CELEBRATE HER BIRTHDAY AT THE NEXT WEATHERSPOON ART MUSEUM COMMUNITY DAY Saturday, October 17, 2009, Free
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is pleased to present the Fall Weatherspoon Community Day on Saturday, October 17, 2009, from 1-4 pm.
The focus of the day’s activities will be Willem de Kooning’s painting Woman, which turns 60 this year. A special community birthday cake will be cut and served at 2 pm.
Woman (1949) by Willem de Kooning is a pivotal work in the artist's career, as it anticipated the six famous "Woman" paintings he began in 1950. The purchase of the painting by the Weatherspoon in 1954 created something of an uproar in Greensboro: many people wondered why funds contributed in memory of former arts educator, Lena Kernodle McDuffie, would be spent on such a garish and aggressive image. Woman now holds rank as the jewel in the crown of the Museum's permanent collection.
Woman’s birthday party will include hands-on art activities for the young, and the young at heart, with special de Kooning-inspired collage/drawings, wacky photographic self-portraits, Modernist-inspired marker paintings, and a gallery scavenger hunt.
And, if you have not heard the Percussion Ensemble from The Winston-Salem Enrichment Center, this is your opportunity! They will be performing from 3-4 pm.
Director Aaron Bachelder (multi-instrumentalist and composer) formed the group in 1997 with interested students at the arts-based, not-for-profit program in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for adults with disabilities. The Percussion Ensemble recently released its third recording, Ten Songs, an eclectic mix of original music and unique interpretations of American standards, and it has performed at venues in New York and at the Museum of American Folk Art in Baltimore.
Players include: Valarie Williams- glockenspiel Andrew Shumaker- keyboards Jonathon Lindsay- piano Walker Lewis, Jr.- marimba, percussion Meredith Lamy- vibraphone Marcie Haley- drums Aaron Bachelder- guitar
For more on the Percussion Ensemble, visit their site:
http://www.microearth.com/ecpe/ WAM Community Day events are fun for people of all ages who can enjoy art activities based on concepts derived from Weatherspoon’s varied exhibitions, great live music for the whole family, and refreshments. Gallery greeters will be on hand to answer questions as participants visit the Museum’s six galleries. Community Day is a wonderful opportunity to discover the museum for the very first time or to return and bring a friend who may not be familiar with everything the Weatherspoon has to offer. Community Days are normally scheduled in the Fall and Spring annually.
Image: Willem de Kooning, Woman, 1949, oil on canvas, 64 1/8 x 46 in. Lena Kernodle McDuffie memorial purchase, 1954.
About the Weatherspoon Art Museum
Mission The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro acquires, preserves, exhibits, and interprets modern and contemporary art for the benefit of its multiple audiences, including university, community, regional, and beyond. Through these activities, the museum recognizes its paramount role of public service, and enriches the lives of diverse individuals by fostering an informed appreciation and understanding of the visual arts and their relationship to the world in which we live.
History The Weatherspoon Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro was founded by Gregory Ivy in 1941 and is the earliest of any art facilities within the UNC system. The museum was founded as a resource for the campus, community, and region and its early leadership developed an emphasis—maintained to this day—on presenting and acquiring modern and contemporary works of art. A 1950 bequest from the renowned collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, which included prints and bronzes by Henri Matisse and other works on paper by American and European modernists, helped to establish the Weatherspoon’s permanent collection. Other prescient acquisitions during Ivy’s tenure included a 1951 suspended mobile by Alexander Calder, Woman by Willem de Kooning, a pivotal work in the artist’s career that was purchased in 1954, and the first drawings by Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson to enter a museum collection.
In 1989, the museum moved into its present location in The Anne and Benjamin Cone Building designed by the architectural firm Mitchell Giurgula. The museum has six galleries and a sculpture courtyard with over 17,000 square feet of exhibition space. The American Association of Museums accredited the Weatherspoon in 1995 and renewed its accreditation in 2005.
Collections + Exhibitions The permanent collection of the Weatherspoon Art Museum is considered to be one of the foremost of its kind in the Southeast. It represents all major art movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Of the nearly 6,000 works in the collection are pieces by such prominent figures as Willem de Kooning, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Cindy Sherman, Al Held, Alex Katz, Henry Tanner, Louise Nevelson, Mark di Suvero, Deborah Butterfield, and Robert Rauschenberg. The museum regularly lends to major exhibitions nationally and internationally.
The Weatherspoon also is known for its adventurous and innovative exhibition program. Through a dynamic annual calendar of fifteen to eighteen exhibitions and a multi-disciplinary educational program for audiences of all ages, the museum provides an opportunity for audiences to consider artistic, cultural, and social issues of our time and enriches the life of our university, community, and region.
Weatherspoon Art Museum The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Spring Garden and Tate Streets, PO Box 26170 Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5770,
weatherspoon@uncg.eduWord Document:
For more information or high-resolution press images, contact: Loring Mortensen, 336-256-1451,
lamorten@uncg.edu
