Museum
The Mint Museum Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.
PNC Bank
PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.
The Annenberg Foundation
The Annenberg Foundation is a family foundation that provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally. Since 1989, it has generously funded programs in education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community life; health and
human services; and animal services and the environment.
Contact:
Caroline Portillo, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications at The Mint Museum caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org | 704.488.6874 (c)
Michele Huggins, Communications and Media Relations Project Manager at The Mint Museum michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Revamped American installation offers new works and new perspectives for museum visitors.
By Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, Senior Curator of American ArtWhen Mint Museum Uptown opened its doors in October 2010, one of the most exciting opportunities was the expanded space that became available for the display of its American art collection, roughly tripling what had been available at Mint Museum Randolph. While a number of new objects have entered the collection, and special loans from private collectors have come and gone, the American galleries have remained relatively static over the past 10 years.
The summer of 2020 marked the first major changes in the American galleries since Mint Museum Uptown opened a decade ago. The incorporation of 18th- and 19th-century paintings from the Adams collection bequest, special loans of a monumental canvas by Julius Leblanc Stewart, a curvaceous Gorham art nouveau punch bowl, a sumptuous floral still life by Severin Roesen, and a new pocket gallery installation featuring a diverse array of images of America at mid-century, are just a few of the visitors can experience.
The most significant change, however, occurs in the first gallery of the Level 4 wing that provides access to both the American, and Modern and Contemporary collections. Rather than starting a chronological journey through American art history, this gallery puts the focus on the theme of portraiture, probing this enduring topic across time and different artistic mediums. The 13 works of art featured in this installation reflect the museum’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion with works of art by women, as well as African-American, Latino, and European artists.Instead of being greeted by an 18th-century image of children hung over a Chippendale fall-front desk, visitors now encounter Kehinde Wiley’s iconic Philip the Fair juxtaposed with John Singleton Copley’s St. Cecilia: Portrait (Mrs. Richard Crowninshield Derby) created more than 200 years earlier. Visitors are encouraged to compare and contrast these two full-length portraits, taking time to consider how the artist engaged with and depicted the person portrayed, as well as the reasons behind the creation of each portrait.
These kinds of pairings are echoed throughout the rest of the gallery in works executed in media ranging from oil on canvas to photography to hand-painted porcelain. One example of these juxtapositions is Robert Henri’s early 20th-century painting Dorita, which features a young Spanish dancer gazing boldly out at the viewer. To its right contemporary photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel’s vibrant photograph Mama, in which a young woman with vitiligo poses with a similar intense gaze in front of a brilliant red background. These two portraits of women with intense expressions provide a striking contrast to photograph Ai, in which the artist, dressed in black, lies prone in front of a black background, twisted away from the viewer. The ways in which artists depict family and loved ones is also explored in paintings by Kay Sage and Paul Cadmus, and photographs by Linda Foard Roberts and Oliver Wasow. In the center of the space is Cindy Sherman’s Madame Pompadour (née Poisson) Soup Tureen, which probes questions of identity, history, gender, power, and self-portraiture.
Throughout the level 4 galleries, the commitment to diversity and inclusion continues, as visitors encounter 20th- and 21st-century works by artists, including Blanche Lazzell, Augusta Savage, Helen Lundeberg, John Biggers, Hale Woodruff, Romare Bearden, Barbara Pennington, Haywood “Bill” Rivers, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Juan Logan, Leo Twiggs, E.V. Day, Iruka Maria Toro, and Vik Muniz, and a special-focus exhibition on photographer Linda Foard Roberts.
Although the cross-disciplinary thematic approach is highlighted in a permanent collection gallery, visitors are encouraged to think about how artists have engaged with other themes across time—landscape, still life, history, abstraction—as they explore the rest of the collection and other parts of the museum.
Delhom Service League Studio Visit with Julie Wiggins
Join the Delhom Service League as they visit potter Julie Wiggins in her studio to hear about her current work, learn about her creative techniques, and hear about some of the challenges facing potters during the pandemic.
