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Photo courtesy of QCity Metro/Flowersome Photography

Ramona Holloway joins The Mint Museum as Community Relations and Civic Engagement Director

Charlotte, North Carolina (March 31, 2025) – The Mint Museum is proud to announce the selection of Ramona Holloway as its new Community Relations and Civic Engagement Director, effective April 8, 2025. In this role, Holloway will join the museum’s leadership team, working collaboratively to shape and strengthen the institution’s vision, while expanding and enhancing museum-wide programs, projects, and initiatives through meaningful community connections.

Holloway, a renowned media professional and community advocate, brings a wealth of experience in civic engagement, nonprofit partnerships, and public outreach to this pivotal role.

With a distinguished career spanning over two decades in media and community affairs, Holloway has been a driving force in fostering relationships for local organizations and the public. As the owner of Ramona Holloway Media, she has developed fundraising campaigns and events for numerous nonprofits. Prior to this, she served as Community Affairs Manager at Radio One Charlotte, where she oversaw community engagement efforts. Holloway is also widely recognized for her more than 20-year tenure as co-host of “The Matt & Ramona Show,” where she became a trusted voice in the community.

“As an inclusive advocate, storyteller, and community servant, Ramona is deeply passionate about the power of art to inspire and connect people,” says Cynthia Moreno, senior director of learning and engagement at The Mint Museum. “Her exceptional record of community engagement, advocacy, and relationship building will help expand the Mint’s reach, making art accessible to new and diverse audiences. We are thrilled to welcome her to our team.”

Holloway has long been committed to creating impactful community experiences. She has served in advisory roles and on the boards of varied organizations, including the Alzheimer’s Association – Western Carolina Chapter, Assistance League of Charlotte, Holy Angels, and RAIN, Inc. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Collaborating with schools, charities, faith organizations, and civic institutions has been a natural part of Holloway’s career. “This is truly my dream job because it allows me to bring people together through the inspirational, educational, and healing power of art,” she says.

She steps into the role previously held by Rubie Britt-Height, whose legacy of inclusive and innovative community programming has left a lasting impact. “I have long admired Rubie Britt-Height’s work in this space. I’m honored to build upon her foundation and continue fostering meaningful connections through the arts,” Holloway says.

Holloway’s contributions to the community have been recognized with numerous accolades, including being named one of QCity Metro’s Great 28 Black Charlotteans (2024), Charlotte Magazine’s Best Radio Personality (2003, 2008, 2013), and one of The Mecklenburg Times’ 50 Most Influential Women (2012). She is also a three-time recipient of the Alliance for Women in Media’s Gracie Award (2009, 2010, 2011).

About The Mint Museum

The Mint Museum, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, is dedicated to offering dynamic exhibitions and programs that inspire and enrich the community. As a cultural institution committed to inclusivity and creative expression, The Mint Museum provides a diverse array of art and experiences for all audiences.

For media inquiries or more information, please contact:

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST  

5 exhibitions not to miss this year at Charlotte’s largest art museum

 Charlotte, North Carolina (March 25, 2025) — The Mint Museum is set to present a dynamic series of exhibitions throughout 2025 and beyond, celebrating a wide range of art, culture, and design. With something for a myriad of interests, these upcoming shows explore transformative art, timeless traditions, and cultural journeys. Here’s a glimpse of what’s upcoming at The Mint Museum. 

Annie Leibovitz, Bruce Springsteen on tour, Paris, 2016. Photo courtesy of the artist ©Annie Leibovitz.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK
Special ticketed exhibition: $10, plus museum admission
April 27–August 31, 2025
Mint Museum Uptown 

Some images don’t just capture a moment—they define an era. Annie Leibovitz has photographed the world’s most iconic figures, from Hollywood legends to world leaders, shaping the way we see culture, fame, and history. Now, her extraordinary work comes to The Mint Museum with the exhibition ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK. Known for her signature ability to capture intimacy and personality, Leibovitz’s images feature a remarkable roster of artists, musicians, politicians, athletes, and other influential figures. Visitors will enjoy the exhibition in an engaging dual format, with prints on paper complemented by cutting-edge digital tower displays. This special ticketed exhibition is a must-see for fans of photography and celebrity culture. 

Einar (Mexican, 1963–) and Jamex (Mexican, 1960–) de la Torre. “Oxymodern (Aztec Calendar),” 2002, blown-glass, mixed-media wall installation, 120 x 120 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Cheech Marin Collection and Riverside Art Museum.

Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective
June 7–September 21, 2025
Mint Museum Uptown 

Celebrating the 30-year creative journey of internationally renowned artists and brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Collidoscope showcases their remarkable and ebullient works in glass, mixed-media sculpture, and lenticular prints. The exhibition highlights their unique experiences as binational artists living in California and Mexico and features an exciting mix of cultural commentary and striking visuals. Visitors will encounter key moments in Mexican history interwoven with pop culture, global art and religion, feminism, and more. The exhibition will include bilingual labels and a gallery soundtrack. Organized by The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture, with support from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, it is a must-see exhibition for anyone who loves glass work and cultural commentary with a side of visual satire. 

Víctor Rivera Mercado (Puerto Rican, 1958–). El Velorio de los Tres Santos Reyes (The
Vigil for the Three Kings), 2019?, painted wood. Toste-Mediavilla collection, 294

Art of Devotion: The Santos de Palo Tradition of Puerto Rico
August 2, 2025–July 5, 2026
Mint Museum Randolph 

Art of Devotion is a first-of-its-kind exhibition in the continental United States to feature the centuries-old Puerto Rican tradition of santos de palo, or wood carvings of Catholic saints. The art form embodies the religious, multi-ethnic, and multicultural composition of the Puerto Rican people. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the extensive santos collection of Nitza Mediavilla Piñero and Francisco Toste Santana, who recently moved to Charlotte, North Carolina from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Traditionally made from tree branches or roots, these sculptures created for domestic worship were first created by rural farmers to express their faith and gratitude for a divine blessing. Today’s carvers have expanded the santos de palo subject matter to include pop culture figures—from politicians to rappers—reflecting the impact these figures have on contemporary life. The exhibition features over 150 pristine examples of santos from the 16th century through the early 20th century and will include bilingual labels and an interactive touchscreen, enhancing engagement and offering an accessible cultural experience. 

Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks
September 20, 2025–January 4, 2026
Mint Museum Randolph 

This one is for the sneakerheads! Featuring around 60 shoe designs, Future Now explores how this shoe has evolved from functional footwear to glam runway designs and a cultural phenomenon. Exhibition highlights include the self-lacing Nike MAG (first conceived for the movie Back to the Future Part II), digitally designed and 3D-printed shoes, sneakers made from mushroom leather and reclaimed ocean plastics, virtual footwear, and footwear created for the metaverse. Featuring works from designers including Salehe Bembury and Zaha Hadid, and the Nike ISPA (Improvise. Scavenge. Protect. Adapt.) Collection, and many more, the exhibition delves into how new materials, designs, and sustainability are transforming the way we think about shoes. The exhibition is organized by the Bata Shoe Museum in partnership with American Federation of the Arts, and curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack of the Bata Shoe Museum.  

Renaissance, Romanticism, and Rebellion: European Art from the Smith Naifeh Collection
October 11, 2025–February 22, 2026
Mint Museum Uptown 

This large-scale survey exhibition draws from the Smith-Naifeh collection in South Carolina, featuring a diverse range of paintings and sculpture created between the early 16th and early 20th centuries. Renaissance, Romanticism, and Rebellion showcases the contributions of artists who worked during times of political and social upheaval, offering viewers a chance to explore both the enduring academic traditions of the time and the revolutionary moments that shaped more adventurous forms of art.

More about these exhibitions and other programs and installations is available at mintmuseum.org. 

Ticket Information
Admission to The Mint Museum exhibition is free for members and children ages 4 and younger, and students in grades K-12, plus college art students; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; and $10 for college students with ID. For museum hours, visit mintmuseum.org. 

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About The Mint Museum
The Mint Museum, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, is dedicated to offering dynamic exhibitions and programs that inspire and enrich the community. As a cultural institution committed to inclusivity and creative expression, The Mint Museum provides a diverse array of art and experiences for all audiences. 

For more information, press inquiries, or media access, please contact: 

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 

ABOVE (from left): Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917). Dancers Backstage, 1876/1883, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection. 1970.17.25; Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). Jack-in-Pulpit – No. 2, 1930, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O’Keeffe. 1987.58.1; Alma Thomas (American, 1891–1978). Autumn Drama, c. 1969, acrylic on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection, The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Gift of Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. 2015.19.211

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES

Masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Alma Thomas travel to The Mint Museum as part of commemorations for the 250th anniversary of America

Charlotte, North Carolina (March 6, 2025) — Masterpieces from three of the world’s most celebrated artists—Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Alma Thomas—will be on view at Mint Museum Uptown beginning April 8. The works are on loan from the National Gallery of Art’s illustrious collection as part of its Across the Nation program, a nationwide effort marking the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026 by bringing art to communities across the country.

The works to be displayed at The Mint Museum are Dancers Backstage by Edgar Degas, Jack-in-Pulpit – No. 2 by Georgia O’Keeffe, and Autumn Drama by Alma Thomas. The pieces were carefully chosen to provide an enriching context for conversations about the American experience, each reflecting a distinct perspective on identity, culture, and artistic expression. The works will be on view for two years at Mint Museum Uptown.

The National Gallery of Art worked with all partner institutions, each selected to broaden access to the national collection in as many regions of the United States as possible, to curate a unique selection of works of art for each Across the Nation presentation.

“The selection of these works is both thoughtful and significant,” says Jonathan Stahlman, PhD, senior curator of American Art at The Mint Museum. “These loans will bring important works by artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Alma Thomas, and Edgar Degas into dialogue with our existing collections, offering a powerful example of the ways in which art transcends time and place to inspire meaningful conversations about American creativity, different ways to see the world, and identity.”

The Mint Museum is honored to be one of 10 institutions throughout the United States selected to participate in the unprecedented program. Works of art on loan will travel to other partner museums in Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Utah, and Washington as part of the Across the Nation program.

“This partnership is a remarkable opportunity for our community to experience firsthand some of the most celebrated works in the National Gallery’s collection,” says Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “We are incredibly proud to be part of this national effort to bring art to communities across the country, and we look forward to welcoming visitors to experience these national treasures.”

The Across the Nation program serves to bring exceptional works of art to museums and communities that might not have direct access to such collections, making cultural treasures more available to Americans, says Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art.

“Across the Nation embodies the National Gallery’s mission as the nation’s art museum. We are thrilled to bring these beloved works of art to communities and invite all people to connect with our shared history and culture.”

Ticket Information
Admission to The Mint Museum exhibition is free for members and children ages 4 and younger, and students in grades K-12, plus college art students; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; and $10 for college students with ID. For museum hours, visit mintmuseum.org.

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For more information, contact:  

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186

About The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as north Carolina’s first art museum, the mint museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

About the National Gallery of Art 
The National Gallery of Art welcomes all people to explore art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Nearly four million people come through its doors each year—with millions more online—making it one of the most visited art museums in the world. The National Gallery’s renowned collection includes nearly 160,000 works of art, from the ancient world to today. Admission to the West and East buildings, Sculpture Garden, special exhibitions, and public programs is always free.

Rose B. Simpson (United States, Santa Clara Pueblo, Kha-’Po Owingeh,1983–). Two Selves, 2023, ceramic, steel, grout, twine, and hide. Museum purchase: Funds provided by MMCDF Collections Council Acquisition Fund, Windgate Fund, Finish Line Fund, Charles W. Beam Accessions Endowment, and Laura and Mike Grace. 2024.24

Two Selves on view at Mint Museum Randolph beginning March 5, 2025

By Annie Carlano

Rose B. Simpson is one of the most visionary artists of our time. She is the granddaughter of distinguished architect, potter, scholar and activist Rina Swentzell, daughter of the pioneering figurative ceramicist Roxanne Swentzell, and descended from generations of matriarchal ceramicists. Simpson still lives in Santa Clara Pueblo, a Tewa tribal community in northern New Mexico.

Two Selves is made of coiled red and yellow clay and is about duality. The two figures — an adult-sized armless character with firmly planted feet and a childlike creature with outstretched arms and restless legs — represent the difference between the centered and accepting state of being, and the frenetic and grasping state of doing. Both lie within us in an ongoing struggle for dominance.

Simpson has said that the making of her mixed-media works is a spiritual act, a healing process from centuries of colonial trauma and life in the post-colonial postmodern world. Once each sculpture leaves her studio, she believes it will find its intended home, a place that needs that specific work and the message it carries. To protect this sculpture on its journey from her studio to its destination, Two Selves is adorned with talismanic jewelry.

Simpson received a master’s degree in fine art from Rhode Island School of Design and a master’s degree in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her works are in many museum collections, including the Cleveland Museum of Art; Guggenheim, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and LACMA, Los Angeles. She was included in the 2024 Whitney Biennial and in 2023, she was appointed to the board of trustees of the Institute of American Indian Arts by President Biden.

Annie Carlano, senior curator of Craft, Design & Fashion

The re-envisioned African Art gallery presentations reflect not only the rich diversity of African art but also challenge visitors to think critically about the cultural significance, origins, and impact of the objects.

Following a multiyear transformation, the African Art galleries reopen at Mint Museum Randolph

By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD

The Mint’s African gallery reinstallation has been over five years in the making. When I joined the Mint as chief curator in July 2019, I saw my first challenge as how to overhaul important spaces for which the Mint did not have a curator on staff. I had accumulated a decade of art history classes, none touched Mesoamerican or African art, reflecting the Western focus prevalent in graduate programs at the time.

Post-graduate school, I sat in on classes at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte led by associate professor of art history Lisa Homann, PhD, to fill gaps in my knowledge and because I was fascinated by the stories she told and challenges she faced in her field. All research involves a bit of spy work, but for Africanists, there is barely any thread to grasp in the complicated trail of making and ownership. When I joined the Mint, I knew that she was the Africanist I would want to evaluate the work in the Mint’s existing African collection and guide the collection forward.

The transformed galleries reopened in February at Mint Museum Uptown. Homann combed the Mint’s files and assessed each work to develop the installation now on view. A notable new work is one commissioned from David Sanou, a Burkina Faso masquerade maker, that not only brings an exceptional work into the Mint’s collection but offers new ways to think about how museums can collect and display work historically handled by non-experts (me included), but that remains essential for cross-cultural understanding.

The growth of the collection

The Mint’s African Art collection began in 1975 with a few key pieces, including a rhinoceros-hide shield from the Bantu peoples and a granary door from the Senufo peoples. For many years, the museum relied on donors to shape the African Art collection. Early on, African works shared space with other collections at Mint Museum Randolph, which housed everything from Contemporary Art to Mesoamerican pieces.

As the collection grew, the focus on African art expanded. During the tenure of curator Michael Whittington (1993-2003), new works were added. Though African art was not his area of expertise, he worked with scholars and focused on pieces that complemented the Mint’s broader collections, like ceramics, creating unexpected connections across time and cultures. Occasionally, exceptional pieces with detailed ownership records came available. A rich and beautiful example is the Hunter’s style Shirt, which has been on view almost continuously since its purchase in 1999. It serves as a focus of Homann’s new African gallery installation.

Around 2012, Michael Gallis, a UNC Charlotte professor, collector, and Mint Board of Trustee, encouraged the museum to deepen its commitment to African art. With his support, the installation expanded from one gallery to two and included new works from his and other private collections, either given or loaned to the museum. To prepare for the reinstallation, Gallis helped the Mint host
a symposium, led by Herbert (Skip) Cole, PhD, from the University of California Santa Barbara, to discuss the importance of African art in museums and as a field of study. This resulted in the 2014 Mint publication “Art in the Many Africas,” along with new galleries installed by Cole.

