Fall/Winter 2014
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artViewsHuntsville Museum of Art Fall/Winter 2014 IN THIS ISSUE: To grandmother’s house we go: Grandma Moses, that is! Women’s Guild celebrates its 50th Anniversary Voices of Our Times: Three bestselling authors to visit Huntsville welcome Dear Museum Members, Museum Board of Directors Chairman: John Wynn or 50 years the Women’s Guild of the Huntsville Vice Chairman: Richard Crunkleton FMuseum of Art has spearheaded the cultural efforts Secretary: Walter (Tod) Dodgen that helped establish the state-of-the-art facility Treasurer: Charlie Bonner that we all enjoy today. Since 1965, five years before Dorothy Davidson Betsy Lowe the museum was officially incorporated, these ladies Sarah Gessler David Nast Joyce Griffin Virgina Rice have put their hearts, minds and souls into annual Patsy Haws Herman Stubbs fundraising events that have, to date, yielded nearly Carole Jones $2.5 million in direct support of the museum. Now, on the eve of their 50th Anniversary, we Foundation Board President: Bobby Bradley owe the Guild a resounding ovation for leading by Vice President: Dee Kowallik example with an unparalleled passion for the arts. It’s been their raison d’être, and Secretary: Parke Keith we’re all the better for it. Heather Baker Blake Mitchell To celebrate this milestone, the Guild has chosen internationally-acclaimed, Dane Block Bronwen Murray glass artist Ginny Ruffner to be our 2015 featured artist. Her show Aesthetic Kerry Doran Melanie Murray Engineering, a dramatic series of large-scale mixed media works, will launch our Micah Fisher Shannon Raleigh Patrick Fleming Keyke Reed season in early October. And, what a season it shall be! Greg Gum Dianne Reynolds Skating in the Park returns by popular demand in November. It will be bigger Tharon Honeycutt Mark Spencer and better than the past two years and usher in the holidays with festive cheer Rosemary Lee Dana Town rarely glimpsed outside of a Grandma Moses painting, which you’ll be able to Susan Linn Lori Webber Michele Lucas Charlotte Wessel judge yourselves when we present Grandma Moses: Visions of America. Dabsey Maxwell Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses, who bore 10 children and passed away at the Women’s Guild Officers President: Suzanne Barnes age of 101 in 1961, didn’t begin wielding a President-elect: Sasha Sealy brush until her late 70s (her first medium was Secretary: Nancy Ferguson embroidery but arthritis forced her to give up Treasurer: Michele Rife needle work). She was a worldwide sensation by Assistant Treasurer: Stacey Goldmon the 1950s, well into her 90s. (As a personal aside, Museum Docents my grandparents often bumped into her while Docent Chair: Sue Kuehlthau shopping in Bennington, Vermont, and Hoosick Co-Chair: Kate Leonard Falls, New York. They also attended her 100th Museum Staff birthday in Manchester, Vermont, where I was Executive Director: Christopher J. Madkour raised). Director of Curatorial Affairs: Peter J. Baldaia HMA’s Voices of Our Times series, highlighted Director of Development: Amy Cornelius Director of Education/Museum Academy: in this issue, continues to draw persons of note Laura E. Smith from the world of art, academia and publishing. Grandma Moses celebrating her Director of Communications: Stephanie Kelley, APR This season’s roster includes something for 100th birthday at the Southern Facility and Event Manager: Lil Parton everyone: Frances Mayes, the acclaimed, Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, Accountant: Wendy Worley bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun and Vermont, LIFE magazine, Security Supervisor: Linda Berry Under Magnolia; David Sanger, chief Washington September 19, 1960. Executive Assistant: Amy Mata correspondent for The New York Times and author of two masterworks of Curator of Exhibitions and Collections: David Reyes Curator of Exhibition Interpretation/Registrar: contemporary U.S. foreign policy; and Charlotte Moss, author of nine books on Deborah Taylor gracious living and design, whose Southern-centric interior design business has Membership and Annual Giving Coordinator: achieved international acclaim. Andrea Petroff This year’s exhibitions and programs are emblematic of what can be realized Membership Associate: Anita Kimbrough when the will to edify, educate and entertain is as strong as it is here. Just as the Education Associate: Libbie Adams Rentz Museum Academy Assistant: Lisa Roth Women’s Guild has known for half a century, the City of Huntsville and the Social Media and Online Coordinator: Katie Martin museum-going public–and our ever-generous members in particular–also know Facility Rental Assistants: Markeshia Carter, the importance of hosting a world-class cultural institution in North Alabama. Christine Kennedy So, take a moment and review Ginny Ruffner’s works and Grandma Moses’ Accounting Assistants: Tonya Alexander, Mary Chavosky paintings, and carve out some time to enjoy a book or two by one or more of our Guest Services Representatives: Linda Nagle, prolificVoices presenters. You’ll appreciate and enjoy this season’s rich