Through Friday, April 26, the outbound lanes of the Levine Center for the Arts parking garage main exit will be closed. Parkers will need to exit the garage at the South Church Street exit.
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:
Party in the Park is generously presented by Principal Foundation.
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
Jessica Macks and her band perform songs from around the world in response to Craft Across Continents. Performance begins at 6:45 PM.
Free museum admission, cash bar. Galleries open late!
Wednesday Night Live is presented by Bank of America.
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.
“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 withCharlotte 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.”
Michael J. Solender is a Charlotte-based features writer. Reach him at michaeljsolender@gmail.com or through his website, michaeljwrites.com.
Mint board member Charlotte Wickham is dancing with Charlotte Ballet dancer Humberto Ramazzina to benefit The Mint Museum in Dancing With the Stars of Charlotte. Wickham is one of six Charlotte community leaders paired with professional dancers from Charlotte Ballet that will take the stage at Knight Theater to raise money for Charlotte Ballet and other local charities.
Wickham has earmarked funds raised to support museum admission for Charlotte-area K-12 school children and post-secondary school students. She believes in the power of arts and exposure to cultural activities to make a positive and effective impact on the happiness and health of children and members of our community.
“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,” she says.
$1=1 VOTE
Vote is open to anyone online in advance of the event. Donations and support for Charlotte and Humberto will be split 50/50 to support The Mint Museum and Charlotte Ballet.
The top vote-getter ($1 per vote) receives 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.
An artist showcase and conversation with artists Komikka Patton, Davita Galloway and DaRemen hosted by Young Affiliates of the Mint in celebration of Black History Month.
This one-night only exhibition will feature works by Patton, Galloway, and DaRemen, and cultural experiences to celebrate Black History Month, including a Q&A with the three artists.
Tickets are $10 and include access to this unique experience and (1) beverage ticket. Additional drinks will be available for purchase at the cash bar.
Senior Curator of American Art Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, will moderate a discussion with the local artists about their works featured in the installation Echoes: Artists Respond to Carolina Shout. Museum admission is free, cash bar. Galleries are open until 9 PM.
Panelists include:
Carla-Aaron Lopez
Susan Brenner
Tom Delaney
Juan Logan
Malik J. Norman
Beverly Smith
Dammit Wesley
Liliya Zalevskaya
Legendary songwriter, producer, rapper, and MC Mad Skillz (Shaqwan Lewis) has now added another professional credential to his resume: filmmaker. See the documentary, “Mad Skillz and the 90s Girl Brunch” (2024) that chronicles the artist’s experience building a community of music lovers via the Internet during Covid.
Skillz has long been recognized as a pioneer in the hip-hop world, from his early days as an emerging rapper signed to Timbaland’s label, to touring with icons like Missy Elliott and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Further, Skillz’s recognition of music as a tool to convene diverse communities has been a mainstay. In addition to his own music (he has seven studio albums), the songs he has penned or produced for others, including names like Diddy and Will Smith, his creation of the show Hip Hop Confessions, and his role as an instructor at the University of Richmond, he is always innovating while preserving the legacy of Black music and culture.
“My hope is that people come away from this film realizing that music can still bring us together and not only bring us together, but keep us together,” Skillz says. When asked to explain the unique phenomenon of the “90s Girl Brunch,” which had followers tuning in religiously for a dose of sonic salvation, Skillz notes, “Your imagination can take you places that travel can’t.”
Viewers of the film will see how a weekly online DJ set became much more–building friendships that were planted online but bloomed in real life.
The film will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Amy Carleton, professor (MIT), writer, and co-creator of the Black Notes Project. The screening is presented in conjunction with Black Notes Project.
Join Robert Ebendorf, Ron Porter, Joe Price, and curator Rebecca Elliot for a discussion of Ebendorf’s jewelry and the experience of collecting it. Ebendorf will describe his development 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.
Artist Rowland Ricketts will discuss his work, including growing, processing, and dyeing with indigo within the context of the dye’s materiality and global history. Special emphasis will be placed on recent works that make palpable the invisible aspects of the color’s creation, as well as the invisible histories and forces that lie below the surface of this globally revered dye.
Rickett’s work Untitled, Noren is on view in the exhibition Craft Across Continents on Level 3 at Mint Museum Uptown.
About the artist
Rowland Ricketts utilizes natural dyes and historical processes to create contemporary textiles that span art and design. Trained in indigo farming and dyeing in Japan, Rowland received his master’s of fine art from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2005 and is a professor in Indiana University’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. His work has been exhibited at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery. Ricketts is a recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.
Artist Paul Briggs joins us this Sunday, March 3, to discuss his practice and process, including his work Whorl on view in the exhibition Craft Across Continents at Mint Museum Uptown.
Briggs employs a unique pinching technique to extract natural leaf-like forms from classic ceramic vessels, resulting in work characterized by balance and precision. His guiding principle, “Nature makes no aesthetic mistakes,” underscores his endeavor to defy convention and constraints. Among his notable pieces, The Impact of Incarceration on Black Lives, features 25 ceramic black boxes, scaled to jail cell dimensions, with twisted, coiled bars protruding.
Celebrate the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Dragon with a lion dance performance, presented in partnership with Manera Foundation, followed by Casa de la Cultura Afro Latin/x dance and narrative, tributes to Black American Music, including salutes to Aretha Franklin, Celia Cruz, and Others with DJ Carlos Lebron, and group dance lessons at 9 PM with Rumbao Latin Dance Company. Enjoy live painting by local artists throughout the night. Cash bar, complimentary favors.
$10.50 Mint members; $14 nonmembers. ($1 discount before 9 PM).
Free admission 7-7:30 PM.
🚗‼️ PARKING INFO: Levine Center of the Arts parking garage will be CLOSED the night of Mint 2 Move, visitors are encouraged to park at The Green 📍435 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202, just let the attendant know you are visiting the Mint for free parking. ‼️🚗
Celebre el Año Nuevo Lunar y el Año del Dragón con una presentación de danza del león, seguida de danza y narración afro-latina/x de la Casa de la Cultura, homenajes a la música negra estadounidense, incluidos saludos a Aretha Franklin, Celia Cruz y otros con DJ Carlos Lebron y clases de baile a las 9 PM con Rumbao Latin Dance Company. Disfrute de la pintura en vivo de artistas locales durante toda la noche. Bar en efectivo y obsequios de cortesía.
10.50 $ para miembros del Mint; 14 $ para no miembros. (Descuento de 1 $ antes de las 9 PM)
Entrada gratis de 7 a 7:30 PM
🚗‼️ INFORMACIÓN SOBRE EL APARCAMIENTO: El aparcamiento del Levine Center of the Arts permanecerá CERRADO la noche del Mint 2 Move, se recomienda a los visitantes que aparquen en The Green 📍435 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202, sólo tienes que avisar al encargado de que estás visitando el Mint para aparcar gratis.‼️🚗
Members are invited to enjoy a discussion and walking tour with David Moritz in the awards-as-art exhibition Beyond the Red Carpet. David is the CEO and owner of Society Awards, the premier designer and manufacturer of luxury, custom, and limited edition awards. Beyond the Red Carpet delivers a captivating exploration of the intersection of art, branding, and the world of trophies. In this discussion, Moritz delves into how Society Awards has elevated the humble trophy into a work of art, as well as the reasons behind the creation of this remarkable exhibition and why embracing the arts can be a transformative strategy for brands with trophies as a prime example.
Not a member, join now.
6-6:30 PM: Discussion with David Moritz
6:30-7 PM: Impromptu conversations/walking tour in the gallery with David Moritz
7-9 PM – Beyond the Red Carpet exhibition open for visit
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.