As the exhibition designer, I think a lot about the gallery walls. Gallery walls are not only the architecture that hold the works of art, they create an atmosphere that moves the visitor through the galleries. The right paint color, even a neutral, can transform a gallery into a world of its own.When the Mint decided to embark on a reinstallation of the American collections, what better way to bring new life to these galleries than with color. Working with Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, Senior Curator of American Art, the exhibition team selected feature walls to provide pops of color that help to guide the visitor through galleries rather than choosing to paint the entire gallery space. When selecting paint colors for gallery walls, we consider the physical space, the lighting, the visitor’s path, and most importantly, the art. Each work of art, like a character in a play, has its own story told through the composition of the work, the medium the artist chose, when and where it was painted, the frame, and of course, the color palette.
With my trusty Benjamin Moore paint deck, I selected a color that would turn the volume up on each work of art’s story. A rich purple wall sends the delicate petals swirling off the golden stems of Kehinde Wiley’s Philip the Fair into full bloom against its surrounding golden tones.
A deep wine color, aptly named Old Claret, helps the rich warm florals pop at the party in Julius LeBlanc Stewart’s Five O’Clock Tea.
Picking a color to be the backdrop for a painting’s story cannot disrupt what it has to say. It needs to complement the person, party, and scene. Next time you stand within the walls of the galleries, take a moment to look around and find your favorite color.
Remembering Tom Martin
It is with heavy hearts The Mint Museum shares that Special Events Director Tom Martin passed away on January 15, 2021 at the age of 60.
Tom grew up in Massachusetts, and built a name for himself in events and food service as the Director of Catering and Convention Services for the Harvard Club of Boston, where he worked for more than 12 years. He relocated to Charlotte in 2013.Tom was the Mint’s director of special events for over four years, and in that time, he helped grow special events revenue by over 40 percent, says Gary Blankemeyer, the Mint’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
In his tenure at the Mint, Tom helped secure and execute on a number of high-profile events for clients ranging from tech giant Facebook to billionaire businessman and Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, who announced Charlotte’s new MLS team from inside the Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium at Mint Museum Uptown. During the NBA All-Star Weekend in February 2019 in Charlotte—the biggest event in basketball—Tom shepherded a museum-wide takeover by Nike and Jordan Brand that even included a basketball court in Mint Museum Uptown’s atrium and a wrap across the building’s facade.
“He was driven to do the best,” says Blankemeyer. “And not only was he a good business partner, but he was someone I could count on, someone I could rely on, which is all you want as a manager.”
Tom was a great man, says John Caldwell, special events manager at the Mint. “He taught me so much about the events business. He changed my professional life as well as my personal life because he became my friend.”
Tom is survived by his three daughters, Jessica, Katelyn and Kristina; two grandsons, Joey and Tommy; as well as a brother, Robert Martin; and his partner of eight years, Gladys Blakeman— all of whom he loved to spend time with at the beach and in Charlotte. His care for even the smallest details carried over into his personal life as well, whether he was pruning a tree, stocking the fridge for family coming to stay at his house for the holidays, or executing on one of his many DIY projects.
“He was always rebuilding, remodeling,” says Blakeman. “We built a patio together and flower boxes for one of his daughters. When the heater went out at my townhome, the electrician told him it’d be $1,700. He said, ‘I’m not paying that, I’m going to Google it.’ He did it himself for $500.”
Tom hired special events manager Laura Hale about a year ago. They both had backgrounds in catering and shared a love of the Boston Celtics. Tom was ambitious, yes, with big goals and ideas for how to grow the Mint’s special events business, she says.
But Tom was also nurturing and sweet. Above all else, Hale says she loved how Tom was always up for a good chat. “You’d go in and be like, ‘Hey, how’s it going? How was your weekend?’ And you’d be standing in his office door for the next 30 to 40 minutes. He’d tell you that weekend he’d had Bloody Marys and then he’d tell you about the time he was in Boston and had the best Bloody Mary.”