As the field of African studies has exponentially grown over the last 10 years, and further attention to how Western (mis)perceptions have subjectively defined the field for centuries, the expectations around collecting and displaying works from Africa continue to change. Homann explores this in her reinstallation, which draws from the Mint’s permanent collection; the private collection of Michael Gallis; and Asif Shaikh, a collector recently relocated to Charlotte. This is a fluid field and the Mint will continue to work with Homann and others to share reconsiderations and evaluations as they arise.

Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, is chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum.

Read more about recognizing provenance in the galleries.

The 2024 commission of “Kimi Masquerade Ensemble” by Burkino Faso artist David Sanou is complemented by an immersive video of a masquerade ceremony, giving visitors a deeper understanding of the cultural context behind the piece.

Re-envisioned African Art installation offers deeper cultural insight and focus on provenance

By Lisa Homann, PhD

Art isn’t created in isolation — it is shaped by the time, place, and people who bring it to life. That is why art historians rely on provenance, or the history of an object’s ownership, to better understand its story. Who made it? Why? How did it travel from its place of origin to a museum display?

When it comes to African art, provenance often poses unique challenges. Many museums in the United States only have records about ownership of a work of art in Europe or North America but lack information about African ownership. Detailed African provenance is the exception rather than the rule. Many records are incomplete or based on speculation, creating ambiguity rather than understanding.

In curating The Mint Museum’s African Art galleries, the approach is intellectual honesty over authority. Without knowing the name of an individual artist, the term “Unrecorded Artist” is used rather than attributing a piece to an entire culture or region. If there’s uncertainty about a work’s origin, it is described by its style and words like “possibly” or “probably” to acknowledge the unknowns. Without clear answers about who made a piece, or when, where, and why it was created, the focus is put on the types of objects rather than specific ones in the galleries. This approach explores the broader cultural and social roles
the works played, recognizing their diverse styles, materials, and purposes.

Provenance spotlights

To highlight the varying levels of provenance information, “provenance spotlights” are now dispersed in each section throughout the galleries. These spotlights share what we do know about an object’s history. The spotlights range from no data for a figural sculpture before it was donated to The Mint Museum (the most common possibility) to one showing scraps of paper found with a ceremonial hunter’s shirt that bear the names of several individuals (see image on page 33), offering clues as to who may have previously owned the work.

One particularly exciting spotlight is a Kimi Masquerade Ensemble, commissioned specifically for the Mint in 2024. Artist David Sanou (and a bodymaker who requests anonymity) created the ensemble in Burkina Faso. Sanou chose the iconography and color palette of the entire ensemble and allowed me to document him carving the headpiece. It is a rare instance of an African work of art in an American museum with fully documented provenance.

My hope is that visitors will not only admire the imagination and virtuosity embodied by these works but also appreciate the honest approach to sharing what we know and what we don’t know about them as individual objects. 

Lisa Homann, PhD, is an associate professor of art history at UNC Charlotte and the guest curator of the reinstallation of the African galleries at Mint Museum Randolph.

The transformed African Art galleries at Mint Museum Randolph emphasize the objects’ roles within society and explore global connections, ceremonial masquerades, and the historical influence of Western perceptions on African art.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES HERE

The Mint Museum announces re-opening of expanded African Art galleries

New installation offers deeper cultural insight into works on view

Figure 1: Einar (Mexican, 1963–) and Jamex (Mexican, 1960–) de la Torre. “Oxymodern (Aztec Calendar),” 2002, blown-glass, mixed-media wall installation, 120 x 120 x 12 in. Courtesy of the Cheech Marin Collection and Riverside Art Museum.

By Annie Carlano

Einar and Jamex de la Torre (born 1960 and 1963, respectively) have energized and expanded the notion
of contemporary glass. The dynamic duo uses the performative nature of blown glass to express their views on binational identity, politics, religion, and pop culture. For “the brothers,” as they are known, art making is an additive process and goes beyond glass. Their creations combine found appropriated objects with resin, laser-cut metal, and lenticular prints. Colorful and exuberant, neo-Baroque, and over the top, the playfulness often masks an acerbic commentary on colonialism and corruption.

“The title of the exhibition mirrors the artists’ use of wordplay, alluding to the kaleidoscope-like quality of their works and the collision of imagery, themes, and references that comprise their artistic language,” says exhibition curator Selene Preciado. “The artists use critique layered with humor as a tool to unpack the tensions and contradictions of our postcolonial transcultural identity.”

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Einar and Jamex moved to California with their Danish-Mexican mother in 1972. The culture shock wore off as they enjoyed the relative freedom and entrepreneurial spirit of their new home.

Experiments with lampworking led to a small business venture, and further study at California State University exposed them to a variety of art media and the collaborative nature of blown glass. Working together since the 1990s, they dismissed the minimalist trends of the art world to pursue a maximalist aesthetic, drawing on multicultural sources, religious imagery, “Flemish Surrealism” — the paintings of Bosch and Breughel — German Expressionism, and current events. In the last 15 years, the brothers have added photo-mural installations and lenticular prints to their repertoire, heightening viewers’ senses and asking each viewer to take a closer look.

A Retro-Perspective is their take on a traditional retrospective, which this is not. This exhibition eschews chronology and is more like a party than a survey.

Spanning a 30-year period, Collidoscope is organized into five sections: “Histerical Vignettes,” “Hybrid Dislocations,” “Systems and Cycles,” “Retracollage,” and “Other Works.”

Hybrid Dislocations

Oxymodern (Aztec Calendar), in the section “Hybrid Dislocation,” is a mixed-media timepiece based on the design of the Mesoamerican Aztec sun or calendar stone and Asian mandalas, (figure 1). Depicted are eight dinner settings with human hearts sitting on a bed of mole sauce accompanied by Mexican bank note napkins. Four faces or characters are engaged in a game of dominos surrounded by snuffed-out cigarettes and squished beer cans. The brothers are making fun of the ways in which modern man passes the time.

Also, from “Hybrid Dislocation” is Baja Kali, (figure 3). This pyramid structure is named for Baja California, Mexico, where the brothers live part time, and the Buddhist goddess Kali. The goddess Kali is conceptually and visually blended with the Aztec goddess Coatlique, both representing Mother Earth and the life cycle, in the depiction at the top of the pyramid, where the blown glass and lampworked figures are born and devoured. An outstanding example of the brothers layered cultural narratives, Baja Kali was well received in bohemian California circles and rented to the Lollapolooza festival as a set design for their 1995 tour.

Figure 3: Einar (Mexican, 1963–) and Jamex (Mexican, 1960–) de la Torre, “Baja Kali,” 1995, blown-glass, lamp-worked glass and mixed-media sculpture, 87 x 45 x 17 in. Courtesy of Einar and Jamex de la Torre and Koplin Del Rio

Histerical Vignettes

“Histerical Vignettes” includes !2020! (figure 4), a work featuring a tattooed baby emperor who heralds in the new year. Conceived during COVID, the baby holds a remote, and the brothers ponder, who really has control of 2020. After searching for the perfect baby doll, the brothers found this one and made a blown-glass head and headdress. The head is a nod to the sugar skulls given out during Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and to the candy-like appearance of blown glass in general. Found trinkets decorate the bed frame and posts, and the clear dishes under the legs of the bed conceal bedbugs.

¡2020! (detail), 2020, mixed-media, blown-glass sculpture with resin casting, 33 x 22 x 14 in. Courtesy of Koplin Del Rio Gallery.

Systems and Cycles

A lenticular print revealing two distinct scenes as one moves sideways, Feminencia, another made up word combining the Spanish for feminine and the Spanish for eminence, is a feminist work. A part of the “Systems and Cycles” section, it celebrates the strength and power of the female sex, both carnal and spiritual. Made after the brothers returned from an extensive European trip in 2020, one scene depicts a nervous King Leopold of Belgium (1790-1865) surrounded by female nudes depicted in French and Flemish paintings, including, at his feet, Gabrielle d’Estrées and one of her Sisters, 1575-1600, Musee du Louvre. Moving to the other side of the work, a second image appears: the sculpture of the Buddhist goddess White Tara, a gift of the Nepalese government to Mexico. Through the digital magic of photoshop the brothers layered images of Austrian churches and the Eiffel Tower to heighten the sensation of divine wisdom. 

Annie Carlano is the exhibition curator and senior curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion at The Mint Museum.

Mint docent Susan Catterall gives a group tour at Mint Museum Randolph.

By Michele Huggins

Having spent much of her career in law school and law firm libraries, Susan Catterall knew that she wanted to do something different when she retired. With an undergraduate degree in art history, she wanted to be more involved with arts. Thanks to a friend who was already a Mint Docent, she was introduced to Joel Smeltzer, head of school and gallery programs and docent liaison. She joined the Mint Docent program in 2017 and also volunteers in the library and archives department. Read on to learn more about her experience as a volunteer at the Mint.

How has volunteering at the Mint enriched your life?

I consider art to be fundamental to our lives. As it happens, in an unexpected way, my involvement at The Mint Museum has permitted me to fulfill my original goal of working in an art library. I think of this whenever I volunteer in the archives or encourage members of the Docent Research Committee to ask librarian Jennifer Winford for research assistance.

As a docent, I can share my passion for art and history with others. I have been fortunate to have formed firm friendships with other docents, especially with those in my entering class, and have learned much from seasoned docents and from the enthusiasm of new docents. We inspire each other.

I enjoy researching artists and art movements and have served on the Docent Research Committee for several years. Pursuing research put me in frequent contact with The Mint Museum librarians, including Joyce Weaver, Ellen Show, and Jennifer Winford. Eventually I eventually began volunteering for Ellen Show, director of library and archives, to learn more about archival work.

I have been honored to have had a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how long and how hard a curator works in bringing an exhibition to life and to observe the support that the library and archives department provides. I was privileged to assist in the processing of the Robert Ebendorf archives memorabilia and to have become better acquainted with Assistant Curator of Fashion, Craft, and Design Rebecca Elliot.

What is your favorite tour to give?

There are a number of tours which I enjoy, and I like being able to lead tours at Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph. Some of my favorites include: “The African American Experience Through Art,” “Learning to Look: Every Picture Tells a Story,” and the “Highlights Tour.”

Whenever I lead a tour, I feel as if I am encouraging individuals to appreciate and respond to different cultures and to perspectives that have been expressed through art. The learning and engagement staff, especially Joel Smeltzer, Maggie Mauldin. and Kassidy Childs, are continually developing creative tours and improving processes. Docents add to the success of a tour, not only by being prepared, but by our ability to read the audience, and adjust and cater the tour to them.

Do you have a favorite work in the Mint’s collection? If so, what makes it your favorite?

I enjoy the story behind the work of art, whether it’s the life of the individual artist, the process of making the piece, or the historic setting in which it was created. So, I have many favorites. However, I have two “go-to” pieces to which I frequently turn when engaging the tour audience. One is Hoss Haley’s White Ripple on view in on Level 3 in Craft + Design galleries. We discuss blacksmithing skills, environmental concerns regarding the recycling and repurposing of “white goods,” as well as the science behind the craft. I will often ask for a volunteer who has a strong, steady voice to walk the length of the piece. The remaining group can hear how the metal ripples shorten and lengthen the soundwaves, which begin to resemble a French police siren.

I also use Lonely Vigil by William Herbert Dunston by having the tour participants look carefully and tell me what is going on in the painting. I begin by having them stand on the other side of the room and describe the “big picture.” Then I ask the group to move forward and observe how other details emerge. We also discuss how artists’ fascination with the Old West helped shape American Art.

What do you wish more people knew about volunteering at the Mint?

What I most wish that people knew is that the docent corps is made of up of so many amazing and talented individuals. We are artists, professors, art educators, teachers, writers, editors, actors, gardeners, lawyers, librarians, bilinguists and so much more. We learn from each other and enjoy sharing our experiences and engaging our audiences.

Several years ago, a docent colleague and I created an acronym based on the word “MINT” to illustrate museum manners and rules for school students. For me, the “T” stands for “teaching each other.”  I tell students that I may know about the art within the museum, but I depend on them to teach me new aspects through their eyes and experiences. I feel the same way about my docent colleagues.

Michele Huggins is associate director of marketing and communications at The Mint Museum.

DaRemen J. (American, 1994–). Bluegreenteal (detail), 2024, digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist;

Art in the slow lane

By Page Leggett

The muse doesn’t automatically appear before photographer/videographer DaRemen J. He has to look — patiently — for inspiration. DaRemen J. doesn’t want his artistic practice to be rushed.

Occasionally, the Charlotte native will have an idea and immediately move on it, he says, but most of the time, it does take a lot of planning. And that takes time.

To explain just how slowly he likes to take things, he employs a metaphor familiar to most of us. “Before I even have a subject,” he says, “it’s like I have to sit in the DMV line and wait to be called. I have to wait for the idea to really strike a chord before I can all-the-way commit. I have to take my time.” DaRemen’s art is much more appealing than your typical visit to the DMV, though.

The mostly self-taught filmmaker/photographer/visual artist (he began in 2013 by shooting pictures on his phone) grew up in Charlotte, graduated from Butler High School and then went on to the Art Institute of Charlotte where he found he was good at photography. But he dropped out because he “wasn’t learning much.” Besides, he was working two jobs at the time and had little time for studies. He found experience to be a better teacher. And it has worked out well.

His work has been exhibited widely in Charlotte, including at the Mint. He was among artists featured in Local/Street curated by artist Carla Aaron-Lopez. At a Wednesday Night Live event, he was on hand to shoot guests’ portraits. His work has also been shown at the Gantt Center, The Light Factory, and Camp North End for the Durag Fest and Hunnid Dolla Art Fair.

Up next with the Mint, his portraits and short films will be showcased as part of the Constellation CLT exhibition at Mint Museum Uptown opening March 14, 2025.

Every picture tells a story

DaRemen is both a fine art photographer and a commercial photographer, which can be a tough line to straddle. He describes his style as “Afro-surrealism.” Clients seek him out for commercial work because, he says, his “nostalgic, dream-like and cinematic” aesthetic appeals to them. He also insists that his work — whether a still or moving image — tells a story.

“I’m always studying paintings, illustrations and comic books,” he says. “And I study them because I’m always looking for narratives. I want to see how other artists capture or tell a story in a single photo.”

Even his portraits — almost all of African Americans —aren’t just run-of-the-mill headshots. The viewer learns something about the subject, based on the setting in which they are photographed, what they are wearing, their facial expressions and the way they are posing. Some of his portraits look like high-fashion shoots; others are slice-of-life shots taken on city streets, under a fire escape, in front of a convenience store.

Even though DaRemen looks for a narrative when framing a shot or filming a scene, he doesn’t want viewers to have to work too hard to see the meaning he found in the work. Just stopping, even for a moment, to look is enough for him.

“I’m grateful to anyone who stops to look at my work. We all have such short attention spans today; everything is moving so fast. So, for anyone to stop, take a breath and look — I’m appreciative.”

Coming into his own

The imagery is so distinctive, you wouldn’t guess that DaRemen ever doubted his talent or style. But when he was first starting out, he’d compare himself to other photographers and filmmakers. The search for his own approach and aesthetic is what he considers his biggest creative challenge.   

“I used to feel I had to fit into a certain niche. It’s been important to my practice that I just come into my own. Especially with the internet, there’s a lot of pressure to be as good as someone whose work you admire on social media. So, honing my skill and my style is probably my biggest hurdle.”

Another challenge he is familiar with: “Making money at it is very hard.” DaRemen has done it in his hometown — a place where he’s “almost overwhelmed by how many talented people are here.” He appreciates how The Mint Museum elevates local artists by shining a spotlight on them. 

“The Mint has opened the door for all types of art,” he says. “They’re bringing a lot of attention to local artists. I never thought my work would be showcased in a museum — and it’s a big deal to be encouraged in that way.

Learn more about DaRemen J. — and see his work — on his Instagram page @1stkind. 

Page Leggett is a Charlotte-based freelance writer. Her stories have appeared in The Charlotte Observer, The Biscuit, Charlotte magazine and many other regional publications.

