Blue Sky White Stars

Written by Sarvinder Naberhaus and illustrated by New York Times bestselling and Caldecott-honor winning artist Kadir Nelson, Blue Sky White Stars is an ode to our nation’s greatest and most enduring symbol — our flag. Nelson’s artwork brims with iconic American imagery, including majestic landscapes and the beauty and diversity of its people. From an image of the Statue of Liberty to a depiction of civil rights marchers banded together, the art for each spread depicts a sweeping view of America. (Dial Books, $17.99).

Protest. The Aesthetics of Resistance

Illustrated with expressive photographs and posters, Protest. considers social, culture-historical, sociological, and politological perspectives, as well as approaches that draw on visual theory, popular culture, and cultural studies. In the process, the book takes into account in particular such contemporary developments as the virtualization of protest, how it has been turned into the fictional and its exploitation in politics by power holders of all shades. (Lars Muller Publishers, $29.95).

“Originally published in 1970, Jill Freedman’s Old News: Resurrection City documented the culmination of the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and carried out under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy in the wake of Dr. King’s assassination. Three thousand people set up camp for six weeks in a makeshift town that was dubbed Resurrection City, and participated in daily protests. Freedman lived in the encampment for its entire six weeks, photographing the residents, their daily lives, their protests and their eventual eviction. This new 50th-anniversary edition of the book reprints most of the pictures from the original publication, with improved printing and a more vivid design. Alongside Freedman’s hard-hitting original text, two introductory essays are included.” (Grossman Publishers, $45).

 

Throughout her career, Augusta Savage fought against racism and sexism as she strove to learn her craft. She constantly strove to uplift children and aspiring artists, first at her Savage School of Arts and Crafts, and later as the founding director of the Harlem Community Arts Center. While some of her portraits celebrated leaders in the African American Community, such as W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey, other, like Gamin—one of her most popular works—found dignity and hope in the children struggling for survival on the streets of her Harlem neighborhood. —Jonathan Stuhlman, Ph.D., Senior Curator of American Art

Born, raised, and based in Baltimore, Maryland, African American artist Joyce J. Scott confronts racism, sexism, classism, and other issues head-on in art made in a range of media. Her 1991 necklace Hunger addresses famine in Africa—a persistent problem in the 1980s and early 1990s—and white complicity in it. Hand-beaded skeletons and photographs of malnourished children are juxtaposed with a large white face that seems to look away, ignoring their suffering. Hunger is on view at Mint Museum Uptown. In the words of Joyce J. Scott, “I think art has the ability [to], if not cure or heal, at least enlighten, slap you in the head, wake you up.” —Rebecca Elliot, Assistant Curator of Craft, Design and Fashion

 

Create your own Chihuly-like sculpture

Inspired by Royal Blue Mint Chandelier by Dale Chihuly that hangs in the Carroll Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown, this project incorporates layering and mixing colors while using recycled materials from home. Watch how Royal Blue Mint Chandelier was moved to the Mint Museum Uptown.

MATERIALS

• Old wire hanger (the thinner the metal, the easier it is to bend) 
• Recycled plastic bottles 
• Paint 
• Paint brush 
• Scissors (pointed tip work best) 
• Corks (optional) 
• Pliers or metal snips (optional) 

NOTE: This project is geared to older children and teens. To simplify this for younger children, precut the plastic bottles and begin at step 4.

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1. Begin by removing the paper rod from the hanger. Either bend or snip off ends of the hanger so that the corks can be attached. If you don’t have any corks or wire cutters, just bend the two ends of the hanger in opposite directions. This will create the bottom of your chandelier and keep the plastic bottles from falling off the hanger. Option: If you don’t have a metal hanger, you can create a sculpture that sits flat. 

2. Using scissors, cut off the tops or bottoms of the plastic bottles. Squeezing the bottle flat makes cutting easier. Once that is done, cut on a spiral or in straight lines stopping near the top. Leave enough of the top or bottom of the bottle so that they can be stacked together. Alternating tops and bottoms will create space between layers. Play with both options to see which one appeals to you before cutting all your bottles. (The thickness of the plastic bottles varies by brand; you may need to ask someone for help with the cutting). 

 

3. If you are using the bottoms of the bottles be careful not to make the hole too big or it will not stay on the hanger. (See lower part of the photo). If you are using the tops of the bottles, cut just below the mouth of the bottle where the plastic becomes thinner. (See upper part of the photo). 

 

4. After you have decided how many bottles you want to use and how you will stack them, paint them any way you like. If you want the bottom of your chandelier to be seen, paint or decorate your corks. Make sure the paint is dry before assembling. 

 

5. Slide each bottle over the top of the hanger, stacking one inside the other. Bending or rolling the plastic strips in the opposite direction will take out some of the curl and create a straighter piece. Have fun creating your own unique work of art! 

Challenge: Build a wire armature to create a larger piece. Be sure to watch the video below to see how Dale Chihuly built his chandelier. Add a strand of battery operated mini lights to make this project shine! 

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

The Mint Museum From Home is Sponsored by Chase.

From war-torn Colombia to the Mint: how one staffer found her home away from home at the museum

A native of Colombia, South America, Murrain joined the Mint team as community programs coordinator in 2018, where she (alongside Rubie Britt-Height, director of community relations) helps organize some of the museum’s most dynamic programming catering to the region’s international audience and anyone who wants a taste of the world outside Charlotte. Murrain is also an award-winning poet, a talented performer (she was part of The Vagina Monologues at Queens University of Charlotte in 2016), and always ready with an easy laugh.

Here’s Murrain’s story, as told to Caroline Portillo. Lightly edited for brevity and clarity.Escobar, narcos and ‘a good place to be’ 

We watch a lot of American TV and movies in Colombia. I grew up poor, and to watch those TV shows, I thought everybody in the United States lived an abundant life, and had beautiful houses. Plus, in my country, there was a lot of racism. My brother and I were usually the only black students in the school,  and we were bullied because we were black. I didn’t see that on the TV shows in the United States, so I thought, “that’s a good place to be.” 

I was also living in Colombia during the time of Pablo Escobar and the narco war. I experienced so many horrendous things. They were killing everybody—journalists, artists, important people from the government. They were kidnapping and putting car bombs everywhere. So, yes, I was dreaming about the United States, but I also had another motivation to get out of there.

[NOTE: I am happy to report that Colombia’s former president Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Prize for his efforts to bring the nation’s more than 50-year civil war to an end. Colombia is now a safer, more beautiful place.]In 1998, a coworker told me the YMCA was recruiting summer camp counselors from other countries. I was hired to work at a special needs camp in New Jersey for three months. I had my first experience in the United States and wanted to come back. I came back in 2000 to work at another special needs camp in the Catskills in New York. 

Afterward, I kept thinking “I want to go back, but I want to work in my field, education.” In Colombia, I was teaching English at several universities and teaching private classes at a bank, so my friend told me about a program called Visiting International Faculty, that hires teachers to come to the U.S. for three to five years. 

I called them and told them about my experience, and they said I was the perfect candidate except for one little thing: I needed to have had a drivers’ license for at least two years. I didn’t drive. So I started taking classes, got my license. This was the thing I’d been dreaming of my whole life, so I was like, “OK, it’s only two years.” 

I was 32 when I could finally apply to be a teacher in the US. I marked on my application that I wanted to work in California. That’s what I’d seen in the movies. But it was a school in Charlotte that wanted me, South Meck High School. And they wanted me to be there in two weeks. I had a mini panic attack, heart attack, and stroke at the same time. And when I saw the email, I said “Charlotte?” 

I even considered not going because I’d fallen in love. And this man was gorgeous. But when I told him, “Hey I got this email and I may go to Charlotte in two weeks,” he started laughing. I said, “What the heck?” 

And he said, “I’m laughing because my best friends live in Charlotte.” ‘Like Disneyland’ 

It was amazing. The guy I was dating made introductions on email, and his friends said I could stay with them at their home off Carmel Road while I settled down. I didn’t even have a car, so they took me to school and picked me up in the afternoon. I taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at South Meck for three years. 

In 2005, one of the Spanish teachers, Mr. Lopez, told me there was a poetry contest at the Mint Museum. You didn’t have to sign up for anything. Just show up and read your poem. 

We went straight to the auditorium at Mint Museum Randolph. I didn’t win, but there were more contests at the Mint—four a year—and I won three consecutive times between 2005 and 2006.In 2016, I went to teach English in China for a year. I love adventure. But even while I was there, Rubie asked me to send a video of a poem for the Mint’s Día de las Velitas (Day of the Candles)   celebration, a Colombian tradition, that December. And a few months later, she had an event at
the museum while I was visiting a cousin in Thailand, and she asked me to read a poem I wrote while I was in China. Because of the time difference, I got up at 5 AM to get ready to connect to Charlotte via Skype. 

When I came back to the U.S. I returned to teach Spanish at a school in South Carolina, but I wasn’t fulfilled. Then Rubie gave me a call. She said there was a position open at the Mint for a community programs coordinator and that I should apply. 

When they hired me on April 30, 2018, I was ecstatic. The Mint was the best place in the world. Like Disneyland.

Called to be inspired

The Mint is the most beautiful place. It’s quiet. It calls you to meditate, to be inspired. And my coworkers are so kind. Before working at the Mint, I already had strong ties to the Latin community and the artistic community. I’d been on panels and shared poetry at places like Queens University and Johnson C. Smith University. But being at The Mint Museum now is a platform on which I can help others. It’s exciting to plan for them, to talk to the performers, to see them and see the reaction of the people. It makes me feel accomplished, too. After each event I think, “Wow, this was great. And I was part of it.” 

What I love about the Mint’s programming is I am able to see such a variety of artists, painters, musicians, dancers, poets. It’s such a great array. Every program is so unique and brings a different public. 

The Mint is a big part of the Latin community. At Mint Música & Poesía Café—a biannual event that features talented poets, dancers and musicians from the region— we’ve had a salsa dancer who’s now dancing at an academy in New York. We’ve had a cellist from Colombia play while a PowerPoint of photos from Colombian landscapes played. We’ve had a poet from Puerto Rico share a powerful story about his father. Before I worked at the Mint and heard about Mint to Move—our bimonthly cultural dance night that regularly draws 300 to 400 people—I was like “We can dance at the museum? And there’s a DJ and sometimes a live band playing? Oh my gosh.” So I started bringing all my friends. 

Through Mint to Move, I’ve met black people from other Latin American areas and countries, such as Puerto Rico, Cuba. They understand the struggle. For instance, I teach with the Mint’s Grier Heights Youth Art Program on Wednesdays. The children think I’m black before I speak. And then once I speak, they just open their eyes and are like, “you’re not black.”It’s very touching to be able to see and experience artists who are from your country or any Latin American country. It’s like bringing a little bit of home to the community. And the language—to be able to listen to poetry or music in Spanish. The older people especially get so emotional when they can listen to their language and talk to people like me. It’s a great way to stay connected to their community and their country. 

Then I also work with people who just want to know more about Latin American culture. We had a group from UNC Charlotte and another at Johnson C. Smith University who started coming to Mint Música & Poesia Café and Mint to Move. They just love these events. Then there’s Bilingual Stories & Music, which draws Latin families, Asian families, African-American families, white families. And there are so many marriages with spouses from the U.S. who want to learn about their spouses’ cultures through our programs. It’s a beautiful connection they make because they have that special person next to them, and they’re experiencing the programs together. They can see through different eyes. And because of the Mint, I get to be a part of that.

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6 common misconceptions about visiting The Mint Museum — and what to know instead

By Rubie Britt-Height and Michele Huggins

An art museum is a building that houses artworks, but moreover it’s a place for anyone in the community who enjoys viewing art to visit. Following are a few misconceptions debunked about visiting The Mint Museum.

Misconception: I have to dress up to visit The Mint Museum

Truth: Come as you are! Just like art is not one size fits all, neither is individual style. From casual T-shirts, jeans and sneakers to suits and ties, skirts or sweatshirts, it’s all good at the Mint.

Misconception: I have to know about art to visit the museum

Truth: You don’t have to know anything about art to visit the Mint. While learning about abstract paintings, fashion, ceramic art, furniture or hand-blown glass, we simply want guests to enjoy exploring the collections and galleries. Thanks to AVO Insights and the Arts & Science Council, we recently unrolled augmented reality into the museum galleries. By hovering your phone over select works of art, a video about the artwork appears. Until you can experience it in person, check out the videos by following @themintmuseum on Instagram.

Misconception: The Mint Museum is only uptown

Truth: The Mint Museum Uptown celebrates 10 years in October 2020 at Levine Center for the Arts on South Tryon Street, but Mint Museum Randolph is the original Mint Museum location, opening its doors 1936. Located at 2730 Randolph Road, Mint Museum Randolph houses Native American, Fashion, Decorative Arts, and Art of the Ancient Americas collections, in addition to the most recent exhibition Classic Black: The Basalt Sculptures of Josiah Wedgwood and His Contemporaries on view through Jan. 3, 2021. Modern and Contemporary Art, American Art, European Art, and Craft+Design collections fill the galleries at Mint Museum Uptown.

Misconception: All the art at The Mint Museum is old and stuffy

Truth: Collections at the Mint are diverse and recognize the talent of artists of all ages and backgrounds. Constellation CLT showcases artists throughout the city and region with installations rotating three times per year in four places at Mint Museum Uptown: in the entrance; at the foot of the atrium escalator; and on the landings of the Mezzanine and Level 4. 