A look at the upcoming exhibition W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine, opening at Mint Museum Uptown
By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Chief Curator & Curator of Contemporary ArtOn November 9, 2019, the world celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Most can easily call up images from that exhilarating evening in 1989: young Germans in T-shirts and jeans destroying the concrete dividers with sledgehammers, armed soldiers looking on with stoic reserve, people rushing through holes and rubble to embrace their counterparts on the other side. The world saw the joy of people uniting, and as the end of the 20th century approached, the toppled wall felt like the dawn of a new age of reason. As the violence of World War II receded into history, it appeared that so, too, was the ancient, simple brutality of dividing people with walls.
And yet, the numbers offer a different narrative. When the Berlin Wall came down, there were 15 border walls around the world. As of May 2018, there were more than 77, according to Elisabeth Vallet, a geography professor at University of Quebec-Montreal. Over one-third of the world’s nation states now define their borders with a barrier. And new walls keep going up.
This central issue is at the heart of an exhibition coming to Mint Museum Uptown: W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine. I began working on this show three years ago, when Katie Hollander, the director of the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, asked me to tell the story of the role of walls in human history through a photography exhibition. The result went on view in October 2019 at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, a free exhibition space devoted to photography founded by Wallis Annenberg and the Trustees of the Annenberg Foundation in 2009. I am delighted that the exhibition will open in February at The Mint Museum.
The show, which will run from February 24 to July 25 in the Level 4 Brand Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown, explores various aspects of “walls,” whether they are made of stone, steel, sand, or wire. The space is divided into six sections—Delineation, Defense, Deterrent, The Divine, Decoration, and The Invisible—with each section anchored by a central photo essay. Two of those essays were commissioned for the exhibition by the Annenberg Space for Photography. Magnum photographer Moises Saman documented the Peace Walls in Northern Ireland, while SHAN Wallace photographed Detroit’s Eight-Mile Wall, a painted-over wall that was originally built to segregate a black community from an adjacent white community.
Walls aren’t limited to a particular culture, region, or era. The exhibition features 130 images spanning six continents and 67 photographers of all stripes: commercial photographers, documentarians, photojournalists, artists, protestors, explorers, and in one case, a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
Some walls featured occur naturally, like the glacier in the Jango Thang plain. Others are constructed with intention, such as Linda Foard Roberts’ aptly titled Divided in Death photograph that captures a low stone graveyard wall, delineating the buried bodies of the enslaved from the whites.While many of the images in the exhibition connote division, some show unity. Consider the way neighbors converge before the stepwell wall in Jaipur, India, captured in Ami Vitale’s Ripple Effect. Artist Swoon converted a wall into a canvas for a monumental art project that celebrates community at the site of Prevention Point, the groundbreaking addiction treatment center in Philadelphia. And during her work in Detroit, SHAN Wallace found families who chose to embrace the Eight-Mile Wall, rather than be hindered by the history embedded in the bricks and mortar.
Photographers have been shooting walls from the earliest days of photography. In fact, one of the first known photographs is Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s 1827 heliograph showing the monumental walls outside his window in Le Gras, France. And while walls may be built for one reason, they often stay up for another. The Moroccan city of Essaouira and the Croatian city of Dubrovnik once fortified their ports for protection; today, tourists visit them for their picturesque quaintness. The Western Wall in Jerusalem started as a retaining wall for King Solomon’s Second Temple, but it has become one of the most holy sites for the Jewish people and is considered hallowed by many other religions.
What’s the attraction of walls for photographers? Perhaps it’s that, like photographs, walls are human constructs that describe and circumscribe space. And, like walls, photographs can represent hope or conquest. Both can be admired for their beauty and power, and both can make us feel protected or intimidated.