24 Hours in the Life of Mike Wirth
By Page Leggett
Mike Wirth, associate professor of graphic design at Queens University of Charlotte, is probably best known locally for his murals. He is a founding member of the Talking Walls Festival, Charlotte’s first annual, citywide mural and public art festival. He’s known way beyond the city limits, too. His art has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Croatia, Poland and Germany. Social justice is a frequent Wirth theme, as is his identity as a Southern, Jewish American. He participated — virtually — in Contemporary Art Week in Paris during the last week in October 2022 where he exhibited with a group called Jada Art (jadaart.org), or Jewish Dada. “They’re creating platforms and international art spaces for Jewish artists, which is amazing,” Wirth said. “I was part of their digital exhibition. It was great to be selected from among international applicants.”
He is one of 15 local artists participating in The Mint Museum’s Picasso mural project. It’s a local tie-in for the Mint’s blockbuster exhibition, Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, organized by the American Federation of Arts Wirth’s mural is a landscape scene from Freedom Park. “I chose it because every Yom Kippur, hundreds from the Jewish community come out for a ritual called tashlich,” he says. “You toss bread into the water and speak your transgressions at the same time. That’s how you release sin.” When Wirth is in a creative or emotional low, he’ll wander. “I just go for a walk with no agenda. I don’t have any destination in mind. I’ll just throw myself to chance. And I find that it’s a tremendous way to reset when the need arises.” He’s a “girl dad” whose oldest daughter, a student at North-west School of the Arts, is already a budding artist and wants to be an illustrator. His youngest also loves to draw. Artistic talent runs in this family. Wirth’s days revolve around his daughters, his students, and his art.
5 OR 5:30 AM I wake up on my own — no need for an alarm. That’s when my internal body clock dictates that I get up. I say my morning prayers, and have a bagel and coffee.
5:30–6 AM I spend a little time every morning reading on my couch or my porch. I love Jewish folklore and the daily lessons I can take from it. I’ll get some wisdom from the Oracle, so to speak. All these stories are allegories, so they unpack a lot for me. If I can spend 30 minutes reading in the morning, it’s a miracle. But that’s what I aim for.
6 OR 6:30 AM I wake my daughters up — they’re 13 and 10 — and make them breakfast and get them ready for school. We have to be at the bus stop by 7 AM.
7:15 AM I drive to campus where I teach in the graphic design department — illustration, typography, ideation, animation, and web design. I’ve taught at Queens University for 14 years. When I’m not teaching, I have office hours. The seniors working on their capstone projects often need to consult with me then. During the day, I try to carve out a little time for my scholarship. As a professor, I have an obligation to stay current in my field and to accrue a certain amount of scholastic achievements. I’m either applying for shows or hunting for the next opportunities and conferences.
4:30 PM I meet the kids at the school bus, get them home and settled with a snack and help them get started on their homework.
5:30ish PM Dinnertime. I’m a one-pot-meal type of cook. My kids know my famous chickens, vegetables and rice dish — one of my go-to’s. Once the kids are fed, clean and educated, we all have our free time. AFTER DINNER I head to my studio, which is in our garage. Art projects have a way of expanding, and I can’t currently get my car in the garage. When the weather’s colder, I have to scale back the amount of space I have dedicated to art so I can use my garage for its intended purpose. I turn on some music; get a cold beverage. My cat, Garfield, will come hang out with me. I digitally paint, illustrate, and animate and make my interactive projects. I’ve been concocting a giant interactive installation that explores the “big bang” moment in the Jewish creation story as described in the Zohar — The Book of Radiance. The story describes the moment HaShem (God) poured their essence into a series of glass spheres that then shattered due to being overwhelmed with power. The broken shards of glass then spread across the universe. My vision is that viewers will enter a room filled with panoramic wall and floor video projections of shards of broken glass that, over many minutes, will spread outward from a center point in the room and then rewind back into a singular sphere. Viewers can interact with the shards while exploring the space.
I don’t have a home yet for that interactive installation. It requires funding because it needs projection, sensors and a larger space. I also get commissions from individuals or institutions. I’ve been creating a lot of custom hamsas. Those are hand forms that originated in the ancient Middle East. Once the client has commissioned me, we’ll talk through their wants and needs, the purpose of it — is it purely for aesthetics, or is there a spiritual purpose to it? Then, I’ll send them a mockup and we’ll proceed after they give me the OK. I design each one digitally and then paint the final version with acrylic, spray paint or paint markers. My girls and I aren’t big TV watchers, and we definitely try to avoid it on the Sabbath, but we will occasionally watch a show together. We also like playing image-based board games. Usually, free time lasts until it’s bedtime for everybody. 8:30 PM Bedtime for all of us. I’m not very exciting.
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.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “The Lacuna,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Just before the release of her tour documentary Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, we are painting The Mint Museum metallic to celebrate Queen Bey. Complete with imaginative decor, curated cocktails, and loads of entertainment, it’ll be “such a mess” for you to miss this.
What to expect:
Kiki ballroom competitions
Curated cocktails inspired by Beyoncé’s tracks
Food
Dazzling decor
DJs + more
A general admission ticket is $40 for nonmembers | $20 for Mint members using the code MINTMUSEUM.
We love our members! To celebrate your support of the Mint, we have a week of programming, prizes, and gifts scheduled as a special thank you.
Wednesday and Friday: All members are invited to bring up to four additional guests on top of their existing membership benefit level.
Saturday: From 10–10:30 AM, members can sign up for a special Member Meditation at the Mint led by a Mint docent/staff member trained to perform mindfulness sessions.
Sunday: Members will receive a FREE TOTE BAG at the guest services desk. Also, stop by the The Mint Museum Store and take advantage of Museum Store Sunday: 30% off all items!
Visit any day of the week November 21–26 to be entered into a raffle to win a special gift kindly donated from supporting Charlotte organizations/restaurants. Raffle prizes include:
Win a prize when you participate in our member scavenger hunt at either location.
Show your membership card when you dine at our any of our partner restaurants — Mariposa, Coquette, or Fern — and enjoy a dark chocolate dipped pecan truffle with Medjool dates, bourbon, vanilla bean, and maple syrup at on top of your 10% membership discount, provided by Mother Earth Group.
Save 10% when you dine at Fin and Fino by presenting your Mint membership card.
Have your digital membership card downloaded onto your smartphone to receive all the great benefits above. Haven’t received your digital membership card? Call 704-337-2011.
Mint members are invited to enjoy a special tour with Annie Carlano, senior curator of Craft, Design, and Fashion, as well as a chance to meet the collectors, Lorne Lassiter and Gary Ferraro.
Craft Across Continents features more than 50 objects from the Lassiter/Ferraro private collection and is presented in a domestic-like setting to underscore the theme of enjoying life through living with art. The exhibition includes glass, ceramics, bamboo, and textile contemporary objects by artists from around the globe.
Free for members.
Celebrate the opening of Local/Street 2023, the final installation of the Local Street series curated by Charlotte-based artist and teacher Carla Aaron-Lopez. Expect a live DJ, spoken word by de’angelo DIA and a performance by Marcia Jones, plus works by 60 local artists. Free museum admission.
Learn more about Native American culture through storytelling, drumming, and works of art by Mahed Wayanka, and enjoy a look at American Indian ribbon skirts and how cultural women use them to symbolize their identity.
Be sure to visit the museum’s Native American gallery while there.
A Mint Community Relations collaboration with the Metrolina Native American Association.
More about Mahed Waynka
Mahed Wayanka, also known as John Behler, is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and currently resides in Charlotte. Mahed Wayanka is the Dakota name he received from his grandmother who understood the importance of “looking within” to paint the world more beautiful. Beheler grew up on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota and has been painting since childhood. Beheler’s favorite medium is acrylic painting but he also enjoys traditional forms of art, such as hide and drum painting, featherwork, staffs, shields, and powwow regalia.
