Asheville Art Museum announces March events

 

The Asheville Art Museum is pleased to announce the following schedule of exhibitions, public programs and special events for the month of March 2014. Additional information is available on the Museum’s online calendar at www.ashevilleart.org/events.

Free Admission Wednesday

Wednesday, March 5

3:00-5:00 p.m.

On the first Wednesday of each month, the Museum offers free admission from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. A great way to explore the galleries! Also, a reminder that the Holden Community Gallery is always free and open to the public.

Gallery Talk + Closing Reception

Sunday, March 9

3:00-5:00 p.m.

The Museum presents a special gallery talk with artist Ben Aronson. After the talk, there will be a closing reception for the exhibition Cityscapes by Ben Aronson.

Home School Program
Tuesday, March 11
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Home-school students in grades 1 – 4 are invited to join us for the Museum’s Home School Program on the second Tuesdays of each month. Each 90-minute session includes a guided tour of the Museum’s Permanent Collection or special exhibition, and a hands-on art activity. Pre-registration is required. Call 828.253.3227.

Discussion Bound

Tuesday, March 11

3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Henry Darger, Throw Away Boy by Jim Elledge

In our monthly book discussion, we read and discuss books that relate to artwork in our galleries. Moderated by a member of the Museum’s staff or a volunteer, we exchange ideas and learn about books, art and each other.

In this month’s book, Jim Elledge cuts through the cloud of controversy and rediscovers “outsider artist” Henry Darger as a damaged, fearful gay man, raised in a world unaware of the consequences of child abuse or gay shame.
Read in conjunction with Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place.

Joint Opening Reception

Sunday, March 16

3:00-5:00 p.m.

The Museum is hosting an Opening Reception for two new exhibitions: Take 10: Collectors’ Circle 10th Anniversary + Pierre Daura: Modernist in the Mountains.

Tot Time in the ArtPLAYce for Children
Tuesday, March 18
10:30 a.m.

Parents and caregivers with pre-school age children are invited to bring their youngsters to the Museum’s interactive Art PLAYce for Children to this monthly series called “Tot Time,” featuring a new guided art activity designed especially for tiny tots each month. Participating children must be accompanied by an adult.

Lectures in Conjunction with “Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place”

Dr. Bernard Herman, George P. Tindall Professor of American Studies, UNC Chapel Hill, will give two lectures in conjunction with the exhibition “Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place.” Dr. Herman specializes in African-American vernacular art, folklore, craft and material culture of the American South.

"Troublesome Things in the Borderlands of Contemporary Art"

Thursday, March 20

6:00 p.m. at the Humanities Lecture Hall, UNC Asheville

Dr. Herman will focus on the art of Thornton Dial, Sr., Lonnie Holley and other subjects from his collection of essays, “Troublesome Things.”

Lunchtime Art Break

Friday, March 21

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. at the Asheville Art Museum

Visitors will have the opportunity to view the evocative works of art in the Social Geographies exhibition while listening to Dr. Herman discuss themes in contemporary self-taught art and outsider arts and craft.

Film Screenings

Saturday + Sunday, March 22 + 23

2:00 p.m.

Into the Realms of the Unreal

Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine and the work of talented animators, this documentary tells the story of Henry Darger, a reclusive janitor by day with few, if any, friends, but by night an artist with a unique vision. Darger’s resulting 15,000-page epic is a wonderland of imagination as it details the exploits of seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against men who enslave children. Rated: NR. 82 minutes.
 

Opening Reception

Saturday, March 29

5:00-7:00 p.m.

The Museum hosts an opening reception for the new exhibition Ralph Burns: A Persistence of Vision, Photographs 1972-2013.

Film Screenings

Saturday + Sunday, March 29 + 30

2:00 p.m.

Angel That Stands Beside Me + Mr. Dial Has Something to Say

Angel That Stands Beside Me explores the sources of outsider artist Minnie Evans’s art, including Airlie Garden in Wilmington, NC, with its magnificent azaleas and swans, where Evans worked as a gate keeper for 27 years and where she did most of her paintings. Scenes of a service in her African-Methodist church draw the connections between her religious fervor and her art. She tells about her mystical visions and traces her slave ancestry to her great grandmother’s grandmother who was brought from Trinidad and sold as a slave in North Carolina. Rated: NR. 29 minutes.

Mr. Dial Has Something to Say is a film that follows the life of outsider artist Thornton Dial and Bill Arnett, an art collector who promoted him. Through their experiences it examines the issue of racism and classism in Western art, and asks the question: What is art and who decides? Rated: NR. 58 minutes.
Held in conjunction with Social Geographies: Interpreting Space and Place.