We constantly contend with walls, whether they are solid, porous, real, or imaginary. This photography exhibition invites you to reflect on the omnipresence of walls and to consider your own. Where do the barriers start in your life? And do you need them to live the life you want?
This story was originally published in the January, 2020 issue of Inspired, the Mint’s biannual member magazine.
Remembering Robert E. Wylie Jr.
Robert E. Wylie Jr. passed away January 2, 2021 at the age of 70. For 12 years he was a beacon of kindness and grace at Mint Museum Randolph, where he served on the housekeeping team.
This spring, the Mint will dedicate a tree to him on the grounds of Mint Museum Randolph.
A native Charlottean, Robert graduated from Olympic High School. As a teenager, he fell for a cute girl named Mary who went to rival school West Charlotte High. She asked him to her prom. The couple went on to be married for nearly 50 years.
Robert and Mary had four children—Robert Wylie III, Dornetta, and twins Christina and Christopher—and later welcomed 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. They were all the beneficiaries of Robert’s love of cooking.
“He could cook anything,” says Mary. “Deviled eggs, barbecue ribs. Most people liked his slaw and his baked chicken.”
Before working at the Mint, Robert held a number of jobs at some of the city’s top country clubs. But his role at the Mint held a special place in his heart. “He loved everything about that job,” says Mary.When Lisanne Smith, the facilities manager at Mint Museum Randolph, started her job five years ago, she was told that if she needed to know something, just ask Robert. She and Brian Gallagher, senior curator of decorative arts, both came to count on his warm “good morning” every day in the atrium, his kind, selfless devotion to his job.
It’s hard to quantify how much Robert took care of, says Joyce Weaver, the Mint’s director of library & archives. He did everything from transporting interoffice and external mail to setting up and breaking down for meetings and events, cleaning offices to mopping up spills from the leaky atrium roof—and all in a way that was usually invisible to visitors. “I can’t believe how many times he lugged bins of books from Uptown back to the library,” says Weaver. “He was an unsung hero, someone who didn’t want or need a lot of attention, but every day, took care of us, took care of the museum.”
Robert also had a sense of humor — and an undying love of Dallas Cowboys football. Guest services associate Sue Carver says she’ll never forget watching Robert sweep away a picture of former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton with a broom labeled with a big Cowboys star.
“Robert was part of a special group of people I count on here at the Mint,” says Katherine Steiner, the Mint’s chief registrar. “I always knew that he’d be there to help me with anything I asked, but more than that, I counted on his warm smile. I counted on his presence. He was one of those solid people that warm your heart just by being there, by being constant.”
In March 2020, when the spread of Covid-19 forced the museum to close, Head of Family and Studio Programs Leslie Strauss was at Mint Museum Randolph, frantically gathering art materials to bring home. Robert stepped in to say hello. “We chatted for a bit and I worried over whether our many houseplants in the studios would survive a few weeks without us,” Strauss recalls. But she gave them a heavy watering and turned to leave. Then those days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months.
“When we finally returned to the classroom, we expected to find withered plants,” says Strauss. “Instead we found a table full of happy and healthy plants, having weathered their time without us.”
Robert had watered the plants the entire time they were gone.
Revive Your Routine
Home sweet home can feel like an overstatement these days. Whether you’ve cooked the family staples one too many times or are sick of seeing that same pair of pajamas staring back at you in the mirror, the Mint Museum Store is a treasure trove of items waiting to refresh and restore. So put on some real pants, grab your mask, and stop in at either location for something new to refresh your kitchen, office, wardrobe, or game cabinet, or check out our new online store for shopping from the comfort of home. (And don’t forget: Mint members always get 10% off every purchase, and Crown Society members get 20% off!)