A Beheler acrylic original reflects Native American symbolism and surrealism of ceremony that provides a medium for storytelling. “Our greatest gift to mankind is our relationship with nature and through the language of Art, ancestral windows are opened for understanding.”
Beheler has served as a teacher or school administrator over the past 30 years and recently obtained his Education Specialist Degree. “Art teaches us attention to detail and importance of nurturing talent that helps us find success in other areas of life.” Beheler illustrated his adopted father’s book, “Mitakuye Oyasin – We Are All Related, by AC Ross. “He shares the oral history theory of the Sioux who came from the Carolinas instead of the Bering Strait.”
Members are invited to join Mint President and CEO Todd Herman, PhD, for a special meet-and-greet and opportunity to learn about upcoming exhibition and programs planned for the year ahead. RSVP is requested.
9–9:30 AM: Mingle while enjoying bagels and coffee.
Craft Across Continents features more than 50 objects from the private collection of Lorne Lassiter and Gary Ferraro. The exhibition will be presented in a domestic-like setting to underscore the theme of enjoying life through living with art.
See designs and completed fashions created by students taking classes at Woven Fashion Incubator, and inspired by the Mint’s Fashion Reimagined exhibition.
Tara Davis, Woven Fashion Incubator program founder and former design instructor, will narrate and share about the students’ sketches, designs, and aspirations in this fashion design initiative.
Woven Fashion Incubator is a co-workspace with fashion design and apparel manufacturing classes for underserved students, entrepreneurs, and fashion careerists.
Mint members can enjoy a guided meditation before the museum opens to the public. Calm your mind and body, and deepen your connection with the art, yourself, and our community at this 30-minute session held in front of Foragers in the Morrison Atrium. The session is led by Diane Lowry, certified mindfulness and meditation guide, a Mint docent, and Mint staff member.
Celebrate the opening of the newest Interventions installation Buscando la sirena. Artist Jackie Milad will join Jen Sudul Edwards, chief curator and curator of contemporary art, for an artist talk about her inspiration and process.
Jackie Milad makes paintings, collages, and sculptures that explore global migration, inspired by her identity as a first-generation American citizen. A daughter of immigrants—her father is Egyptian, and her mother is from the Gulf of Fonseca, a small region that is now part of Honduras—Milad’s work mines archaeological traditions of reading and trading cultural artifacts both by outsiders and those whose heritage is imbued within the artifacts.
“Buscando la sirena” delves into her mother’s heritage through created works and selected objects from the Mint’s permanent collection that connect to the Gulf of Fonseca.
Mint members can enjoy a lecture and gallery conversations in the Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek exhibition with exhibition curator and Senior Curator of Decorative Arts Brian Gallagher. The exhibition presents the elegance of America’s Gilded Age and the artistic influence of Walter Scott Lenox through 80 objects on loan from notable public and private U.S. collections and the Mint’s own holdings.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “Pride and Prejudice,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “Pride and Prejudice,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “The Lacuna,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “The Lacuna,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion on “The Invention of Wings,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that help to bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion on “The Invention of Wings,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that help to bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion on “The Invention of Wings,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that help to bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “The Lacuna,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion of “Pride and Prejudice,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted in the book. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
This program will create connections between a work of literature and the visual arts. After a brief discussion on “The Invention of Wings,” Mint Docents will present works of art in the galleries that help to bring to life historic events, social customs, and lifestyles of the time period depicted. All programs are 90 minutes.
Cost: Free with museum admission.
Join the one or two rousing rounds of musical chairs as part of the opening celebration for the exhibition The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design.
Game times: Noon and 2:15 PM
The event is hosted by Miguel of Miguel and Holly from 96.1 FM. Prizes include a $100 gift card to Little Mama’s Italian restaurant and the brand-new Chapter 6 restaurant, or any Rare Roots Hospitality-owned restaurant in Charlotte, plus a Contributor Level membership to the Mint for you or a friend. Participation is limited and registration is first come, first served.
Participation is limited. Registration is encouraged. Register here.
More about The Art of Seating Opening Celebration
The public opening celebration takes 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.
Other special programming for the opening celebration includes:
1 PM: 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 exhibition.
4 PM: Three 20-minute sessions of chair yoga led by Dancing Lotus Yoga + Arts.
About the exhibition
The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design, on view September 16, 2023–February 25, 2024 at Mint Museum Uptown, features chairs sat on by presidents, chairs that were thrown from skyscrapers and chairs designed by renowned makers — and a few that visitors can sit on themselves.
The 52 chairs on view exemplify that a chair can be much more than just a place to sit. The exhibition 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: 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.
Join us for the Constellation CLT Opening Celebration for Sublimations of Spacetime by artist Ajané Williams. Admission is free, cash bar.
5:30 PM | DJ performance.
6:30 PM | Artist Talk: Sublimations of Spacetime artist Ajané Williams discusses her installation with Constellation CLT Curator Jamila Brown.
Galleries will be open 5-9 PM.
About Ajané Williams
Generation Z Afrofuturist painter, performance DJ, and video artist Ajané K. Williams creates places of discovery, shared spaces of the unknown, and visuals that she describes as being “a connection to the past, present, and future.”
Her oil paintings imaginatively depict UFOs, black holes, wormholes, orbs, ancestral spirits, and abstracted landscapes that envisage her studies of unexplained phenomena and theories within parapsychology, theology, and cosmology — all intersecting with her existence as a Black woman.
Member’s enjoy a lecture and gallery conversations in The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design with Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D., and Jonathan Stuhlman Ph.D, senior curator of American art at the Mint.
6 PM–6:30 PM: Lecture/presentation in James B. Duke Auditorium with Jonathan Stuhlman Ph.D
6:30 PM–7:30 PM: Impromtu conversations in the gallery with Jonathan Stuhlman Ph.D and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D
All ages are invited to celebrate Día de las Velitas (Day of the Little Candles) with a special candle-lighting ceremony, music by special guest La Orquesta Mayor, hot chocolate and holiday beverage station, plus dancing and holiday cheer.
Free admission before 9 PM. $10 general admission, $7.50 members after 9 PM. Purchase tickets.
Mint 2 Move is sponsored by Arts & Science Council.
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Es una época maravillosa en el Mint Museum. Únete a nosotros para celebrar las fiestas y el Día de los Velitas, con una edición especial de Mint 2 Move Cultural Dance Night, el Sábado, 2 de Diciembre, 7–11:30 PM.
Chocolate caliente con malvaviscos para los niños y bebidas navideñas especiales, no alcohólicas incluidas, en la estación de bebidas navideñas.
Invitados especiales ¡La Orquesta Mayor!
Entrada gratuita hasta las 9 pm para el Día de Las Velitas.$10 entrada general admission, $7.50 miembros después 9 PM.
Mint 2 Move is sponsored by Arts & Science Council.
Get ready to dance the night away with Latin, Afro-Latin, and American beats, fitness, fun, and friends. Don’t miss the The Art of Seating exhibition open until 9 PM. Take free dance lessons with Rumbao Latin Dance Company and enjoy live music with the Mint Latino Percussionists Trio and DJ Carlos LeBron, C’Leb Entertainment. Plus, watch live artists paint, visit cultural vendors, and take pictures at the balloon arch and welcome special guest, Eddy Kbrera, performing live from 7 – 8 PM.
Members | $11 Non-members | $14 with $1 discount before 9 PM
Mint 2 Move is sponsored by Arts & Science Council.
¡Prepárate para bailar toda la noche con ritmos latinos, afro-latinos y estadounidenses, ejercicio, diversión y amigos! No te pierdas la exposición “The Art of Seating” abierta hasta las 9 PM. Toma clases de baile gratuitas con Rumbao Latin Dance y disfruta de música en vivo con el Trío de Percusionistas Latinos del Mint y el DJ Carlos LeBron de C’Leb Entertainment. Además, observa a artistas en vivo mientras pintan, visita vendedores culturales y toma fotos en el arco de globos. También contaremos con la presencia del invitado especial Eddy Kbrera, quien se presentará en vivo de 7 a 8 PM.
