Pop-up show featuring dresses fashioned from billboards will be open FREE at Mint Museum Uptown October 19-30

Outdoor Is In, a pop-up fashion exhibition of 19 dresses created from re-imagined and recycled vinyl billboards and organized by Adams Outdoor Advertising, will be on view to the public FREE at Mint Museum Uptown from Wednesday October 19 through Sunday, October 30.

The show, which features a dress from a recycled Mint Museum billboard along with billboard dresses from 15 other local and national businesses and nonprofits, will be open FREE to visitors during regular museum operating hours both weeks at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon Street. (11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday). Visitors may enter Level 5 without paying museum general admission if they wish to see only the fashion exhibition during their visits.

The show is in partnership with the Mint’s Year of the Woman, which is bringing two nationally pioneering exhibitions to Charlotte. Women of Abstract Expressionism, organized by the Denver Art Museum, is making its East Coast debut, and Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art will be on view exclusively at the Mint. Both open to the public October 22, the 80th anniversary of the Mint’s founding as the state’s first art museum, and will be open FREE during a community celebration weekend October 22-23.

“When we heard about the Mint’s celebration of the Year of the Woman, we recognized immediately that our first-of-its-kind project would be a perfect fit with the theme since the artists and designers who created the incredible dresses are all women,” said Jeannine Dodson of Adams Outdoor Advertising.

The concept for the Outdoor Is In fashion show came from a dress designed by Flavia Lovatelli, a Columbia, S.C. artist whose art was featured on a billboard as part of ArtPop, a collaboration between the Arts & Science Council and Adams Outdoor Advertising of Charlotte. Flavia at the time of being chosen for ArtPop was living in Charlotte (2014) and has since moved to Columbia. Lovatelli transformed her ArtPop billboard into a ball gown and inspired Adams Outdoor Advertising to challenge her and six other artists to re-imagine other billboards for an invite-only runway show at Mint Museum Uptown on Sept. 29. ArtPop is a national 501c3, headquartered and founded here in Charlotte whose mission is to promote local artists work through available media space. Art + Public Outdoor Project = ArtPop. The program is in 11 other cities.

Other Outdoor Is In designers, who call themselves “TrashionArtistas,” are Elyse Frederick of Charlotte, Edelweiss De Guzman of Mooresville, Rocio Llusca of Charlotte, Teresa Rench of Fort Mill, Althea Womack of Augusta, and Marynel Watters of Cornelius. The designers used billboards from the following companies and nonprofits: Anheuser-Busch, Dunkin Donuts, Carolinas Healthcare System, Chick-Fil-A, Coca-Cola, Fink’s Jewelers, Hendrick Honda on South Boulevard, Husqvarna, Miller Coors, Killingsworth Environmental, McDonald’s, The Mint Museum, Nichols Store, Pepsi, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Wells Fargo.

As part of the partnership, Adams Outdoor will be advertising Outdoor Is In along with the rest of the Mint’s Year of the Woman lineup on billboards around the Charlotte region.

Outdoor Is In is the latest pop-up show in the Mint’s Level 5 expansion space, home to the previous groundbreaking shows 80 x 80, featuring 80 contemporary works of art organized by Young Affiliates of the Mint; Moment Mile, a photography exhibition from The Light Factory; and The Boombox Project, an exhibition of photos by Lyle Owerko organized by SOCO Gallery. The 15,000 square foot expansion space, still raw and unfinished, was first unveiled in 2014 as part of a partnership with Wells Fargo. The museum is still developing its longer-range plans for the expansion space and plans to continue experimenting with new and creative art concepts there.

See more about Outdoor Is In at mintmuseum.org/art . Learn more about the Year of the Woman at mintmuseum.org/80th . Members of the media may view the show during the media preview for Women of Abstract Expressionism and Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art on Friday, October 21 at 9:30 a.m. Light breakfast will be served and curators will be available for interviews. RSVP to leigh.dyer@mintmuseum.org.

The fashion show and exhibition reflect Adams Outdoor Advertising’s commitment to recycling and protecting the environment. Designers used EcoFlex Vinyl, which has biodegradable properties, to make many of the Outdoor Is In ensembles.

Another program demonstrating Adams Outdoor Advertising’s recycling efforts is Upcycle Life, a Charlotte-based nonprofit that trains and employs refugee women in our community.

*Flavia, Elyse Frederick & Rocio Llusca 3 of the designers in the Mint/Adams couture are all current or former #ArtPopCLT artists.

For more information about ArtPop, please visit their website ArtPopStreetGallery.com .