Desk Jockey
Work-from-home tally? Too many days to count. If your makeshift workstation needs a makeover, grab a bright notebook or inspirational shelf piece—some welcome respite for your Zoom-fatigued eyes.• Black and White Playable Art Cube, $35
• Make Mistakes Small Notebook, $12
• Color Wheel Notecards, $16
• Stonewear Trivet, $8
• Modern Graphite Pencils, $8
• Desk Signs, $8
• Great Things Sticker Book, $16
• Ben Owen Egg Vase, $68
S’il Vous Play
Suffering from puzzle fatigue? Here are a few indoor alternatives to keep you entertained, from new reading material and creative card games to a brush with the supernatural.• All Good Things Book, $24.95
• Make Art Where You Are Guide and Sketchbook, $19.99
• Dino Car Trio, $7
• Young Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists, $49.95
• Show Me The Monet Card Game, $18.99
• Gin Rummy: A Gin Lovers Card Game, $14.99
Food for Thought
Weekly pasta bake got you down? Stock up on the new and the bold, from patterned dishware and playful towels to new cookbooks and funky serving spoons. Your kitchen can spark joy again, we promise.• Cotton Square Crochet Trivet, $9
• Lisa Oakley Glass Lemon, $65
• Brass Bee Spoon, $6
• Moustache and Stripes Spoon, $6 ea.
• Les Diner De Gala Book, (The Surrealist Cookbook) $60
• Black and White Plates, $14
• Walnut Eating Spoon, $20
Word on the Chic
Nine months of that pajama life has been nice, yes. But as we (hopefully) head toward normalcy, nothing says “let’s leave 2020 behind” like a new pair of earrings or fancy tie. Stop by the Mint Museum Store and find your sartorial stride once again.• Rollneck Pullover Peruvian Wool Sweater, $118
• Black Box Bag with Leather Handles, $169
• Recycled Skateboard Legend Earrings, $42
• Artist Ties,, $58
• Michaelangelo Socks, $12
• Black and Cream Bracelet, $28
• Sarah Cavender Knot Pendant, $102
On the Daily
24 Hours in the life of Ruben Natal-San Miguel
“I’ve walked every street in all five boroughs,” Natal-San Miguel says.
A native of Puerto Rico, Natal-San Miguel came to the U.S. to study architecture in college and graduate school—studies that inform his eye for photography. Now 51, Natal-San Miguel is the artist behind the Mint’s first online exhibition, Expanding the Pantheon: Women R Beautiful. His portrait Mama (Beautiful Skin) in the contemporary galleries of Mint Museum Uptown shows a confident woman in front of a red van. She wears a white T-shirt, with cornrows and skin marked by vitiligo. The image—one of 26 included in Women R Beautiful—speaks to the photographer’s overarching goal: introducing a new range of beauty for our consideration. Here, Natal-San Miguel walked us through his typical day.
7 AM
I’m diabetic, so the first thing I do is test my blood and feed my cat, Dante. I check my email. If it’s press, I need to respond. If something got published, I immediately go on social media. The base of my collectors is older and on Facebook. So I go do a more personal approach there before reposting on Instagram. Then I go and eat and take my meds.
8 AM
For breakfast, the first thing is coffee. It’s part of my family and culture. I was born in Puerto Rico, where my grandfather had a coffee and tobacco plantation. I recently made whole wheat cinnamon pancakes with sliced mandarin oranges cooked in slow fire. I’m daydreaming about it.
9 AM
I’m not exactly a morning person. I hate midday shadows and I love people in natural light. I photograph people exactly how I find them: the hair, the necklace, the shoes. I’m a storyteller. I have a simple, strong connection between me and the subject.
NOON
I make a sandwich or buy it at a corner bodega. My go-to sandwich—well, I’m not supposed to have it all the time—it’s chicken parmesan. In New York, I love it.
1 PM
I take a nap. My cat is next to me. He’s black with green eyes, and sweet. I found him in Harlem on a cold December day and he followed me home. I take time to think. It’s part of my process. Right now, my head is all about a book for Women R Beautiful.