Mint 2 Move es patrocinado por el Arts & Science Council.
Join Brian Gallagher, senior curator of decorative arts, for a tour of Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek and then stay for a screening of the classic “Hello, Dolly.” Registration required. Free with museum admission.
The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design, drawn from the rich holdings of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, provides a rare opportunity to survey the history of American craftsmanship and ingenuity, seen through the lens of seating furniture.
The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design, on view September 16, 2023–February 25, 2024 at Mint Museum Uptown, features chairs sat on by presidents, chairs that were thrown from skyscrapers, and chairs designed by renowned makers — and a few that visitors can sit on themselves.
The 52 chairs on view exemplify that a chair can be much more than just a place to sit. The exhibition 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.
Celebrate the opening of The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design. The exhibition, drawn from the rich holdings of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, provides a rare opportunity to survey the history of American craftsmanship and ingenuity, seen through the lens of seating furniture.
Special programming includes:
Noon and 2:15 PM: The Mint’s Mega Musical Chairs Game. Join the one or two rousing rounds of musical chairs. The event is hosted by Miguel of Miguel and Holly from 96.1 FM. Prizes include a $100 gift card to Little Mama’s Italian restaurant and the brand-new Chapter 6 restaurant, or any Rare Roots Hospitality-owned restaurant in Charlotte, plus a Contributor Level membership to the Mint for you or a friend. Participation is limited and registration is first come, first served.
1 PM: 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 exhibition.
4 PM: Three 20-minute sessions of chair yoga led by Dancing Lotus Yoga + Arts.
The public opening celebration takes 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.
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.
Mindfulness encourages us to be more present with art, ourselves and each other. The Mint Museum brings mindfulness to the experience of looking at art and invites you to take a restorative pause in your day and enjoy a mindful sketching session of the Brushstroke Chair in the Art of Seating exhibition.
All materials provided. Limited capacity. RSVP here.
Ulysses Grant Dietz, retired senior curator and curator of Decorative Arts at The Newark Museum of Art, examines how high-end ceramics like those in the exhibition Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek would have fit into the fashionable interiors of America’s Gilded Age.
Celebrate the opening of Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek. Featuring 80 works from the Mint’s permanent collection, as well as other notable public and private collections, this exhibition focuses solely on the earliest decades of American Belleek production and the role Walter Scott Lenox played in its development as an art form.
1 PM–2:30 PM | VIP Opening Afternoon Tea
2:30 PM – Museum opens to public
2:30–3:30 PM | Brian Gallagher, senior curator of Decorative Arts, presents an overview of the exhibition, discussing its central themes and highlighting some of its remarkable works of art.
The annual Potters Market returns to Mint Museum Randolph. See works by more than 50 of North Carolina’s top potters together under one tent on the lawn. Other activities include: live pottery demonstrations, bluegrass music, a beer garden, and raffles. Tickets include FREE admission to Mint Museum Randolph for a first look at the exhibition Walter Scott Lenox and American Belleek!
Potters Markets is generously sponsored by Principal Foundation.
Be the first to see and purchase works by the more than 50 North Carolina potters selected for the 2023 Potters Market. Ticket includes dinner, beverages, and live music.
Potters Market is generously sponsored by Principal Foundation.
Mindfulness encourages us to be more present with art, ourselves and each other. The Mint Museum brings mindfulness to the experience of looking at art and invites you to take a restorative pause in your day and engage deeply with a work of art.
Participants will delve into the details of the Centripetal Spring Chair and others in The Art of Seating exhibition.
Celebrate the opening of the exhibition The Vault that features the private collections of four prominent Black collectors.
SATURDAY, JULY 15
1–3 PM: Celebration opens to museum members and general public.
1:30– 3 PM: Tour of the exhibition with guest curator Jessica Gaynelle Moss and the four collectors: Patrick and Judy Diamond, Christy and Quincy Lee, Nina and James Jackson, Cheryse and Quincy Terry, plus free pop-up portrait sessions with local artists Cary King and Breonna Collier.
Museum admission is free July 15 and 16.
Mint 2 Move Cultural Dance Night is not just a dance party. It is an artistic and cultural experience paying tribute to artists and dance forms from Latin, African, and Caribbean countries. It is the ultimate event in Charlotte where you can experience sizzling salsa, cha cha, bachata, line dancing, live musicians, Latin rhythms, Afro-beats, and dance lessons all under one roof.
Enjoy four hours of Latin, Afro-Latin, and American beats with dancing, fitness, fun, and friendships.
Galleries, including the latest exhibition The Vault, open until 9 PM.
Free dance lessons with Rumbao Latin Dance Company.
LIVE music with the Mint Latino Percussionists Trio.
DJ Carlos LeBron, C’Leb Entertainment on the turntable.
Fiestas Patrias presents Latin Independence Days.
All cultures, ballroom dance classes, and dance lovers salsa, Cha Cha, merengue, line dance, and freestyle.
Watch live artists paint, visit cultural vendors, and take pictures at balloon arc.
Cool Vibe: At 8:23 PM, join in taking a throwback photo to salute “The Dab” and the Carolina Panthers.
Presented in partnership with JazzArts Charlotte, An Evening with Branford Marsalis: Romare Bearden Revealed pays homage to the album Romare Bearden Revealed and features legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis. The evening’s setlist includes some songs from the original album that have not been played live in over 20 years, in addition to other works composed by Marsalis.
About Branford Marsalis
Some might gauge Branford Marsalis’s success by his numerous awards, including three Grammys and (together with his father and brothers) and his citation as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. To Branford, however, these are only way stations along what continues to be one of the most fascinating and rewarding journeys in the world of music.
New Orleans-born Branford Marsalis is an award-winning saxophonist, band leader, featured classical soloist, film and Broadway composer. The Branford Marsalis Quartet, formed in 1986, remains his primary means of expression. In its uninterrupted three-plus decades of existence, the quartet has established a rare breadth of stylistic range as demonstrated on the band’s latest release: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul. Marsalis, however, has not confined his music only to the jazz quartet context. A frequent soloist with classical ensembles, he is increasingly sought after as a featured musician with acclaimed orchestras around the world performing works by composers, including Copeland, Debussy, Glazunov, Ibert, Mahler, Milhaud, Rorem, Vaughan Williams, and Villa-Lobos.
About Romare Bearden Revealed
Marsalis met Romare Bearden in the 1980s and gained new insight into the sources of Bearden’s vision when he moved to North Carolina. When the Romare Bearden Foundation suggested that Marsalis’ label develop an album to complement the Bearden retrospective The Art of Romare Bearden, Marsalis immersed himself in Bearden’s art. Produced by Marsalis, the album is comprised of music recorded in celebration of the retrospective that opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in 2004, and later traveled around the United States.
Romare Bearden Revealed epitomizes a long tradition of jazz musicians being inspired by visual artists. The album moves among jazz classics referenced in Bearden’s art, new compositions created expressly for the album, and a song in which Bearden himself played a creative role.
Presented by Young Affiliates of the Mint, Derby Days brings together Charlotte’s young professionals to enjoy a day of live music, lawn games, Mint juleps, food trucks, and a viewing party for the Kentucky Derby, and best dressed and best hat contests. Proceeds support school tours at the museum.
The family-friendly event honors Charlotte’s diverse cultures through an eclectic blend of visual art, spoken word, classical, and popular music from Latin America. Experience original poetry, local artists and musicians, including performances by members of the Opera Carolina residency company.
Free, cash bar. Performances begin at 6:30 PM. Wednesday Night Live is presented by Bank of America.