Ever Present: Romare Bearden and Music is on view through November 2025 at Mint Museum Uptown.

The newest rotation in the museum’s Romare Bearden gallery — Ever Present: Romare Bearden and Music — celebrates the artist’s love of and long engagement with music. From his earliest paintings to his final collages, music was a recurring theme in Romare Bearden’s art. This selection of more than a dozen examples of Bearden’s work, drawn entirely from The Mint Museum’s rich holdings, highlights some of the many ways he explored musical subjects in drawings, prints, and collages.

Music was a foundational part of Bearden’s life. His father, Howard, was a pianist and organist, and other members of his extended family had musical talents as well. A grand piano enlivened their apartment in Harlem, which was visited by a variety of musicians who were close friends of the family, including Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. One of Bearden’s memories of visiting relatives in Maryland as a teenager involved delivering cakes made by a family friend accompanied by her husband, a blind folk artist, who strummed a guitar as they made their rounds.

Bearden also enjoyed listening to music while he worked and likened the process of making art to that of playing jazz: “You do something, then you improvise,” he would say.

In this installation, many types of musical performances are featured, ranging from impromptu porch jam sessions to the immersive world of clubs and lounges. Sometimes the instruments and performers are easy to identify; in others the visual equivalent of the sounds and experiences they are creating is more prominent, abstracting the scene.

The installation also includes an example of Bearden’s own talent as a composer in the sheet music and record for the hit  song “Seabreeze” (1954) that he composed with Larry Douglas and Fred Norman. Visitors can scan a QR code and listen to the tune in the gallery. —Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American Art 

Photo by Cubby Captures.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Charlotte, North Carolina (January 31, 2025) – The Mint Museum is excited to announce that applications are now open for Potters Market at the Mint, set to take place on Saturday, September 27, 2025, at Mint Museum Randolph.

This year’s event will feature over 50 booths, each showcasing a wide range of functional and conceptual ceramic art created by North Carolina’s finest artists. Ceramic artists from across North Carolina are invited to submit their work for consideration to participate in this highly anticipated one-day event that celebrates the vibrant ceramic arts community in the state.

The application deadline is February 15, 2025. The application fee is $40 (non-refundable). To apply, applicants must be North Carolina residents. Artists are required to submit six images of distinct works, along with a brief description of their technique and a longer artist statement. For more detailed application instructions, eligibility guidelines, and the full set of rules and regulations, visit the website pottersmarketatthemint.com.

New this year, thanks to the generous support of presenting sponsor Principal Foundation, all potters selected to participate in the 2025 Potters Market at the Mint will have booth fees and associated rental costs fully covered. This extraordinary one-year sponsorship includes coverage for regular booth space, rental fees for tables and linens, and one complimentary lunch during the event. The initiative comes in response to the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene on potters and the artistic community in Western North Carolina.

“Recognizing the financial strain caused by this natural disaster, Principal Foundation’s support ensures that all selected potters may showcase their work without incurring these costs. We are deeply grateful for this partnership, which exemplifies a commitment to accessibility and resilience within the arts,” says Kait Marley, chairperson of Potters Market at the Mint.

Potters Market at the Mint has three core goals: supporting artists, raising funds for The Mint Museum, and engaging new audiences. This year’s event will be juried by a distinguished panel of experts in the field of ceramics, including Mindy Solomon, owner of Mindy Solomon Gallery; Nancy Chavis, director/curator and lecturer at UNC Pembroke; and Kevin Snipes, ceramic artist.

In addition to the opportunity to showcase their work, artists will be eligible for three major awards, which will be presented during the event: The Mellanay Delhom Award – $1,000 cash and automatic entry into the next Potters Market; The Daisy Wade Bridges Award – $750; and The Best New Exhibitor Award – $500.

ABOUT POTTERS MARKET AT THE MINT  
Potters Market at the Mint is an annual celebration of North Carolina’s ceramic artists. It provides a unique opportunity for collectors and art lovers to meet the artists, purchase one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces, and support The Mint Museum’s mission. With its rich history and commitment to excellence, Potters Market at the Mint has become a must-attend event for ceramic art enthusiasts across the region.

CONTACT:  
Kait Marley
Chairperson of Potters Market at the Mint
info@pottersmarketatthemint.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Annie Leibovitz, Self Portrait, Brooklyn, New York, 2017. Photo courtesy of the artist ©Annie Leibovitz.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK features new, rarely seen photographs alongside iconic images selected by the artist from throughout her 50-year career

Charlotte, North Carolina (January 22, 2025) — The Mint Museum is proud to announce the opening of ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK, a landmark exhibition celebrating the iconic photographer’s illustrious career. Opening to the public April 27, 2025 at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, the exhibition is an extraordinary opportunity to experience Leibovitz’s evolving artistry in an innovative and dynamic format.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK presents a compelling mix of new and rarely seen photographs alongside some of the most recognizable portraits in American culture. Known for her signature ability to capture intimacy and personality, Leibovitz’s images feature a remarkable roster of artists, musicians, politicians, athletes, and other influential figures throughout five decades. From her early black-and-white work to her more recent, painterly conceptual portraits, the exhibition showcases the breadth and depth of her creative journey.

“Annie Leibovitz’s career as a photographer has developed alongside the United States’s obsession with celebrities, both their public image and their private side. Leibovitz’s images manage to capture both — the individual in a private setting that reflects both what the public expects and what we could never see — naked John Lennon curled around clothed Yoko Ono, Whoopi Goldberg immersed in a bath of milk, Steve Martin painted like a Franz Kline striking a pose in front of a Franz Kline,” says Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum. “What this show illustrates is that not only has Leibovitz documented popular culture in this country for 50 years, but her images have also defined what we expect that cultural to look like.”

Visitors will enjoy the exhibition in an engaging dual format, with prints on paper complemented by cutting-edge digital tower displays. This immersive presentation highlights both the timeless quality of her earlier work and her embrace of new photographic technologies to portray the figures defining today’s cultural landscape.

Leibovitz’s remarkable career began in the 1970s, when she made her mark as “Rolling Stone” magazine’s chief photographer. Immersed in the cultural and social upheavals of the era, her work quickly became emblematic of the time. In the early 1980s, she transitioned to photographing for “Vanity Fair” and later “Vogue,” broadening her scope and establishing herself as the definitive portraitist of the world’s most fascinating figures.

Leibovitz’s trailblazing achievements include being the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, in 1991. Her contributions to photography have been recognized with numerous accolades, including lifetime achievement awards from the International Center of Photography and the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In a testament to her enduring influence, she has also been named a living legend by the Library of Congress.

Her legacy is one of capturing the essence of her subjects with unparalleled intimacy and artistry, a feat that continues to define her as one of the most significant photographers of our time.

The Mint Museum exhibition is generously presented by Truist. Individual sponsorship is kindly provided by  Jennifer and Alex Bauer, Mary and Walter Beaver, Hillary and Fairfax Cooper, Laura and Mike Grace, Jill and Mark Kelly, Noelle and Mark Mahoney, Staci and Jeff Mills, Mary and Dick Payne, Beth and Drew Quartapella, Mary Anne (M.A.) Rogers, Kati and Chris Small, Leigh-ann and Martin Sprock, and Ann and Michael Tarwater. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the City of Charlotte and the North Carolina Arts Council.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas where it was originally on view. The Mint Museum is the third venue for the exhibition.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets to ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / WORK at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts are an additional $10 plus museum admission. Museum admission is free for members and youth ages 18 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older and college students with ID. Tickets may be purchased at mintmuseum.org.

THE MINT MUSEUM

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

The mission of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is to welcome all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature. Since opening in 2011, the museum has welcomed more than 13 million visitors across its spaces, with no cost for admission. Crystal Bridges was founded in 2005 as a non-profit charitable organization by arts patron and philanthropist, Alice Walton. The collection spans five centuries of American masterworks from early American to current day and is enhanced by temporary exhibitions. The museum is nestled on 120 acres of Ozark landscape and was designed by the world-renowned Safdie Architects. A rare Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house was preserved and relocated to the museum grounds in 2015. Home of the prestigious Don Tyson Prize for the Advancement of American Art and Tyson Scholars of American Art Program, Crystal Bridges offers public programs including lectures, performances, classes, and teacher development opportunities. Some 478,375 school children have participated in the Willard and Pat Walker School Visit program, which provides educational experiences for school groups at no cost to the schools. Additional museum amenities include a restaurant, gift store, library, and five miles of art and walking trails. In February 2020, the museum opened the Momentary in Downtown Bentonville (507 SE E Street), conceived as a platform for the art, food, and music of our time. In 2026, Crystal Bridges will complete a 114,000 square foot expansion that will allow the museum to expand access for all. For more information, visit CrystalBridges.org. The museum is located at 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, Arkansas 72712.

TRUIST

Truist Financial Corporation is a purpose-driven financial services company committed to inspiring and building better lives and communities. As a leading U.S. commercial bank, Truist has leading market share in many of the high-growth markets across the country. Truist offers a wide range of products and services through our wholesale and consumer businesses, including consumer and small business banking, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management, payments, and specialized lending businesses. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Truist is a top-10 commercial bank with total assets of $531 billion as of December 31, 2024. Truist Bank, Member FDIC. Learn more at Truist.com.

CONTACT:

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c

The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes on view at Mint Museum Uptown.

For Immediate Release

The Mint Museum welcomes artist Ernie Barnes’s iconic masterpiece, The Sugar Shack

Charlotte, North Carolina (December 13, 2024) — The Mint Museum is proud to announce the arrival of The Sugar Shack, the celebrated masterpiece by renowned artist Ernie Barnes. On loan through June 30, 2025, this iconic painting is now on display in the American Art galleries on Level 4 of Mint Museum Uptown. This marks the first time a museum in North Carolina has showcased the widely recognized and revered painting.

Visitors to The Mint Museum have a unique opportunity to experience the electrifying energy of The Sugar Shack, which captures a lively night at a Black music hall in mid-20th century, segregated North Carolina. Inspired by Barnes’s memory of sneaking into the Durham Armory as a preteen in 1952, the painting vibrates with movement and emotion, as dancers and musicians lose themselves in the joy of the moment. Barnes’s signature style of elongated, fluid figures set in motion brings the scene to life with unmatched vitality.

Barnes painted two versions of The Sugar Shack. The original version of The Sugar Shack gained fame as the cover art for Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album “I Want You” and the second painting, which is on view at Mint Museum Uptown,  was later was featured in the end credits of the groundbreaking sitcom “Good Times.” The painting became a cultural touchstone, representing the vibrancy and resilience of Black culture.

 About Ernie Barnes

Born in Durham, North Carolina during the Jim Crow era, Ernie Barnes defied the odds to become a celebrated artist and athlete. A college football player who majored in art, Barnes went on to play professional football for multiple NFL teams before dedicating himself fully to his art. Known for his expressive paintings of elongated, muscular figures, Barnes captured movement, emotion, and culture in his works.

His career highlights include serving as the official artist for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where he created five themed paintings for the International Olympic Committee. He was also commissioned by the Los Angeles Lakers to create Fastbreak, a dynamic tribute to players Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, and Michael Cooper. In 1990, Barnes was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by North Carolina Central University.

Interest in Barnes’s work has seen a resurgence in recent years. In 2022, The Sugar Shack sold at auction for over $15 million, highlighting its enduring significance and the artist’s remarkable legacy.

TICKET INFORMATION

The Sugar Shack is included with general museum admission and is available for viewing during regular museum hours. Museum admission is free for members and youth ages 18 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older and college students with ID. Admission is free 5-9 PM on Wednesdays. Purchase tickets at mintmuseum.org.

THE MINT MUSEUM

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

CONTACT:

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)

Thanks to a collaboration with UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture, a special collection of archival drawings are protected for generations to come.

Mostly through books, magazines, online subscriptions, and oral histories, The Mint Museum Library and Archives provides context for the museum’s various collections. In addition, there are special collections in the library that offer unique glimpses into the Mint’s art and artifacts, as well as the cultures and people behind the creations.

One strong example is the library’s collection of El Tajín Drawings and Photography by art historian Michael Edwin Kampen-O’Riley, PhD. The collection is comprised of 264 line drawings of low-relief carvings found on the structures of El Tajín, an ancient Mesoamerican site in Veracruz, Mexico. A small selection of these drawings was displayed in the installation El Tajín: Photography and Drawings by Michael Kampen in 2018 at Mint Museum Randolph.

About the El Tajín drawings

In 1992, El Tajín was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique architecture and for what it illustrates about Mesoamerican life, beliefs, and customs from 800- 1200 CE.

The drawings depict the carvings of four sculpture groups of El Tajín: the Pyramid of Niches, the South Ball Court, the North Ball Court, and the Mound of Building Columns. UNESCO considers the Pyramid of Niches at El Tajín to be “a masterpiece of ancient Mexican and American architecture.”

The library’s collection of El Tajín drawings were traced on vellum from scaled photographs of the site taken in the late 1960’s by Kampen-O’Riley, a retired professor emeritus of art history who taught for many years at UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture and who is well known for his scholarship on non-Western art history.

Kampen-O’Riley gifted the drawings and photographs to The Mint Museum Library in 2004. The erosion at the site made the carvings hard to view in the photos he had originally taken of the site. The traced line drawings allowed for easier viewing and interpretation and have been increasingly more useful as El Tajín’s architecture suffers further erosion. Small reproductions of the drawings were first shared in Kampen-O’Riley’s 1972 book “The Sculptures of El Tajín, Veracruz, Mexico.”

Several noted books about El Tajín reference the importance of the drawings, photographs, and writings included in this text. Scholar Rex Koontz writes that “Michael Kampen (-O’Riley…) was the first person to publish a systematic study of the site’s iconography as a whole. His book “The Sculptures of El Tajín, Veracruz, Mexico” was by far the most important publication on the imagery up to that time. In it he illustrated the entire known corpus of sculpture with careful line drawings that have proved invaluable to all later researchers.” (Koontz, 2009).

The book is now out of print, so access to all of the drawings is again limited — until now.

Kampen-O’Riley, Michael Edwin (American, 1939–). South Ball Court Panel 5, circa 1967, ink
on vellum. Collection of The Mint Museum Library. SC2008.3.92. I

The digitization project

Over two decades, The Mint Museum Library searched for the right digitization opportunity for the El Tajín drawings. One of the original challenges was getting quality scans for the largest drawings that are up to 4-feet wide. Another challenge was capturing enough contrast on the transparent vellum material.

Thanks to technological advances and a partnership with UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture, the digitization project took flight in 2023. The college was excited to digitize the drawings and make them available to its faculty and students, particularly because of Kampen-O’Riley’s contributions as a faculty member at UNC Charlotte.

Today, all 264 drawings are digitized and available to scholars worldwide via the digital library JSTOR that provides free access to millions of images, articles, and books. The project is possible thanks to the incredible work of Jenna Duncan, visual resources lecturer at the UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture, who masterfully scanned and photographed even the largest drawings. “I thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to digitize the drawings and to make them available to a wider audience,” Duncan says. “Since much of the College of Arts + Architecture’s faculty work has been lost over the years, I am especially grateful to be able to add these drawings to our collections and allow future students to study and learn from these important works.”

One of Kampen-O’Riley’s El Tajín drawings will be included in the exhibition Generations: 60 Years/21 Conversations on view at the UNC Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture this October. The exhibition is a celebration of the College of Arts + Architecture’s 60th anniversary and highlights the work of the college’s faculty and students throughout its history.

–Jennifer Winford, librarian at The Mint Museum.

Peggy Culbertson

It is with a heavy heart that we honor the legacy of Peggy Culbertson, a beloved member of The Mint Museum family. Peggy, alongside her husband Bob Culbertson, has been a cornerstone of the community for over six decades, generously supporting the museum through unwavering support and dedication. Peggy’s grace, kindness, and keen eye for art were not just qualities admired by those who knew her—they were gifts she shared with the entire museum community.

