Upcoming Events at the Birmingham Museum of Art

As many of you know already the Birmingham Museum of Art is currently showing the special exhibit Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery. What you may not know is that there are several upcoming events to coincide with the exhibit. Admission to the museum is free, as are most of the BMA's events & exhibits. The following are some of the ones that are of interest to artists & art historians:

• Tuesday 10/27 at 2:00PM, Coffee with the Curator: Graham C. Boettcher, PhD (William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art) will fill you in on the fascinating stories told in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and give behind-the-scenes information that only a curator could know. Boettcher received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Yale University, and worked on this exhibition for several years, as a graduate research fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery. Cost is free.
• Thursday 11/5 at 6:00PM, Steiner Auditorium, Hidden Bonds: Revealing the Legacy of Slavery in American Art through the Collection of the Yale University Art Gallery: Graham C. Boettcher, PhD (William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art) will reveal the “hidden” legacy of slavery in Yale’s collection through a discussion of masterworks by John Smibert, Samuel King, Hiram Powers, and Henry O. Tanner, among others. Established in 1832, the Yale University Art Gallery is among the oldest museums in the U.S. and its collection of American Art is considered one of the finest and most comprehensive. However, evidence of the African-American experience, particularly the history of slavery, is not always readily apparent. Cost is free.
  
• Tuesday 11/10 at 12:00PM, Confessions of an Art Geek (Artbreak-November): Scott Stantis (Editorial Cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune and formerly editorial columnist for The Birmingham News). In this 30-minute gallery talk, Stantis will discuss the powerful effect that many of the works in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness have on his work. He points not only to political cartoons, but also to prints and paintings as having influenced him. Cost is free.
• Thursday 11/12 from 6-9:00PM, College Night, Rockin' in the U.S.A. ($6 for college students and faculty with ID, includes admission to the exhibition Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness) Go old school! Whether you choose to play “Born in the USA” on the big-screen version of “Rock Band” or rock out with band Act of Congress, this is sure to be an all-American night of fun! When you need a break from the games and the music, enjoy tours of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, meet the curator Graham Boettcher, go on a scavenger hunt through the Museum to win a prize, and sample an all-American menu.
• Friday 11/13 at 6:00PM, Steiner Auditorium, Burning Daylight, Frederic Remington, Electricity, and Flash Photography: Alexander Nemerov, PhD (Chair, History of Art Department, Yale University). Between 1906 and 1909, in the last few years of his life, Frederic Remington painted some of his greatest pictures—a series of nighttime scenes dramatically lit by firelight and moonlight. In this talk, Nemerov will discuss these moody, mysterious paintings and their relation to the technologies of electric lighting and flash photography then coming in to widespread use. Nemerov also writes about the American visual culture of different periods and has authored a book and several essays about Remington and the art of the American West. Cost is free.
• Tuesday 12/8 at 12:00PM, So You Say You Want a Revolution?, Rip van Winkle and the Problem of American Identity (Artbreak-December): Chris Metress, PhD (Director, University Fellows Program, Samford University). In this 30-minute gallery talk, Metress discusses what Rip Van Winkle missed as he slept through the American Revolution. More than an ordinary folktale, Washington Irving’s beloved classic explores what American national identity looked like in this time of cultural, political, and geographical change. Cost is free.

---posted by JMB