Flutepraise is comprised of Tommy Lopez, a professional flutist who performs Smooth Jazz, R&B, Latin, Latin Jazz, Latin Classics, and standards. He is a self-taught flutist who started at the age of 10 sharing one flute with five other fifth-graders in an elementary school in Harlem, New York. He later learned how to read and compose at the High School of Music and Art in New York, where he met his now wife of 47 years. He is a native New Yorker but has made his life in Charlotte for the past 33 years. Flutepraise also includes his wonderful wife Nancy Lopez, an accomplished vocalist who has been singing since she was a child.
Nuestro Tiempo Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble is a Latin Jazz orchestra in which students learn fundamentals, including clave rhythms, improvisational theory, and Latin Jazz history. This is a unique opportunity for student musicians, grades 7-12, to study an exciting facet of jazz that combines the chords and improvisational techniques of traditional jazz with Latin instruments and rhythms.
As his fingers glide with fluid precision and masterful accuracy, Colombian classical guitarist extraordinaire Aris Quiroga Nieto ensnares his listeners in a wonderful world chock full of melody and infectious vibes. Hailing from Bogota, Colombia, Quiroga has spent his life learning, teaching, composing, and performing guitar, completely immersing himself into a world steeped in rich musical tradition and theory. With performances around the globe, and national presence in Spain and Colombia, he has slowly become one of the elite performers within the classical guitar circuit.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Javier Sánchez has been playing the bandoneón for over 30 years. Between 2005 and 2016, he was a member of Latin Grammy Award nominee Rodolfo Mederos Orquesta Típica. Sánchez has toured the globe with well-known tango orchestras and tango companies, such as Tango Pasión, Tanguera, Tango Emotion (returning to Japan for five consecutive years), and many others.
As an active musician in Argentina, Sánchez played in the most prestigious tango shows of Buenos Aires including El Viejo Almacén, Esquina de Carlos Gardel, Café Tortoni, Piazzolla Tango Theater, just to name a few. In 2016, he relocated to the New York metropolitan area and started collaborating with a variety of tango groups, among most noted are Aces of Rhythm directed by Pablo Aslan (debuted at Lincoln Center in July of 2017), Pan American Symphony Orchestra directed by Sergio Bušlje (Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.), and the Astoria Tango Orchestra led by Daniel Binelli (11-piece orchestra típica). In August of the same year, he won the First Prize at the renowned Che Bandoneon International Competition judged by bandoneón legend Victor Lavallén. In 2018 Mr. Sanchez became Musical Director of Che Tangazo orchestra based in Montreal, Canada, making its debut in July at Tango BA Festival and World Cup. In 2021, he relocated to Charlotte and began performing solo recitals at numerous venues in Carolinas region. He recorded a one hour concert from Bach to Piazzolla, which streamed live via TwitCasting (available now in its archives).
Patrice N. Wilson is an educator, language enthusiast, spoken word artist and creative, from Charlotte. Wilson received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the UNC Charlotte. Through her educational and creative pursuits, Wilson champions diversity, intersectionality, equity, communal connection, and understanding. Wilson believes that education and action, if used correctly, can be vehicles for sustainable growth and change within society. Wilson loves to write and create, and believes the power of creativity is underrated and can foster community, growth, and understanding.
Julio Gonzalez is a self-taught multimedia artist and a native of Atlanta, Georgia. One of Gonzalez’s defining characteristics as an artist is his use of Mexican and Mayan design elements to explore questions of contemporary life and values. Gonzalez cites the simple question “What if?” as a cornerstone of his creativity and practice, a way to approach his ideas from different sides and explore them to the fullest. He hopes viewers of his work will find themselves asking the same question and rediscovering their sense of interconnectedness, curiosity, and childlike wonder. The simple phrase “What if?” is the concept behind the name Wonder What If, a project of which Julio is the Creative Director.
Elisa Lopez Trejo is a mixed-media artist and recycling designer from Mexico City. She moved to Charlotte in 2010. Since then she has participated in art events in galleries with other artists, including live painting at the Mint Museum and the OBRA Collective Gallery at VAPA with Latino artists events. Her art was exhibited at the Galleria Magnolia Emporium for three years, and she has participated at the “Charlotte Fashion Week” for six years. Her paintings use different mediums, including oil and acrylic paint, collage, gold leaf and silver leaf. Her style is sometimes abstract and other times figurative, varying with feeling.
Celebrate the opening of the installation Buscando la Sirena by artist Jackie Milad with free museum admission, food trucks, live music from the Mike Strauss Band, a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting).
In honor of Emotional Wellness Month, three local artists will also be onsite offering mindful painting exercises.
At 3 PM, Milad will join Jen Sudul Edwards, chief curator and curator of contemporary art, for an artist talk about her inspiration and process.
Presented by Principal Foundation.
This month check out a puppet-making station, go on a scavenger hunt, and explore many forms of creativity through artist demonstrations and artmaking stations as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Guild of Charlotte Artists!
Enjoy free admission to the museum, a food truck contest, live music and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting).
Party in the Park is presented by Principal Foundation.
Enjoy free admission to the museum, food trucks, live music from the Mike Strauss Band, and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting).Discover and learn about the work of remarkable American artists on view at the Mint in honor of National American Artist Appreciation Month. Presented by Principal Foundation.
Enjoy free admission to the museum, food trucks, live music, and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting).Bring a friend or make a new one in honor of International Day of Friendship, and connect with an artist who serves and celebrates the diversity of the Charlotte community. Presented by Principal Foundation.
Enjoy free admission to the museum, food trucks, live music from the Mike Strauss Band, and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting). In honor ofGreat Outdoors Month, pick up an Outdoor Sketching Kitand draw the natural surroundings of the park. Presented by Principal Foundation.
Enjoy free admission to the museum, food trucks, live music from Guitar Travels, and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting).Draw a mandala and go on a creative gallery tour of New Acquisitions: Hardscapes and Dreamscapes to celebrate Creative Beginnings Month! Presented by Principal Foundation.
Enjoy free admission to the museum, food trucks, family friendly art activities, live music, and a cash bar on the front terrace (weather permitting). Explore the museum pocket gardens and grounds in honor of National Garden Month. Presented by Principal Foundation.
Children age 5 and younger and their caregivers are invited to explore Latin music, stories, and instruments with Criss Cross Mango Sauce, a trio of Latino performing artists and educators.
Celebrating artists Romare Bearden and Pablo Picasso, enjoy exhibition-related dancing and art activites with free dance lessons, live painting, Latino and African-inspired music, and international rhythmic sounds with DJ Carlos Lebron and the Mint 2 Move Percussion Trio. Galleries are open until 9 PM.
Get Tickets Here
Presented in partnership with UNC Charlotte, enjoy the opening ceremony for the UNCC Lavagem African Brazilian Festival featuring African Brazilian instructors, The Spirit of the Drum: African Brazilian drumming class with Jose Ricardo and Bira Monteiro, and Danca Afro workshop with Nildinha Fonseca.
This is a Mint Community Relations collaboration with UNC Charlotte, generously supported by the Arts and Science Council.
Registration requested. Donations encouraged.
To commemorate the life and career of Pablo Picasso on the 50th anniversary of the date of his death, join the Mint for a ‘Pablomonium’ Community Celebration that includes complimentary admission to Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts and the exhibition Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, plus live music, art activities, film screenings, photo booths, food trucks, a cash bar, and door prizes.
During the community celebration, free one-hour timed tickets are first come, first served to Picasso Landscapes based on exhibition capacity.
Bring your earbuds to enjoy the free audio tour that complements Picasso Landscapes!