With my photographs, I celebrate a life—a lot of these women may not have a voice. My grandfather wouldn’t allow my mother to look at him when she was talking to him. She had to talk to him with her head down. Even though she was highly educated, she was in the shadow of machismo culture. I was a little kid when I saw that, and I had a visceral, strong reaction. I couldn’t believe a father could treat a daughter like that. It’s what motivated me to do a show like what’s at the Mint.
2:30 PM
I live in a brownstone, have a yard. But I’m a creature of the street. It’s good to travel around this time because kids aren’t coming out of school and the subways aren’t crowded. I want to be in place by 3 or 3:30 PM. My encounters with subjects are no longer than five minutes, usually just a few seconds.
Sometimes I have three cameras on me. The lens caps are off. If I have to wait to take a cap off, my subject may be gone. My work is like a subway ride—very strong, very fast.
You’re passing thousands of people and that person catches your eye and you go after them. Most New Yorkers are always in a hurry and they don’t want to talk. I feel like I’m selling Tupperware when I’m trying to get their photo. But I’m lucky. I’ll get nine out of 10. These people in the most marginalized areas of the city—they have such wisdom and can tell if you’re a bullshitter. I love and respect that. They can tell I’m not a bullshitter.
I get their email address, get their Instagram feed, and I send the file later. Sometimes I give them a signed print. I stay in touch and invite them to my shows. I want them to see themselves in museums, in galleries.
6 PM
By this time, I have my second cup of coffee. Coffee twice a day, that’s part of my culture. Then that moment before it goes dark—I call it the magic moment. It’s only a few seconds, so you better be somewhere that’s important.
6:30 PM
In the winter, I’m home by this time. In summer, I’ll be out until 8:30 or 9 PM. Dinner is usually salad and soup. Sometimes I’ll buy a rotisserie chicken and share it with my cat. He’s a Harlem cat and loves his fried chicken and rotisserie chicken. After dinner, I look at pictures I’ve taken.
1 AM
I do what I call my “YouTube videos and Google research.” I Google neighborhoods and notice the demographics, crime statistics, landmarks. I look at an area’s retail. It’s important for me to understand the culture of an area to reflect it in the photos. I took the photo of the three Muslim girls in Women R Beautiful because I’d seen the subway coming through in a commercial for a local newscaster. I saw it, googled the gym name on the side of a building, and went there. I sat like a fool for 90 minutes on those steps, waiting. I said, “I’m going to sit here until someone comes down who’s amazing.” And the three little Muslim girls came down. That was it.
1:30 AM
I do The New York Times crossword. It takes me only a few minutes because I’ve been doing it for years. I like to motivate my brain to think. Then I give myself time to think.
3 AM
Sleep.
A Conversation About Classic Black: Basalt Sculpture, Design, and a Palette of Pastels
Join this virtual gallery tour and chat about the exhibition Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporaries with Brian Gallagher, Senior Curator of Decorative Art; HannaH Crowell, Exhibition Designer, and Owl, exhibition Artist. Hosted by the Mint’s Director of Community Relations Rubie Britt-Height, the program highlights the three galleries featured in the exhibition, several specific works of art, and how classic and contemporary reimagined creates a marriage between the works of art and the design palette.
Virtually tour the Mint’s art storage area with a museum professional
Julia Kraft, the Mint’s Assistant Registrar, walks you through the Mint’s art storage areas to show you a behind-the-scenes look at here we keep our objects when they are not on display.
This program was originally a live event, and has a Q+A segment at the end where she answers participants questions.
A special collaboration between The Mint Museum and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mint Museum Uptown and the Mint’s new installation Foragers, the Mint partnered with Charlotte Symphony Orchestra to create a short film that unites visual and performing arts.
The artistic collaboration features four female musicians from the Charlotte Symphony playing classical compositions in front of artist Summer Wheat’s contemporary work of art in the Mint’s Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium.
We welcome you to experience the power of women in art presented at the intersection of art, architecture, and music.