Misconception: There’s nothing for my young children to do at the Mint

Truth: Through self-guided ARTventures scavenger hunts, and interactive play opportunities at the Lewis Family Gallery*, there’s something for the young ones at the Mint. Stroller tours are available for parents that want to enjoy art with little ones in tow. Plus there is a specially designated room for nursing mothers. At Mint Museum Randolph, children can run and play in the outdoor park, or plan a picnic under a giant shade tree near the rose garden before touring the galleries.

*Due to many touch points, the Lewis Family Gallery will remain closed after the museum re-opens while we implement safety precautions during COVID-19.

Misconception: You have to be a member to visit

Truth: Single-day admission tickets are available, and museum admission is free Wednesday from 5-9 p.m. at each museum location. Live at the Mint events are free to the public and feature local musicians and performing artists, as well as artist discussions. Check the calendar for the event schedule. Membership does, however, have benefits. From special events to discounts on programming, see if a membership is right for you.

Connecting communities through cultural initiatives

By Rubie Britt-Height, director of community relations

From free, live events to educational engagement with youth, the Mint strives to make art accessible for all community members. Following are just a few of the programs dedicated to welcoming community to explore collections at The Mint Museum.

Grier Heights Community Youth Arts Program

The Grier Heights Community Youth Arts Program guides youth grades 4-12 via art education and artist-led projects  in a weekly after school program in the Grier Heights community located across from Mint Museum Randolph. To date over 500 youth have engaged in Grier Height’s unique and intriguing art activities that encourage self-esteem, respect, wise decision-making, critical thinking, and learning that greatness is measured by service. Participants are mentored by a team of community leaders and accomplished artists-educators.

Participants express themselves through art modules on writing, drawing, quilting, and portraiture as they learn about etiquette, financial and cultural literacy, dental and personal hygiene. Participants also visit both Mint locations to view the Mint’s collection and exhibitions, engage in art activities, attend theatrical and music productions at the Blumenthal and the Mint, take spring break trips to the State Capitol, Governor’s Mansion, and State Buildings, and visit city parks and highlights.

Latino Programming

Programs attract both the Latin American community and everyone interested in Latin culture take place at the Mint all year around. Programs like Mint to Move, Bilingual Stories and Music, and Con a de Arte welcome a host of audiences including families, young adults, professionals, adults, and artists.

Mint to Move Cultural Dance Night

One of the hottest events in town held on one of the best dance floors in Charlotte, Mint to Move Cultural Dance Night invites participants to put on their dancing shoes and experience Latin, African and Caribbean music and dance. Based on the artwork May I Have This Dance by Sheila Hicks, the cultural program unites the community on the dance floor with veteran DJ Carols Lebron mixing a repertoire of international music, including Afro-House, Afro-Cuban, and Latin-American dance rhythms. Guests enjoy free dance lessons from local dance companies like Oneaka Dance Company, and Rumbao Dance Company, and samba, salsa, bachata, cha cha, line dance, and step to other dance forms relative to various global communities.

Bilingual Stories and Music

Children age 6 and younger and their families enjoy coming to Mint Randolph for bilingual stories in Spanish and English. And it’s all free! Bilingual Stories and Music allows kids and their caregivers to learn Spanish with musical instruments, puppets, toys and games and songs featuring the musical team, Criss Cross Mango Sauce.

Mint Musica’ and Poesia

Mint Música and Poesía Café is a bi-annual program that features talented poets, dancers, and musicians from Charlotte’s Latin community. The program celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with performing artists like Alma de la Luna and the NC Brazilian Dancers. It also ties in with the Latin American artwork in the collection and special exhibitions.

ArtSí – Con A de Arte (A is for Art)

Through a close relationship with the local Latino arts community, The Mint Museum provides support for the Con A de Arte (A is for Art) event as part of a partnership with ArtSí Charlotte.

Con A de Arte is an annual event that aims to showcase the work of local artists from the Latin American community in the Charlotte area through presentations modeled after the TED Conferences, which include visual art presentations, and performances by musicians, dancers, poets, and actors.

Virtual Programming

Implementing live recordings of community programs has opened a new audience for the Mint. Record viewership has given access to the Mint as it continues to reach more diverse audiences. Live presentations shown on the Mint website include:

• Requiem for Mother Emanuel: From Tragedy to Triumph with Dr. Leo Twiggs
• African Dancing and Drumming with the Oneaka Dance Company
• Pre-Charlotte Jazz Festival: Jazzin’ on the Terrace with The Juke Joint, featuring Vocalist Nicci Canada, Spoken Word Artist Quentin Talley, and Visual Artist & Live Painter Curtis King

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Freshen up with contemporary patterned pots

Get excited for spring and explore color, shape, and pattern with this fun terracotta pot-painting activity. This project is inspired by Thomas Downing’s painting, Grid 5, which features a circle, repeated in variations of color and subtle patterning within a grid-like structure.

Materials:

• Any old terracotta pot, just make sure to clean it well first
• Acrylic paint (try house paint if you don’t have art acrylics)
• Paint brush
• Water cup for brush cleaning
• Something to use as a paint palette (paper plate, wax paper, etc)
• Paper towels and newspaper to manage mess
• Masking tape or painters tape (not required)

*Note that acrylic paint is not washable. If you are collaborating with a young child, dress for a mess, and supervise at all times. Or, try a similar process with washable materials on paper, instead.

Brainstorm what colors and patterns you want on your planter. Think about using repetition of line and shape to create patterns. Explore how different colors interact with one another.

Map out your design onto your pot. Use a pencil to lightly draw your design onto the pot. Lay out strips of tape if you want to create stripes or clean lines with your design.

Paint your pot. Start with the large designs, and work your way to the more detailed areas. Be sure to let areas dry between coats. If you make a mistake, you can simply let the area dry and then come back and paint over it. Try to leave areas of your pot unpainted. This will help the soil and pot to dry out between waterings, and mimics Downing’s use of unprimed or raw canvas.

Exhibit your artwork. Once you’re satisfied with your creation, find somewhere special to display it at home.

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

The Mint supports a donor’s desire to give back

By Rubie Britt-Height, Director of Community Relations

The Mint Museum recently provided over $2,000 in gift cards and reusable Food Lion grocery bags to families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded by an anonymous donor and Food Lion Stores, the cards were given to families of the students of the museum’s 16-year old Grier Heights Community Youth Arts Program, and to members in the west Charlotte community.

A generous gift of $1,500 was given by an anonymous donor to purchase 50 Food Lion cards in denominations of $35, $25, and $20 at the north Wendover Road Food Lion store near the Grier Heights community. The Mint shared the effort with Millette Granville, vice president of talent, diversity and inclusion, learning and organizational development for Food Lion, a U.S. division of Zaandam-based Royal Ahold Delhaize Group. The company quickly responded with an additional $500 in $25 gift cards, two cases of reusable tote bags to help the family recipients, and facilitation with store No. 971 to process the cards.

“As a child, I grew up in similar challenging yet overcoming circumstances in a Charlotte housing project. I want to give back, and see that the students and families have access to having their temporal needs met, as well as to education and memorable experiences,” wrote the anonymous donor. “You all are doing good community work at the museum and I knew you could successfully facilitate our desire to help families who are trying to hold it together.”

The donations not only helped the Grier Heights community, it supported families of the McCrorey YMCA after-school program and citizens temporarily displaced at two YMCA camps in west Charlotte.  Thirty bags and cards were delivered to the McCrorey YMCA, led by Executive Director Dena Jones, a former Mint docent and student of retired Mint master art teacher Rita Schumaker. Jones noted the great need of families there and those displaced.” These 30 cards and bags will be a blessing to them all, and we appreciate it. Hunger is real, even in Charlotte,” Jones says.

The Mint’s program teen team leader Alex Brown and her mother, Stacey Price Brown, PhD, president of the Grier Heights Community Improvement Organization, have deep roots in the community. They delivered the 43 bags to families during Mother’s Day weekend.

“The Grier Heights community embraces four core values: self-sufficiency, education, empowerment and family! Through our partnership with the Mint Museum you empower our families to educate themselves about their history, their cultures and their health so that they can be model citizens of self-sufficiency for themselves, their families and their communities. Through this COVID-19 pandemic, you have not stopped honoring our community’s core values by sharing care packages, Food Lion gift cards and inspiring messages to empower and educate our families to stay safe and healthy,” Brown says. “We are very thankful for partnerships and neighbors like you who have invested in our community for over 15 years, and the return on your investment has produced many youth and families who are healthier individuals mentally, physically and emotionally so that they, collectively, can go into our society making it a more livable, equitable and just place.”

 

Inspire the young designer with simple sewing

This family activity introduces the art of sewing to young children and is inspired by the Impressionist painting Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing, by John Leslie Breck. Parents can cut fun shapes from cardboard, punch holes, and encourage children to practice stitching.

Along with the fun and creative opportunities simple sewing provides, it also has many benefits for children including:

• Pincer grasp development
• Knowledge of bilateral coordination (using both hands)
• Motor planning
• Eye-hand coordination and visual scanning

Supplies:

• Scissors
• Cardboard or cardstock to cut into shapes
• Hole punch or pencil to make holes
• Tape
• Yarn, embroidery thread or shoelace
• Markers or watercolor paints

 

Work with your child to plan a shape to draw on the cardboard. Cut the shape out. We selected a T-shirt and socks to “mend” with yarn. Have fun drawing, coloring, or painting designs and details on the cardboard.

Punch holes throughout your cardboard shape with a hole punch or pencil. Adults should do this part. Cut the desired length of yarn or thread, taping one end to the back to secure it, then use the other end  to make a “needle” tip by tightly wrapping tape around it. A shoelace works well for this too.

Show your child how to “stitch” in and out of the holes. Let them make their own random designs.This should be a fun exercise for young children, who can pull the yarn out and stitch over and over again.

View the painting Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet Sewing together and expand the learning experience. What do you think the young woman is sewing? If you were there with her, what sounds might you hear, and scents can you smell? What is the weather like there? What would you say to her?

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

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6 works of art that celebrate motherhood

Motherhood has inspired art and artists throughout the ages with themes of guidance, love and protection. On the cusp of Mother’s Day, Mint curators Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD and Brian Gallagher spotlight pieces in the Mint’s collection that give a nod to the beauty of motherhood.

 

Big Mother

Australian artist Patricia Piccinini was inspired to create Big Mother after watching a documentary on baboons that included the passionate intensity with which a mother would grieve the loss of a child. The parallels between species instantly became evident to her and as with all of her work, she sought to unite the gap between living forms with a bridge of compassion, recognizing that new scientific innovations are breaking down those barriers, as well.

Piccinini has described Big Mother in this way: “She encapsulates what it means to be human today, how we define our humanness, and the ethics and the advocation of new medical technologies like genetic engineering. She also embodies that amazing push-pull of difference. We can recognize her, but she is something else, which is strange for us. … In the end, what the work is really about, is how important it is to maintain the distinction between animals and ourselves and how fragile that distinction really is.” —Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art

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Madonna and Child with Four Saints

Every culture has images celebrating the unique bond between mother and child and such images became a staple of Christian iconography, as well. Medieval and early Renaissance representations tended toward a formal Mary who served as a support for a wise Christ, small in size, but mature in face. In the High Renaissance when Ridolfi Ghirlandaio painted, the Catholic church sought to portray a more empathetic, relatable Holy Family. Images of Mary and Christ softened, moving from ornate thrones to verdant fields and from stiff poses to loving embraces. The four apostles make the religious connotations immediately clear, but if they were removed, the mother and child could be a maternal image from any time, any place: a mother adjusting her weight to accommodate a squirming infant who reaches inquisitively for an object nearby, watching his movements with a gentle love. —Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art

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Mother and Children

Although George Bellows made a name for himself with paintings and drawings that showed the grittiness of urban life, he also produced more tender images, like this one. Mother and Children depicts the artist’s wife Emma and their children, Anne and Jean, relaxing outside under a striped awning. —Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, Senior Curator of American Art

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Ogunquit Morning

This sun-filled scene, created at an artist’s colony in Ogunquit, Maine, nearly a century ago, features three women and three young children enjoying a sun-drenched morning by the sea. —Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, Senior Curator of American Art

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Wedgwood Teapot

The figures in relief on this jasperware teapot include a mother and her children as they approach a tripod table supporting a basket filled with fruit. The scene was designed by Elizabeth Upton, Lady Templetown (1747–1823), as part of her Domestic Employment series, and it was modeled in three-dimensional form by William Hackwood, a talented sculptor at the Wedgwood factory. —Brian Gallagher, Curator of Decorative Arts

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Bough Pot

The relief decoration on one side of this bough pot—on view in the Classic Black: Basalt Sculptures of Josiah Wedgwood and His Contemporaries exhibition—features the Roman goddess Venus balancing her son Cupid on her right foot. Known as Sportive Love, the relief was designed by Elizabeth Upton, Lady Templetown (1747–1823), a talented, amateur artist who sold her designs to various Staffordshire potteries. —Brian Gallagher, Curator of Decorative Arts

BURN YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

Star Gallery | Spring-Summer 2020

Inspired by the Immersed In Light: Studio Drift at the Mint exhibition, Hough High School students worked to create pieces of art for the Star Gallery that explored the relationship between humanity, nature, and technology. Creating a dialogue about the in and out of body conversations we have with these relationships was our main focus. Throughout the work you can see that students worked with many materials, both tangible and digital. These works are from Katherine Allen’s Visual Art Honors and AP classes as well as Justin Pierce’s Media Arts Honors and AP classes

Katherine Allen’s Visual Art Honors and AP classes

Justin Pierce’s Media Arts Honors and AP classes

12 gifts hand selected for Mother’s Day

Give the moms in your life something thoughtful for Mother’s Day from the Mint Museum Store. Shopping by appointment is now available by calling the store at 704-337-2061, or direct message @mintmuseumshops on Instagram or email hannah.snyder@mintmuseum.org to shop these items or others. Items can be picked up curbside at Mint Museum Uptown or shipped direct to any address in the United States. The store is open to fulfill orders Monday through Friday, 10:30 AM-1:30 PM.