Strong believers in the value of family and community, the Culbertson Family Learning Center at Mint Museum Uptown stands as a testament to their passion for art education and their commitment to enriching the cultural landscape of Charlotte for all ages.  As a charter member of the Founders’ Circle and founding member of Crown Society, Peggy left an indelible mark on the museum, shaping its growth and ensuring its future for generations to come.

Peggy’s tenure as a board trustee from 1995-1998 and 1999-2002, coupled with her recognition as a Mint Museum Spirit Award winner, exemplifies her deep connection and enduring influence. She and her husband also donated or helped to purchase over a dozen works of art that are part of the museum collection, including the outstanding and historically significant work Selma by artist Barbara Pennington.

Her passion for service in the community manifested in the private and public sectors. In the public sphere, she was first female Chair of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission. She served on the board for the Charlotte-Douglas Airport Board of Advisors, the Fourth Ward Historic District Commission, as a Johnson C. Smith University trustee, a Children’s Theatre advisor, and many other roles throughout the community. She also received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Girl Scouts Hornet’s Nest Council, a Charlotte Woman of the Year award, and was author of two books: “Southern Sampler: Women of Courage” and “White Girl: A Memoir of Race and Gender.”

We are immensely grateful for Peggy’s contributions and her support for arts and culture in Charlotte. Her spirit will always remain a part of The Mint Museum, a legacy of beauty, kindness, and generosity that will never be forgotten.

— Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications

Jeffrey Gibson (American, 1972–). I’M TAKING TIME AWAY TO DREAM, 2023, acrylic on canvas, vintage beaded elements, glass beads, acrylic felt and nylon thread in a custom painted frame. Copyright Jeffrey Gibson. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery. Photo by Max Yawney.

Stars align for purchase of work by Jeffrey Gibson

For over two decades, Jeffrey Gibson has created works that bridge his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and mainstream popular culture. His early works stretched elk skin over a traditional drum or an unexpected ironing board painted with high-keyed colors in geometric patterns that were as much Indigenous design as Op Art and rave club decoration. In the 2010s, Gibson’s punching bags decorated in beads, jingles, and ribbons, emblazoned with empowering slogans — KNOW YOUR MAGIC, TRAPPED IN THE DREAM OF THE OTHER, NOTHING IS ETERNAL — caught the attention of the art world. While the sculpture echoed fashion, the embellished paintings Gibson made simultaneously continued the pushpull with Indigenous and Western art’s visual languages. As if they were in a call and response, the two-dimensional works mashed up gay clubbing, hip-hop, and art history. Native American objects immediately cue a narrative deviating from a straightforwardly Western art history.

On a CBS Sunday Morning episode in May 2024, Gibson observed that when people see beads, “they know immediately that this is coming from a different history than a Rembrandt painting.” And while the zig-zag design may evoke Indigenous weaving patterns, the color palette is a reference to both Indigenous and queer culture aesthetics. They could be found as easily in a disco as in fancy dance regalia. Gibson clarifies his use of color, with the “we” referring to queer culture as well as Indigenous.

In a New York Times article about his work, Gibson recalls while working to earn his bachelor’s degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, professors criticized his intense colors as “gaudy, trashy, kitschy and campy.” Gibson combatted this dismissal by making those very design elements the representation of strength and confidence. The work flows easily between Indigenous aesthetics, Chelsea-gallery conceptualism, and commercial design. His powerful pattern and decoration works have steadily moved to larger platforms. In 2018, his large tunics loomed over the champagne-sipping crowd at the New York Armory; major museum retrospectives at Seattle Art Museum (2019) and Portland Art Museum (2023) follows.

This year, Gibson is the first Native American to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in an installation poignantly titled the space in which to place me. For the Venice exhibition, Gibson covered the building’s walls, inside and out, with his vibrant vectors of high-keyed hues. The exterior courtyard hosted an opening Jingle Dance performance by the Oklahoma Fancy Dancers and Colorado Inter-tribal Dancers in traditional dress (the footage is incredible and good clips can be found on YouTube, Venissage.TV, and the Portland Art Museum’s website). Inside, paintings with the same vibrating palette as the walls double the effect. Phrases and beaded objects add another layer to the paintings, each element a talisman — the brilliant triangles pushing our bodies and eyes, the collected objects as a keepsake from someone not present, and the words a guiding mantra from Gibson, which like the objects, are acquired second-hand from another source. (Gibson’s titles often quote poems or song lyrics; the pavilion title references the poem “He Sápa” by Oglala Lakota poet Layli Long Soldier.) These are gifts collected by the artist and passed onto us in the same way tradition and heritage makes its way through bloodlines and brethren. In Gibson’s words, “We are all living ends of very long threads.”

Jeffrey Gibson (American, 1972–). I’M TAKING TIME AWAY TO DREAM (detail), 2023, acrylic on canvas, vintage beaded elements, glass beads, acrylic felt and nylon thread in a custom painted frame. Copyright Jeffrey Gibson. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery. Photo by Max Yawney.

The acquisition story

Thanks to the generosity of the Mint Museum Auxiliary, The Mint Museum was able to purchase Jeffrey Gibson’s I’m Taking Time Away to Dream (2023). Annemarie Coyle, the Mint Museum Auxiliary’s 2023-2025 art chair, wanted this year’s Auxiliary donation to be as significant as the magnificent Maria Grazia Chiuri Dior dress purchased last year for the Craft, Design, and Fashion Collection. A work by Jeffrey Gibson has long been on the Mint’s Craft, Design, and Fashion wish list and the Contemporary Art Collection development plan. His intersection of craft traditions and techniques and traditional art methods allow him to cross multiple collection areas for the Mint. That broad relevance to the Mint’s collecting practices and Gibson’s representation at the Biennale made his work ideal.

Stephen Friedman Gallery’s preview of Gibson’s first London solo show hit curators’ inboxes January 11, 2024. Coyle and the Mint’s CEO and President Todd Herman, PhD, and I fell in love with two of the works, but it was essential to see the paintings. The Mint Museum Auxiliary board fortunately had a trip planned to London the week the Friedman show opened. The gallery agreed to hold the two pieces until the group, which included Herman; Senior Curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion Annie Carlano; and president of the Mint Museum Auxiliary Anna Glass, arrived. I’m Taking Time Away to Dream was selected.

The work will be installed in the Contemporary Art galleries at Mint Museum Uptown in fall 2024. The full rainbow spectrum consumes the surface, from canvas to the artist-painted frame. Vintage beaded patches — flowers reminiscent of a 1960s peacenik era and an American buffalo standing stoically beneath a rainbow — quote Indigenous decoration and the appropriation of those aesthetics into mainstream fashion. But the colors and beads also evoke queer culture, as Gibson has created a memorial for those lost at a young age to the AIDS epidemic. “I’m taking time away to dream” is the opening line of “Time Away,” a song by the multifaceted experimental musician Arthur Russell, who was only 40 years old when he died of AIDS-related causes. Gibson’s work evolves directly from his life: a gay, Indigenous man, born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a military kid, who grew up on Army bases in Korea and Germany, as well as numerous states, including North Carolina. Because of this, his work straddles many forms of American culture — indigenous and colonial, domestic and international.

In a June 2024 Bomb magazine interview with Anthony Hudson, Gibson states: “I’ve also tried to make work over the last 20 years that speaks to the many facets of my experience, which isn’t only rooted in Native cultures but also in the many places I’ve lived and the family I have. Dare I say, many intersections make up Jeffrey Gibson, and I feel responsible to them all.” As well as many more — Gibson layers multiple lost stories and marginalized voices into an image so vibrant and resonate, it cannot be overlooked easily or forgotten quickly. Gibson says of his viewers: “I want them to see survival, I want them to see innovation, I want them to see empowered people because so often, at least in my lifetime, we’ve been represented through our trauma. I want to present us as being very present and aware and powerful.”

–Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum.

Kate Nartker (Durham, NC, 1979‑). Fingers Crossed, 2022, handwoven jacquard weaving. Courtesy the artist.

For Immediate Release | IMAGES

Explore the creative spirit of the South in the exhibition ‘Coined in the South’ opening December 14 at The Mint Museum

Charlotte, North Carolina (November 7, 2024) — The highly anticipated, juried biennial exhibition, Coined in the South, opens December 14 at Mint Museum Uptown. This year, the exhibition features thought-provoking works by 49 visionary artists working across the Southeastern United States — from Maryland to Texas — that represent a diverse range of perspectives and styles.

The exhibition, created in collaboration with the Young Affiliates of the Mint, reflects the creative process of artistic invention, transcending any singular aesthetic, theme, or medium. The 2024 jurors for Coined in the South are Marshall Price, PhD, chief curator at Nasher Museum of Art; Victoria Ramirez, PhD, executive director of Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts; and Stephanie Woods, an accomplished artist and former Coined in the South award recipient. The exhibition is co-chaired by Young Affiliates of Mint (YAMS) board members Makayla Bitner and Patwin Lawrence.

“Coined in the South has become one of The Mint Museum’s most eagerly awaited events, showcasing the remarkable talents and creativity of the region’s artists. This year’s jurors meticulously reviewed nearly 1,500 submissions, ultimately selecting 49 artists whose work we are excited to share with the public,” says Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American Art and managing curator for the exhibition.

A $10,000 Juror’s Choice award, generously presented by Atrium Health Foundation, and a $5,000 YAMs Choice Award will be presented at the preview celebration December 12, followed by a $1,000 People’s Choice Award that will be announced after the closing of the exhibition.

“The Young Affiliates of the Mint are honored to serve as a catalyst for highlighting the incredible artistry of emerging talents in an effort to show the rich diversity and creative spirit of the Southern arts community. We are grateful to the artists who have trusted us to showcase their incredible talent in a true form of community representation where all are welcome,” says James McLelland, president of the Young Affiliates of the Mint.

Coined in the South is generously presented by Atrium Health Foundation and will be on view December 14, 2024–April 27, 2025 in the Level 3 Gorelick Galleries at Mint Museum Uptown. 

TICKET INFORMATION

Admission to The Mint Museum $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; and free for children ages 4 and younger, students in grades K-12, and college art students with ID.

THE MINT MUSEUM

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

YOUNG AFFILIATES OF THE MINT (YAMS)

The Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAMS) is a diverse group of young professionals promoting and supporting The Mint Museum through cultural engagement, social leadership, and fundraising events. Established in 1990, the YAMs are the premier social arts organization for young professionals in Charlotte.

CONTACTS

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)

Maya Goded (1967-, Mexico City). “Iquique, Chile,” 2022, digital print. Museum purchase with funds provided by Allen Blevins and Armando Aispuro, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes.

For Immediate Release | IMAGES

Charlotte, North Carolina (November 5, 2024) — Throughout the the last three decades, internationally renowned photographers Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded  have created revealing, poignant, and powerful images that examine the intersection of contemporary life and centuries-long practices throughout North and South America. Women of Land and Smoke: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded (Las Mujeres de Tierra y Humo: Las Fotografías de Graciela Iturbide y Maya Goded) opening November 23 at Mint Museum Randolph, features over 50 photographs that present an overview of the artists’ careers, spanning decades and diverse series. This is the first exhibition to present the work of Iturbide and Goded in tandem.

Both artists, hailing from Mexico City, have dedicated their practice to spending extensive time with their subjects before photographing them. This creates an intimacy and a knowledge of the particular challenges and dynamics embedded in the communities they document. Through their lens, Iturbide and Goded consistently highlight the vital role of women in holding together fragmenting societies, whether in urban or isolated communities. For more than 35 years, Iturbide and Goded have leaned into each other as professional colleagues and friends to discuss the power of photography, ideas, politics, and the social and cultural life taking place around them.

The exhibition marks the first comprehensive presentation of works by Iturbide and Goded side-by-side and showcases the Mint’s efforts over the past three years to build a significant portfolio of these two prominent Mexico City-based photographers.

“I am so proud to present these important museum acquisitions and the work of Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded together in one space. Iturbide and Goded’s work exemplify all that photography can give us — a connection to others who may seem distant and different, but with whom we share the most common factors of humanity,” says Jennifer Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum. “Iturbide created a new way of connecting with subjects and sharing agency with them to make her work and Goded, mentored by Iturbide at the beginning of her career, has continued this practice with profound results. In an era where we increasingly glean information through images, it is essential that the makers of those images do so with consideration, respect, and thoughtfulness.

PROGRAMMING

To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, two special events are planned. Both programs will be in English and Spanish.

On November 20, the Mint will host a film screening of Maya Goded’s powerful documentary, “Plaza de la Soledad,” offering an intimate look into the lives of women in the sex trade in Mexico City and the harsh realities and emotional toll intertwined with their daily lives. Goded will introduce the film and answer questions following.

On November 21, artist Maya Goded will engage in a conversation with Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, discussing her career and the themes resonating throughout the exhibition.

Additional events will occur In April and May 2025 around a program titled “Artful Healing: Exploring Wellness Through Creative Expression.” Maya Goded and Cherokee artist Laura Walkingstick will lead workshops for femme-identifying participants to explore how to use art-making to process trauma. Two workshops will take place, one in Cherokee and one in Charlotte. These workshops are supported by multiple Charlotte arts and cultural organizations, including the McColl Center that will provide a residency space to Goded and Walkingstick; The Light Factory that will provide cameras, photography instructors, printing, and exhibition space; and Circle de Luz that will partner with the Mint for the Charlotte workshop.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Graciela Iturbide, born in 1942, initially pursued a career in film before turning to photography under the influence of Mexican modernist master Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Iturbide’s work focuses on documenting life in indigenous communities throughout Latin America, as well as significant projects in East Germany, India, Madagascar, Hungary, and France. She has been the subject of numerous retrospectives, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Art, and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, as well as exhibitions and publications throughout the world.

Iturbide has received many of the most significant awards in her field including the Mexican Fine Arts Gold Metal Award (2024); the William Klein Prize from the French Academy of Arts (2023); the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award from the World Photography Organization; The National Museum of Women in the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts (2020); the W. Eugene Smith Award (1987); a Guggeheim Fellowship (1988). In 2022 she was inducted into the Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

Maya Goded, born in Mexico City in 1967 to political activists, has long sought out the unseen or actively ignored individuals in society: prostitutes, the missing, laborers, and healers. Her photographs capture women whose essential roles sustain their communities but who are often overlooked in discussions of care and protection. In recent years, Goded has observed that the healing practices traditionally used by women have increasingly been redirected toward the land they inhabit. The portfolio of images collected by the Mint showcases the myriad ways in which women’s bodies navigate the world in their pursuit of healing.

Goded has been honored with numerous awards including 2020 National Geographic Storytelling Fellows (2020); Charles Claus Fund, 2001 W. Eugene Smith Award and Guggenheim Foundation (2001). Her 2016 acclaimed documentary film, “Plaza de la Soledad” was selected for major international festivals, including Sundance and Tribeca film festivals. Her first major publication will be available in early winter 2025.

Women of Land and Smoke: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded is generously presented by Bank of America, with additional support from the Mint Museum Auxiliary and Campania Fine Moulding. Individual support is kindly provided by Allen Blevins and Armando Aispuro, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the City of Charlotte and the North Carolina Arts Council.

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ABOUT THE MINT MUSEUM

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

CONTACT:

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)

Maya Goded (1967- Mexico City). “Iquique, Chile,” 2022, digital print. Museum purchase with funds provided by Allen Blevins and Armando Aispuro, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes.

Documenting the lives of women lost in the shadows

By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD

For the past three years, the Mint has been building a significant portfolio of works by Mexico City-based photographers Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded. Over the decades, the two photographers have created revealing, poignant, and powerful images that examine the intersection of contemporary life and centuries-long practices throughout North and South America.

The artists, who are a generation apart in age, both grew up in Mexico City and have worked in various places throughout the world. Their primary focus, however, has been indigenous communities stretching from Los Angeles to Chile. Over decades of exploring communities, whether urban or isolated, Iturbide and Goded have found women as the consistent force holding these fragmenting societies together.

