Message from the Director

Dear friends of the Museum,

At this time last year, we’d been open in the new Museum for three and a half months. By mid-March we, for the safety of Members, visitors, and staff and along with so many other organizations and businesses, closed in response to the pandemic. We now see some signs of the approaching spring (crocuses and hellebores) and are grateful for noticeably longer days. While there’s light at the end of the day, there’s also continued uncertainty about the future that must be acknowledged. With that in mind we’re preparing for a “hybrid” future that takes the very best of what we’ve learned this past year to enhance not only how we present great art but also how we craft great experiences for you going forward.

The Museum is open, with temporary COVID-19 safety protocols in place. I hope you’ll come explore the amazing selection of contemporary photography in Vantage Points: Contemporary Photography from the Whitney Museum of American Art before it closes March 15. Some of our other exhibitions will close in April, and there will be new works installed in the SECU Collection Hall, so don’t delay. We’re also busy preparing spring programs, creating both virtual and small-group, in-person opportunities to make and to explore art. For students, Summer Art Camp registration opens March 15.

March is Women’s History Month. The Museum’s growing Collection contains artworks from over 500 women artists. On view for a little while longer is Mickalene Thomas’s Interior: Zebra with Two Chairs and Funky Fur (purchased by the 2016 Collectors’ Circle members), an amazing large-format collage that transports the viewer and rewards close-looking. Coming soon is Wendy Red Star’s Four Season series (purchased by the 2015 Collectors’ Circle), a four-part photographic work that is both humorous and unsettling. Though not yet on view, the 2020 Collectors’ Circle acquired several new works by women including the marvelous Retrospective in a Box, a suite of seven prints by feminist artist Judy Chicago printed by Landfall Press that explore her groundbreaking imagery. Please come visit and choose a work by a woman artist that speaks to you. Alternatively (or additionally), celebrate spring and longer daylight by exploring how French and American Impressionist artists captured the many manifestations of light in Across the Atlantic: American Impressionism Through the French Lens. Chat with staff, send us an email or a note, post on social media, and let us know which artworks you find that engage you and how you are moved.

Also, several virtual programs in March honor women including our March 9 Discussion Bound book group and our March 19 Slow Art Friday. Two Adult Studio programs will be taught by local women artists including our six-part in-person class Capturing the Light: Impressionism in Watercolors with Claire Simpson Jones beginning March 15 (registration deadline: March 8) and four-part virtual class Exploring Color with Soft Pastel with Terrilynn Dubreuil beginning March 31 (registration deadline: March 24).

I look forward to seeing you soon and often, and thank you again for your unwavering, inspiring support.

Pamela L. Myers
Executive Director