Below are 12 items hand selected by Mint Museum Store staff members as favorites to celebrate Mom. Bundle a bunch and send something extra special to celebrate the first lady in your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make Your Own Spring Flower Necklace

Spring is a time of rebirth. Flowers are popping up and bringing color back into the world. This project was inspired by Frozen, 2011, a nature-themed necklace by artist Sam Tho Duong. Imagine what the frozen seeds would look like if they thawed and bloomed. 

This project has lots of room for creative variation. It can work with felt or paper. The necklace can be made with pipe cleaners, ribbon, or string. Another option is to use the flowers to create a wreath or a card to give to someone you love for spring holidays, birthdays, or Mother’s Day. Experiment with texture and color to create a unique arrangement. 

SUPPLIES: 

• Felt or colored paper* 
• Pipe cleaners, ribbon, or string (optional) 
• Pencil or chalk 
• Scissors 
• Liquid glue (tacky works best on fabric) 
• Round object such as a mason jar or roll of tape to trace different size circles 
• Buttons or beads for decoration (optional) 

*Note: if you don’t have felt or colored paper, no problem. Just use plain paper and color with crayons, colored pencils, watercolors or markers. 

 

STEPS: 

Use pipe cleaners to form a necklace. Cut and twist smaller pieces to create knots or branches. Do not join the two ends together yet; you will attach them to the base later. 

 

Fold green material in half and cut out a leaf shape. Be sure to avoid cutting on the fold. When you open it, it will look like two leaves connected. This will be the base on which you will glue your flowers.  

Bend and glue a pipe cleaner to the back of the leaves and let dry. The two ends of the pipe cleaner should extend beyond the leaves; this is where you will attach the necklace later. 

Start with a piece of felt or colored paper. Trace and cut out a circular shape. (It does not need to be perfect!) 

Using a pencil or chalk, draw a spiral from the outer edge to the middle of the circle. Cut along your pencil line. 

Beginning with the inside end of your spiral, roll your material tightly using your thumb and forefinger to hold it in place as you add layers. Put a small amount of glue on the tail end to keep it together and let dry. Continue making different size and color flowers. You can turn one of the smaller size flowers upside down and it will look like a bud. 

Once all your pieces are finished, glue the flowers to the base. Use old buttons or beads to decorate the center. Once everything is dry, connect the base to the other two branches of the necklace by twisting them together. 

Option: If you prefer to make a card, fold a piece of paper in half and glue the paper flowers to the front. 

Challenge: Instead of cutting right on the line, cut a scalloped edge or use patterned craft scissors for visual interest. Add details such as leaves. 

Simplify: Use larger paper and/or pre-cut spirals. 

This idea brought to you by Maggie Burgan. 

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

14 pro tips to take your best snapshots while sheltering at home and beyond

As we continue to make sense of our reality, many are taking notes, and finding other ways to document their daily experiences. Snapshots of day-to-day adventures at home and front porch photo sessions are ways to capture life during a pandemic that we aren’t soon to forget.

Capture the Moment

Look for context

“Think about your pictures as lasting documents of how things were in this very surreal moment in all of our lives,” says Logan Cyrus, a photojournalist based in Charlotte whose work has published in The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. “Try not to stage things.”

Get a close-up

While we’re practicing social distancing in our communities, we don’t have to do that in our backyards, says N.C.-based visual artist Micah Cash, whose installation Waffle House Vistas was featured in The Mint’s Coined in the South exhibition. “Get close to your subject and remove wasted space in your images. If I’m photographing a tomato plant, then I need to get close to it. Same with an image of my son watering the garden: The camera needs to be close enough to show that he is the subject. Don’t crop it later. Zoom with your feet and get close,” he says.

Close-ups are particular great when photographing children. “Get the camera on their level or lower, and in their space,” says commercial photographer Adam Whitlow who owns Latch Creative. “You never know what they’re going to do next, and if you are too far away the moment won’t have the same impact.”

Sneak a snapshot

Capture a truly candid moment by snapping a picture when your subject isn’t looking or is busy doing something, suggests Kim Hutchinson, whose work has been featured at various galleries in the city. “Go abstract. Not every image has to be crisp and perfectly balanced. Find joy in imperfection,” she says.

Still life is real life

Humans and pets aren’t the only interesting subjects to photograph. Consider a still photo set up of spring flowers, pandemic puzzle projects, or new recipes simmering on the stove.

“Spring brings an abundance of color and life. Try macro photography and put together arrangements of items that capture your story now. Play with different backgrounds and moody light to create drama,” Whitlow says.

Think about the “why”

Are you a parent? Is your child in the middle of a temper tantrum? Maybe that’s a good time to make a picture, Cyrus says. “We want to remember the fun of writing inspiring messages on a sidewalk with chalk but we also want to remember the difficulty of being at our homes all day and how we managed to get through it.”

The best photos aren’t posed

Make a game of it, says Elly Kinne, CEO and lead photographer for Weddings by BlueSky. “Play with your child, pup or catch your spouse in a laugh. When you see a beautiful moment, take that photo.”

Think Outside the Frame

Find a new angle

Break away from the convenient eye-level camera angle says Jeff Cravotta, owner of Cravotta Photography and one of the talents behind Charlotte Ballet’s beautiful photography. “Lay down on the ground to either have an ant’s-eye view or look up to your subject, climb up someplace high to look down at your subject,” he says.

Be aware of what’s in the background

Don’t want that trash can in the background? Move it or move yourself, advises UNC Charlotte associate professor of photography Aspen Hochhalter.  “Make sure everything that’s included in your viewfinder or on your screen is something you want in your photo. You have ultimate control of what is included in your frame, all you need to do is notice the details in your scene.”

Look for the novel and unexpected

“The photo (above) was taken at a dumpster,” says wedding and portrait photographer Richard Israel. Look for unusual locations and let the reflective colors soak onto your subject.”

Keep your subject in open shade for flattering light, and use as small an aperture as possible or portrait mode on your phone for that out of focus background, he says.

The Right Light

Embrace the “magic hours”

The first hour of the day and the last hour of the day are the best opportunities for photography,” Hutchinson says. “This is due to the lower angle of the light and how it is filtered through the atmosphere and the environment. If you can manage to shoot either earlier or later in the day you will get better results with natural light.”

Harsh midday sun isn’t flattering and is difficult to control, Whitlow says. “Try to find a shady spot or position for your subject so the sun is behind them, and use your flash to light their faces.” If you feel like adding other techniques, find some white foam core or poster board and try to bounce light back into your subject or use a thin white fabric to diffuse harsh sun, he says.

Don’t be afraid to play with exposure

Many photographers prefer to put their subjects in shade, so that the lighting is more balanced. If you usually shoot at 200 ISO in sunlight, try shooting at 400 ISO in the shade, says music and event photographer Daniel Coston.

If your subject is in the sun and they look too bright, just drag your exposure down before you take the photo, Kinne says. “On an iphone, just click on your subject on your screen, a bar will show up, drag the exposure up or down depending on the look you are going for.” 

What about lighting inside?

“Window light, window light, window light,” says wedding photographer Casey Hendrickson. But not directly hitting your subjects. “I always like to photograph at a 90-degree angle to my subject when shooting inside to have the proper depth and shadows, but also ensure that colors remain true.” If the light is too harsh, and shadows are too contrasted, try placing sheer white/ivory curtains over the window to diffuse the light, she says.

Technical Tips

Let the grid be a guide

Use the grid setting on your camera to compose your image according to the rule of thirds, says Cash. “When turned on, you can line the subject matter onto one of the intersections or along one of the lines to make a more natural and balanced photograph. But feel free to break this rule when you want an image to be more formal, jarring, or stark. Knowing the rule allows you to break it creatively when your image needs it.”

Create motion and try time-lapse

“For many people, time is practically standing still. Time-lapse can provide that much needed assurance that life is still moving forward,” Whitlow says. Find a scene that has repetitive action and is evolving within the frame. “This could be as simple as someone perpetually throwing a ball to the dog or the endless stream of walkers and bikers on your street. Set your camera on a tripod or stabilize it somehow and be patient.”

Israel suggests creating a sense of motion by panning the camera with your subject.

Flash or no flash?

Using a flash is good if you are in a room with very little light, or just want to get that perfect posed photo of a group of people. However, using a flash can seem a bit much to some people and kids, Coston warns.

“Look up your camera’s ISO setting, take it off of the auto setting, and increase the ISO to 800 or 1600 if you are indoors. This way, you can take photos without a flash, and there will be less motion in the photos,” he says. “Whatever you are into, whether it’s your family, job, travel or everyday life, it all means a lot to you. If you want to document it, you should. No matter how good or bad of a photographer that you think you are. It’s your eyes through whichever camera you have with you, even if that’s just your phone.”

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

These Zoom backgrounds will transform your next meeting into a work of art

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Studio location: Lesa, Maggiore Lake, Italy

The Mint Museum From Home is Sponsored by Chase.

The Mint Museum celebrates the life of Dr. Francis Robicsek, a pioneering heart surgeon, art collector and Renaissance man

It is with heavy—yet grateful—hearts that The Mint Museum recognizes and celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Francis Robicsek, who passed away peacefully at his Charlotte home on April 3, at the age of 94.

Robicsek was best known for being a world-renowned heart surgeon who performed some of Charlotte’s first open-heart operations. Over his 64-year career, he performed the city’s first heart transplant, founded the Sanger Clinic (now Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute), and was known for his steady hand — and improvisation — in some extraordinary situations. (Consider this: On New Year’s Eve in 1964, when a fellow doctor’s heart stopped on a hospital elevator, Robicsek proceeded to cut the man’s chest open with suture scissors, massage the heart, and then shock it back into rhythm with the cord from a table lamp.)

But the doctor who fled Soviet control in his native country of Hungary in 1956 with his six-months-pregnant wife, Lilly, was also a student of the world. Robicsek saw beauty in the old and was an avid art collector who generously helped establish, grow and develop the Mint’s pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, and European painting collections. Many of the works of art are on display in Mint Museum Randolph’s Lilly and Francis Robicsek Galleries.

“I only had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Robicsek once, but he was a figure who had an aura of well-deserved respect, almost reverence,” says Mint President and CEO Todd. A Herman, PhD. “And if you paid attention, he had a sense of humor that those willing to see past the aura would appreciate—with a twinkle in his eye and a slight rise to the edges of his mouth.”

Robicsek became interested in archaeology in the 1960s. “I have never enjoyed a vacation where you just go and sit around, and I have never enjoyed walking around a golf course,” Robicsek wrote in the 2008 book Pioneers of Cardiac Surgery, by Dr. William S. Stoney. “I have always needed an excuse or a reason for going from A to B.”

So it was auspicious when Robicsek saw an ad in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery for a hospital in Honduras that needed a surgeon with experience in tuberculosis surgery. Robicsek began spending summer vacations there. And when the hospital could only handle one thoracotomy per day, he spent his downtime “prowling around the ruins.”For decades, Robicsek worked to expand healthcare facilities and operations in Central American countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize and El Salvador. He helped build pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, and he raised money to take pieces of equipment deemed obsolete by U.S. standards and have them refurbished and shipped to Central America, where he’d also train staff how to use them. Then, whenever possible, Robicsek would change out of his scrubs, pull out his camera, and go exploring.

Of course, he couldn’t have done it without Lilly. A medical doctor herself—she did two residencies in pathology and pediatrics—Lilly retired from medicine to help raise the four children and afford her husband the opportunity to work, study and travel around the world, often with Lilly by his side.Dorie Reents-Budet, PhD—a former visiting curator for native art of the Americas at the Mint—spent years working with Robicsek and exploring his vast collection. But they first met in 1982 when Robicsek attended the Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop at the University of Texas at Austin. Reents-Budet was a graduate student at the time and was helping put on the workshop

The crowd was an insular group of art history and anthropology scholars from the U.S. and Canada. Reents-Budet, eager to make sure all attendees felt welcome, offered to drive Robicsek to all of the after-hours workshop cocktail parties, to introduce him to her professors. “It was memorable getting him to fold up those long legs so he could fit in my 1967 Nova,” she says.

Robicsek authored five books on Mayan culture and art, and just as he was a pioneer in the medical field, he was also an early adopter in the field of art history. He was publishing books on pre-Columbian art long before the National Gallery of Art even recognized it as art and not just a facet of anthropology, says Reents-Budet.

To Robicsek, she adds, these works were equally as poignant as any Grecian ceramic, Egyptian artifact, or Renaissance painting.Michael Tarwater, formerly the president and CEO of Carolinas Healthcare System, first met Robicsek in June 1981. Tarwater was a vice president at the time and part of his purview included overseeing the hospital’s cath lab, where doctors studied the heart. He and Robicsek became fast friends, and for a period of about 15 years, Tarwater and his wife, Ann, would travel the world with Robicsek and Lilly—from Romania, where the ancient monasteries are painted with exquisite Biblical scenes, to Antigua, Guatemala, home of the world’s largest Easter celebration.