The exhibition Women of Land and Smoke: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide and Maya Goded (Las Mujeres de Tierra y Humo: Las Fotografías de Graciela Iturbide y Maya Goded), opening November 23 at Mint Museum Randolph, includes over 50 photographs that present an overview of Iturbide and Goded’s careers that span the Americas.

The exhibition is primarily drawn from The Mint’s collection, and celebrates a recent gift from Allen Blevins and Armando Aispuro, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes that allowed the museum to purchase significant portfolios by both photographers.

Maya Goded

Born in Mexico City in 1967 to political activists (her mother immigrated from New York City), Maya Goded has long sought out the unseen or actively ignored people in our spaces: prostitutes, the missing, laborers, healers. Goded’s photographs feature women whose essential roles are supporting and sustaining communities but are considered dispensable when it comes to their care and protection. 

Over the last decade, Goded noticed that the healing practices women traditionally used on the sick in their communities were increasingly turned to the land on which they lived. Decades of strip mining, nuclear testing, and chemical dumping had poisoned the earth and water in many Central and South American countries Goded documented. As a result, the portfolio of images the Mint has collected includes many ways in which women’s bodies move through the world with the attempt to heal.

The photographs featured here are an overview of Goded’s work that will be included in Women of Land and Smoke.

Learn more about Graciela Iturbide and her portfolio in the next issue of Inspired.*

Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, is chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum.

*This article originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of Inspired magazine, the Mint’s member magazine.

By Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD

One of the things that I enjoy most as a curator is discovering and learning about artists and works of art that are new to me, and then sharing what I’ve found with museum visitors. The exhibition Southern/Modern is the result of this curiosity. 

Nell Choate Jones (1879-1981). Georgia Red Clay, 1946, oil on canvas. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA. 1989.01094

While the South’s contributions to American literature and music during the first half of the 20th century have long been recognized, the region’s visual arts have remained underappreciated. A curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art famously scoffed in 1949, “little of artistic merit was made south of Baltimore.” To date there have been very few major exhibitions to survey the region’s art, and none that have focused on the modern period during which the South has traditionally been seen, as noted by The Met’s curator, as a kind of artistic backwater.

The inception of an exhibition

While the general public likely does not consider the time it takes to bring a special exhibition to life, the fact is that most are the product of years of behind-the-scenes work. This can involve visits to other museums and private collections, preparing grant applications, creating object checklists, drafting loan requests, working with authors and publishers, and more — and that’s all before the art even arrives in the building! A typical exhibition containing numerous loans like Southern/Modern likely takes a minimum of three to four years to develop. Southern/Modern, however, has been in the works for over a decade!

Elaine Kooning (1918-89). Black Mountain #6, 1948, enamel on paper mounted on canvas. The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY. Museum purchase. 1991.20.

I began thinking about this exhibition in 2008 as I got to know the Mint’s collection in depth in preparation for its reinstallation at the soon-to-open Mint Museum Uptown. As I dug into the Mint’s holdings and began to meet other colleagues at museums in the region, I found myself constantly surprised to encounter outstanding works of art by artists from the South who I had not heard of and who were not part of the mainstream history of American art. I thought that the best way to share this knowledge would be to organize an exhibition that brought together the best of this work, which had been studied and exhibited within the region but not benefitted from being brought together and seen as a whole.

To ensure that we were creating an inclusive and comprehensive survey, co-curator Martha Severens and I crowdsourced colleagues across the Southeast asking for feedback on our initial checklist to see what was missing. We also decided that while the majority of the artists in the exhibition lived, worked, and taught in the South, it also would be important to include the work of others from outside the region who created meaningful bodies of work based on their experiences and time in the South, such as Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, and Eldzier Cortor. We also included artists like Romare Bearden, who left the South at an early age but whose work consistently referred to his memories and experiences in the South. With many conversations and a great deal of research, Southern/Modern came together. 

While some of the work in Southern/Modern shows artists engaging with modernism by pushing their works towards simplification of form, bold coloration, and ultimately abstraction, many of the artists focused on addressing topics relevant to the era. Their works were “modern” in the progressive sense of calling attention to contemporary issues and often advocating for social change. Race, gender, urban growth, industrial development, land use and the environment, religion, family, social change, class differences … all of these topics can be found throughout the exhibition.

Carroll Cloar (1913-93). “A Story Told by My Mother,” 1955, casein tempura on Masonite. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN. Bequest of Mrs. C.M. Gooch. 80.3.16. ©Estate of Carroll Cloar.

The exhibition not only depicts life in the South then, but makes apparent how relevant these same issues in the South are today. It features 100 paintings, prints, and drawings, gathered from over 50 public and private collections, which are significant for both their artistic merit and subject matter. We hope that after visiting Southern/Modern you will have a better appreciation for the powerful art created in the South during the first half of the 20th century and be inspired to think more about your own relationship to the South and what it means to be a “modern” Southerner in 2024.

Southern/Modern is generously presented in Charlotte by Wells Fargo and the Dowd Foundation. Major support for the tour and exhibition catalogue are provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Betsy and Alfred Brand Fund at The Mint Museum. Individual sponsorship is kindly provided by Julie Boldt and Dhruv Yadav, Lucy and Hooper Hardison, Posey and Mark Mealy, and Rocky and Curtis Trenkelbach.

Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, is the senior curator of American Art at The Mint Museum.

This article originally appeared in the fall 2024 issue of Inspired magazine, the Mint’s member magazine.

Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Mint Museum will donate all admission proceeds from Oct. 3–10 to the Craft Emergency Relief Fund to help artists affected by Hurricane Helene

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA (October 1, 2024) — In an effort to support artists living in Western North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene, and as part of our steadfast commitment to supporting arts throughout North Carolina, The Mint Museum will be donating 100% of admission proceeds from October 3–10 to  Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+).

For over 40 years, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) has been a vital resource for craft artists, offering emergency relief and building educational tools to help artists navigate crises and rebuild. CERF+ remains a passionate advocate for the craft community, ensuring that artists have the support they need in the wake of disasters.

Additionally, the Mint is actively coordinating with local arts organizations and artists to identify opportunities for displaced artists to continue their work in Charlotte’s studios and creative spaces, offering them a place to practice their craft until they can safely return to Asheville.

“Our hearts go out to the residents of Western North Carolina who have been deeply affected by the ongoing crisis this past week caused by Hurricane Helene. Western North Carolina is a cornerstone of North Carolina’s artistic community, and home to some of the state’s most talented artists, craftspeople, and makers,” says Todd A. Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum.

People from Florida to the Ohio River Valley have been profoundly impacted by this storm, and every little bit counts, so we encourage you to visit the museum during this period and donate to organizations like CERF+, American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, United Way, MANNA FoodBank and others.

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By Michele Huggins

The passing of Katherine “Kat” Roddey Whitner McKay Belk Cook on August 30, 2024, marks the end of an era for those who were touched by her remarkable spirit. Her life was a tapestry woven with threads of grace, generosity, and steadfast commitment to the arts community.

Katherine “Kat” Belk

“Kat loved the arts and loved Charlotte, which she made apparent in her long and generous support of The Mint Museum and its programs,” says Mint CEO and President Todd Herman, PhD. “Her laugh and smile were her trademarks.”

Kat’s contributions were both visionary and tangible. Her involvement with The Mint Museum began in 1988 as a member of the Board of Trustees, serving with distinction in various roles, including as an Executive Committee At Large Member from 1989 to 1991. Her dedication continued with her Advisory Board service from 2007 to 2009. Her participation in the Curator’s Circle for American Art further underscored her dedication to preserving and celebrating artistic heritage.

As a Lifetime Member of the Mint Museum Auxiliary since 1993, a Mint Masterpiece Circle, Silver Circle member from 2006 to 2009, and a museum volunteer, she demonstrated unwavering support for the museum’s mission. She also advocated for the museum’s expansion and creation of Mint Museum Uptown.

Through the Katherine and Thomas Belk Acquisition Fund, established in 2014, she provided crucial support for acquiring significant works of art by artists Alson Skinner Clark, Beauford Delaney, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Kay Sage, and Kehinde Wiley. Her generosity also helped to enrich the Mint Museum’s Fashion Collection with 66 garments and accessories donated between 1991 and 2005.

Kat’s dedication was a testament to the power of philanthropy to support arts and culture at all levels. As we remember her, we celebrate the indelible mark she left on our community and The Mint Museum.

This year’s staff art exhibition, titled Origin, centers on staff origins — ancestry, race, and the beginning of existence. It symbolizes a rise, a commencement, and the source from which something derives its being or nature.

In addition to physical works of art created by Mint staff, Origin hosts an innovative digital component that complements the works on view. The dynamic display features items relevant to the origins and ancestry of Mint staff, including photos, family records, and various memorabilia. Each item will have an accompanying description of what it is and why it is important to the individual’s roots. The Mint Museum collaborated with Charlotte-based digital artist Alexander Newman Hall to create the interactive experience.

Origin will be on view through September 29 in the STAR Gallery, Level M, at Mint Museum Uptown.

—Hailey Black, multimedia strategy manager

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Jenni Walker | Walker PR Group | 980-339-8041-office | 704-649-6571-cell

The Mint Museum hosts 18^th Annual Potters Market at the Mint – Sept. 21

Annual pottery sale with more than 50 of North Carolina’s top ceramic artists

 Potters Market at the Mint logos and images are available here

 CHARLOTTE, N.C. – July 15, 2024 – North Carolina’s largest pottery sale with the state’s top ceramic artists returns to The Mint Museum 9:15 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21 on the lawn of Mint Museum Randolph, located at 2730 Randolph Road in Charlotte.

Organized by The Mint Museum, the 18^th Annual Potters Market at the Mint will feature more than 50 top potters working in North Carolina. The potters were selected through a competitive jury process and will be exhibiting and selling their best work. The event helps support the artists and introduces ceramic arts and collections of The Mint Museum to new audiences.

“We are excited to celebrate 18 years of Potters Market at the Mint and bring people from throughout the state together to experience this one-of-a-kind event,” says Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “Potters Market is one of the most beloved events hosted at the museum and a wonderful way to celebrate North Carolina’s rich pottery traditions. This is a great opportunity to see high-quality ceramic work in one place, support the talented ceramic artists, and meet the makers to learn more about their work and creative processes.”

Tickets for Potters Market at the Mint start at $20 per person. The event will feature pottery demonstrations, live music, a beer garden, and food concessions. Proceeds support arts education and programming at The Mint Museum. To purchase tickets and learn more about participating potters, visit pottersmarketatthemint.com.

Potters Market was established in 2005 by the Delhom Service League, the ceramics affiliate of The Mint Museum from 1972 through the spring of 2022. The affiliate group was established following the arrival of Miss M. Mellanay Delhom and her outstanding collection of historical pottery and porcelain. The organization had a profound impact in supporting key projects of the museum’s decorative arts program. The Delhom Service League: 50 Years Golden Years is on view through Sunday, August 11 at Mint Museum Randolph.

The 2024 Potters Market at the Mint is generously presented by Principal Foundation.

About The Mint Museum

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community. For more information, visit mintmuseum.org.

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CONTACT:

Jenni Walker | Walker PR Group | 980-339-8041-office | 704-649-6571-cell

A reason to love the Mint? We see the worth in conservation.

The Mint Museum was awarded a grant by Bank of America to help restore artist Sheila Hicks’ work Mega Footprint Not Far from the Hutch (May I Have This Dance?).

The grant is part of the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, a global program that awards grants to nonprofit cultural institutions to conserve historically or culturally significant works of art, not least of which include works by Monet, Degas, and Cezanne; and museums like The National Gallery in London, the Guggenheim in New York and the Louvre.

This year’s recipients included 24 projects representing 11 countries — 13 United States-based projects and 11 outside the United States representing a diverse range of artistic styles, media, and cultural traditions. In July, textile conservator Howard Sutcliffe (pictured above) handled the conservation, which included cleaning and stabilizing the large textile sculpture.

To design the site-specific installation, Hicks, a United States State Department Medal of Arts award recipient, was inspired by the natural light-soaked space of the Haywood-Morrison Atrium, plus the energetic vertical sweep of the soaring ceilings, and the modernity of the building at Mint Museum Uptown. The work is comprised of 42 bas-relief sculptural components of varying lengths and thicknesses, made form flexible synthetic and cork tubes wrapped in dyed and twisted linen thread.

—Michele Huggins, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications

Carroll Cloar (1913-93).A Story Told by My Mother, 1955, casein tempera onMasonite. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN. Bequest of Mrs.C.M. Gooch. 80.3.16© Estate of Carroll Cloar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES HERE

The Mint Museum announces Southern/Modern, the first exhibition to present a comprehensive survey of works by artists working in the American South in the first half of the 20th century

Charlotte, North Carolina (June 25, 2024) — The Mint Museum is proud to present the exhibition Southern/Modern, opening October 26 at Mint Museum Uptown. The exhibition is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of progressive art created in the American South during the first half of the 20th century.

Created in collaboration with Georgia Museum of Art, the exhibition includes more than 100 paintings and works on paper by artists working in states below the Mason-Dixon line and as far west as those bordering the Mississippi River, as well as some artists living outside of the region who made significant bodies of work during visits.

Curated by the Mint’s Senior Curator of American Art Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, and independent scholar Martha Severens, Southern/Modern takes a broad view of the South and is structured around key themes that traverse geographic regions, including time and place, race, family ties, and social struggles. It also takes a broad, inclusive view of the art of the region, incorporating the creativity and talent of women artists and artists of color across its various thematic sections to provide a fuller, richer, and more accurate overview of the artistic activity in the American South at the time.

“The vision for Southern/Modern to include works by artists working in the South in the early 20th century, including works by women and artists of color, opens the door for honest conversation about Southern culture during this period of time,” says Todd Herman, president and CEO at The Mint Museum. “This exhibition is a continuation of the Mint’s commitment to give space to artists with diverse backgrounds, stories, and talent that have been overshadowed in the past.”

Artists in the exhibition include Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Dusti Bonge, Carroll Cloar, Marie Hull, Jacob Lawrence, Blanche Lazzell, John McCrady, Will Henry Stevens, Hale Woodruff, “among many others both well-known and awaiting further discovery,” Stuhlman says.

“Southern/Modern began as an idea over a decade ago as I came to know our collection and other collections in the region and gained a deep appreciation for the art that I was discovering. It has truly been a pleasure and an enriching journey of discovery to bring this exhibition to life and I am both excited to share it with the public and deeply appreciative of all the private collectors and museums who generously lent their works to us,” Stuhlman says. “It was also a pleasure to work with the scholars who lent their time, talent, and insight to the informative and beautifully designed publication accompanying the show.”

Southern/Modern debuted at Georgia Museum of Art June 17-December 10, 2023 and traveled to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee in January 2024, then to Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee in July 2024 before opening October 26 at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by the University of North Carolina Press, containing more than 175 rich illustrations and a dozen essays by contributing curators and leading art scholars.

Southern/Modern in Charlotte is generously presented by Wells Fargo, with additional support from the Dowd Foundation. Lead grant support for the exhibition is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation with additional funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Andrew Wyeth Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Betsy and Alfred Brand Fund at The Mint Museum.

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The Mint Museum

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Contacts:
Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES

Shinichi Sawada (Japanese, 1982−). Untitled (178), 2010, wood fired ceramic, 15 3/4 x 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches. Private Collection. Photo by Matthew Herrmann. © Shinichi Sawada

Charlotte, North Carolina (April 11, 2024) — The Mint Museum, in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, is proud to present the first solo exhibition in the United States for Japanese contemporary artist Shinichi Sawada (born 1982). Opening April 27 at The Mint Museum, Shinichi Sawada: Agents of Clay features a captivating collection of Sawada’s mesmerizing clay figures that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination.

The exhibition, co-curated by Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of Contemporary Art at The Mint Museum, and Lisa Melandri, executive director at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, features 30 of Sawada’s sculptures created over the past decade.

