- The Hickory Museum of Art
was an integral part of my childhood.
This year the museum turns 75
and I wanted to see how it's celebrating it's birthday
and evolving for the future.
So I met with John Carfagno,
the museum's new executive director.
What's the best way to experience a museum?
- Well, that's a great question
and I think the most important thing to do right off the bat
is to forget the idea that art museums are just places
where pictures are hung on the wall.
For instance, with this painting,
one of the things that attracted me to it is
this idea of why is the tree glowing,
and then if you take the time
to read the panels and immerse yourself
in what the exhibition designers are sharing,
you actually learn that Dangerfield is
a great transcendentalist thinker
and the trees are glowing
because he wants to show the presence of God the Creator,
divinity pouring out of them and for you as the viewer
to experience that in a way
that is better than your eye would normally see it.
- [Christina] Why did you choose
to focus on Elliot Dangerfield?
- Well, one of the things that attracted us
to this exhibition was the lessons that it teaches
about creativity and how it happens.
So Dangerfield first visits Grandfather Mountain in 1886
and he falls in love with the landscape,
and the paintings that we been looking at
prepare him as much as possible for what will become
one of the great creative challenges of his career.
And that is, how do you capture the magnitude
of the Grand Canyon and all that happens there?
So there are some lessons that he's able to apply
from his painting at Grandfather Mountain
and then there's also a lot of problem solving
that he needs to do.
For instances, how do you capture the play of light
across a different type of rock
and also how do you portray the scale
of what happens at the Grand Canyon?
- [Christina] So he learned how to do this
by painting the Blue Ridge Mountains?
- For sure.
There are elements, for instances,
the mist, the clouds, the sunlight,
that he was painting there
but here at the Grand Canyon everything is amplified.
- [Christina] So you also have plein air painting for kids?
- Yes, this really lines up with our mission,
which is to bring people together
and inspire creativity through the power of art.
So we wanted to have a space,
after people had seen great art,
to actually create their own.
And so what you're looking at here are examples
from some of the really talented kids
that have come through this space.
- Erica Holland of Huntersville
brought her children to Hickory
as part of a homeschool lesson.
So what have you guys been doing in the museum?
- When we started we were just walking through the exhibits,
but I tried to make sure that they had a chance
to interact with the art,
to kinda appreciate at their own level
but to also create on their own
and see themselves as artist,
and see themselves in the art here.
[upbeat folk music]
- [Christina] In addition to Dangerfield,
the museum has a extensive collection of folk art,
with more than two hundred objects on display.
There are also activities stations, touch screens,
smells and sounds to experience.
- One of the things that makes Hickory Museum of Art
so unique and so special is
that for a museum our size and a community our size
we have such a rich array of some of the best American art
that's ever been created.
- The Hickory Museum of Art is
at 243 3rd Avenue NE in Hickory in the Salt Block
and they're open Tuesday through Saturday
from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The Elliot Dangerfield Exhibit runs through April 20th
followed by an Exhibit from April 27th to August 8th
of Blue Ridge realists.
For more more information
give them a call at 828-327-8576
or go online to hickoryart.org.