“To the very end, he had this beautiful youthful curiosity about life that you just wanted to tap into,” says Ann Tarwater, one of the Mint’s Board of Trustees. “He wanted to show you the world.”

That sense of curiosity didn’t wane after Robicsek retired in 1998. If anything, it picked up. “He was an inventor, an innovator, a scientist, a scholar, a humanitarian,” says Michael Tarwater. “And,” he added, “a prankster.”

In the mid-1980s, Carolinas Medical Center experienced a few power failures, which always caused a scramble, Tarwater said. A few days after one, the hospital administration announced to staff that they’d found the problem and resolved it. Afterward, Robicsek stopped by Tarwater’s office for a quick chat.

Minutes after Robicsek left, Tarwater saw the power go out yet again. “The first thing you think about are all the people in the operating room, all the things we rely on, all the people on ventilators,” he said.

Frantic, Tarwater raced out of his office. That’s when he realized that the power outage was isolated. The mischievous Robicsek had found the circuit breaker for just the administrative offices and flipped the switch.Francis and Lilly Robicsek took every opportunity to travel with their children—Steven, Susanne, John and Frances—and later with their five grandchildren. They instilled a love of art, music and culture in all of them.

Robicsek’s daughter Frances Furr, the youngest of the four children, studied art history in college and went on to be an art teacher, a member of the Delhom Service League, and a docent at the Mint.

Furr recalls the time when, as a lover of North Carolina ceramics, she took her father to Seagrove to view the pottery. “In that thick Hungarian accent, he said, ‘There aren’t any cracks in it. I don’t like it,’” Furr recalls, laughing.

He later recanted, she says, but his premise remained: There was beauty and value in old things. Whether traveling the world with family and friends or simply browsing a flea market or art gallery with his children, Robicsek espoused the power of learning about the past, of finding beauty in artifacts.

Two weeks before her wedding day, 27 years ago, Robicsek took Furr to the jungles of Mexico, where he was on a mission to photograph Mayan ruins. There were no hot showers, they slept in hammocks, and she remembers looking out the back of a truck and realizing they weren’t on a road. But then they arrived at the most amazing old mounds in the middle of nowhere.

“I love how he taught me to see life through the lens of culture and art,” says Furr. “And that I’m very grateful for.”

We at the Mint are also grateful to Robicsek and his family for sharing the life and legacy of the remarkable doctor, buried in his scrubs, who saved lives and championed art in equal measure.

Sincerely,

Todd A. Herman, PhD
President & CEO

Studio location: Orangeburg, S.C.

Ice investigations: A ‘cool’ project for kids

Freeze odds and ends from around the house in a water-filled resealable bag or plastic container, and dig them out again using tools you have on hand. Inspired by artist Danny Lane’s Threshold—a sculptural glass installation comprising an undulating wall of glass rods with colorful objects and lights placed behind—the process-based project promotes eye-hand coordination, builds vocabulary and critical-thinking skills, and is lots of fun.

Supplies

• Water 
• Large zip lock bag or plastic container (make sure it fits in your freezer!) 
• Objects to freeze 
• Real or toy hammer, metal  or wooden spoon, chopsticks, peeler etc. (depending on the age and ability of the child) 
• Optional: gloves, safety goggles or sunglasses, food coloring, magnifying glass 

Assemble your excavation tools. Be sure to take safety precautions if using any sharp tools! Once your ice is frozen, remove from container. Make observations about shape, weight, texture. Are there air bubbles? Do the objects look different from different angles?

While you wait for the water to freeze, watch this short video about the sculpture, Threshold, that inspired this activity.

Once frozen, take everything outside if you can, or place it in a tub or larger container. Experiment with chipping away at the ice with different “excavation” tools to reveal hidden objects.  

 

Encourage children to freely experiment and experience the process, and talk about what you see and feel as the melting process occurs.  

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

Spring cleaning during shelter-in-place? Here are tips for preserving all your favorite things, from photos to clothes to important documents

Spring cleaning is taking on a whole new meaning while we’re all cooped up and social distancing inside. Whether you’re cleaning out your closets or that pesky home office, here are some tips from the Mint’s Library & Archives team on how to preserve the stuff you actually want to keep.

1. Always opt for cardboard storage bins

Contrary to what you see on the stocked shelves at the Container Store, cardboard boxes are usually better than plastic bins for storage. Why? Plastic bins can breed mold since they can seal in moisture. (Pro tip: You know those little packets in new shoe boxes? Those absorb moisture. Hang on them to use to throw in plastic storage bins. Just make sure to keep them away from pets and kids!)

2. With cherished papers, skip the paper clips, staples

From kids artwork on the fridge to awards and certificates, it can be hard to know how to best store our cherished paper possessions. For starters, paper is best kept flat. You’ll want to make sure you papers are unfolded and laid flat for storage. If possible, storing in acid-free file folders will help with preservation (these can be easily ordered online if you don’t have any on hand). You’ll also want to remove any paper clips or staples, as these can rust and ruin your papers. Finally, if your item is too large for a folder, rolling it up will always be better than folding.

3. Embrace acid-free paper with photo albums and scrapbooks

Photo albums and scrapbooks are another tricky item to know how to preserve. The first question here: Is everything glued down? If so, just leave it. The photos can be damaged by trying to remove them. You can add sheets of acid free paper between the pages to help prevent acid from the album pages to migrate and deteriorate your mementos. To save a few bucks, check your printer paper if you have any because it might just be acid free. Put the album in a box for extra protection.

4. Here’s how long you should keep tax and loan docs

Most of us have—but don’t want to admit to—a stack of miscellaneous papers in our homes that seem important and probably shouldn’t be thrown away. But knowing when to actually throw away that tax return or bank statement from three years ago can feel really overwhelming. As a rule of thumb, you should plan to keep tax returns for seven years, loan documents until the loan is paid off, and any one-time documents like social security cards and birth certificates forever, according to Consumer Reports.

5. With clothes and fabric, pack flat and wrap strategically

Well, Joan Crawford was right. No wire hangers! Wood, plastic, or padded hangers are a much better choice to preserve your garments. When saving older garments, they should be packed flat and wrapped in acid-free tissue. Quilts and other fabrics should be handled gently and with care, stored in a cool, dry location, and avoid any cleaning or washing if the fabrics are antiques or may have monetary or sentimental value. Read this article from the National Archives for more quilt and fabric preservation tips.

6. Embrace vampire tendencies

Whether you are storing paper, photos, or clothing, keep them out of the sun and away from heat sources to prevent fading and damage. In addition to light sources, keep your valuables away from sources of moisture or water to avoid mold. Keep away from pipes as well, as they can burst and water damage your items. Garages and basements are not the best places for storage; try keeping cherished items stored inside the house where there is more temperature control instead.

We on the Library & Archives team at the Mint know a thing or two about preservation, but this is just a primer. There are loads of online resources for every type of item you can think of. One of our favorite trusted sources is the North Carolina Preservation Consortium; the Mint is a member!

Let your mind wander with watercolors

In this brief Museum from Home video, Mint staffer Leslie Strauss leads viewers through a simple painting and drawing activity, good for all ages. Don’t have paints at home? Grab some magic markers instead and get ready to be creative.

Supplies

• Paper
• Water cup and paint brush
• Watercolor paints or washable magic markers
• Sharpies, colored pencils, or any drawing tools 
  

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

Get your weave on with items you have at home

All you need is a piece of cardboard and a few basic materials to create your own portable loom at home. This weaving project is inspired by John Garrett’s piece,  Tales Told on a Sunday Afternoon Between Los Cordovas and the Pilar Landslide, in which he incorporates found objects from a hike he took in his home state of New Mexico. 

 

Supplies

• Cardboard 
• Ruler 
• Pencil 
• Scissors 
• Large-eye blunt needle (try finger weaving if you don’t have a needle) 

When weaving with yarn, cut pieces to 10-12 inches. This gives you a reasonable length to work with while avoiding it turning into a tangled mess. Don’t pull the yarn too tight, as this can cause your whole piece to become warped. 

When you reach the end of your working yarn, tie a knot around the final strand of warp and either use a needle to tuck it into your piece, or just trim the tail off. To begin a new row, simply cut a new piece of yarn and begin again, leaving a 6 inch tail. If you have one, use a comb or a fork to even out rows. 

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

De-stress making a mandala

A mandala is a circular geometric configuration of symbols. With roots in Southeast Asian spiritual tradition, many today use these as a form of focused concentration, meditation, and relaxation. Art making also helps to identify and express emotion. This exercise uses symbols and colors to convey feelings.  

Supplies

• Sheet of paper or paper plate 

• Colored pencils, markers, or crayons 

• A small round object such as a penny 

• Ruler or measuring tape (or you can just eyeball it) 

Start by thinking of symbols that you like or that have meaning in your life. You can sketch some out on a separate piece of paper.

Next, think of a list of feelings and write them down. Decide which color best matches the feeling and make a mark for yourself so that you can look back at it as you create your mandala.  

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

Studio location: Blue Ridge Mountains, NC

These documentaries will help you get your art fix from home

Craft in America

The Peabody Award-winning series on PBS explores America’s creative spirit through the language and traditions of the handmade. The series takes viewers on a journey to the artists, origins and techniques of American craft. Two artists in our collection, Diego Romero and Cristina Cordova, are featured on the episode “Identity.”

Where it’s streaming: PBS. https://www.craftinamerica.org/episodesExit Through The Gift Shop

Talk a stroll through the ever-evolving world of street art. This documentary follows Thierry Guetta, a French native living in Los Angeles as he explores his own work, and the work of famous street artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey (whose work was featured in the Mint’s Under Construction exhibition). Street art also plays a huge role in our special exhibition Classic Black, which combines the work of local mural artist Owl with the basalt sculptures of Josiah Wedgwood.

Where it’s streaming: Amazon Prime, Google Play and digital rental services.Abstract: The Art of Design

A look beyond blueprints and computers into the art and science of design, showcasing great designers from every discipline whose work shapes our world.

Where it’s streaming: Netflix. Out of the Fire: The Art and Science of Ceramics

Join Dr. Alexis G. Clare, professor of glass science at the New York State College, Alfred University, on a journey of ceramics from past to present. 

Where it’s streaming: PBS.

5 podcasts that make us excited about art, even if we can’t see it

ArtCrush

Catch up on both seasons of the Mint’s very own podcast. Hear interviews with artists from our collections and special exhibitions, hot takes from Mint curators, and even our very own President & CEO, Todd Herman.

Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Museum Confidential

Love any and all museums? Museum Confidential gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of your favorite museums. From an interview with Killer Mike, High Museum Board Member, to chatting about visitor data with Colleen Dilenschneider, this one goes out to all the proud museum nerds out there. Listen on NPR

Talk Art

Hosted by actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament, Talk Art is a podcast dedicated to the world of art featuring exclusive interviews with leading artists, curators & gallerists. Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

ArtCurious

True Crime, rivals, and shock value? No, this isn’t the next Netflix docu-series. It’s ArtCurious, an art history podcast hosted by Jennifer Dasal that is sure to delight and awe like no school art history class ever could. Listen on the ArtCurious website or via Apple podcasts

Art Movements

Brought to you by Hyperallergic, an art forum and website created in 2009, Art Movements podcast brings you all the up-to-date happenings from across the art world. Hosted by Hrag Vartanian, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Hyperallergic, Art Movements talks about everything from what artists need to know about taxes, to art history, to arts pop culture and everything in between. Listen on the Hyperallergic website.

14 more books to delve into while staying in during COVID-19

ARTFUL READS 

Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures by Cynthia Saltzman 

“This book answers the question: How did big American art museums acquire so much European art?  Wealthy Gilded Age American entrepreneurs jostled with one another to collect and bring known works of art across the Atlantic —  Rembrandts, Raphaels, etc. 

—Joel Smeltzer, Head of School and Gallery Programs

The Popes of Avignon: A Century in Exile by Edwin Mullins 

As an Italian Renaissance scholar, I have usually looked at this period in the history of the Catholic Church from the Italian perspective and not the French. Well written and a good read. 

—Todd Herman, President and CEO 

NOVELS 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 

I’m spending lots of time reading to my kids these days. This week we started reading “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien to my eldest daughter. She may be a bit young for some of the material, but our family has been enjoying reading a “big girl book” nightly. It provides us all a chance to escape, and have an adventure without leaving our house — something that is becoming more challenging everyday. This copy actually belonged to my mother when she was a child, and she read it to me when I was young, so it has been well loved. 

—Rebecca O’Malley, Exhibition Coordinator 

The Hundred Story Home by Kathy Izard 

I saw Kathy Izard speak and was so inspired by her story that I bought her book. I started reading it this week and was reminded of how helping others changes us. Her work with homelessness in the Charlotte area led to the city-wide effort to build Moore Place. This book has reminded me of the importance of listening to your inner voice. It’s helpful for us, especially now, to find ways to practice compassion – even if we have to do it with a mask on. 

—Maggie Burgan, Public Programs Coordinator 

Introducing the Honourable Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood 

The adventures of a sassy flapper in 1920s Australia who just happens to be a private detective.  She’s daring, independent, and smarter than all the men around her. What’s not to like? 