offerings Emily Alcorn, Wendy Campbell that much more. Museum Store: Rachael Stone Museum Store Coordinator: Janell Zesinger Sincerely, Volunteers: Jerry Brown, Billie Muhl, Gina Ceci, Linda Harris, Mary Withington, Christopher J. Madkour Anne Compton Burke Executive Director Security Guards: Britney Boles, Hayden Herfurth, Jeanne Manley, Steve McCoy, Shaun Pass, On the cover: Ginny Ruffner, Nature Tech: Flower Propeller, 2013, bronze, glass, 62 x 32 x 44 Laura Payne, John Solari, Charlie Tolbert inches; Spike Mafford Photography, Seattle, WA Custodian: Rich Krumrie 2 exhibitions Ginny Ruffner: Aesthetic Engineering Featured artist overcomes tragedy to create again October 4, 2014-January 18, 2015 nternationally-acclaimed artist Ginny Master of Fine Arts in 1975 from the IRuffner is no stranger to adversity and University of Georgia. In the early 1980s, overcoming the odds. In late 1991, she she moved to Seattle and began working was at the top of her career as an artist, in glass. Ruffner pioneered the fine art even though she was not quite 40 years application of the age-old technique old. Tragically, Ruffner was in a near fatal of lampworking, which involved the car accident which left her in critical manipulation of glass rods over an open condition and in a five-week coma. Her flame. She became famous for colorful and doctors’ prognosis was that it would be whimsical tabletop sculptures in glass that unlikely for her to walk or talk again, celebrated life’s beauties and pleasures. but she proved them wrong. Not only did she relearn to do both, but through “ What if you could see wondering? perseverance, determination and physical What if you could imagine something therapy, she, after only three years, was invisible, and then see it manifested– back in her studio doing what she loved… invisible things like traits and creating art. behaviors. Traits like blooming and “Aesthetic Engineering will provide behaviors like dancing.” – Ginny Ruffner viewers with a rare glimpse into the imaginative world of one of contemporary “By the early 1990s, Ruffner was art’s most creative personalities,” Peter among the few women artists to achieve Baldaia, the museum’s director of great fame,” Baldaia added. “Not yet 40, Curatorial Affairs, said. “Ginny finds she was a darling of the art world.” inspiration from recent breakthroughs in Ruffner’s engaging works are found genetics and bioengineering and creates in countless major private and public fantastic, futuristic forms made of bronze, collections, including the Los Angeles stainless steel and blown glass.” County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised Museum of Art, and the Renwick Gene for the Grace of Falling Leaves, 2006, stainless in South Carolina, Ruffner received her Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution steel, bronze, glass, 61 x 37 x 30 inches; Mike Seidl, in Washington, Seattle, Washington DC. She is the subject of dozens Fellowship from the National Endowment of articles and of for the Arts. the film “A Not The Huntsville Museum of Art So Still Life,” (HMA) has organized the Ginny Ruffner which premiered exhibition in conjunction with the 50th at the Seattle Anniversary Celebration of the Women’s Film Festival Guild. HMA thanks the Women’s Guild for its support over the past 50 years and in 2010 and for their vision and work to bring this won in the Best important artist to Huntsville. See page 6 Documentary for details about three exciting events the category. Guild will host in conjunction with the Ruffner is exhibition, and please find a full listing of the recipient of generous exhibit sponsors on page 19. many awards including the Libensky Award from the Pilchuck Glass School, an Honorary Lifetime Achievement award from the Glass Art Society, and a Visual Fragrance (detail), 2007, bronze, stainless The Force That Shapes Seashells, 2006, stainless steel, bronze, glass, 43 x 60 x Visual Artist steel, glass, 41 x 45 x 48 inches; Spike Mafford 30 inches; Mike Seidl, Seattle, Washington Photography, Seattle, Washington 3 exhibitions South by Southeast: Masters of Studio Glass October 5, 2014-February 8, 2015 pening October 5 to complement the Ginny Ruffner Oglass exhibition is South by Southeast: Masters of Studio Glass, an invitational group exhibition. Included are works which range from fanciful tabletop vessels of blown, hot worked and acid etched glass to dramatic mixed media sculptures and installation pieces. HMA organized South by Southeast to showcase the work of noted American glass artists living and working in the Southeast region. It will be on view through February 8, 2015. Selected artists include Ché Rhodes of Louisville, Kentucky; Stephen Rolfe Powell of Danville, Kentucky; Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush of Knoxville, Tennessee; John Littleton and Kate Vogel of Bakersville, North Carolina; and Rick Beck of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Visitors are invited to join artists Rick Beck, John Littleton and Kate Vogel as they present an overview of their works during an Opening Day Gallery John Littleton and Kate Vogel, Light Walk at 2 p.m.