The ceramic works are a fusion of features from mammals, fish, birds, insects, and the artist’s own imaginative creations. The intricate works of art often boast multiple faces, an abundance of eyes, and intricate patterns of incised lines, bumps, horns, and scales.

“From their enchanting faces and mesmerizing surfaces to the alluring tactile nature, Shinichi Sawada’s sculptures inspire you to start drawing the things that live in your mind and make you ache to pound and twist some clay, which is such a cathartic medium for internal release,” says Sudul Edwards.

Drawing inspiration from the millennia-old tradition of wood-burning Shigaraki kilns and Japanese imagery, Sawada’s creations embody his environment — from the history of Japanese figuration to the mountainous region where he resides. Each sculpture is fired consistently for three days and three nights, and the oven takes a week to cool before the pieces are removed. Depending on where the pieces were placed in the kiln determines the gray, black, or red color of each piece, making each genuinely unique.

Shinichi Sawada: Agents of Clay is on view April 27–August 11, 2024 at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Following the exhibition at the Mint, the exhibition will be on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis September 6, 2024-February 9, 2025.

About Shinichi Sawada

Shinichi Sawada’s artistic training began in 2000 through the Nakayoshi Fukushikai Welfare Association through a program aimed at assisting neurodivergent individuals in finding employment and fostering independence. Sawada, who is autistic, divides his time between the ceramic studio and the organization’s bakery, working in the ceramic studio twice a week.

Ticket Information  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA (April 8, 2024) — The Mint Museum is thrilled to announce that starting May 1, children in grades K-12 will enjoy free admission to both locations of the museum for an entire year. In addition, college students enrolled in visual and performing arts programs will also have free access during this period.

This incredible opportunity for students is made possible through the generous support of Mint Board of Trustees Member Charlotte Wickham. Wickham was partnered with Charlotte Ballet Dancer Humberto Ramazzina. The duo raised over $425,000 during Charlotte Ballet’s 2024 Dancing with the Stars Gala held on March 2. Their outstanding efforts earned them the People’s Choice Award for top vote-getter. Approximately $180,000 of the funds raised will be allocated to support student access at The Mint Museum, with the remaining amount benefiting Charlotte Ballet.

Wickham’s dedication to the arts and her belief in the transformative power of artistic experiences for children motivated her to participate in Charlotte Ballet’s Dancing with Stars of Charlotte. She emphasizes the importance of museums as places of culture and conversation, where individuals can engage deeply and develop empathy.

As part of its ongoing commitment to accessibility, The Mint Museum aims to secure additional support to extend free student access beyond May 2025, with the ultimate goal of making the museum free for all. Currently, admission prices are as follows: free for ages 4 and younger, $6 for ages 5-17, $15 for adults, $10 for seniors ages 65 and older, and college students with ID. Children ages 13 and younger must be accompanied by a paying adult.

Visitors to The Mint Museum can look forward to a diverse range of exhibitions throughout the year, featuring renowned artists such as Shinichi Sawada, Robert Ebendorf, and Whitfield Lovell. Notably, the upcoming exhibition Southern/Modern, opening on October 26 at Mint Museum Uptown, will present a comprehensive survey of paintings and works on paper created in the American South during the first half of the 20th century.

For more information on upcoming exhibitions and programs, please visit mintmuseum.org.

About The Mint Museum

Established in 1936, The Mint Museum is North Carolina’s first art museum and a leading institution dedicated to international art and design. With two locations, Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, the Mint houses one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring the global community.

Contacts

Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing and Communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704-534-0186

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704-337-2122

By Page Leggett

Jackie Milad’s cultural identity informs her art. The Baltimore-based artist paints and collages large-scale, mixed-media abstracts that explore her Egyptian-Honduran heritage.

Before becoming a full-time artist, she worked as a curator and ran an art gallery. Her ties to Charlotte — a city she says “charmed” her — are many. The Mint Museum and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture have exhibited her work, she had a 2021 residency at the McColl Center, and is represented in the Queen City by SOCO Gallery.

On her first visit to the Mint during her residency at the McColl Center, she was “blown away by the curatorial work,” she says. “Having worked in that world, I’m always interested in curatorial decisions. I was really impressed with Jennifer [Sudul] Edwards’ artistic selections and the writing on the text panels. I knew I wanted to meether.”

As for Milad’s schedule, it varies daily. She might go to an artist’s talk, visit a museum or library, or make studio visits to learn about other artists’ processes.

What she does outside the studio changes, but her time in the studio is consistent.

“I adhere to a strict work schedule,” she says. “I didn’t always. When I had a full-time job, I’d work on art when I could find the time. Today, I work on art in my studio. And at home, I’m focused on my family.”

Inspiration often comes during a walk. The texture of tree bark that catches her eye may show up in her work, as will something she learned from the research she does in her studio. Like a French flâneur, Jackie walks to observe and be inspired.

“I try to be in the world with an open mind and open heart,” she says. “When I’m in that mode, a lot more is revealed to me. I’m a better observer. And being a keen observer is important to my success in the studio.”

5:45 AM The dogs — a greyhound and a whippet — wake my husband, Tom Boran, and me before our alarm goes off. Tom walks them while I “sleep in” until 6 AM.

6 AM I go downstairs and make a cup of matcha. When Tom comes home from his walk, he makes his coffee.
We sit in the dark together, drinking our caffeine and listening to music.

6:45 AM Things start to happen faster after a leisurely start to our day. Tiero, my 12-year-old son, comes downstairs for his breakfast. I make his lunch and Tom usually takes him to school.

7:30–9 AM I get my stuff done. I shower and make breakfast, which usually consists of a boiled egg with salt and pepper and sometimes hot sauce and a piece of toast or yogurt with homemade granola — I make it with peanut butter and chocolate chips — and lots of fruit. I keep it simple in the morning.

When I have time, I’ll take a 30 to 40-minute walk. In northeast Baltimore, we have lots of green space, old trees and a lake and park close by. Walking, whether in nature or on city streets, always resets my brain.

Once I’m home, I take care of replying to emails and other administrative things. I don’t have Wi-Fi at my studio, so I have to deal with it at home. I pack my lunch — usually leftovers from the night before. I’m lucky that my husband does all the cooking in our family.

9:30ish AM I leave for my studio, which is about a 20- minute drive from home. It’s quite an improvement over my previous commute. It could take up to an hour each way.

It is 800 square feet and housed in a 100-year-old former factory. We have old hardwood floors and big windows in a building where a lot of other artists have their studios, which is nice. Adjacent to the building are lots of trees, which is pretty unusual in the city. I have a great view of them from my window. And there’s a big park right next to the studio where I often walk. If you walk just a few miles from my studio, you’ll end up at the Maryland Zoo.

I don’t jump in to making art immediately, unless I left the studio the day before in the middle of a process. I’ll write in my journal, research, read. I’m especially interested in archaeology and history, and my reading on those subjects often influences my art.

Music plays a big part in my life, and I’m always listening while working. My husband is a musician, as well as a digital media artist, and he’s exposed me to so many genres. My eclectic playlist has everything from Puerto Rican dance music to heavy metal from the 1980s to more contemplative music.

Before I can start painting, there’s prep work to do. I prepare surfaces, cut scrap material, pick scraps of paper or fabric to use in my collages. I like working on several pieces at the same time.

I’m very active while working. I don’t just sit at my desk or an easel. I’m moving around a lot.

4 OR 4:30 PM I pick up my son from school. He’s generally stayed late to play squash or tennis.

5:30 PM Now, it’s my turn to walk our dogs. Tom makes dinner, while I do home stuff, which often includes helping Tiero with homework. And we always eat dinner together as a family. All three of us love movies and TV, and we’ll usually watch something together after dinner.

9:30 or 10 PM We both read in bed before we fall asleep, but I don’t do the kind of reading I do at my studio. Reading at home is all about escapism. I’ll read dumb fiction. Recently, it was a book called “Godslayer” — or something like that — pure escapist fantasy.

8 PM Tiero heads upstairs to read in bed. He’s usually asleep by 9 PM. Tom and I talk, catch up on our days. Because we’re such early risers, we also go to bed early.

Page Leggett is a Charlotte-based freelance writer. Her stories have appeared in The Charlotte Observer, The Biscuit, Charlotte magazine and many other regional publications.

For Immediate Release | Images available upon request

Charlotte, North Carolina (March 12, 2024) — The Mint Museum Coveted Couture Gala returns April 27 to Mint Museum Randolph. The 11th annual event celebrates the opening of the exhibition Objects of Affection: Jewelry by Robert Ebendorf from the Porter • Price Collection.

The Coveted Couture Gala raises critical funds for The Mint Museum to support innovative programming, groundbreaking exhibitions, arts education for children, and community outreach around arts and culture in the Queen City.

The spring tradition is a black-tie dinner dance for 400 of Charlotte’s most prominent civic leaders, museum supporters, and patrons. The 2024 Coveted Couture Gala is presented by Regions and Black Arch. Gala chairs are Beth and Drew Quartapella. Beth Quartapella is The Mint Museum Board of Trustees Chair Elect and former chair of the Craft, Design + Fashion Collections Board.

Objects of Affection celebrates the oeuvre of artist Robert Ebendorf following the evolution of his designs — from the Scandinavian modernism of his early work to his first use of found objects, including tintype photographs, in the 1960s, newspaper and other textual elements in the 1980s, and his pivotal incorporation of animal parts in the 1990s, as well as the remixing of many of these approaches in the 21st century.  His playful and innovative use of everyday objects in jewelry has inspired countless artists across generations. As a teacher and mentor, Ebendorf’s influence extends far beyond his own creations, making him a beloved figure in the industry.

“Jewels will rule, and fabulous fashion will be the forefront of the night that will play out in fun, creative, and unexpected ways,” says Hillary Cooper, chief advancement officer for The Mint Museum.

The 2024 Coveted Couture Gala begins at 6:30 PM on April 27 at Mint Museum Randolph and includes cocktails on the terrace, a sit-down dinner, brief auction and paddle raise, followed by dancing to live music by the band Party with the People.

The gala after-party kicks off at 9:30 PM. Gala tickets are $850 per person. Tickets to the after party are $75 and include cocktails and dancing.

To purchase tickets to the Coveted Couture Gala, visit mintmuseum.org/coveted-couture-gala-2024 or email Lauren Hartnagel at lauren.hartnagel@mintmuseum.org.

THE MINT MUSEUM 

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Contacts
Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.534.0186
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.564.0826
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org

For Immediate Release | IMAGES

Guests enjoy a spring day at the 2023 Party in the Park series.

WHAT: Party in the Park series kick-off 

WHEN: Sunday, March 24, 1–5 PM

WHERE: Mint Museum Randolph front lawn and terrace, 2730 Randolph Road, Charlotte.

COST: FREE, including museum admission

HIGHLIGHTS:

Come as you art to this casual, all-ages, family friendly event that combines art and nature with live music, outdoor activitations on the expansive greenspace, and free museum admission at Mint Museum Randolph. Parking is plentiful and free. Lawn chairs are welcome, as are strollers, wagons, bubbles, and picnic blankets for a afternoon of fun on the lawn.

Each FREE event includes food trucks, live music, and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting). The first event in the 2024 series features local artist demonstrations in response to themes of identity and culture found in the Interventions installation Buscando la sirena by artist Jackie Milad, on view at Mint Museum Randolph. Live muisic will be provided by the Mike Strauss Band, and a variety of local food trucks will be on site, including Burger Box, Carolina Smash Truck, No Forks Given, and Wrap ‘n Roll.

NEW THIS YEAR:

Party in the Park will take place 1–5 PM six select Sundays spring, summer and fall, including:

• March 24
• April 17
• May 19
• June 30
• September 29
• October 20

Details about upcoming Party in the Park events can be found at mintmuseum.org/events.

Party in the Park is generously presented by Principal Foundation.

CELEBRATING SOUTHERN ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE

Deadline: April 1, 2024

Overview: The Mint Museum, in collaboration with Young Affiliates of the Mint, invite artists living or working in the Southern United States to submit works for consideration in the upcoming exhibition Coined in the South: 2024.

The juried exhibition bridges the gap between museums, galleries, and studios by showcasing thought-provoking works by emerging artists at the heart of the Southern arts community. Artists who were born/raised in, work in, or currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Virginia are eligible to apply.

The deadline for submission is April 1, 11:59 PM. Entries can be submitted online at coinedinthesouthbiennal2024.artcall.org.

Coined in the South: 2024 will be on view December 14, 2024–April 27, 2025 at Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Eligibility: Submitted artwork should have been created within the past two years, be non-perishable, not generate excessive noise pollution, and cause no harm to living beings. Installation, video, and performance artists are encouraged to apply. Clear instructions for installation and space requirements are necessary, along with recordings or documentation of previous performances, if available.

Fees: $40 allows submission of up to three (3) works + Additional $10 for up to three (3) more submissions, totaling six (6) pieces per artist.

Delivery Period: Works must be delivered and ready for installation between August 1, 2024, and November 1, 2024. Artists are responsible for covering shipping expenses.

HONORARIUM AND AWARDS

Prize Awards:

• One $10,000 Atrium Health Foundation juror-awarded grand prize
• One $5,000 Young Affiliates of the Mint member-awarded prize
• One $1,000 “People’s Choice” prize awarded by the public at the conclusion of the show. All selected artists will receive a $350 stipend to assist with shipping and travel expenses.

Distinguished Jurors:

• Marshall N. Price, PhD, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Duke University
• Victoria Ramirez, PhD, executive director at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
• Stephanie J. Woods, assistant professor, Interdisciplinary Art, University of New Mexico

To apply, please visit coinedinthesouthbiennial2024.artcall.org.

Contact: Patwin Lawrence and Mariama Holman, Coined in the South 2024 Biennial Co-Chairs at info@coinedinthesouth.org for more information.

Organizers:

The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Young Affiliates of the Mint
The Young Affiliates of the Mint (YAM) is the Mint Museum’s young professional auxiliary group. The organization’s mission is to expand access to the arts for children by raising funds for subsidized classroom trips to the museum each year. YAM annual programming focuses on supporting the museum and fostering community through cultural and social events. Established in 1990, the Young Affiliates is the premier social organization for young art enthusiasts in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Robert W. Ebendorf (American, 1938–), various artists. ECU Charm Necklace (detail), 2017, silver, copper, brass, enamel, mixed media, found objects, 19 x 12 1/2 x 1 3/4 in. Collection of The Mint Museum. Gift of Porter • Price Collection. 2022.49.7

For Immediate Release | IMAGES

An exhibition of works by artist Robert Ebendorf, one of the most influential artists in the studio jewelry movement

Charlotte, North Carolina (March 1, 2024) — Objects of Affection: Jewelry by Robert Ebendorf from the Porter • Price Collection opens April 27 at Mint Museum Randolph. With over 180 stunning pieces on display, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the evolution of Robert Ebendorf’s designs and witness his decades of influence on the studio jewelry movement.

Ebendorf’s playful and innovative use of everyday objects to create one-of-kind wearable art has stamped his place as one of the most influential artists in the studio jewelry movement. His work is a juxtaposition to cultural preconceptions of fine jewelry. Intricate and striking, he creates dynamic works with found objects, including crab claws, sea glass, plastic, paper, as well as recycled industrial objects like keys, buttons, beer bottle caps, washers, and wire mesh.

The exhibition features works of jewelry, metalwork, drawings, and archival materials created by Ebendorf, as well as faculty and graduates of the metal design program at East Carolina University, and drawn the Porter • Price Collection. His playful and innovative use of everyday objects in jewelry has inspired countless artists across generations. As a teacher and mentor, Ebendorf’s influence extends far beyond his own creations, making him a beloved figure in the industry.

“Bob Ebendorf has inspired countless artists across several generations through his distinctively playful use of everyday objects on jewelry,” says Rebecca Elliot, assistant curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion at the Mint. “As a teacher, mentor, and friend, he is not only respected but beloved.”