Sew a Soft Sculpture Inspired by Nick Cave’s Soundsuits
So, what is a soft sculpture? A soft sculpture is a 3D form that is made from soft materials like cloth, foam, paper, or other flexible materials. Soft sculptures can range from fine art pieces in exhibitions to comforting toys.
Get inspired to design and hand sew your own soft sculpture with this lesson inspired by a series of sculptures called Soundsuits by fabric sculptor, performance artist, educator, and dancer Nick Cave.
About the Artist:
Nick Cave began working with fabric at a young age by manipulating hand-me-down clothing from his older siblings. His work is inspired by an array of things, from the experience of being Black in America, to African art traditions, to haute-couture fashion. Cave has created over 500 Soundsuits since he created his first one in 1992. The Soundsuits serve as a sort of armor that distorts the wearer’s figure and hides their identity.
“The Soundsuits hide gender, race, class and they force you to look at the work without judgment.”
-Nick Cave
SUPPLIES:
• Paper & drawing utensil
• Fabric – Use something from home like an old dress shirt or linens. Choose fabric without much stretch because sewing on stretchy fabric can be challenging. If purchasing fabric, choose something cotton, as cotton is easily drawn and painted on.
• Polyester fiber fill – Alternatives include cotton batting, stuffing from an old pillow, rice.
• Needle & thread
• Straight pins
• Scissors
• Skewer or chopstick for filling
• Strong glue – Elmer’s Glue-All, Alene’s Tacky Glue, or fabric glue
• Embellishments (See optional supplies)
Sketch out what you want your sculpture to look like, and then draw a pattern for your design. To create a sewing pattern, draw and cut out each piece of your sculpture onto any type of paper or cardboard. Then trace the cut pieces of your pattern onto the fabric to guide you in cutting your fabric. Keep in mind that this is a sculpture not an item of clothing, so you’re pieces of fabric don’t need to be perfectly symmetrical. You can even try to freehand draw the pieces of your pattern onto your fabric.
This simple, 4-piece Soundsuit pattern includes a front side, a matching back side, and two identical legs. Make the leg pieces twice as thick and a few inches longer than desired. Each leg will be folded in half and sewn together to create a cylinder shape when filled. The extra length at the upper end of each leg will be sewn inside of the body.
Tip: Limit the pattern to simple shapes. Details will be lost when pieces are sewn together. Also, make your pattern an inch larger than you want your sculpture because you will lose some of the size.
2. Cut the pieces of your pattern out of your fabric and pin together pieces where you will be sewing.
Mark a line along the edge to help guide where to sew.
3. Use a running stitch to sew together pinned pieces about a ¼ inch away from the edge.
A running stitch is when the needle and thread pass over and under. Keep the stitches tight to strengthen the bond between the two pieces, and carefully remove pins as you go. Leave the bottom edge of the body and the top of each leg open to fill.
4. Turn the stitched pieces inside out to hide the raw edges of the fabric and create a cleaner look.
Skip this step if you prefer to see the edges.
5. Fill the legs with stuffing.
Use a skewer, chopstick, or long handled utensil to help pack filling and reach small areas like the toes. After the legs are filled, halfway fill the body with stuffing, and then position legs inside the body before you finish filling the body. Be sure to leave enough space so that the bottom edge of the body can be stitched closed with the legs inside.
6. Pin the bottom edge closed and using a running stitch to stitch close the body.
This completes the structure of the soft sculpture.
7. To finish the sculpture, add embellishments and surface design.
This is your opportunity to personalize your sculpture. Use markers, paint, found objects, and fiber materials to strengthen your Soundsuit ‘s appearance.
Begin with markers and paints if you want to add color and pattern to the fabric. Once that dries, add the three-dimensional decorations using different embroidery techniques and glue.
Ideas for surface design:
• Couching using a chunky yarn. Couching is a type of embroidery where thread is laid down on the surface and then stitched over with small stitches to hold it in place. A thicker yarn makes the process go faster and gives the sculpture a plush feel.
• Thread long pieces of twine through the sculpture and then tie beads to the end. This makes a great clacking sound when the beads knock against each other.
