Openings and Closings: August 26 to September 1

Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts

Forsooth, the glad tidings be true! The Fuller Craft Museum reopened on August 6^th to share with the public their many excellent exhibits. Our favorites include the 2020 Biennial Members Exhibition; Shelter, Place, Social, Distance: Contemporary Dialogues from the Permanent Collection; and James Grashow: The Great Monkey Project. The biennial celebration is designed to celebrate the museum’s members by showcasing the craftsmanship of artists of all ages in crafts including basketry, ceramics, and jewelry.  Shelter, Place, Social, Distance takes items from the permanent collection at Fuller to examine how these words, tied so closely to the pandemic, when taken out of context are the foundation of many works of art as they create a familiar theme of companionship, home, community, and isolation. The Great Monkey Project offers a moment of levity and joy for museum goers, and don’t forget to turn your eyes skyward when you walk into this exhibit or you might miss the eighty life-sized cardboard monkey sculptures hanging from the ceiling. Plan your trip here and poke around the digital collection while you’re at it, or if you won’t be able to make a trip in person.

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, Illinois

True to its name, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, went with its gut and reopened on August 7^th. Among our favorite offerings are the two exhibits Outsider Art: The Collection of Victor F. Keen and Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow. Outsider Art boasts the extensive personal collection of Victor F. Keen, with an artistically diverse troupe of outsider artists including Thornton Dial, Jim Bloom, James Castle, and George Widener. By exploring the histories of ten Chicago artists including Henry Darger, Mr. Imagination, and Pauline Simon, Chicago Calling highlights the history of self-taught artists in the city. To book tickets to these exhibits and more, look here and remember: for visitors 18 and under as well as members, admission is free! Otherwise, the tickets are a modest $5 per person. And, if you’re unable to go to Intuit in person, keep an eye on their events page, which is full of virtual opportunities to engage with the museum.

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

The Dallas Museum of Art reopened on August 14^th with a variety of exhibitions guaranteed to strike your fancy. Among the exhibits, our favorites include Wearable Raffia from Africa; For a Dreamer of Houses; and My|gration. Each of these exhibits has something unique to offer as Wearable Raffia From Africa showcases an extensive collection of textiles, accessories, and garments and explores the indigenous use and importance of the textile fiber raffia. For a Dreamer of Houses is a rather timely exhibit. This immersive experience explores the significance of home and how we attach and define ourselves by spaces. My|gration takes work from DMA’s collection to highlight artists who have immigrated to the US and how they express the movement of people and culture through their art. Make sure reserve your free ticket online in advance, and don’t be afraid to shell out the $9 to check out For a Dreamer of Houses. DMA is still offering exhibit and gallery tours online, as well as other interactive activities in order to stimulate those of us that won’t be able to make it in person.

Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

Blanton Museum of Art reopened to the public on August 15^th in order to share three exhibits: The Avant-garde Networks of Amauta: Argentina, Mexico, and Peru in the 1920s; The Artist at Work; and Ed Ruscha: Drum Skins. Avant-garde explores the history of Amauta, a Peruvian magazine from the early 20^th century and its contributions to a radical era in art and politics. If you’d like to see this exhibit, get there ASAP as it closes on August 30^th. In The Artist at Work, the curators flip the camera, so-to-speak, onto the artists to showcase artists as their own subject and discuss the idea of self-representation and self-identification. Drum Skins highlights the artwork of Ed Ruscha, or, more specifically the work that he did using drum skins, painting on them the language that he heard growing up in Oklahoma. If you want to learn about the artistic expression of American vernacular culture, or understand how artists see themselves, make sure to reserve your ticket online beforehand. And, if you won’t be able to attend in person, make sure to check out their permanent collections online as well as the virtual tours and image galleries of their current exhibitions.

Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Arts, Denver, Colorado

After reopening on August 18^th, the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Arts is presenting  shows from its permanent collection and their new exhibit, Process and Print. The permanent collection at Kirkland Museum is the basis for three exhibits: International Decorative Art, Colorado and Regional Art, and Vance Kirkland Paintings. Originally intended only for the March 2020 Month of Printmaking (Mo’Print), circumstances have prompted the Kirkland Museum to extend the exhibit through the end of the year. So, go forth and learn about lithographs, relief prints, intaglio prints, and screen prints. Make sure that you book your tickets online before you go. And, if printmaking is your passion but you can’t make it to Kirkland Museum in person, Process and Print can be viewed online as well as their other virtual exhibitions.

Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, Austin, Texas

At long last, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum reopened on August 18^th. This reopening showcases new exhibits including, but not limited to, Courtney Egan: Superflora as well as the sculpture garden. Superflora is an exhibit dedicated to the moving image and projection of flora, which reminds museumgoers of the importance of nature to the human experience. The sculpture garden, as the permanent collection, features hundreds of sculptures created by Charles Umlauf from 1939-1985. If you’re planning to head over to the garden and or museum, don’t forget to book your tickets online in advance. As an outdoor tour, the sculpture garden may be more your speed these days but, even if you aren’t able to make it, feel free to check out the virtual programs the museum has to offer to make sure you aren’t missing out on anything.

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Along with several other New York City institutions, MoMA will reopen on August 27^th.  In keeping with its long-standing reputation for presenting just really good exhibitions, the museum will present Neri Oxman Material Ecology; Félix Fénéon: The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde – From Signac to Matisse and Beyond; and Private Lives Public Spaces. In Material Ecology designer and architect, Neri Oxman brings together new design technologies and organic materials to create a new philosophy of design. The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde honors Félix Fénéon, a French art critic who worked to promote many young avant-garde artists, including Henri Matisse and Paul Signac, and saw art as a path to a more perfect world. Private Lives Public Spaces is a timely look into the private lives documented in the 20^th century by amateur photographers and filmmakers. In a time when we can’t always be together, Private Lives Public Spaces is a good reminder of the necessary connection with other humans and our inherent drive to document, document, document. If you won’t be able to make it to MoMA in person, do not despair because both the Material Ecology and Félix Fénéon exhibits, as well as many others, are part of MoMA’s Virtual Views program. However, if you do plan on trekking over to MoMA, please make sure to book your ticket in advance online. Member perk: If you’re a member, don’t worry about booking a ticket online, instead just show up – member privileges prevail.

American Folk Art Museum, New York

The American Folk Art Museum will reopen its doors to the public on August 28^th. Visitors are asked to reserve their free tickets online in advance to visit the two new exhibitions on view. American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection, portrays the history of the United States through the lens of folk art. The museum will feature Six Decades Collecting Self-Taught Art an homage to the diverse history of American folk which boasts the works of powerful artists including Horace Pippin, Judith Scott, and Minnie Evans. If you’re unable to make it in person, AFAM will continue to offer many online opportunities to engage with the museum including new programs and performances through the fall. If you’re missing the experience of browsing through a museum’s collection, take a look at their extensive virtual collection.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hurrah! The Met is reopening on August 29^th with, as always, a host of fascinating exhibitions. Some of our favorites include Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara; Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle; and Frank Lloyd Wright Textiles: The Taliesin Line, 1955-60. The Sahel exhibit traces the history of the empires in the Western Sahel region of African from the fourth century through the mid 19^th century. This deep dive is intended to showcase a vast collection of material culture created in the Sahel over the course of fifteen centuries and, the social and political importance the objects held in their respective time periods. The American Struggle highlights “Struggle: From the History of the American People” (1954–56) a series by the modernist Jacob Lawrence that focuses on moments in American history from 1775-1817. Out of the thirty panels that make up the series, five of them were missing, until one resurfaced in New York City in 2018. The series was painted during the same time when Americans were dealing with The Red Scare and the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. Board of Education, coloring the events of early American history with the realities of American life. Also on display is an exhibit focusing on architect Frank Lloyd Wright and sample textiles from the 1955 book Schumacher’s Taliesin Line of Decorative Fabrics and Wallpapers Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In order to see any of these rare items, objects, and paintings make sure to book your ticket online here and if you won’t be able to make it to The Met, you can always check out their interactive virtual tour.

William Benton Museum of Art, Mansfield, Connecticut

When the William Benton Museum of Art reopens on September 2^nd, they will do so with their “Noble Simplicity and Quiet Grandeur” Ancient Art at the Benton exhibition, which will showcase textiles, sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural fragments from the Benton collection in order to explore a long-standing human fascination with antiquity. In the event that you aren’t able to go to the Benton Museum, peruse their online exhibits such as  Arpilleras: Sewing for Resistance and Molas, Textile Designs of the Kuna Indians of Panama. If you’re able to visit in person, make sure to check out their website leading up to their reopening for details and remember, admission is always free.