Schedule of events
11 AM- 5 PM: Live music and cash bar | Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium
Noon–4 PM: Photo station with Playing Pablo murals | Level 5 Queens Room
12:30, 1, 1:30, and 2 PM: Mint on the Dot talks in Picasso Landscapes. Look for “Mint on the Dot!” signs on the gallery floor
1-4 PM: Art activities | Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium
1–5 PM: Face painting and more | Van Allen Terrace
Learn about the life and works of Romare Bearden in a discussion with Richard Powell, PhD, Duke University professor and Romare Bearden Foundation advisor; and Denise Murrell, PhD, curator-at-large at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; moderated by Diedra Harris-Kelly, co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation.
Following the salon talk, visitors are invited to join the guest speakers and members of the Romare Bearden Foundation at a reception with live music by local jazz vocalist Dawn Anthony and the Lovell Bradford Trio. Copies of Dr. Powell and Dr. Murrell’s books will be available, along with gift giveaways, at The Mint Museum Store.
“An Afternoon Salon: Romare Bearden and Modernism” is presented in coordination with The Mint Museum’s exhibition Bearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations. The salon event is free to attend, however, registration is encouraged.
Salon schedule:
2-4 PM: Richard Powell, PhD; Denise Murrell, PhD, and moderator Diedra Harris-Kelley present “An Afternoon Salon: Romare Bearden and Modernism.”
4-6 PM: Jazz reception with local jazz vocalist Dawn Anthony along with the Lovell Bradford Trio, and opportunity to meet guest speakers and members of the Romare Bearden Foundation.
About the speakers:
Richard J. Powell, PhD, is the John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1990. After completing his undergraduate studies at Morehouse College and earning an master’s degree in fine art from Howard University, Powell earned a master’s degree in African American Studies, as well as a master’s degree in philosophy and doctorate in history of art from Yale University.
A recognized authority on African American art and culture, Powell has organized numerous art exhibitions, most notably: The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism (1989); Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance (1997); To Conserve A Legacy: American Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (1999); Back to Black: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary (2005); and Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist (2014).
Denise Murrell, PhD, holds the position of Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Curator-at-Large at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Murrell was previously the associate curator of 19th- and 20th-Century Art at the Met. Prior to that, she was the curator of the exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today (October 2018–February 2019) at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery while serving as the Wallach’s Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Research Scholar (2014–19). She was a co-curator of the exhibition’s expansion at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, as Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Matisse (March–July 2019) and a guest lecturer for its final tour as Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Picasso at the Memorial ACTe, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe (September–December 2019).
Diedra Harris-Kelley is co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, the nonprofit organization perpetuating the legacy of Romare Bearden. She offers a unique perspective on Bearden’s work being a formally trained painter, and niece of the artist’s late wife, Nanette Rohan Bearden. For the last 10 years, she has been part of the team leading the foundation through a successful run of exhibitions, publications, and educational and celebratory programs around the life and art of Bearden. She also acts as its chief researcher.
An Afternoon Salon: Romare Bearden and Modernism March 18, 2-4 PM program; 4-6 PM reception and giveaways Mint Museum Uptown Free
Hnin Nie’s response to Picasso’s Landscape of Juan-les-Pins (1920), 2023.
Playing Pablo
10 Local artists create murals in response to works in Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds
By Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD
Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, organized by the American Federation of the Arts, is a major initiative for The Mint Museum. It not only brings major Picasso paintings to Charlotte from all around the world, but also offers an opportunity for the museum to bring together multiple cultural entities in collaborations and partnerships. One of these projects is a mural series enlisting 10 artists and collectives (some of whom will be familiar to the Mint audience from past projects) to create murals around the city.
The initiative is a partnership with Carla Aaron-Lopez, curator of the Local/Street exhibition series that was on view at The Mint Museum in 2021 and 2022; and Talking Walls, the organization that has been supporting mural installations across the city for the last five years.
Together with Aaron-Lopez and the Mint’s Curatorial Assistant Jamila Brown, a group of local artists were invited to paint a mural in response to Guernica — Picasso’s powerful, mural-size antiwar painting — or any of the landscapes included in the Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds. The result is a diverse range of styles and images that will dot Charlotte’s urban landscape and the two Mint museum locations beginning mid-February 2023.
Involving Charlotte contemporary artists was always central to the Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds. As Aaron-Lopez and local artist ARKO have pointed out, Picasso continues to be a major influence on contemporary artists both as an inspiration and as a foil. The exhibition allows local artists to study the works up close and in person, to break down the structure, and analyze the compositions and brushstrokes to further their own education and experimentation. This partnership reminds us that one of the museum’s primary goals is to preserve and present art’s history so that the next generation can push it forward.
The Picasso Mural project is generously supported by a grant through the North Carolina Arts Council and Infusion Fund.
Mural artists and locations
ARKO and Dammit Wesley Mint Museum Uptown
Brand the Moth Mint Museum Randolph
CHD:WCK! Mint Museum Uptown
HNin Nie Optimist Hall
Emily Núñez Queens University
Kalin Reece Elder Gallery
Mike Wirth Camp NorthEnd
Frankie Zombie and 2Gzandcountin Optimist Hall
Jen Sudul-Edwards, PhD, is chief curator and curator of contemporary art at The Mint Museum.
Romanticizing the American Landscape
A conversation with artist Stacy Lynn Waddell about her work Landscape with Rainbow as the Sun Blasts the Sky (for R.S.D.) 1859/2022, part of the Mint’s collection.
In 2021, Art Papers published an article about a new series of works by Durham-based artist Stacy Lynn Waddell in which she examines the history of landscape through the work of 19th-century English American painter Thomas Cole and self-taught Black Pittsburgh-based sculptor Thaddeus Mosley. The Mint’s Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD, took notice. As an extension of the series influenced by Cole and Mosley, Waddell created Landscape with Rainbow as the Sun Blasts the Sky (for R.S.D.) 1859/2022: an homage to American artist Robert S. Duncanson’s 1859 painting Landscape with Rainbow, which is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was displayed in the United States Capitol Rotunda in 2021 in honor of the inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden.
Duncanson was one of the most important Black artists of the 19th century. This event brought significant national attention to Duncanson, who remains little known beyond art history circles. The Mint Museum is pleased to have acquired Waddell’s tribute to Duncanson: Landscape with Rainbow as the Sun Blasts the Sky (for R.S.D.) 1859/2022, which will be a part of an upcoming reinstallation of the American galleries at Mint Museum Uptown in 2023. Mint curators Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, and Jennifer Sudul Edwards, PhD, caught up with Waddell to discuss her inspiration behind the work. Lightly edited for brevity and clarity by Michele Huggins.
Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD: We are doing a rotation in the Mint’s permanent collection galleries next summer, shifting focus from different approaches to portraiture to different approaches in landscape. I am really looking forward to including Landscape with Rainbow as Sun Blasts the Sky (for R.S.D.) 1859/2022 in that. There are earlier works in this series dedicated to Thomas Cole and Thaddeus Mosley. What made you decide to extend it beyond them to Duncanson and to this painting in particular?
Stacy Lynn Waddell: I was given an opportunity to show work in a four-page spread in the publication Art Papers. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to examine the core of the romantic idea of how we have come to be as a country. We know there are holes in all of that — it is moth-eaten— but thinking about Thomas Cole and Thaddeus Mosley was really about access. How do I reconfigure or have people take another look at some of Cole’s most important paintings by inserting Mosley and his works into the scene and drawing parallels between the lives of the two men as naturalists.
The other thing was to bring forward an interest in landscape. One of the things that I have thought a lot about, especially during 2020, was access. You couldn’t go places. Once we realized that outside was a safe space to convene, then I feel like the doors were blown off in terms of how people thought about being outside.
JS: Suddenly, everyone is an outdoorsman.
SLW: Everybody! So, I was thinking about that, too: how we do not necessarily consider the space
that we have. We do not consider our dependency upon nature and how we have disrespected that
relationship.
JS: Then you shift from the Cole/Mosley series to Duncanson. Was it because of his importance as the first and best-known Black American landscape painter?