—Ellen Show, Archivist 

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 

Oryx and Crake is from the same author as A Handmaid’s Tale, and is centered around a man living in the post-apocalyptic ruins of a world he helped create, after humanity is near-entirely killed off by a bio-engineered plague. It’s the first book in the MaddAddam trilogy, and was a very good read.

—Benjamin Elrod, Graphic Designer 

NONFICTION 

A Little History of The World by E.H. Gombrich 

I keep this book on my nightstand. It was recommended to me by one of my favorite art history professors. It’s not filled with names and dates, but is a collection of 40 short chapters about human experience and achievement — a fairy tale-like history of the world. Perfect for young readers and fun to read aloud to smaller children. 

—Maggie Burgan, Public Programs Coordinator

Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard 

This enchanting book uses a mouthwatering metaphor to unlock the magic in interior spaces. The chapters delve into the hidden life of the house, rooms, nests, shells, attics and cellars. Adult readers will enjoy sharing excerpts and helpIng their family to find and savor familiar spaces. Miniatures and shells are some of my favorite chapters. (Free download available.) 

—Cynthia Moreno, Director of Learning and Engagement

On Looking by Alexandria Horowitz 

A walker’s guide to the art of observation. I am enjoying it because Horowitz shows is how much more there is to see if we only take the time to look. 

—Diane Lowry, Guest Services Associate 

My 25 Years in Provence-Reflections of Then and Now by Peter Mayle

Easy, fun read that breaks up the more academic books. Wonderfully written. 

—Todd Herman, President & CEO

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

I always try to have one book of poetry going for when I need an escape from reality, but I only have five minutes to make the trip. Tracy K. Smith’s books have been in rotation for a while, but her Life on Mars collection is a favorite because it not only plays off her love for David Bowie, but the title is my favorite Bowie song. Also, rereading it, I’m surprised by how much it captures the hope in the bleak unpredictability of every day. Take the end of her poem, Sci-Fi:

. . . Weightless, unhinged,

Eons from even our own moon, we’ll drift

In the haze of space, which will be, once

And for all, scrutable and safe.

—Jen S. Edwards, PhD, Chief Curator and Curator or Contemporary Arts

Powership: Transform Any Situation, Close Any Deal, and Achieve Any Outcome by Daymond John of ABC’s Shark Tank 

I have followed Daymond’s career and wanted to hear his advice on taking control of your destiny. So far it’s been lots of good tips and advice on how to make connections. It’s good listening while we work from home. 

—Thesha Woodley, Associate Director of Visitor Experience and Membership 

Just for Fun

The Dangerous Book for Dogs by Rex & Sparky 

We have four legged “kids,” so just for fun we are reading The Dangerous Book for Dogs by Rex & Sparky. 

—Lori Rogers, Visitor Experience and Membership Coordinator 

Magazines 

I’ve not really been able to concentrate on a book, but I am loving magazines for a bit of respite from the surreal week we’ve had. The colorful and inspiring pages of House Beautiful, Artist magazine and Traveler from AAA have been a feast to the eye. 

—Angela Lubincky, Guest Services Associate 

 

Studio location: West Charlotte

Describe the artwork you create and medium your use.

I paint and draw using graphite, pastel, acrylic, oil, and spray paint. Although mostly abstract, I do work representationally as well.

Make your own marble prints with shaving cream

This fun (and messy) project for all ages is inspired by the paintings of Harlem Renaissance painter, Beauford Delaney. Your final creation can be displayed as a print, folded into a card, or used as the background for a collage or drawing. Share what you make by tagging us on Instagram @themintmuseum.

 

SUPPLIES

• Baking sheet or tray (large enough to fit your paper and deep enough to hold shaving cream)
• White shaving cream
• Paint or food coloring
• Stick or toothpick (end of paintbrush works too)
• Plastic ruler or other flat edge that can get wet
• Paper
• Paper towels or cleaning cloth
• Open space to lay out your prints

STEPS

1. Cover bottom of sheet pan with shaving cream.

The Mint Museum From Home is Presented By Chase.

12 Books Mint Staffers Are Reading During These Crazy COVID-19 Times

ARTFUL READS 

Of Cats and Men: Profiles of History’s Great Cat-Loving Artists, Writers, Thinkers, and Statesmen by Sam Kalda 

My niece sent me this book, assuming I would enjoy it because No. 1, I’m a man, and No. 2, I have six cats. She was right! This small, but completely delightful book profiles 30 famous and talented men — Mark Twain, Romare Bearden, Freddie Mercury, and Sir Isaac Newton, to name a few — and their love for their cats. Sam Kalda’s breezy, anecdote-laden write-ups, and wonderful color illustrations make this the purr-fect publication to pick up this reader’s mood every time he opens it. 

—Brian Gallagher, Curator of Decorative Arts 

Vincent Van Gogh: Letters from Provence by Martin Bailey 

An important moment in the history of this region of France. I always think it’s very important to hear the firsthand accounts from historical figures whenever possible. You get to know them better and often gain insights into their daily lives that never make it into biographies. 

—Todd A Herman, PhD, President and CEO  

Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel 

I first began this book because of my love and curiosity for the Abstract Expressionist and the movement that changed the art world with swirls of color, often rooted in emotion rather than subject matter. But more specifically, I dove head first in this book because it features five of the women that passionately threw themselves into the middle of this movement. These artists, against all odds, used art to understand the chaos that surrounded them during a time when the world was changing drastically. When I first started reading it, we were not yet in the midst of a pandemic, but now as I read, it gives me hope that on the other side of our current situation there will be a lot of beautiful creativity… Who knows, maybe even a new art movement. 

—HannaH Crowell, Exhibition Designer 

NOVELS 

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore 

This book is about girls who applied radium to wash their faces before it was known how dangerous it was. Great lesson in history.  

—Lyndee Champion Ivey, Executive Assistant 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 

I am reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. So far the book is about a young boy who lost his mother in a tragic accident at the Met. Theo, the young boy, survives and takes a small painting out of the museum when he escapes. The book is about love and loss, and the different people that come into Theo’s life. This is a book I haven’t been able to put down. 

—Martha Snell, Grants Manager 

The Girl with the Louding Voice: A Novel by Abi Daré 

I just started Abi Daré’s The Girl with the Louding Voice, one of my Book of the Month Club picks. (NOTE: BOTM is perfect for self-quarantined book lovers.) It’s about a 14-year-old Nigerian girl who is first sold into marriage, then into servanthood, but remains determined to find her voice — and her future.  

—Caroline Portillo, Director of Marketing 

NONFICTION 

The One Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan 

The One Thing takes the position that multitasking is ineffective and that we should concentrate  on one goal at a time. The core idea is to determine what single achievement is most important in getting you toward your goals. I began reading this about 10 days ago in response to my ever-growing, unmanageable to-do list. As all of our lives go through rapid change, I’m grateful to have the reminder to slow my brain down and focus on the most important things.  

—Katherine Steiner, Chief Registrar 

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai 

I started reading I Am Malala last week. It was a gift from my boss, who knows how much I love nonfiction stories, especially about women. Here’s a little summary: “When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. She was shot in the head while riding the bus home from school. 

—Kurma Murrain, Community Programs Coordinator 

Becoming by Michele Obama 

This is the April discussion book for my book club. I have been a member of The No Name Book Club for over 20 years. While wine is an important part of our meetings, this is a serious group of readers. If one is present, it’s understood that you read the book! I consequently make it to about half of the meetings per year.  

—Amy Grigg, Manager and Buyer for Retail Operations 

The Complete Book of Garlic by Ted Jordan Meredith 

I am currently re-reading The Complete Book of Garlic by Ted Jordan Meredith because: 

• Garlic is one of the most fascinating crops. What else do you plant in November? 

• The photographs alone are worth taking the time to crack this book open. 

•  It is calming to be gardening and reading about gardening during these stressful times. 

—Eric Speer, Associate Registrar 

FOR THE KIDS 

Poe Won’t Go by Kelly DiPucchio 

Poe is a friendly elephant, but when he decides to just stop moving in the middle of the town, everyone is in an uproar about how to get him moving along. After lots of silly attempts by well-meaning grown-ups, one kind girl takes the time to talk with Poe and discovers the very reason he won’t go. A story of kindness and friendship, and favorite of my 4-year-old. 

—Michele Huggins, Media Relations and Communications Project Manager 

Little Blue Truck Leads the Way by Alice Schertle 

A recommendation from my 21-month-old son, Jacob. It’s a tale about a truck who heads to the big city and encounters lots of traffic and me-first personalities. Chaos ensues, and our protagonist has to use his country sensibilities to effect change. Jacob’s passion for “beep beep” is indefatigable. Mine? Well … 

—Caroline Portillo, Director of Marketing 

Large abstract paintings may be Katherine Boxall’s lifeblood, but she’s no hippie artist. In fact, the 26-year-old Ottawa, Canada native finds freedom—and creativity—in the near-scientific precision she applies to her daily schedule. Boxall, who moved to Charlotte from San Francisco in 2018, is the new Constellation CLT artist, whose work will be on display in Mint Museum Uptown’s public spaces beginning Feb. 21.

Boxall currently splits her time between her 25-hour-a-week marketing job at Jerald Melberg Gallery and her west Charlotte studio, a haven for her work with acrylics, spray paint, pastels, and oils. While wrestling her golden retriever puppy, Sophie, out of a mud puddle, Boxall walked us through her typical Wednesday.

6:10 AM I wake up. I literally do not even get out of my bed until I’ve had two espressos with some oatmeal cream that my fiancé brings to me. We have a golden retriever puppy, Sophie, who will then come in and jump on my side of the bed. So it’s double espresso, then pet the dog. 

6:30 AM My fiancé drops me off at Burn Boot Camp in Elizabeth. When people say, “enjoy your workout,” I think that’s crazy. But I do it, and it feels great. Then I walk back to our home in Elizabeth. 

7:20 AM I pick up Sophie and we go on a walk around the block. Everyone wants to pet her. No one knows my name, but they all know her name. She gets catcalls from across the street. It takes us 30 minutes to go one block.

7:50 AM I have a green smoothie every morning: spinach, cucumber, avocado, banana, celery, and protein powder. I try to ensure I do all my good habits Monday to Friday because I don’t want to think about doing any good habits on the weekends. Like zero. 

9 AM I get to Jerald Melberg Gallery. Technically I’m the social media manager, but we don’t do titles there—Jerald and his wife, Mary, are sticklers about that: not creating a hierarchy. Everyone is expected to be a team player. We usually gather around the coffee pot for 10 minutes. Then I go to my desk in the back and edit pictures and write copy. I have a fake Instagram account, so I can test out how certain things look. I post 10 different things and then log in as a user and see how someone would see it. No detail is too small. It’s about how you make people feel when they’re interacting with your brand. 

Noon I meet with Jerald for 10 minutes before I leave to go home and feed Sophie. Then she takes me for a walk. It’s usually breakfast tacos for lunch. I’ll scramble eggs and put them in tortillas or do a cheese board with cheese, crackers, and olives. It’s not measly. The worst thing I could ever do is under-eat at lunch. It will sabotage my afternoon at the studio. I can’t think about anything when I’m hungry. 

1 PM For the next hour, I sit on my couch and do business and admin stuff: answering emails, scheduling art shipments, applying for new opportunities and awards, and managing my website and social networks. Then I change my clothes. I literally wear the same raggedy Lululemon sweatpants, a vintage Nike sweatshirt and a polar fleece I’ve had since I was 11 years old. 2 PM I get to my art studio on Wilkinson Boulevard. It’s 650 square feet and perfect for what I want to do. 

2:05 PM I set everything up and clean up my last session. It helps me get back in the zone. I put on a couple of playlists I’ve been listening to for years. On Spotify, it’d be categorized as “brain food”—ambient, repetitive, electronic, indie. Nothing with too many lyrics or anything that would affect my mood that much because that will affect the way I paint. I usually have two or three large, 8-feet-by-six-feet paintings in my studio at a time, and I also have small ones scattered everywhere. I use the smaller pieces to test out different colors and textures. Then when I go to the big painting, I’m super confident and it just flows. A lot of times I come at the smaller ones with such an intuitive eye that they end up being just as good or better than the big ones. So, there’s not a hierarchy between the works—it’s just my process, a way for me to say, “This is low pressure.” It’s a mind game. I don’t want to see the struggle on the large works. For me, it’s also about knowing when to stop, leaving a lot of negative space. That’s control. 

3 PM  I take some pictures of the work. I love putting progress pictures on my Instagram. It’s fun for people to see, and it keeps me from psyching myself out.

3:30 PM  I take a break. My best artist friend calls me and we talk for an hour about painting. That really helps me feel like I’m still part of the community in California. We are in two different warehouses across the world, but we’re still collaborating and thinking about the same thing. 

4 PM I take the pictures I took of my work and upload them to my computer, where I test a bunch of things in Photoshop. It helps me have even more confidence in my designs. It’s a digital sketchbook. 

4:30 PM  This is the moment where I decide, “Am I going to beat traffic and go home, or am I going to push it until 6:30 p.m.?” It’s usually flipping a coin. Some days I need to do more thinking and work on my computer. Some days I am completely in the zone.

7 PM I’m home and my fiancé and I make dinner. I usually marinate salmon in the morning for us to have for dinner that night. He always grills the vegetables. 

8 PM I take Sophie for a walk and then try to be as lazy as possible. At night, we watch a lot of Netflix and HBO. We just finished “You.”  