• Glue sequins or any other small objects to the surface.
Challenge: Create your own pattern to sew. Think of ways to add more pieces and dimensions to the sculpture.
Simplify: Fill a sock with stuffing and sew it closed. Add embellishments to the outside.
Learn More:
There is so much to look at and learn about Nick Cave and his hundreds of Soundsuits. Check out the resources below to learn more about Nick Cave and his work:
Owl, local artist and creative behind the murals of Classic Black, shows us how she creates custom stickers that show her unique style.
This video compliments the Teen Hangout that Owl will be hosting with NexGen. Sign up to watch Owl work, or pull out your art supplies and work along side her.
Mint curator Annie Carlano presents studios talks with artists Danny Lane, Tom Joyce, and Kate Malone at inaugural Intersect Chicago art fair
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Project Ten Ten Ten, The Mint Museum is presenting studio talks with three featured artists: Tom Joyce, Danny Lane, and Kate Malone. In conversation with Annie Carlano, Senior Curator of Craft, Design & Fashion at The Mint Museum, the artists will discuss the impact of The Mint Museum commissions on their work, as well current and future projects as part of Intersect Chicago.
More than 100 exhibitors are part of the Intersect Art and Design roster for the inaugural edition of Intersect Chicago, the virtual art fair replacing SOFA Chicago for the 2020 edition due to COVID-19. Intersect Chicago will be online from November 6-12, 2020.
The fair is the evolution of SOFA – Sculpture Objects Functional Art. It is the intersection of art, design, and objects, including daily highlights on glass, contemporary art, design, ceramic and craft, outsider art, fiber, and public art/sculpture. Intersect Chicago will feature institutions from around the globe, including The Mint Museum, with dedicated programming and a selection of galleries showcasing work of these disciplines. Cultural partners of Intersect Chicago will be featured on different days of the fair with special programming, talks, virtual tours, and more. See the full schedule.
Visit the Fair on Artsy
Intersect Chicago has partnered with Artsy, the global marketplace for discovering and collecting art. In addition to accessing the fair through IntersectChicago.com, visitors may also visit the fair through Artsy. As Intersect Chicago’s Main Marketplace Partner, Artsy provides a unique opportunity for exhibiting galleries to promote their virtual booths to Artsy’s global audience. Collectors can experience Intersect Chicago on Artsy to discover artists, save favorite works, view works on their home walls through Artsy’s AR mobile tool and directly purchase work from galleries.
Fall into fashion with these picks from The Mint Museum Store
Our fun and funky Peruvian Trading Company hats, gloves, arm warmers, ponchos and headbands, and even dog sweaters make the perfect gift and are always a seasonal favorite. Celebrate the coming chilly weather, and one of our favorite vendors, with a special pop-up sale. Enjoy 25% off Peruvian Trading Company’s handmade wonders through the end of October.
Peruvian Trading Company Hand-Knit CLT Hat with Pompom, $22 / CLT Hand/Arm Warmers, $18
Peruvian Trading Company Hand-Knit Peace Sign Hat with Pompom, $22
Peruvian Trading Company Hand-Knit Headbands, $22
Peruvian Trading Company Hand-Knit Spider Hat, $58
Fair trade, hand-embroidered clutch from Thailand and fair trade hand-embroidered mask from Mexico (assorted designs and colors), $32 / $22
Sarah Cavender Metalworks jewelry and scarf. Each piece is hand crafted in Oxford, Alabama and made by local artisans under the supervision of Jewelry Designer Sarah Cavender. Square Cobra Necklace (Bottom Right), $174 / Knotted Snake Necklace (Bottom Left), $130 / Long Gold Chain, $120 / Short Gold Chain, $68 / Short Rose Chain, $68 / Interlocking Disk Earrings, $92 / Open Weave Metal Scarf, $250
Fair trade from Nepal felted oversized bag with three interchangeable felted flowers, $118