ABOUT ADAMS OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

 

Adams Outdoor Advertising, with its flagship office in Charlotte, is celebrating this year its 30th anniversary in the Charlotte metro market. With offices in 14 cities in the U.S., Adams is a full-service billboard company that works to provide local, regional and international clients with the best overall media strategy for their products and services.

“Women of Abstract Expressionism” and “Fired Up: Women in Glass” to open October 22

Women were the driving force behind the founding of The Mint Museum as North Carolina’s first art museum. Women, including current President & CEO Dr. Kathleen V. Jameson, have provided exemplary leadership to the Mint. And now, the museum is preparing to celebrate women artists with two exhibitions opening on the museum’s 80th anniversary this October 22.

Members of the media and special guests are invited to preview Women of Abstract Expressionism and Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art on Friday, October 21 at 9:30 a.m. at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, 500 South Tryon Street in Charlotte. Light breakfast will be served and curators will be available for interviews. RSVP to leigh.dyer@mintmuseum.org.

Weston M. Andress, PNC Regional President for Western Carolinas and chair of The Mint Museum Board of Trustees, has issued a proclamation declaring the fiscal year running July 2016 through June 2017 to be the “Year of the Woman,” and the museum has launched a new website portal, video, and slate of community events to invite the global community to celebrate alongside the museum. See full details, and an interactive timeline recounting the museum’s history, at mintmuseum.org/80th/ .

“The Mint has planned a great year of exhibitions and events that showcase women’s contributions to the museum since its founding,” Andress said. “We hope the community will join us to help celebrate our 80th anniversary year.”

Added Dr. Jameson: “As the first woman to serve as President & CEO of The Mint Museum, and following in the steps of the many women who played instrumental roles over the years, I am pleased to be able to observe this historically significant event, and to help bring these two world-class exhibitions to the community.”

The Mint Museum’s building was originally the first branch of the U.S. Mint outside Philadelphia when it was constructed in 1836. It fell into disuse and was threatened with demolition by the 1930s, but a group of Charlotte residents led by Mary Myers Dwelle fought to preserve it and move it to its current location in Eastover, where it is now known as Mint Museum Randolph. It opened to the public on October 22, 1936. Mint Museum Uptown opened in 2010 as part of Levine Center for the Arts, the same year that Dr. Jameson became President & CEO.

Women of Abstract Expressionism on view Oct. 22, 2016-Jan. 22, 2017

This fall The Mint Museum is the only East Coast venue for this groundbreaking exhibition, the first major museum exhibition to focus on the innovative women artists affiliated with the Abstract Expressionist movement during its seminal years between 1945 and 1960.

The exhibition, which was on view at the Denver Art Museum through September 25, has garnered significant attention from press and critics across the country, with Time Magazine calling it an “indispensable show.” Along with shining a spotlight on the women who were key participants in the movement, the exhibition also emphasizes the role that artists working on the West Coast played in its development. It also reveals the broad range of styles and techniques that these artists employed, from pouring and staining to slashing and swirling brushwork.

Visitors to Mint Museum Uptown will be delighted and inspired by approximately 50 energetic, colorful, large-scale paintings created by 12 of these artists. While some of the women are well-known, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Grace Hartigan, the work of others, ranging from Judith Godwin, Perle Fine, and Deborah Remington to Jay DeFeo and Sonia Getchoff, will be a revelation.

Women of Abstract Expressionism will be accompanied by a variety of engaging lectures and events as well as a fully-illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press featuring contributions by its curator, Dr. Gwen Chanzit, and scholars Robert Hobbs, Ellen Landau, Susan Landauer, Joan Marter, and Irving Sandler. Following its run at the Mint, the exhibition will travel to Palm Springs Art Museum in February 2017.

This exhibition is presented to the community by Wells Fargo Private Bank. Additional generous support provided by Duke Energy, Electrolux, the Mint Museum Auxiliary, and Davidson College.

Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists from the Toledo Museum of Art exclusively on view at the Mint Oct. 22, 2016-Feb. 26, 2017

Color and form create instinctual appeal in glass – the most versatile and seductive of materials. Fired Up, co-organized by the Mint and the Toledo Museum of Art and exclusively on view at Mint Museum Uptown, is the first American art museum exhibition about contemporary women artists who work with glass.

At the beginning of the studio glass movement that originated at the Toledo Museum of Art in the 1960s, women were overshadowed by their male counterparts, rarely encouraged to explore glass techniques by their teachers, and discouraged from entering the field due to the financial commitment required to operate a glass studio, from equipment to the team of assistants necessary to the collaborative process of studio glass. Today, in the “post studio” era, the situation has changed; here and abroad, women are among the most innovative glass artists and their contributions to both the technical and content aspects of their art are exceptional.