10:30 PM Bedtime. I’m definitely not a hippie artist—I’m a type-A artist. I think if you’re trying to take it seriously, you have to take it seriously. If you don’t treat it like your day job, it’s not your day job. It takes a lot of constant effort.

katherineboxall.com 

— As told to Caroline Portillo, Director of  Marketing & Communications

The Mint Museum’s history is women’s history 

By Ellen Show

 

When the Mint Museum opened its doors on Oct. 22, 1936, it was thanks to the efforts of a passionate sisterhood devoted to bringing art to the Charlotte community. At the helm was the Mint’s fairy godmother Mary Myers Dwelle. Hailing from a family who made it their mission to advance culture in Charlotte, it was fitting that she was the driving force behind the creation of the first art museum in North Carolina. As Charlotte Woman’s Club art department chair, Dwelle organized art exhibitions and lectures that were eagerly attended. 

Recognizing the need to give the arts a permanent Charlotte home, sights were set on the historic-but-condemned U.S. Mint building on Tryon Street. The task of transforming the Mint into an art museum was daunting until a passionate speech for saving the U.S. Mint building was presented in February 1933 at a luncheon hosted by Dwelle. The speech inspired a spontaneous donation, and a significant sum was given toward the purchase of the building—that was already in demolition—for rebuilding on another site. The generosity was contagious. Within two days, the required funds were raised and paid to the demolition contractor.A developer donated the Eastover neighborhood land on which Mint Museum Randolph sits today. Dwelle continued with her determination to establish the art museum. She tirelessly wrote letters to government aid agencies from Raleigh to Washington, D.C. lobbying for reconstruction funds. In her Mint Museum Association leadership roles, she coordinated the rebuilding process, built relationships with other arts organizations and garnered public support. She also courted art acquisitions, including the now iconic portrait of Queen Charlotte donated by Jane Hall Liddell Battle. The Mint Museum opened its doors three years later with an inaugural gala. Dwelle’s determined efforts made what seemed impossible, possible, and her devotion to the arts is the perfect way to celebrate Women’s History Month this March.  

 

This story first appeared in Spring 2020 issue of Inspired, the Mint Museum’s member magazine. 

About The Mint Museum

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s rst 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 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 Fifth Third

Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, an Ohio-chartered bank. As of June 30, 2019, Fifth Third had $169 billion in assets and operated 1,207 full-service Banking Centers and 2,551 ATMs with Fifth Third branding in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida,

Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina. In total, Fifth Third provides its customers with access to approximately 53,000 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 June 30, 2019, had $399 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $46 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for- pro t 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.

Interested in interviewing artists, show organizers, jurors, or anyone from the museum? Reach out to the Mint’s Director of Marketing & Communications, Caroline Portillo, at caroline.portillo@mintmuseum.org or call 704-337-2009.

Deighton Abrams (Seneca, SC)
Eleanor Annand (Penland, NC)
Yvette L. Cummings Arendt (Conway, SC)
Austin Ballard (Charlotte, NC)
Johannes Barfield (Winston-Salem, NC)
Ivana Milojevic Beck (Raleigh, NC)
Susan Brenner (Charlotte, NC)
Amanda Britton (Athens, GA)
Danielle Burke (Asheville, NC)
Thomas Campbell (Penland, NC)
Erin Canady (Durham, NC)
Micah Cash (Charlotte, NC)
Erin Castellan (Penrose, NC)
Kevin Cole (Fairburn, GA)
Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo (Carrboro, NC)
Travis Donovan (Banner Elk, NC)
Robert Fritsche (Huntersville, NC)
Riley Hammond (Richmond, VA)
Caroline Hatfield (Carrolton, TX (formerly Claiborne County, TN)
Donna Cooper Hurt (Charleston, SC)
Joyce Watkins King (Raleigh, NC)
Kenn Kotara (Asheville, NC)Nathaniel Lancaster (Charlotte, NC)
Jasper Lee (Birmingham, AL)
Elizabeth Lide (Atlanta, GA)
Jackson Martin (Asheville, NC)
Rachel Meginnes (Bakersville, NC)
Chieko Murasugi (Chapel Hill, NC)
Claire Pope (Hickory, NC)
Chloé Rager (Durham, NC)
Adrian Rhodes (Hartsville, SC)
Kristi Ryba (Charleston, SC)
Katie St. Clair (Davidson, NC)
Tom Schmidt (Charlotte, NC)
MJ Sharp (Durham, NC)
Beverly Smith (Charlotte, NC)
Tema Stauffer (Johnson City, TN)
Denise Stewart-Sanabria (Knoxville, TN)
Stephanie Sutton (Buford, GA)
Harrison Walker (Athens, GA)
Jan-Ru Wan (Chapel Hill, NC)
Shane Ward (Chattanooga, TN)
Ken West (Mableton, GA)
Fletcher Williams, III (North Charleston, SC)
Stephanie J. Woods (Charlotte, NC)

The Mint Museum to Play Host to Nike and Jordan Brand NBA All-Star Weekend Events

North Carolina’s first art museum joins forces with Nike and Jordan Brand as Charlotte hosts the biggest event in basketball.

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Visitors, staff will focus on Mint Museum Randolph during interval

Mint Museum Uptown, a soaring architectural marvel in the heart of Levine Center for the Arts, must close its doors to the public from July 10 through approximately August 17, 2018. The closure is necessary to refinish the building’s heavily-visited hardwood floors for the first time since the building opened to the public in 2010. (more…)

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Summer Wheat (American, 1977–). Foragers, 2020, colored vinyl on mylar, 805.5 x 738.5 inches. T0263.1a-qqqq. Photo credit: Chris Edwards

Summer Wheat’s monumental Foragers underscores the Mint’s ongoing commitment to women artists, perspectives historically underrepresented in museums

By Michael J. Solender

Uptown visitors meet with a fresh sensory experience this fall as Mint Museum Uptown reopens its doors following the Covid-mandated lockdown. As guests enter the towering glass-paneled Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium, they’re enveloped in warm jewel-toned light bathing the space of the new 96-panel “stained glass” installation Foragers by contemporary American artist Summer Wheat.

And while the quiet beauty of hand-drawn, collaged and placed colored vinyl panels encourage many to slow their pace and reflect in the grandeur, the imagery of strong, powerful women, taking on traditional male roles of hunters and providers, makes a clear and confident statement—women are represented on their own terms, making vital contributions.

The messaging is not accidental. Wheat’s work is deliberate in pushing back on gender objectification and unidimensional portrayal often depicted in museum collections. “Histories we tell, and the histories told to us are never really true,” Wheat says, her slight Oklahoma drawl elongating her cadence. “They’re only telling one side of the story, and there’s a lot that’s left out.”

Wheat, a mid-career artist whose work has been displayed in museums only within the past few years, is bucking a trend unfavorable to women. Just 11 percent of all acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums over the past decade were of work by female artists, according to a recent study by art market information company Artnet.

Recognizing this historical underrepresentation of women’s voices on public display, the Mint is leading the way to better balance the scales. “We have a strong community partner and advocate in Wells Fargo whose values align so closely with the museum on this important social and cultural issue,” says Todd Herman, Mint Museum President & CEO, “Something  we really admire and treasure in the relationship we’ve had with Wells Fargo is they collaborate with us and push us further in ways that make the community better. Their Women Artist Fund and their support of our Foragers installation is a wonderful example of that.”

Charlotte knows Wells Fargo as a significant community partner and stalwart investor in our region’s diversity and success. Their foundation focuses on projects and innovation at the community level such as awareness and social change, increasing housing affordability, and access to capital for businesses. Last year, they contributed more than $14 million in support of projects and programing in the Charlotte region. In addition to programmatic work with quantitative measure, like the number of low-income individuals placed into safe and affordable housing, a component of the foundation’s work focuses on bringing perspectives and understanding to social issues through the arts.

“As company, we’re one of the largest small business lenders to women owned businesses,” says Jay Everette, Wells Fargo’s senior vice president of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. “With the arts and culture sector of our [philanthropic] work, we realize putting a focus on female artists helps elevate and escalate women’s voices through promoting their artwork. Not only is Foragers a significant work by an important female artist, it’s also public art that anybody can come in and access without having to pay a fee.”

It was the Mint Museum’s 80^th anniversary celebration and the 2016 Women of Abstract Expressionism exhibition that served as a catalyst for the formation of the Wells Fargo Foundation Women Artist Fund according to Everette. “We were beginning to formulate some of the strategies on this and through the exhibition discovered there were a group of other women artists leading the way in the movement.  But they did not have gallery representation. They were not being picked up by museums after the abstract expressionist movement.”

Inspired, the Wells Fargo Foundation set about to address and help reconcile the imbalance of female representation in museum collections. “The Women Artist Fund was established three years ago, and we’ve been successful in helping to place and acquire seminal pieces of art in permanent museum collections across North Carolina,” says Everette. Other museums benefiting from the program include the Cameron Museum of Art in Wilmington, The Weatherspoon Museum of Art in Greensboro, and The Blowing Rock Art Museum in Blowing Rock.

Admirers of Summer Wheat’s Foragers, on display through September 6, 2022, will be pleased to note that through the generosity of The Wells Fargo Foundation Women Artist Fund, the artist’s work With Side, With Shoulder, a large painting where Wheat’s technique extrudes paint through wire mesh, has been acquired for the Mint’s permanent collection.

Mary Myers Dwelle, one of the Mint’s female founders would undoubtedly be pleased.

Foragers is part of the exhibition In Vivid Color: Pushing the Boundaries of Perception in Contemporary Art that opens Oct. 16 at Mint Museum Uptown.

Michael J. Solender is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, American City Business Journals, Metropolis Magazine, Business North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer, and others. He develops custom content and communications for businesses and organizations.

 

15+ items that celebrate women, and the centennial of women’s suffrage

This one’s for the women — and men who respect women’s rights. This year marks the centennial anniversary of women getting the right to vote. On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th amendment passed giving women the right to vote. The vote opened opportunities for women to innovate, create and legislate for women’s rights — and art by women for women has always been a social commentary to push change. As a matter of fact, The Mint Museum’s history is rich with generations of women dedicating time to establish and grow The Mint Museum, including Mary Myers Dwelle who was the driving force behind the creation of the first art museum in North Carolina. Read more about how the Mint’s history is women’s history.

The curated list of art, books, cards and more below celebrate the strength and voice of women, and are all available at the Mint Museum Store.

 

Books that tell “her”story.

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Pandemic puzzle project with a lesson. Get it for the kids and you. eeBoo is “Woman Owned. Mother Run. Sustainable Sourced.”

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Send a note of inspiration with these notecards that celebrate strong women.

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A reminder in every sip of the different women and how each has made a difference in their own way.

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The notorious R.B.G once said “Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

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Originally published in 1973, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog is a survey of the second-wave feminist effort across the United States.

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A throw with a thoughtful message and design — something we can all use a little more of these days.

The Mint Museum is pleased to announce the public debut of Lumisonica, a site-specific, interactive light and sound installation on the Grand Staircase of Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts created by Vesna Petresin. Beginning Friday, November 16, visitors will experience a changing canvas of ambient light and sound that responds to their movements as they climb or descend the stairs.

That evening, Mint Museum President & CEO Todd A. Herman PhD and artist Vesna Petresin will make remarks. The event begins at 6 PM with remarks anticipated at 6:30 PM. Petresin and Creative Design Lead Ben Mason will also be available to speak to the media. There will be a cash bar in the museum’s atrium, and the museum galleries will remain open until 9 PM.

Petresin, born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is a trans-disciplinary artist who has exhibited and performed at the Tate Modern; ArtBasel Miami; the Royal Academy of the Arts; the Venice Biennale; the Institute of Contemporary Arts London; and the Vienna Secession. She is based in London, Amsterdam, and Berlin. She is scheduled to be an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation from January through April.

Mason, based in Asheville, runs a digital media business offering services such as media systems architecture and design, photography, animation, web design, sound design, show control/stage interactives, and more. He designed and implemented the lighting and sound systems and consulted on programming for Lumisonica.

The project was funded through a generous grant from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which challenged museums to use technology to enhance the visitor experience.

Creating a multisensory landscape

Lumisonica transforms the museum’s main entrance into an unparalleled immersive experience that will be choreographed by the visiting public. Based upon the idea of the smart city, this multisensory landscape makes invisible space visible, audible, and tangible while aiming to increase people’s awareness that they can and do shape their own place, perceptions and reality. Lumisonica assures a daring and playful experience like no other in the heart of Charlotte’s flourishing art district. Juxtaposed near the large reflective Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture Firebird in front of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, this light and sound sculpture provides another dynamic feature to highlight entropic experiences, moiré patterns and other optical and perceptional illusions in this cultural area.

The “smart city” concept of this dynamic datascape is drawn from two components that change the form to an accessible visual/audio display based upon public movement and engagement:

Visual content is created by programmable LED light features embedded into the staircase and railings. The light effects are designed to work interactively based on data captured from the environment as well as on presets of visual effects. The light effects are programmed along a 24/7 schedule with pre-rendered sets at specific times of the day, combined with responsive effects based on criteria such as visibility, program of events at the museum, and the number of visitors.

Audio content permeates ambient sound loops designed to respond and support the light effects. These amplify the visitor’s feeling of presence in the environment and assist their spatial navigation, by amplifying the ranges of frequencies that translate to embodied sensations. The audio content includes composed soundscapes and loops of sonic textures as well as key framed musical motifs on specific days and at specific times to announce events.