SLW: Yes. When the painting was rededicated, I thought, “yeah, this is the moment.” Think of the biblical significance around a rainbow and the promise just this idea of a promise. Another thing that the pandemic did was push us to keenly focus on political discourse. To have this painting emerge during the inauguration as a kind of promise, it just struck me as something that seemed important.
Also, the fact that here is a Black man (Duncanson) at a time when Black people had no access. This painting was made in 1859, American slavery was still the order of the day, yet Duncanson was able to access and occupy spaces in America and abroad. I found that to be fascinating. It stood as an emblem of possibility for the onlooker and me as a Black woman from the South functioning as an artist.
JS: Duncanson’s painting, and the rainbow’s landing on the cabin in the wilderness, has been interpreted as symbolizing divine blessing on westward expansion, yet we were doing so at the expense of all the people who originally lived on the land. There is an irony there as he was a Black artist painting on the eve of the Civil War. Duncanson soon thereafter just got the heck out and went to England by way of Canada and left the country for several years. So, to me, it is a painting that is loaded with so many tensions and ironies. What led you to pick the tondo (circular) format for these works and the details in the way that you have done — piecing in the panels in the sky with the rounded swirl. To me, it calls to mind the arc of the rainbow, but I’d love to know more about how you landed on the bit of the picture you chose and the way that you put it together.
SLW: I started thinking about how I would intervene upon the original painting. What would make the most sense for me, someone who loves to appropriate. I do a lot of that in my art. I find photographs and other images that I take and insert a different meaning or myself into the work. Tondos are typically formats of paintings that we ascribe to religious works. The circle points to an internal way of connecting to something. My pieces are works on handmade paper made in India that is very irregular with deckled edges, but still round. So, you still fall into that place.
My drawings are created by burning paper. I am burning paper and then I am adding gilded (gold) material. I love surface texture. I thought, “why don’t you just reinterpret paintings in your materials that are all about surface interest?”
The paintings I am referencing in this also call attention to the environment. Gold leaf is tough on the environment. It is metal. It is gold pounded into sheets with a decorative pattern inlaid. All the alchemy and all the gathering of metals happen before I get the material to use it. So, when I’m using this material, I’m thinking about science, the environment, and the optical illusion of seeing a rainbow.
It is interesting to me to overlay a lot of our contemporary concerns onto a painting that was about an ironic look at a promise. What is it that we really stand for as a country? What is it? What direction are we really going in? It is natural for me to take what I do and lay it on top of something else and then hope that someone gathers something from it.
Hopefully, what the viewer can extract from looking at this series is going well beyond looking at a landscape and even beyond the Duncanson references. The materials may lead them back to some of the concerns: the environment, the landscape, their relationship to it, and what, if anything, are they doing to protect these spaces.
Jen Sudul Edwards, PhD: One of the things that I find so interesting about Duncanson is that with romanticism over the last 100 years, we have been much more critical about it as a practice, of it being nostalgic to avoid reality, whitewashing history to erase crimes against humanity that were going on at the time. You mention the irony that is embedded in Duncanson’s treatment of it, but I also find a kernel of a reminder in Duncanson, and in your series, that romanticism was also created because of a need for hope. Was that a consideration of your series, which was started during the pandemic and has the need for a rainbow at the end.
SLW: Artists are romantics, especially the idea of romanticism as a longing or looking at something lovingly or looking back at something and thinking that there is always hope. It is what we do every day in the making of the work. To be an artist, you are pulling things out of thin air with the hope that someone will come along and find interest in it — just to create a relationship with it through the eye and through the gut. But then also, to maybe buy it and show it and talk about it and write about it. I think that at the heart of all of us, we are all romantics.
I mean, for me, I grew up in the rural South. I ran through fields and grew up on a farm and have a clear relationship to the out of doors, to the land, to owning land. It is not a foreign idea for me to know that people can own land and own large parts of it. My great grandfather, Zollie Coffey Massenburg, owned hundreds of acres at a time when a Black man in rural North Carolina, did not. When he passed, his 14 children all got large plots of land, one of them being my maternal grandmother. When I pass an open field, immediately, there is something that is pricked in me about remembering, longing, and wanting that to be kept whole. No one’s going to buy this and build on it. If we could just have green spaces. The idea of romanticism is deeply embedded in me.
I think when people stand in front of work, there is a romantic gesture that is happening internally with whatever work they are looking at. You bond with it. You are creating a relationship. Whether you realize it or not, you are siphoning through your personal and psychic experiences. It is a romantic way of engaging with something.
So yes, I come to everything as a romantic, as someone who has a longing. I think my interest in appropriation is a romantic gesture to see something and want to make it not better, but to make conditions better and add my voice to that, to envision a better world. The only way that I know how to do that is just with the materials and things that I love working with.
Journey through two centuries of American art and artists in American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, presented by PNC Bank, at The Mint Museum
Charlotte, North Carolina (August 16, 2022) — The Mint Museum is pleased to announce the opening of American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, which features more than 100 works of art by renowned American artists, such as Benjamin West, Sarah Miriam Peale, Thomas Cole, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Robert Henri, and Charles Alston. The exhibition will be on view September 10 through December 24 at The Mint Museum’s uptown location (known as Mint Museum Uptown). Drawn entirely from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, the exhibition beautifully illustrates distinctive styles and thought-provoking art explored by American artists over the past two centuries.
Though many objects from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection have been on view at other museums, ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and Saint Louis Art Museum, this is the first exhibition to see the best of the collection brought together in one location.
“Private collections by definition reflect the tastes and focus of the collector. In the case of Diane Jacobsen, we are fortunate that not only does she have a keen eye for quality, condition, and the appropriate frame, but she has actively collected works by female artists and artists of color, often overlooked in surveys of American art, offering our visitors a broader understanding of artistic production in America from its early days as a young country to the 20th century,” says Todd Herman, Ph.D., president and CEO at The Mint Museum.
The exhibition, presented by PNC Bank, begins with portraits by masters including Rembrandt Peale and Thomas Sully, before moving on to highlight the development of mid-19th-century landscape painting with works by Asher B. Durand, John Frederick Kensett, and others. Enticing images of fruits, flowers, and other delights by Severin Roesen, John Francis, Ferdinand Richardt, Elizabeth Williams, and Adelaide Coburne Palmer will be featured alongside trompe l’oeil (“deceives the eye”) examples by William Michael Harnett, John Haberle, and John Peto. Twentieth-century modernism and realism can be seen in works by artists ranging from Patrick Henry Bruce and Marsden Hartley to Paul Cadmus, Charmion von Wiegand, Suzy Frelinghuysen, Elizabeth Catlett, and Earnie Barnes.
The mission of The Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation to “carefully research and obtain American masterpieces” is abundantly represented in American Made, says Jonathan Stuhlman, Ph.D., senior curator of American art at the Mint.
“It has been a pleasure to work with Dr. Jacobsen and her team to bring this exhibition to life over the past few years,” Stuhlman says. “Dr. Jacobsen has built this collection with not only an incredible passion for teaching the public about American art, but with a sense of exploration and discovery, a keen eye, and incredible connoisseurship.”
The September 10 opening-day celebration will include a panel discussion with Diane Jacobsen, Ph.D., distinguished scholar, art collector, and chair of the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, along with Herman and Stuhlman.
American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection is generously presented in Charlotte by PNC Bank. Additional generous support is provided by The Dowd Foundation, Windgate Foundation, U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management, and The President’s Cup. The national tour of American Made is made possible by Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle, Schoelkopf Gallery, and Sotheby’s. Media partners are SouthPark magazine and WDAV 89.9.
“Since establishing a presence in North Carolina one decade ago, PNC has invested heavily to support the arts and the region’s thriving cultural community,” says Weston Andress, PNC Bank regional president for Western Carolinas. “Through our frequent collaborations with The Mint Museum, we’ve helped bring world-class exhibitions to the city of Charlotte, and we’re delighted to continue that tradition with American Made.”