Ebendorf had an extensive career as a professor beginning in 1964 and culminating at East Carolina University (1997–2016). The exhibition includes work by 31 graduates and faculty of the metal design program at ECU, many who were colleagues and students of Ebendorf’s.

While at ECU, Ebendorf became friends with Ron Porter and Joe Price, who built a wide-ranging collection of work by him and other ECU-affiliated artists and an equally extensive archive of their drawings, correspondence, and ephemera.

Objects of Affection: Jewelry by Robert Ebendorf from the Porter • Price Collection is generously presented by Bank of America. Individual sponsorship is kindly provided by Posey and Mark Mealy, Staci and Jeff Mills, Emily and Bill Oliver, Beth and Drew Quartapella, Chrys and Ches Riley, and Ann and Michael Tarwater.

OPENING WEEKEND: APRIL 27-28

Museum admission will be free 11 AM–4 PM Saturday, April 27 and 1–5 PM Sunday, April 28.

The Mint’s 11th annual Coveted Couture Gala celebrates the opening of the exhibition on the evening of April 27.

EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING

Artist Talk with Robert Ebendorf
May 18 | 2–3:30 PM
Mint Museum Randolph

Artist Robert “Bob” Ebendorf will be joined by collectors and friends Ron Porter and Joe Price for a discussion about his journey from a midcentury-modernist metalsmith to an artist who creates collages and jewelry using found objects. Porter and Price will share how they built a collection of hundreds of works by Ebendorf and other contemporary jewelry artists. The discussion is moderated by the exhibition curator, Rebecca Elliot.

Future gallery talks with ECU faculty and graduates will be announced throughout the run of the exhibition. Find all upcoming events at mintmuseum.org/events.

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Objects of Affection is accompanied by a full-color, 112-page catalogue with an introduction by jewelry scholar Toni Greenbaum and other texts by Rebecca Elliot, assistant curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion at The Mint Museum, including an essay about Ebendorf and several ECU faculty and graduates; interviews with Ebendorf and with Porter and Price; a description of the Ebendorf Archive; and a checklist of Ebendorf’s work in the Porter • Price Collection at The Mint Museum.

ABOUT ROBERT EBENDORF
Robert Ebendorf was born and raised in Kansas and earned Bachelor of Fine Arts (1961) and Master of Fine Arts (1963) degrees from the University of Kansas. He received further training in metalsmithing in Norway through a Fulbright Fellowship (1963–64) and a Tiffany Foundation Grant (1966–67). Ebendorf was a professor of metalsmithing at Stetson University (DeLand, Florida, 1964–67), the University of Georgia-Athens (1967–71), the State University of New York at New Paltz (1971–89), and finally East Carolina University (1997–2016). He has also taught hundreds of jewelry and found-object assemblage workshops across the United States and abroad. Ebendorf has received numerous awards, including induction into the National Metalsmiths Hall of Fame (2004), a Master of the Medium award from the James Renwick Alliance (2005), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of North American Goldsmiths (2014).

THE MINT MUSEUM
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Mint Board Member Charlotte Wickham and Charlotte Ballet dancer Humberto Ramazzina will dance together at the 2024 Dancing With the Stars of Charlotte to support The Mint Museum and Charlotte Ballet.

‘Take more chances, dance more dances’

Mint Board Member Charlotte Wickham is stepping out to support The Mint Museum

By Michael J. Solender

After Charlotte Wickham relocated to Charlotte from New York City with her husband in 2008, she knew she wanted to get involved with supporting the arts and cultural community in Charlotte. While she couldn’t know it at the time, her enthusiasm for, and recognition of, how arts engagement impacts the development of children and young adults in her newly adopted community would lead her to dancing her heart out in support of The Mint Museum. 

Wickham, a Mint Museum Board of Trustees member, is one of six local community leaders paired with a professional dancer from the Charlotte Ballet in its annual Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala. The event will take place March 2 at the Knight Theater to raise funds that support the Charlotte Ballet and the local leader’s charity of choice. Wickham has selected The Mint Museum and earmarked funds raised to support museum admission for Charlotte-area K-12 school children and post-secondary school students.

Cast your vote for Charlotte!

A passion for arts education

“I’ve always thought that arts and culture are an important part of learning for children,” Wickham says. “I grew up in Raleigh. My family often went to the ballet, the symphony, and to the museums. That was such a rich part of our life. Many studies show how art, dance, and music help develop children’s brains and help them to think in different and more critical and creative ways.”

Since 2020, Wickham’s role at the Mint is fueled by her passion for arts education and community engagement. She is a believer in exposure and access to the arts for all ages.

Wickham has seized upon the metaphor of taking positive steps and enthusiastically allowed herself to be “hotboxed” by her husband and a good friend into performing with the 2024 group of dancers to support The Mint Museum and the Charlotte Ballet.

“I believe life is often done best by embracing the places our steps take us,” she says in an email to friends. “This journey is going to be a bit different, and it makes the thought of participating that much more exciting.”

Different means physical for Wickham whose pre-dance assignment exercise routine has been primarily weekly Pilates classes.

Wickham is paired with Charlotte Ballet’s Humberto Ramazzina. The São Paulo, Brazil native began his formal dance training at age 8 and is in his fifth season with  Charlotte Ballet. The two share a love for salsa, contemporary and classical dance, though Wickham is keeping close to the vest the pair’s ultimate three-minute dance and music choice a surprise.

“I don’t want to give away too much and prefer to tap into what I know will be high energy from the audience at the gala performance.”

Choreographing support

Dance pairs receive support online at Charlotte Ballet’s Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala site in the run up to the event with top vote-getter ($1 per vote) receiving the People’s Choice Award. Dancers who wow the judges with the “best moves” are awarded the Judge’s Choice recognition. Since 2013, Charlotte Ballet’s Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala has raised more than $10 million including nearly $4.5 million for local charities. Funds raised via ticket sales per dance pair are divided equally between the pair’s designated charity and the Charlotte Ballet.

“That our [community] star dancers have the opportunity to generate financial support for charities of their choice has such tremendous impact for our city,” says Alysha Brown, Charlotte Ballet’s special events and volunteer manager. Brown coordinates all things Dancing with the Stars of Charlotte Gala for Charlotte Ballet and is the liaison between company dancers and their community dance partners.

“Historically we’ve had a variety of charities chosen for support alongside the ballet from housing nonprofits to other arts institutions in Charlotte. Charlotte Ballet is honored to play a role in this level of community development. The event is unlike any other in the city and shares an incredible amount of pure joy for those involved.”

In addition to identifying funds to support student access to The Mint Museum, Wickham is hopeful to encourage arts outreach beyond the walls of the museum buildings, especially into area hospitals. Her passion and enthusiasm for community collaboration aligns well with the goals of the Mint.

“Charlotte is one of our most dedicated board members,” says Todd Herman, president and CEO of The Mint Museum. “She is also an avid collector and incredibly involved in so many things that we do. I’m thrilled she shares one of the goals that our museum has, which is to collaborate with other arts organizations here in Charlotte. Her being part of Dancing with The Stars of Charlotte Gala fits her enthusiasm and her love for the arts. This event underscores the Mint’s role as a cultural hub partnering with organizations throughout the city and encouraging everyone in our community to embrace the arts.” 

For Wickham, expanding her reach to embrace and support arts impact in the community is meaningful and more than worth the extra effort. “Museums are places of culture and conversation where we can think deeply and be empathetic,” she says. “We need places where we can appreciate and learn from others.” 

Cast your vote for Charlotte!

Michael J. Solender is a Charlotte-based features writer. Reach him at michaeljsolender@gmail.com or through his website, michaeljwrites.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design extended through April 14 at The Mint Museum

Isamu Noguchi (American, 1904-88), Knoll Associates, Inc. (United States, 1938-). Rocking Stool (Model 86T), designed 1953, executed circa 1955, walnut, chromium-plated steel wire. Collection of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation. 2022.48.35

Charlotte, North Carolina (January 16, 2024) — The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design at Mint Museum Uptown has been extended through April 14 at Mint Museum Uptown. Curated by the Mint’s Senior Curator of American Art Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, the exhibition includes 52 remarkable examples of seating design.

Visitors can admire the works of esteemed makers and designers, including North Carolinian and master craftsman Thomas Day (1801-1861). Day was a Black man, master craftsman, and successful businessman who worked in Milton, North Carolina before the Civil War.

Other renowned American designers featured in the exhibition include Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, and Roy Lichtenstein.

“The Art of Seating offers a unique opportunity to explore history and the evolution of design by some of the greatest American designers whose commitment to innovation and quality has shaped the landscape of American seating furniture,” Stuhlman says.

Though designed for function, each chair in the exhibition has a story to tell about the history and evolution of American design, including changing tastes in style and aesthetics, new innovations in technology and materials, and contributions by immigrants throughout two centuries.

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design is made possible through the generous support of PNC. Additional individual support is provided by Mary and Walt Beaver, Sarah G. Cooper, Lucy and Hooper Hardison, and Kati and Chris Small. The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated 248-page scholarly catalogue that is available in The Mint Museum Store.

For more information or interview requests, contact:

Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.534.0186
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.564.0826
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Beverly Smith (1957–). “Giles: Take Me to the River”, 2023, mixed media quilt, vintage bow tie, crazy quilt, spray paint, graphite portrait, transfers. Courtesy of the artist. T0341.1

Charlotte, North Carolina (December 13, 2023) — The Mint Museum recently unveiled a special exhibition titled Echoes: Artists Respond to Carolina Shout. The exhibition showcases  individual interpretations by eight Charlotte artists who were invited to create new artworks in response to Bearden’s iconic collage Of the Blues: Carolina Shout.

Since acquiring Carolina Shout in 1975, The Mint Museum has built the largest public collection of Bearden’s works in the country. The museum has a dedicated permanent collection gallery at Mint Museum Uptown to explore different aspects of Bearden’s art, legacy, and impact. Bearden’s collage has become a signature piece in the museum’s collection and has been prominently featured in major exhibitions about the artist.

While Carolina Shout depicts a Southern baptism, the title itself references a popular song by James P. Johnson from an earlier era. Bearden skillfully weaves together different musical traditions and connects the sacred and profane in his artwork, evoking the atmosphere of dance halls, juke joints, honky tonks, and barrelhouses, as well as the ecstatic moments of a church service.

The participating artists were given the freedom to respond to Bearden’s themes of baptism, music, memory, the South, and community in their own unique ways. The resulting artworks include paintings, collages, a quilted piece, a video, and a sculptural installation. These diverse creations are now on display as part of the Echoes exhibition, alongside Carolina Shout, in the Bearden gallery at Mint Museum Uptown through November 2024.

###

About The Mint Museum

The Mint Museum, established in 1936, is North Carolina’s first art museum and a leading cultural institution dedicated to international art and design. With two locations, Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, the museum houses one of the Southeast’s largest art collections and aims to engage and inspire the global community.

For more information about the exhibition and The Mint Museum, please contact:

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.564.0826
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org.

Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.534.0186
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org

Franklin Fifth Helena is an architectural installation within the Contemporary Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown comprised of sand-painted wall panels that create a fantastical imaging of the real-life intertwined lives of the movie icon Marilyn Monroe and her psychoanalyst Dr. Ralph Greenson.

Franklin Fifth Helena

‘A FANTASTICAL IMAGING OF THE INTERTWINED LIVES OF MOVIE ICON MARILYN MONROE AND HER PSYCHOANALYST DR. RALPH GREENSON’

By Jen Sudul Edwards

On November 4, 2022, Mint Museum Uptown opened a new major acquisition to the collection: Franklin Fifth Helena by Brooklyn-based artist Cynthia Talmadge.

An 8-by-11-foot room built within the gallery, the installation is comprised of sand-painted wall panels and a ceiling that create a fantastical imaging of the intertwined lives of the movie icon Marilyn Monroe and her psychoanalyst Dr. Ralph Greenson. The result is mesmerizing and surprising in every way: the sand — intricately mixed by hand and meticulously applied to the surface with fine paintbrushes— mimics the precise color studies of 19th-century Impressionists and Pointillists while utilizing a simple commercial material (Talmadge often buys her sand in bulk from wedding supply companies).

The recognizable objects layer and interact to create an imagined narrative about the relationship between Monroe and Greenson, who treated Monroe at the end of her life. While very specific in her references, Talmadge also explores the complicated ramifications of the cult of personality, the patient-doctor relationship, and how all of these affect the limited power and agency granted to women in this country.

Talmadge’s gallery, 56 Henry, arranged for outside donors to support the acquisition of the work by The Mint Museum, but the on-site build was extensive and complicated. The Mint’s architect-of-record, Aubrey Springer, oversaw the construction and permit process, which required additional lights and sprinkler systems to be installed to meet code, as well as extensive coordination with the Mint’s building staff, the Collections and Exhibitions team, 56 Henry, and Talmadge — who came to Charlotte for a week in October to help with the installation.

Learn more Talmadge and her fascinating and complicated process in the video below, generously underwritten by Aaron and Marie Ligon who are helping the Mint further build a competitive and compelling contemporary art collection.

Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, is chief curator and curator of contemporary art.

For Immediate Release | IMAGES

Charlotte, North Carolina (November 13, 2023) — Featuring 60 outstanding objects, including glass, ceramics, bamboo, and textile contemporary objects by artists from around the globe, The Mint Museum is proud to announce the exhibition Craft Across Continents: Contemporary Japanese and Western Objects — The Lassiter/Ferraro Collection opening December 9 at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

For Immediate Release

MEDIA ALERT

What: Local Street III Opening Celebration
When: Sunday, Nov. 12
Time: 1–5 PM
Where: Mint Museum Uptown
Cost: Free

Local Street III opens Sunday, Nov. 12 with a free party for all from 1–5 PM. Curated by Charlotte-based artist and teacher Carla Aaron-Lopez (@iamkingcarla), Local Street III is the final installation in the Local Street series created to showcase the talent, diversity, and depth of creatives living and working in Charlotte and the Carolinas.

Expect a live DJ, spoken word by de’angelo DIA (@1518dia) and a performance by Marcia Jones (@marciajonesart), plus works by 60 local artists! Local Street III will feature works by several local artists not previously featured in the series, including Merisa Ari, Komikka Patton, and Valentin Ramirez.

The installation is on view for one week and one week only, Nov. 12–19, 2023, at Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon Street at Levine Center for the Arts.

“Local Street has brought together our arts community and changed how we collaborate with each other. I want people to walk away knowing that this community is alive and thriving and no matter where I go, I take my community with me. Let’s hope you get a chance to hop on this mothership with me because I ain’t coming back,” Aaron-Lopez says.

For information or interview requests, contact:

Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.534.0186
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.564.0826
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org

Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) Knoll Associates, New York, NY (1946-present) Rocking Stool, 1958 Walnut and chrome plated steel wire.

For Immediate Release | IMAGES

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 5, 2023) — Despite their everyday use, few objects are taken for granted quite as much as the humble chair. The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design, on view September 16, 2023–February 25, 2024 at Mint Museum Uptown, takes these ubiquitous objects and presents them as fascinating sculptural objects that can tell us much about our own history.

The exhibition includes more than 50 remarkable examples, including chairs sat on by presidents, chairs that were thrown from skyscrapers and chairs designed by renowned makers and architects. All the chairs in the exhibition hail from the rich holdings of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation. While many of these objects were included in an earlier version of the exhibition that toured to 28 museums across the country, The Mint Museum’s presentation includes a number of chairs that were acquired over the past decade and a dynamic new installation that completely reconceptualizes how the exhibition is presented.

The Art of Seating reveals chairs as works of art that tell stories of United States history spanning from the early 19th century to the early 21st century. These stories range from the contributions of immigrants to changing tastes in style and aesthetics to new innovations in technology and materials. Visitors can admire the works of esteemed makers and designers, including George Hunzinger, the Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Charles and Ray Eames, whose work has left an indelible mark on American design and continues to inspire contemporary artists and designers.