“My work tries to offer a moment to remember we inhabit and co-create a multisensory symphony,” said Petresin. “The piece for the Mint has been inspired by the idea that matter is information under constant transformation, bringing memory, human connection, wonder, and innovation.”

Lumisonica will be in place during The Mint Museum’s upcoming exhibition Immersed in Light (Fall 2019 – Spring 2020). The exhibition will feature experiential lighting installations by four contemporary artists and designers at Mint Museum Uptown.

Staircase to enhance museum experience, visitation

The Mint was among 12 recipients of $1.87 million in funding from the Knight Foundation for new ways of using technology to immerse visitors in art. Institutions in cities including Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City are joining Charlotte in creating new tools ranging from chat bots to augmented reality apps to engage new audiences.

Funding for this project is part of a Knight Foundation initiative to help museums better meet new community demands and use digital tools to meaningfully engage visitors in art. Knight, which promotes informed and engaged communities, has helped institutions—from newsrooms to libraries—adapt to and thrive in the digital age. This funding expands the foundation’s use of its digital expertise to help art museums build stronger, more vibrant communities.

“The arts have the rare power to bring diverse communities together, provoke personal reflection, and inspire new ways of thinking,” said Victoria Rogers, Knight Foundation vice president for the arts. “Our hope is that by integrating technology, museums can better reach and engage audiences in ways that connect them to the art.”

ABOUT VESNA PETRESIN

Vesna Petresin is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Amsterdam University of the Arts and a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths (University of London). She has been an Artist in Residence at ZKM in Germany and created a London-based trans-disciplinary art collective whose exploration of optics, acoustics and psychology takes the format of performance, installation and artifact.

As a time architect, non-object based designer, space composer and performer, her practice utilizes an alchemy of media and senses (sound, film, space, interaction, and performance) to take art out of the white cube and bring it into an immersive experience. The key concept is transformation—of the material, the immaterial and the self.

Petresin seeks elements to link cultures rather than separate them and pays attention to archetypal formal constants and patterns existing in nature, human perception and the creative process. Her work in immersive light is ground-breaking and has been featured at Tate Modern, ArtBasel Miami, Venice Biennale, The Royal Festival Hall, The Royal Academy of Arts, ICA, The Sydney Opera House, Vienna Secession, Cannes International Film Festival and Kings Place among others.

Petresin’s academic background in classical music and architecture has propelled her as a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, a Member of the Architectural Association, a keynote speaker at symposia including “SuperLux: Smart Light Art, Design and Architecture for Cities” (Technical University of Munich, 2016), the XR Summit (ISE at RAI, Amsterdam 2018) and a print author of internationally notable publications. She has written on smart cities (Thames & Hudson, Black Dog) and on Leonardo da Vinci’s creative methods in relation to 21st century view of morphogenesis in art and design for Springer Publications.

ABOUT THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy.

The Young Affiliates of the Mint (the “YAMs”) are proud to present the Sixth Annual Fall Ball: “Mint Main Event.” The black-tie gala will take place on Saturday, November 3 from 8 PM to midnight at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts and will be themed around old Hollywood and include live entertainment and an open bar. This year’s Fall Ball will serve as a fundraiser in support of the YAMs’ contribution to the Mint’s Annual Fund to provide Mint Museum tours for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students.

In support of the YAMs’ mission of promoting and celebrating the arts, the charitable event will be an ode to old Hollywood glam featuring live music from Sammy Sinatra and the Mad Men, “the South’s premiere Vegas style lounge act with a twist,” as well as Charlotte’s own DJ Chescov. There will even be a red-carpet walk of fame highlighting the names of attendees who purchased early-bird tickets, recognizing them for their support.

“We’re proud to bring Fall Ball back to Mint Museum Uptown following their Grand Re-opening Celebration,” said Amorette Mangum, co-chair of the annual event. “To make this philanthropic event even more accessible for Charlotte’s young professional crowd, we’ve lowered the ticket prices for the first time in the event’s history.”

Tickets start at just $80 for members and $99 for non-members and include hors d’oeuvres and complimentary beer and wine. To learn more and to purchase tickets, visit https://13800.blackbaudhosting.com/13800/Fall-Ball-2018-MINT-MAIN-EVENT.

Special thanks to the 2018 Fall Ball title sponsor, Felix Sabates Lincoln, and our annual gold sponsor, United Global Technologies, as well as Tito’s Vodka and La Belle Helene for their contributions to this annual event. In addition to Fall Ball, the YAMs are proud to partner with UGT for their 2018-2019 signature events including the YP Mixer, Derby Days, and the Art Show.

About Felix Sabates Lincoln

Felix Sabates Lincoln, located on South Boulevard in Charlotte, has a strong and committed sales staff with many years of experience satisfying customers’ needs. Felix Sabates is proud to sponsor the YAMs and the Charlotte arts community as well as serve as the title sponsor for Fall Ball: Mint Main Event.

About the United Global Technologies

For almost a decade, United Global Technologies has set the standard for US-based IT and engineering services. Founded in 2009, by Elizabeth Bernstein and Jason Monastra, UGT has excelled at meeting the diverse information technology, engineering, and operational needs of industrial and service leaders across the country and around the globe. Through the generosity and tireless efforts of UGT employees, families and friends, philanthropy has become more than an initiative — it is a way of life. UGT is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and is thrilled to be a part of the thriving community. To learn more about UGT visit https://www.ugtechnologies.com/.

About the Young Affiliates of the Mint

Established in 1990, the YAMs are a diverse group of young professionals promoting and supporting The Mint Museum through cultural, social, leadership, and fundraising activities and events. All YAM event proceeds directly benefit Charlotte-Mecklenburg students by offsetting the cost of Mint Museum tours throughout the school year.

For More Information Contact:

Amorette Mangum or Victoria Mathias

Fall Ball Co-Chairs, Young Affiliates of the Mint

youngaffiliatesofthemint@gmail.com

In his delicately rendered sculptures, Michael Sherrill seeks to elicit a sense of wonder from viewers, and to make them see the natural world anew as he works with clay, glass, and metal to create exquisite floral forms. This retrospective organized by The Mint Museum illustrates the artist’s evolution over his more than 40-year career and highlights his contributions to contemporary art, craft, and design.

Michael Sherrill Retrospective opens later this month at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon Street. The museum will offer member-only hours 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. on Friday October 26; Sherrill gives a public talk, free with museum admission, 11 a.m. Saturday October 27. It is followed by a book signing in the Mint Museum Store with a new, lavishly illustrated catalogue published by The Mint Museum to accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition will travel to the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in summer 2019, and the Arizona State University Art Museum in early 2020.

“The idea for a Michael Sherrill Retrospective was ignited by close study of one of the Mint’s sculpture’s, Temple of the Cool Beauty (Yucca), then on loan from Ann and Tom Cousins, and further research,” said Annie Carlano, the Mint’s curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion. “Surveying contemporary clay globally, Michael’s work is exceptional in its sheer beauty—delicate botanical reveries that chronicle life cycles from blossom to wither. His command of materials, not just clay but metal and glass, and his brilliance as an inventor of tools and technologies, make the magic happen. There is simply nothing like his work anywhere on the planet.”

Carlano serves as lead organizing curator and Marilyn Zapf of The Center for Craft is guest curator; filmmakers Matthew Mebane and Maria White contributed video to the exhibition.

Primarily a self-taught artist, Sherrill moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to the Western North Carolina mountains in 1974. His early influences came from the North Carolina folk pottery tradition and the community surrounding Penland School of Crafts, Seagrove Potters, and the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, as well as from his studies of the ceramics of Asia and the Americas. These influences are apparent in Sherrill’s functional objects from the late 1970s and 80s. These early explorations led quickly to a new sculptural vocabulary, strong minimalist organic forms inspired by the botanical world. Sherrill’s unique aesthetic sensibilities are matched by his extraordinary skill and inventiveness. A true innovator, he has developed clay bodies and special tools to make the material fulfill his desired artistic outcome.

Over 70 objects will be on view, from a group of Steins (1977) to A Beautiful Death (2017).  Loans from institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the Racine Museum of Art; and individual collectors in Oregon, Florida, Vermont, and North Carolina are featured.

“The Mint Museum is committed to collecting, publishing, and exhibiting the best of contemporary craft,” said Dr. Todd A. Herman, President & CEO of the Mint. “We have recognized the unique talent of Michael Sherrill since his early forays in functional vessels, and through accessions and exhibitions have acknowledged his creative expression and skill. This retrospective is the culmination of several years of dedication and excellence on the part of Mint staff and I am proud of our team and other contributors.”

Exhibition sections and catalogue

Michael Sherrill Retrospective begins with a sense of place, as the visitor walks through re-creations and interpretations of his cobalt blue studio doors and the woods of his mountain home. Twenty-first-century ceramics, like contemporary art in general, can be characterized as an exciting period of experimentation: to express their creative vision, makers are incorporating new media and technologies to reach beyond traditional methods. Sherrill is one of the foremost practitioners of this approach. His inventiveness and worldview play ahead of current trends, and working off the beaten track, he developed a naturalist’s sensitivity to the botanical wonders of Bat Cave, North Carolina. Finding the universal in the close at hand, Sherrill’s extraordinary evolution in creating with clay—and other materials—is conveyed in this exhibition.

The first section of the exhibition, Early Works, features functional stoneware forms that demonstrate the young artist’s influences from both historic and contemporary North Carolina pottery as well as Native American and Asian inspired shapes, glazes, and raku firing techniques.  It’s the smallest section of the show, due to the fact Sherrill’s oeuvre evolved so quickly from an artist’s initial period of exploration to maturity.

Teapots is the largest section of the exhibition and illustrates the way in which Sherrill uses the utilitarian object as vehicle for his forays into materials, process, and aesthetics. Here we can see sober Minimalist designs, drawing on traditional squat round forms, exuberant colorful expressionist compositions, and pure abstract forms.  In this rich and imaginative installation, reminiscent of a fine tea shop, what is unseen is as important as the surface ornamentation, as Sherrill moves fluidly from stoneware to porcelain. Installed in an imaginative teashop-like setting, this section of the exhibition includes a hand-on activity related teas from around the world.

In an intimate room off the Teapot section is Studio.  In this section of the exhibition visitors will encounter a selection of tools, organic materials, and other curiosities from Michael Sherrill’s actual studio Wonder Wall—a space filled with objects that inspire and invite contemplation.  Underscoring the inventor in the artist, across from the Wonder Wall is an installation of array of colorful clay work tools from the artist’s Mudtools line. Visitors will be able to scroll through the twitter feed of Mudtools to see the amazing ways people around the globe are utilizing these implements.

Contemporary Sculpture begins with transitional objects from teapot botanical abstractions to full blown sculpture. Inspired by the ubiquitous rhododendron that he sees every day on his daily walks with his wife Margery, the artist crafted a series of ceramic and life size sculptures in 2008. Still, this is not entirely a linear path, as Sherrill hones his naturalist sensibilities, skill, and technologies creating both large scale an intimate ornate plant forms and makes huge creative leaps to Neo-Minimalist sheaths, reminiscent of Agnes Martin paintings. The last group of objects in the visitor’s path was created since 2014. Showing his fantastic facility with clay, glass, and lost wax casting bronze in wall mounted and freestanding sculptures, objects such as Black Medicine, A Beautiful Death, and Dutch Solomon eschew any doubt that he is a Southern American master.

Each section is introduced by a video that features Michael Sherrill addressing the visitor. Shot on location in Bat Cave and including some vintage film, the videos were produced by Matthew Mebane and Maria White, award winning documentary filmmakers based in Charleston, South Carolina.

A scholarly exhibition catalogue, edited by Carlano, accompanies the exhibition. It features essays by Marilyn Zapf, Assistant Director and Curator, The Center for Craft and Guest Curator; and Ezra Shales, Associate Professor of Art History, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Published by The Mint Museum, the book will be available for $40 at both museum locations; beginning November 15, it will be available online at store.mintmuseum.org.

Michael Sherrill has received numerous prestigious awards, including the US Windgate Fellowship: Crafts and the Arts, US Artists (2010) and is a highly regarded teacher and lecturer throughout the United States, and in Japan and China.  He serves on several non-profit boards and councils including the Archie Bray Foundation, and the Center for Craft, and has served as a member of the Founders’ Circle Board of Directors.

Mint curators Annie Carlano, Senior Curator of Craft, Design & Fashion and Emily Pazar, former curatorial assistant for Craft, Design & Fashion are the organizing curators; Marilyn Zapf, Assistant Director and Curator, The Center for Craft, Asheville, N.C., is Guest Curator.

The exhibition is organized by The Mint Museum. STEELFAB is the presenting sponsor for the exhibition. Generous support for the exhibition catalogue and tour provided by the Windgate Foundation; additional funding from the Founders’ Circle and Bank of America.

Media and invited guests are invited to preview the exhibition from 10 a.m.-noon on Thursday October 25; RSVP to leigh.dyer@mintmuseum.org.

African-Print Fashion Now! A Story of Taste, Globalization, and Style introduces audiences to the dynamic traditions of African dress featuring colorful, boldly patterned printed cloth. The exhibition, opening to the public at Mint Museum Randolph October 7 following two days of Mint member previews, highlights the interplay between regional preferences and cosmopolitanism that has long flourished on the continent, while highlighting the expansiveness of 21st-century African-print fashion.