Fired Up presents outstanding glass sculptures from Toledo’s renowned Glass Pavilion as well as recent acquisitions to their collection, on view for the first time in this exhibition, selected by co-curators Jutta-Annette Page, Senior Curator of Glass and Decorative Arts at Toledo, and Annie Carlano, Senior Curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion at the Mint. The Mint’s exceptional collection of contemporary glass is internationally praised, with works such as Danny Lane’s Threshold and Bertil Vallien’s King’s Voyage, but it contains few works by women (although the masterwork Relations, by Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, is a husband-and-wife collaboration). Only a handful of glass works created by female artists are in the permanent collection. Presenting Fired Up will fill a gap in glass education and hopefully inspire the collecting of works by women.

International in scope, over forty sculptures are included in the exhibition, including works by Emily Brock, Lee Bul, Lisa Lou, Karen Lamonte, Silvia Levenson, Maya Lin, Laura de Santillana, Sibylle Peretti, Sylvie Vandenhoucke, and April Surgent. Ranging in scale from the tiny to the monumental, the sculptures are organized into five thematic groups: abstraction, vessels, the human form, nature, and the built environment.

Both the Toledo Museum of Art and The Mint Museum have a strong commitment to developing new interpretative strategies for glass, and this exhibition provides an opportunity for additional collaboration in experimental approaches to visual literacy. The exhibition is presented with generous support from Novant Health and UTC Aerospace Systems.

Media partners for both exhibitions are The Charlotte Observer and Adams Outdoor Advertising, which has also organized the pop-up fashion exhibition Outdoor Is In , on view FREE at Mint Museum Uptown October 19-30.

Anniversary weekend festivities, October 21-23

The two new exhibitions open to the public amid the Mint’s celebration of its 80th anniversary. The museum will toast the exhibition openings with a by-invitation VIP celebration on Friday, October 21 at Mint Museum Uptown – watch for the Duke Energy tower to be lit in the Mint’s signature teal color on that evening. And the community is invited to a FREE day-long celebration at both museum locations on Saturday, October 22 – at Mint Museum Uptown, visitors will enjoy free access to both exhibitions along with lectures from curators of both exhibitions; and at Mint Museum Randolph, look for lots of family-friendly activities in celebration of the historic property and its surroundings. And on Sunday, October 23, the public is invited to another day of free admission at both locations, plus a free concert by accomplished pianist Dorothy “Dot” Lewis-Griffith, daughter-in-law of E.C. Griffith (1889-1973), who donated the three-acre tract of Eastover land on which the museum now sits. Her concert will feature music composed in the 1930s around the time of the Mint’s opening.

Further events throughout the “Year of the Woman” will invite the public to interact with the museum and its exhibitions. Find details at mintmuseum.org/happenings. The Mint is grateful for support from five of its previous female board chairs for its 80th anniversary activities: Mary Lou Babb, Beverly S. Hance, Patty Norman, Jo Ann Peer, and Pat Rodgers. As the museum’s video announcing the year-long celebration has noted: “The Great Lady is turning 80 – and she’s just getting warmed up.”

MEDIA NOTE:

High-resolution images from both exhibitions are available upon request. Email leigh.dyer@mintmuseum.org .

Improvements continue to revitalize the state’s first art museum

Mint Museum Randolph’s revitalization continues!

As the museum builds up to its 80th anniversary in 2016 (did you know the Mint was  North Carolina’s first art museum , and it still holds one of the the largest permanent collections in the Southeast?), improvements are continuing to bring a “refreshed” experience to our visitors! Among the recent changes:

This is just the beginning – check back here for more updates on improvements to YOUR community art museum!

 

From February 16, 2015:

From now through mid-April, visitors to Mint Museum Randolph will experience changes aimed at giving the museum a brighter future.

The Mint Museum is working with the City of Charlotte, which owns the property at Randolph, along with Duke Energy to replace aging light fixtures with new LED fixtures. The new fixtures are more energy-efficient, yet have a more historically appropriate design than the previous 30-year-old lighting in the parking lot and on the terrace in front of the museum. They will reduce the light usage from 360 watts to 165 watts per pole – saving approximately 18,000 kilowatt hours per year, or roughly the same amount of energy consumed by 45 full-sized refrigerators.

The lighting project will be visible to visitors due to the removal of approximately 16-18 trees, in consultation with the City Arborist. The tree removal will benefit the health of the remaining trees, as well as maximizing the efficiency of the new lighting. Temporary lighting will be used in front of the museum while new poles are installed.

The target completion date for the project is April 19 – in time for the museum to celebrate its “Rock & Royal Spring Gala” on April 25. For more information, see mintmuseum.org/gala.