Accompanying the show is a catalogue of the DeMell Jacobsen Collection of fine art that is principally authored by Elizabeth Heuer, Ph.D., with contributions from other leading scholars, edited by the Mint’s Jonathan Stuhlman, Ph.D., and published by D. Giles Ltd. It is available in The Mint Museum Store or online at store.mintmuseum.org.
Following its run at the Mint, the exhibition will travel to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee; the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida; the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas; and the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama.
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. For museum hours, visit 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.
PNC Bank
PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.
The Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation
The Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation is dedicated to preserving and exhibiting American art by carefully researching and obtaining American masterpieces, providing restoration, if necessary, and facilitating long-term loans to accredited major museums and traveling exhibitions. Created in 2011 as a 501(c)3 private operating foundation, the Foundation educates and stimulates creativity and teaches viewers about our nation’s rich artistic heritage with the goal of celebrating American art.
Media For interviews, digital images, or additional information, please contact:
Charlotte, North Carolina (May 13, 2022) — For more than 200 years, members of the Cole family have been potting in central North Carolina — Randolph, Moore, Lee, and Montgomery counties. Six generations of Coles, and no fewer than 18 individuals, are represented in The Mint Museum’s permanent collection. More than 60 highlights of their wares are included in the new installation The Cole Family: A Dynasty of North Carolina Potters, on view at Mint Museum Randolph.
From crocks, jars, and jugs to pitchers, candleholders, and vases, “turning pots” is one of the oldest and richest craft traditions in North Carolina. The deep-rooted legacy of the Cole family of potters began with Raphard Cole, born in 1799. He and his sons produced utilitarian stoneware, such as crocks, jugs, and urns, that were needed in an agrarian economy. Following generations distinguished themselves from their forebears by training their daughters, as well as their sons, on how to “turn pots.”
As the North Carolina tourist market for decorative ceramics evolved, the Cole family produced an impressive variety of colorfully glazed vases, pitchers, candleholders, and other ceramic pieces. Examples of all these wares also are on view in the installation.
“In a state filled with multigenerational families of gifted potters, the Coles stand out as one of North Carolina’s most enduring and prolific. For more than two hundred years, they have contributed enormously to the state’s ceramic traditions through their well-potted objects and their exceptionally beautiful glazes,” says Brian Gallagher, senior curator of decorative arts at The Mint Museum.
The Cole Family: A Dynasty of North Carolina Potters presents a visual history of “turned pots” and the family that helped turn North Carolina into one of America’s centers for handmade, traditional pottery.
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)
FROM LEFT: Mark Rothko (American, born Russia, 1903–70). No. 17 [or] No. 15 1949, oil on canvas, 51 7/8 x 29 1/8 inches. Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1986.43.142. Mark Rothko (American, born Russia, 1903–70). Untitled 1951, oil on canvas, 44 1/4 x 37 3/8 inches. Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1986.43.157.
Charlotte, North Carolina (March 10, 2022) — For the first time in its 85-year history, The Mint Museum has not one, but two, Mark Rothko paintings on view. Through a long-term loan with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., two paintings by the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko are on view in the Modern Contemporary galleries at Mint Museum Uptown. The two works — No. 17 [or] No. 15 and Untitled 1951 — are the only paintings by Rothko currently on view in North Carolina.
To celebrate, Harry Cooper, senior curator and head of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., presents “Rothko Becoming Rothko” 6:30 p.m. April 13 at Mint Museum Uptown about the life and works of the famed artist. The lecture is part of the Wednesday Night Live Series, presented by Bank of America, and includes free admission to the museum, plus a cash bar, 5:30-9 p.m.
Rothko’s serene floating blocks of color, typical of his mature work in the 1950s and 1960s, are considered a pivotal moment in the move from figural painting to Abstract Expressionism, says Todd A. Herman, president and CEO.
“Influenced by the tragedies of World War II, Rothko felt that painting needed to reach deeper into our shared subconscious where humanity can be connected through emotional responses to color and shape. He worked in a vertical format to reflect the human form and encouraged people to stand just a few feet in front so that the work could fill their vision and maximize the effect.”
The paintings will be on view through March 2023 at Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts.
Ticket Information Admission to The Mint Museum 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.
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.
More information, contact: Michele Huggins, Interim Director of Marketing and Communications at The Mint Museum
michele.huggins@mintmuseum.org | 704.564.0826 (c)
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”
By Rubie Britt-Height, director of community relations at The Mint Museum
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1963) was a major American icon whose life, though cut short far too soon, profoundly impacted the state of our country in the 1950s, 1960s, and today. He was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday that marks the birth of this profoundly courageous leader who addressed the challenges existing in the United States relative to poverty, racism, and war.
The Mint observes the official Martin Luther King Jr. holiday throughout the month of January with goals ongoing throughout the year to invoke dialogue and transformative programming, exhibitions, and equity for diverse artists, vendors, and staff. The museum is committed to its mission, vision, and strategic plan, of which diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are a part.
Throughout 2022, the Mint will provide members and guests opportunities to view and have dialogue about meaningful works of art, attend performing arts programming, read historical nuggets about artists of color, and recount through socially conscious works of art the ongoing challenges identified by Dr. King’s speeches, writings, and sermons that continue to illuminate “the dream still deferred” in many ways.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech spoke metaphorically and strategically to an environment that blighted African Americans, with the hope of a transformed country of equity, equality, justice, and fairness.
The Jim Crow Museum notes that “the civil rights movement reached its peak when 250,000 blacks and whites gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which included the demand for passage of meaningful civil rights laws when Dr. King, Jr. delivered his famous speech.” Among those words, throughout his ministry are many other notable quotes that raise our consciousness and speak to courage, community, and commitment to a better America for all.
Here are just a few of his thought-provoking and enlightened perspectives as one influenced by his Christian faith, Ghandi’s non-violence philosophy, and his commitment to balance the scale of humanity in America:
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but it comes through continuous struggle.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
We invite you view this curator video featuring Senior Curator of American art Jonathan Stuhlman, PhD, about the painting Selma by artist Barbra Pennington that focuses on the events that unfolded 55 years ago in Selma, Alabama.
Join a Mint educator for a 45-minute mindfulness session and discussion about the work ‘The Bull Fight’ in the exhibitionBearden/Picasso: Rhythms and Reverberations | Cost of Admission
Mindfulness encourages us to be more present with art, ourselves and each other. The Mint Museum brings mindfulness to the experience of looking at art and invites you to take a restorative pause in your day and engage deeply with a work of art.
Richard J. Powell, PhD, is the John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, where he has taught since 1990. After completing his undergraduate studies at Morehouse College and earning an master’s degree in fine art from Howard University, Powell earned a master’s degree in African American Studies, as well as a master’s degree in philosophy and doctorate in history of art from Yale University.
Denise Murrell, PhD, holds the position of Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Curator-at-Large at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Murrell was previously the associate curator of 19th- and 20th-Century Art at the Met. Prior to that, she was the curator of the exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today (October 2018–February 2019) at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery while serving as the Wallach’s Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Research Scholar (2014–19). She was a co-curator of the exhibition’s expansion at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, as Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Matisse (March–July 2019) and a guest lecturer for its final tour as Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Picasso at the Memorial ACTe, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe (September–December 2019).
Diedra Harris-Kelley is co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, the nonprofit organization perpetuating the legacy of Romare Bearden. She offers a unique perspective on Bearden’s work being a formally trained painter, and niece of the artist’s late wife, Nanette Rohan Bearden. For the last 10 years, she has been part of the team leading the foundation through a successful run of exhibitions, publications, and educational and celebratory programs around the life and art of Bearden. She also acts as its chief researcher.