The exhibition will be open to Mint members on Friday, October 5 from 11 AM-6 PM and Saturday October 6 from 1-6 PM, and will open to the public on Sunday, October 7 from 1-5 PM. Two fashion designers with work featured in the exhibition, Titi Ademola and Alexis Temomanin, will be in Charlotte from Thursday through Sunday and are available for media interviews. Sunday’s event includes a public talk with both designers from 2-3 PM, free after museum admission. Public opening day also includes a drumming performance and a light reception with cash bar. Ademola, a Ghanian/Nigerian designer, is founder of the KIKI label, while Temomanin is the British-Ivorian founder of menswear brand Dent de Man.

African-Print Fashion Now!, organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA, expands the Mint’s presentations of contemporary fashion into a broader cultural arena, and continues the Mint’s emphasis on presenting exhibitions that represent diverse voices and backgrounds. “This exhibition aligns with our mission to explore the meaning of fashion in a global 21^st-century context,” said Annie Carlano, Senior Curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion at the Mint. “From the bold, dynamic cloth, to the inventive, sculptural silhouettes, the textiles and fashions in this exhibition have inspired and infiltrated Western fashion, art, music, and popular culture.”

“The Mint is honored to be one of three venues for this important exhibition, and very pleased to collaborate with the Fowler Museum, UCLA, for the first time,” said Dr. Todd Herman, PhD, President & CEO of the Mint. “Additionally, we are deeply grateful to Charlotte’s own Michael Gallis for his role in bringing this exhibition to our community.”

The works featured throughout the exhibition demonstrate the vital role that African-print has played in the expression of beauty, fashion, and heritage, while creating transcultural connections across Africa and into the larger world.

The exhibition is complemented by an interactive design studio created by the Mint’s Learning & Engagement team, offering visitors of all ages opportunities to design their own prints, experience African-print fabrics, and go on a scavenger hunt through the exhibition.

Four sections weaving multiple themes

The exhibition is organized into four sections: “It All Starts with Cloth,” “Portraits in Print,” “Regional Styles, Fashion Preferences,” and “New Directions.” Collectively, the installation includes dozens of tailored fashions, nearly 100 archival and contemporary cloths, approximately 20 black-and-white studio portrait photographs from the 1960s and 1970s, a series of runway videos, and several works by contemporary visual artists. Ensembles on view draw from the Fowler’s collections, private loans, and the extensive archives of the Dutch textile manufacturing company Vlisco.

Several themes weave their way throughout the exhibition, mimicking the cyclical nature of fashion trends and the ripple effects of politics and technology on the formation of identity. One theme is consumer agency, both in determining designs and patterns through purchasing power and by commissioning unique ensembles from seamstresses and tailors. Another theme is the theatrical power of fashion, and its ability to express individualism or collective solidarity, whether in a family portrait or Women’s Day Marches in communities across the continent. Finally, a link between imaging and fashion surfaces in each section of the exhibition. From formal portraiture to visual arts to ubiquitous African fashion calendars to street style photos shared by cell-phone, it is clear that representations of fashion have always been a nuanced form of communication.

Fashion subtly communicates about place, heritage, and belonging through such means as appropriation, pastiche, and revival. Throughout the exhibition, African-print fashions are considered to be creative responses to key historical moments and empowering projections about Africa’s future.

About the Exhibition

“It All Starts with Cloth” addresses the history of African-print textiles, originally inspired by batik or wax-resist cloth from Indonesia. A dense grid of more than 60 cloths manufactured in Europe, Africa, and Asia evokes the vibrating colors and designs stocked in open-air markets and cloth shops across the African continent. A visual timeline of production across these regions outlines the history of the cloth trade in West and Central Africa from the 1800s to the present. Archival photographs and dramatic film footage of the Vlisco factory in operation transport audiences to the production of cloth in the Netherlands.

“Portraits in Print” leaves behind the brightly colored world of African-print fashion and enters an intimate black-and-white space of memory. A gallery introduces four photographers from Africa’s “golden age” of black-and-white photography in the 1960s and 1970s: Francis K. Honny (Ghana, 1914–1998); Jacques Toussele (Cameroon, 1935–2017); Omar Ly (Senegal, 1943–2016); and Mory Bamba (b. Mali, 1949). Their photography studios in newly independent West African countries provided a platform for an ascending middle class to see themselves and be seen by one another. The portraits are indicative of a historical moment when local African-print ensemble styles gained new significance as expressions of national and Pan-African pride and identity.

“Regional Styles, Fashion Preferences” takes an in-depth look at localized contemporary African-print fashion whereby stylish dress is a feature of daily life. Ensembles on view from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal reflect an array of styles, all of them customized and individually made to order. This section presents a case study from Kumasi, Ghana to illustrate the interactive commissioning process between seamstresses or tailors and their fashion-conscious clientele. The bold patterns of the cloth engineered with subtle and striking variations in style reveal the ingenuity and flair of regional designers.

“New Directions” bridges regional cultures with transnational art and fashion networks, beginning with African-print styles on global runways in Paris, New York, Dakar, and other cities. Designers in this section include Titi Ademola (b. London, based in Ghana), Ituen Bassey (b. Nigeria), Afua Dabanka (b. Germany, based in Ghana), Lisa Folawiyo (b. Nigeria), Adama Amanda Ndiaye (b. Democratic Republic of the Congo, based in Senegal), Alexis Temomanin (b. Côte d’Ivoire), Gilles Touré (b. Côte d’Ivoire), and Patricia Waota (b. Côte d’Ivoire). Ensembles on view feature full-length gowns and men’s blazers, metallic wax print, and architectural pleating and boning—all of which harmoniously marry the drape of the fabric with the strategic construction of print patterns for stunning results.

Juxtaposed with these glamorous designs are contemporary works by photographers and other visual artists who incorporate print-cloth imagery to convey evocative messages about heritage, hybridity, displacement, and aspiration.

Members of the media and invited special guests are invited to preview the exhibition from 5:30-7 PM on Thursday October 4 at Mint Museum Randolph, 2730 Randolph Road in Charlotte. Light refreshments, wine, and beer will be served. RSVP to Leigh.Dyer@mintmuseum.org.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated volume generously funded by the R. L. Shep Endowment Fund at the Fowler Museum. The publication includes essays authored by exhibition co-curators Suzanne Gott, Kristyne S. Loughran, Betsy D. Quick, and Leslie W. Rabine with additional essays contributed by Kathleen Bickford Berzock, Boatema Boateng, M. Amah Edoh, Helen Elands, Anne Grosfilley, Karen Tranberg-Hansen, Helen Jennings, Sandra Klopper, Stephan F. Miescher, Hansi Momodu-Gordon, John Picton, Elisha P. Renne, Victoria L. Rovine, Ken Aïcha Sy, and Nina Sylvanus. It is on sale for $40 in both locations of the Mint Museum stores.

Credit

African-Print Fashion Now! A Story of Taste, Globalization, and Style is organized by the Fowler Museum at UCLA in association with Vlisco Netherlands B.V. It is guest curated by Suzanne Gott with Kristyne S. Loughran, Betsy D. Quick, and Leslie W. Rabine. In Charlotte, Annie Carlano, Senior Curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion, is the project curator. Major funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts with the additional support of R. L. Shep, DutchCulture, and Pasadena Art Alliance.

The exhibition is presented in Charlotte by PNC Financial Services with generous additional support from the Mint Museum Auxiliary, Wells Fargo Private Bank, and Moore & Van Allen.

ABOUT THE FOWLER MUSEUM

The Fowler Museum at UCLA explores global arts and cultures with an emphasis on works from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas—past and present. The Fowler enhances understanding of world cultures through dynamic exhibitions, publications, and public programs, informed by interdisciplinary approaches and the perspectives of the cultures represented. Also featured is the work of international contemporary artists presented within the complex frameworks of politics, culture, and social action.

 

Above image:

Lekan Jeyifo and Walé Oyéjidé, Johannesburg 2081 A.D., Africa 2081 A.D. series, 2014; Digital print. Courtesy Ikiré Jones.

MAINFRAME will remain on view through October 19 with these hours:

Wednesdays: 5-9 PM

Fridays:5-9 PM

Saturdays: 11 AM-6 PM

Sundays: 1-5 PM

The Young Affiliates of the Mint (the “YAMs”) announce their Third Annual Juried Art Show,
MAINFRAME, a participatory compilation of works that explore the role of technology, will host an
opening night celebration from 7 – 10 PM on Thursday, September 20 in Mint Museum Uptown’s
Level 5 expansion space.

Opening night is open to the public and will serve as an opportunity for the show’s jurors, featured
artists, and guests to view and discuss the interactive pieces on display. Opening night will include a
DJ, cash bar, and a photo booth with the opportunity to pose with some of your favorite nostalgic
technology.

The YAMs distinguished panel of jurors, Lia Newman, Curator of Director/Curator of the Davidson
College Art Galleries; Ivan Toth Depeña, an Charlotte-based new media artist; and Kelly McChesney,
Public Art Director of the city of Raleigh and Director of Lump, a non-profit alternative art space in
Raleigh, North Carolina; selected 18 talented artists to feature for this year’s exhibition. The featured
artists include: Jeffrey Barninger, Chris Clamp, Meredith Connelly, Travis Donavan, Caitlin and
Misha, Cynthia Hua, Andrew Leventis, Alex McKenzie, Joy Meyer, Leah Mulligan, Daniel Pillis, David
Sackett, Thomas Schmidt, Lydia See, Jordan Vinyard, and Christina Weisner.

The artists’ work exposing technological devices and developments since the dawn of the mainframe
computer will be on display in Uptown until October 17, 2018 during Mint Museum hours on
Wednesday & Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays. MAINFRAME is the Third Annual Young Affiliates of
the Mint Art Show, following the 2016 inaugural exhibition, 80×80: An Art Show, heralded as the best
Charlotte exhibition of 2016 by Creative Loafing , and the 2017 art show, GENDERED, drawing in
over 2500 attendees for a politically and culturally relevant exhibition.

MAINFRAME’s opening night is part of the Grand Re-Opening Celebration for Mint Museum Uptown. The celebration continues throughout the weekend, with Friday bringing Mint to Move Cultural Dance Night and performances of the vertical aerial dance “Perspective” by Caroline Calouche & Co., and Saturday bringing a live mural painting from local artists Owl + Arko, live music, more performances of “Perspective,” cash bar and food carts. More details and schedule at mintmuseum.org/events. For more information about MAINFRAME or to contribute as an individual or corporate sponsor, visit youngaffliates.org/artshow or email: youngaffiliatesartshow@gmail.com

Monday September 17 update: All grand re-opening activities are now scheduled THIS WEEK! Join us for the YAMs’ opening party for MAINFRAME on Thursday Sept. 20, 7-11 PM; “Perspective” aerial dances by Caroline Calouche & Co. on Friday & Saturday, Sept. 21 & 22; Mint to Move Cultural Dance Night Friday, 7-11:30 PM; and a FREE community day this Saturday, 11 AM-6 PM! More details at mintmuseum.org/events.

Sunday September 16 update, 5 PM ET: Both locations of the museum will be closed to most staff on Monday September 17, and the scheduled Board of Trustees meeting is postponed. NEW UPDATE: The Delhom Service League has decided to postpone its Tuesday program at Mint Museum Randolph. A new date will be scheduled soon. We will continue to monitor the situation and post any relevant updates here.

Friday September 14 update, 9:45 AM ET: The Mint Museum plans to open its galleries today, 11 AM-6 PM ET, but will close to the public on Saturday, September 15 and Sunday, September 16 to ensure the safety of the public, our visitors, and staff. Check back here for further updates.

Thursday September 13 update, 12:15 PM ET: The Mint Museum’s galleries remain open today (Thursday) observing normal hours, and at this time, the museum plans to open galleries normally at 11 a.m. ET on Friday. Assuming nothing changes, the Mint is postponing its originally scheduled plans to extend Friday operating hours at Mint Museum Uptown, and will close at 6 p.m. ET. (Beginning on Friday Sept. 21, weather permitting, Mint Museum Uptown will be open to the public until 9 p.m. each Friday). Of course check back here or on our Facebook or Twitter accounts before heading out, and please stay safe!

Wednesday September 12, 1:30 PM ET UPDATE: The Mint Museum staff hopes to announce an entire new schedule for all events listed as part of our previously scheduled lineup for September 14/15/16, but we will wait until after the hurricane passes to publicly post most dates. Right now our focus is on ensuring the public and our own staff and art collection remain safe in the days to come. The museum’s public hours of operation will be updated day to day in the coming days. New event dates will be announced as soon as weather conditions permit.

Wednesday September 12, 8 AM ET PREVIOUS POST: The Mint Museum’s staff has been working diligently since the weekend to monitor forecasts and evaluate all of the many activities scheduled for the public this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Most of them will be re-scheduled to later dates, so please keep an eye on this space for details, as we expect things to be confirmed soon. (Hint: We hope you are keeping Sept. 20, 21, and 22 open).

If the museum can safely operate, we will continue to observe our scheduled operating hours this weekend. Those decisions will be made day-to-day. And assuming the museum is open, we do expect local muralists Owl + Arko (pictured here) to be starting their mural, which must be finished in time for the community-wide Talking Walls Charlotte mural festival, coming up October 10-13. They’ll be inside the museum periodically between now and then working on the wall just inside Mint Museum Uptown’s main entry, so please plan more than one visit to check their progress.