Montgomery AL- Discover African-American ancestry and art at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts during the Ancestry and Innovation: African American Art from the American Folk Art Museum exhibition. This magnificent showcase of African-American art will be on view February 7 though April 12, 2009 and will include 39 works created by self-taught African-American artists in the rural South and urban North.
The exhibition Ancestry and Innovation, as its title implies, is a reflection of the heritage as well as the current state of creativity informing the work of self-taught artists from the rural South as well as the urban North. The show includes thirty-nine paintings, sculpture, mixed media objects and quilts that are held by the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
For many of the self-taught artists represented in this show, art-making is a means of preserving memories of home and community, a way to express spirituality, or a therapeutic act created in response to life-changing experiences. Their personal histories and their products are part of their continuing contribution to the kaleidoscope of American culture and visual experience.
Ancestry and Innovation: African American Art from the American Folk Art Museum is organized by the American Folk Art Museum, New York, and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The exhibition’s national tour is made possible by the MetLife Foundation and local funding is provided by Colonial Bank.
Many educational events are planned at the Museum in conjunction with the exhibition. The public will have the opportunity to meet one of the self-taught artists whose work is included in the exhibition on Thursday, February 12. He will hold a Gallery Talk at 11 a.m. and a lecture that evening at 7 p.m
In the galleries, Seniors Tours and Crafts will be held on Tuesday, February 10 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and Alabama Folk Art Conversations will take place on Thursday, March 26 and Thursday, April 2 at 5:30 p.m.
A free family day will take place on Saturday, March 28, from 1 to 4 p.m to celebrate African-American culture and heritage. The festival will feature food, music, folk artists, and folk art.
A Teacher Workshop will be held on African-American Folk Art Treasures on Thursday, February 12 from 4:30 to 6 P.M. and a film series about folk art will take place on Tuesday, February 10, 17, and 24 at 2 p.m.
For more information, contact the Education Department at 334.240.4365.
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday Noon to 5p.m. Admission is free and donations are welcome. For more information, call the MMFA at 334.240.4333 or visit the website at www.mmfa.org.
The MMFA, a department of the City of Montgomery, is supported by funds from the City and County of Montgomery and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Association. Programs
are made possible, in part, by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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