“The Art of Seating offers a unique opportunity to explore history and the evolution of design by some of the greatest American designers whose commitment to innovation and quality has shaped the landscape of American seating furniture,” says Jonathan Stuhlman, Ph.D., senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum and organizer of the exhibition.

Public Opening Celebration

The public opening celebration will take place 11 AM–6 PM September 16 and 1-5 PM September 17. Museum admission will be free both Saturday and Sunday of the opening weekend.

Special programming scheduled September 16 includes:

• The Mint’s Mega Musical Chairs Game: Join in one or both of two rounds of musical chairs. Games commence at noon and 2:30 PM. Prizes will be awarded! Registration is available at mintmuseum.org/events.
• Curator-Collector Chat: Diane DeMell Jacobsen, Ph.D., chair of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, joins Senior Curator of American Art Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, to discuss the collection of chairs featured in The Art of Seating.
• Chair yoga led by Dancing Lotus Yoga + Arts.

George Hunzinger (1835-1898) New York, NY Side Chair with Curule Base, circa 1870 Ebonized cherry with gilding and a silk show cover.

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design is made possible through the generous support of PNC. Additional individual support is provided by Mary and Walt Beaver, Sarah G. Cooper, Lucy and Hooper Hardison, and Kati and Chris Small. The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated 248-page scholarly catalogue that is available in The Mint Museum Store.

“As a champion for the arts and longtime collaborator of The Mint Museum, PNC is committed to helping bring thoughtfully curated exhibitions and programming to enhance and excite our region’s appreciation for art,” said Weston Andress, PNC regional president for Western Carolinas. “We look forward to sharing with the community The Art of Seating, which showcases a body of work uniquely relevant to our state’s meaningful contributions in the furniture industry.”

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About The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Contacts
Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.534.0186
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.564.0826
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org

Left to right: George J. Hunzinger (1835-98). Side Chair with Wire Seat, circa 1876, polychromed maple, cotton-covered metal wire. Collection of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation. L2022.48.12; Willets Manufacturing Company (Trenton, NJ, 1879-1909), James Callowhill (English, 1838-1917). Vase, circa 1887-89, Belleek porcelain, ivory glaze,polychrome enamels, flat and raised gold decoration. Emma and Jay Lewis inhonor of Brian Gallagher; Tanaka Yū田中悠(Japan, 1989-).Tsutsumimono (Bundle), 2020, glazed stoneware. Promised Gift of Lorne Lassiter and Gary Ferraro. PG2022.57.18

The Mint Museum announces its upcoming schedule of exhibitions dubbed the “Year of the Collector”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | IMAGES

Charlotte, North Carolina (June 22, 2023) — The Mint Museum is proud to announce its upcoming schedule of special exhibitions, beginning July 1, that feature inspired works from a diverse pool of collectors. Following the success of Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, these exhibitions continue the museum’s mission to present a variety of cultural perspectives and backgrounds and will feature an impressive array of carefully curated works of art.

“Not only do these upcoming exhibitions highlight a variety of artists, cultures, and styles, there is an emphasis on recognizing donors and collectors that are steadfast in their support and essential for the Mint’s continued growth,” says Todd Herman, PhD, president and CEO of The Mint Museum.

Each of the six exhibitions detailed below offer visitors opportunities to discover new art and artists, as well as programming and educational components that explore different viewpoints and styles.

The Vault
Opening July 1
Mint Museum Uptown

Organized by guest curator Jessica Gaynelle Moss, The Vault presents the private collections of four prominent Charlotte-based Black collectors: Judy and Patrick Diamond, Nina and James Jackson, Christy and Quincy Lee, and Cheryse and Christopher Terry. From works by some of the greatest Black artists of the 20th century — including Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and Jacob Lawrence — to hundreds of magazines, records, and other culturally specific ephemera, the exhibition aims to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for Black art, as well as the stories and experiences it represents. Visitors will have the chance to engage with thought-provoking pieces that explore themes of identity, history, social justice, and cultural heritage. The Vault is generously presented by Bank of America with additional corporate support from TIAA. Individual support is kindly provided by Marshelette and Milton Prime.

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design
Opening September 16
Mint Museum Uptown

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design will feature more than 50 examples of American seating furniture, created between the early 19th century and the early 21st century. Although this exhibition has been on tour around the country for more than a decade, the Mint’s presentation revamps the presentation to play upon the unique qualities and histories of the featured chairs and includes new additions that have entered the collection since it started touring. Noted makers and designers include George Hunzinger, the Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi, Frank Gehry, and Vivian Beer. The exhibition also features contemporary and historic designs by some of the biggest manufacturers to commission these pieces, such as Knoll, Herman Miller, and Steelcase. The exhibition is organized by Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum. The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design is generously presented by PNC Bank. Additional individual support is kindly provided by Sarah G. Cooper, Lucy and Hooper Hardison, and Kati and Chris Small. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the Infusion Fund and its donors.

Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek
Opening September 23
Mint Museum Randolph

Featuring 80 works from notable public and private collections, as well as the Mint’s permanent collection, Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek focuses solely on the earliest decades of American Belleek production and the role Walter Scott Lenox played in developing the concept of the porcelain products as an art form. The exhibition is organized by Brian Gallagher, the Mint’s senior curator of decorative arts.

Craft Across Continents — Contemporary Japanese and Western Objects: The Lassiter/Ferraro Collection
Opening December 9
Mint Museum Uptown

Featuring more than 60 works from the private collection of Lorne Lassiter and Gary Ferraro, Craft Across Continents presents contemporary craft from makers and artists around the globe. Having collected works during their many travels, Lassiter and Ferraro say they collect for the fun of it, visiting artists’ studios, art fairs, galleries and museums here and abroad, but they are serious-minded collectors with a deep knowledge of contemporary international craft. The exhibition’s comfortable and intimate design will underscore the theme of enjoying life through living with art and provide visitors the opportunity to relax and enjoy the ceramics, glass, bamboo, and textile art. The exhibition is organized by Annie Carlano, senior curator of craft, design, and fashion at The Mint Museum.

Delhom Service League: 50 Golden Years
Opening February 10, 2024
Mint Museum Randolph

In recognition of a half-century of philanthropic support, the Delhom Service League: 50 Golden Years features more than 40 ceramic objects funded by Delhom Service League, a past affiliate of The Mint Museum. The Delhom Service League distinguished itself as a loyal supporter of The Mint Museum, particularly its Decorative Arts Collection, and has sponsored world-renowned speakers, hosted public symposia and study trips, funded art acquisitions, and organized the perennially popular Potters Market at the Mint. The exhibition is organized by Brian Gallagher, the Mint’s senior curator of decorative arts.

Objects of Affection: Jewelry by Robert Ebendorf from the Porter • Price Collection
Opening April 27, 2024
Mint Museum Randolph

Robert Ebendorf is one of the most influential artists in the studio jewelry movement. His work combines exceptional craftsmanship with the inventive use of found objects and other alternative materials. Ebendorf has impacted countless artists through his seven-decade career making jewelry alongside his career in academia. Objects of Affection is drawn from the extensive collection of Ron Porter and Joe Price of Columbia, South Carolina, who became close friends with Ebendorf while he was teaching at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. The exhibition is organized by Rebecca Elliot, assistant curator of craft, design, and fashion at The Mint Museum.

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About The Mint Museum
Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Contacts
Clayton Sealey
Senior Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.534.0186
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org

Michele Huggins
Associate Director of Marketing at The Mint Museum
704.564.0826
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org

From left: Romare Bearden (American, 1911-88). The Open Door, 1979, lithograph. Collection of the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Gift of Jerald Melberg. 2009.88.1 © 2022 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973). Nature Morte devant une Fenêtre Ouverte sur l’Eau, stencil after a work by Pablo Picasso 1923, gouache on silkscreen on paper. Musée Picasso, donation Pablo Picasso, 1979, MP3505 © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Adrien Didierjean © 2022 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

For Immediate Release | Images available here

Charlotte, North Carolina (January 25, 2023) — Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations, opening February 11 at Mint Museum Uptown, explores the shared interests of Romare Bearden and Pablo Picasso in one exhibition. The exhibiition is an exciting additional narrative to Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, also on view February 11–May 21, 2023 at Mint Museum Uptown.

Curated by Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, senior curator of American art at The Mint Museum, Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations includes three loaned works by Picasso and 17 by Bearden, many drawn from the Mint’s rich holding, as well as special loans from other museums and private collections. While Bearden’s later collages and prints comprise a majority of the exhibition, nearly half of the works are of his the artist’s rarely seen early paintings from the 1940s — a period when he was immersed in the New York art world and a time when Picasso was frequently exhibiting there.

The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections. The first theme considers the two artists’ shared interest in imagery of bulls and bullfighting. The second explores the importance of music and rhythm as both subject matter and a way of creating a dynamic composition. The third theme considers their shared interest in interior scenes and their use of doorways and windows as compositional devices, and the fourth looks at each artist’s use of black outlines defining simplified, brightly colored forms, called the “stained glass” aesthetic.

“On the surface, it might seem odd to organize an exhibition that brings together the work of American artist Romare Bearden and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, as it might seem the two have little in common, however there has rightly been some notice of the relationship between the two artists’ works,” Stuhlman says. “Discussions have primarily centered upon the comparison of their shared subject matter of folk musicians and the impact of Cubism on Bearden’s approach to collage, a relationship that he himself acknowledged, and each artist’s use of African masks in their art. While these are important and valid connections, this exhibition seeks to add additional points of aesthetic and intellectual overlap and shared interest to the story.”

On March 18 from 2 to 4 PM, the Mint will host “An Afternoon Salon: Romare Bearden and Modernism” at Mint Museum Uptown featuring Richard Powell, PhD, Duke University professor and Romare Bearden Foundation advisor; Denise Murrell, PhD, curator-at-large at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and moderator Diedra Harris-Kelley, co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, who will discuss the life and works of Romare Bearden. Admission is $10 for the salon and to see Bearden/Picasso and Picasso Landscapes; or $5 for the salon and general admission to the museum.

Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations is generously presented in Charlotte by Bank of America, the City of Charlotte, Duke Energy, Mecklenburg County, M.A. Rogers, Ann and Michael Tarwater, North Carolina Arts Council, and Moore & Van Allen. Additional generous support is provided by: Leigh-Ann and Martin Sprock; Robin and Bill Branstrom, Sally Cooper, Laura and Mike Grace, Marshelette and Milton Prime; Posey and Mark Mealy; Chandra and Jimmie Johnson; Marty and Weston Andress, Mary and Walt Beaver, Betsy and Alfred Brand; Tim and Sarah Belk, toni and Alfred Kendrick, Beth and Drew Quartapella, Rocky and Curtis Trenkelbach, Charlotte and John Wickham; Mary Lou and Jim Babb, and Jo Ann and Joddy Peer. The Mint Museum is supported, in part, by the Infusion Fund and its generous donors. Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations is organized by The Mint Museum. Special thanks to media partner Charlotte magazine.

“At Bank of America, we believe in the power of the arts to help economies thrive, enrich societies, and create greater cultural understanding,” says Milton Prime, CFO for Global Technology and Global Operations for Bank of America and Board of Trustees Chair for The Mint Museum. “We are very pleased to support The Mint Museum and to have the Charlotte region become the first-ever to host the Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds exhibition, as well as support their efforts to showcase another world-renowned artist, Romare Bearden, who is also one of Charlotte’s own in the Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations exhibition.”

Exhibition Ticket Information 

Price of admission is $25 for adults; $20 for seniors 65 and older; $10 members and college students with ID, and includes general museum admission and admission to Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds.

Children ages 17 and younger and art teachers are admitted free of charge. Tickets are available for advance purchase at mintmuseum.org/ticketing.

For exhibition hours, visit mintmuseum.org.

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The Mint Museum 

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations — Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts — the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community.

Bank of America 

At Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), we’re guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better, through the power of every connection. We’re delivering on this through responsible growth with a focus on our environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership. ESG is embedded across our eight lines of business and reflects how we help fuel the global economy, build trust and credibility, and represent a company that people want to work for, invest in and do business with. It’s demonstrated in the inclusive and supportive workplace we create for our employees, the responsible products and services we offer our clients, and the impact we make around the world in helping local economies thrive. An important part of this work is forming strong partnerships with nonprofits and advocacy groups, such as community, consumer and environmental organizations, to bring together our collective networks and expertise to achieve greater impact. Connect with us on Twitter (@BofA_News).

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom and register for news email alerts.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2022 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list and Forbes’ “World’s Best Employers” list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Contact: 

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications
clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c)

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)

Franklin Fifth Helena is an architectural installation within the Contemporary Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown comprised of sand-painted wall panels that create a fantastical imaging of the real-life intertwined lives of the movie icon Marilyn Monroe and her psychoanalyst Dr. Ralph Greenson.

Charlotte, North Carolina (November 2, 2022) — The Mint Museum is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of Franklin Fifth Helena, an immersive architectural installation of sand paintings by New York-based artist Cynthia Talmadge.

Through meticulous process, Talmadge turns sand into strikingly realistic images. She is known to explore the mysteries of tabloid culture and identity through a variety of media. Her works of art investigate what happens when private, personal trauma meets with institutions of celebrity, money, and wrongdoing.

For Franklin Fifth Helena, Talmadge borrows the format of the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio, a 15^th-century room relocated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1930s, that was intended for contemplation and the display of objects representative of the owner’s worldliness and intellect. Instead of a sole owner, however, Franklin Fifth Helena is a fictional representation of two people — Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe and Dr. Ralph Greeson, the psychoanalyst who treated her at the end of her life. The title — Franklin Fifth Helena — signals the mash-up as it references the pair’s respective addresses at the end of Monroe’s life: 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles for Monroe and Greeson’s at 902 Franklin Street in Santa Monica, a short mile down the hill.

Franklin Fifth Helena imagines a pool house where Monroe and Greeson’s belongings — some intimate, some impersonal — intermingle, reflecting Greeson’s ethically complicated treatment plan for Monroe, which required her to live with his family and recreate aspects of his home within her own. A follower of Freud who specialized in trauma and hysteria, Greenson advocated a practice he called “adoption therapy,” in which the patient attempted to remedy childhood trauma by replacing those memories with new experiences. Greenson took a particular interest in Monroe’s case, moving her into his home to live with his family. Greenson’s relationship with Monroe is unclear — they may have been lovers — but she died of a drug overdose while under his care.

“This is a major addition to the Mint’s collection, not only because of the technical intricacies of the work, but also, because the themes of celebrity, identity, biography, and history will speak broadly to our audiences,” says Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum. “The two aspects of subject and material can hold you rapt for hours. We are so appreciative to Talmadge’s gallery, 56 Henry, for making this donation possible, and to the donors Alexander Fenkell, William Leung, and Rahul Sabhnani who underwrote the purchase,” Sudul Edwards says.

Franklin Fifth Helena is on view in the Level 4 Contemporary Gallery at Mint Museum Uptown.

Ticket Information  
The Mint Museum exhibition is free for members and children ages 4 and younger; $15 for adults; $10 for seniors ages 65 and older; $10 for college students with ID; and $6 for youth ages 5–17. 

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About Cynthia Talmadge

Cynthia Talmadge is a New York-based artist whose work in painting, installation, drawing, and photography has been shown, collected, and reviewed internationally. Talmadge’s projects exhibit her fascination with heightened emotional states, mediated portrayals of those states, and particularly the places where both converge.

The Mint Museum   

Established in 1936 as North Carolina’s first art museum, The Mint Museum is a leading, innovative cultural institution and museum of international art and design. With two locations—Mint Museum Randolph in the heart of Eastover and Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts on South Tryon Street—the Mint boasts one of the largest collections in the Southeast and is committed to engaging and inspiring members of the global community. 

Contact:  

Clayton Sealey, senior director of marketing and communications at The Mint Museum

Clayton.sealey@mintmuseum.org | 704.534.0186 (c) 

Michele Huggins, associate director of marketing and communications at The Mint Museum  
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704-564-0826 (c)