Description
This proposed project aligns with the AAP’s Goal 3/a:
Assignment of 25% of annual program funds to collection-based projects addressing under- preserved, studied, shared, or presented collections, with priority given to first-time AAP grantees.
Wiregrass Museum of Art (WMA) is the only collecting visual arts museum for a 100-mile radius in the Wiregrass region (southeast Alabama, northwest Florida, and southwest Georgia) and is admission-free to all. As the cultural anchor in the region, WMA seeks to inspire lifelong appreciation of the visual arts and explore complex narratives of the rural American South through exhibitions and programs for diverse audiences. WMA’s staff of five produces up to 16 exhibitions annually: up to three are drawn from the permanent collection, while the majority feature the work of living artists from across the Southeast. In recent years, WMA has sought to devote it resources more concertedly to building capacity for collection care and presentation, in part through conservation assessments and digitization.
WMA seeks funding to support three collections-based exhibitions to take place beginning in July, 2021. Its goal is to provide visitors access to and encounters with objects from the permanent collection ranging in date from the early 20th century to the present, including works by well-known American artists and self-taught artists with roots in the Deep South. The first exhibition (title TBD) is thematic presentation of 35 works that will place art by Alabama contemporary artists (Larry Allen, Butch Anthony, Pinky/MM Bass, Frank Fleming, Carolyn Sherer, Scott Stephens, and Cindy Wagner, among others) in conversation with works by internationally known artists (Frank Stella, Robert Motherwell, Robert Indiana, and Jim Dine). “Self-Taught Art from the Permanent Collection,” to run concurrently, will showcase work by artists including Bernice Sims, Woodie Long, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, and William Dawson. The third exhibition, set to open in the fall, will feature a series of botanical prints by artist Alice Mason (1904-1971), a part of the WMA’s substantial holding of works on paper by Mason that has never been shown.
To accompany the exhibitions, WMA will produce free virtual tours and artist talks, available on the museum’s digital platforms, to extend opportunities for public engagement with objects in WMA’s collection. The exhibitions will additionally drive content for summer programming including virtual and in-person youth camps, artist workshops and talks, and in-gallery artmaking activities.
WMA intends for this collection-based exhibition program to stimulate and broaden public awareness of the permanent collection and provide a sense of welcome and ownership for local and regional audiences (including school and university students). Internally, the project will allow the museum staff to advance their stewardship of the collection through physical care, research, and interpretation. The Museum anticipates that the exhibitions will significantly boost attendance as it resumes full, in-person access, with the self-taught-artists exhibition expected to be a particularly popular draw owing to the strong interest of local audiences in this work. WMA’s leadership intends to maximize the impact of the exhibition by hosting key stakeholders (including City of Dothan and Houston County elected officials, local Chamber of Commerce representatives, downtown small business owners, educators, and museum members) to stimulate local support of the museum and its activities, and particularly for sustained support of collection-related staff.
Museum staff will seek feedback on the exhibitions through surveys, comment boxes, and staff and security feedback. WMA is also launching a community advisory committee of diverse individuals from the Wiregrass region which will play a key role in front-end and summative evaluation of the three collections-based exhibitions.
Grant funds would support project staff, framing, installation costs, honoraria for program participants, and preparation of digital content and materials.