Art Museums

“Drawing from Life: Ben Long & Tony Griffin” currently on display at the BRAHM. PHOTO SUBMITTED

Art museums bring culture

BY JORDYN DANIELS

Winter is the perfect time to take advantage of culture that the area has to offer. Whether you are looking for a family fun event, or a cozy, thought provoking date; the art museums are perfect for winter fun.

The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum and the Turchin Center for Visual Arts in Boone are two local free museums that people can access any time during the winter months.

BLOWING ROCK ART AND HISTORY MUSEUM

BRAHM is a museum nestled in the heart of Blowing Rock. With so much to offer the community, a free visit often feels like a steal.

The museum focuses primarily on American art as well as history of the southern Appalachian region with its three rotating galleries and two to four permanent spaces. The exception to offering art outside of the country is when the pieces have local connection.

BRAHM is welcoming visitors in person, and offering adapted services for online guests as a response to the Covid pandemic. However, guests attending the museum no longer are required to wear masks.

The museum is offering “Uncommon Volumes: Sculptural Selections from Studio Glass in the Region” from now until Feb. 25, 2023.

“Studio Glass’s coalescence in the mid-20th century precipitated a renaissance of historic and new techniques for working glass. Where the medium had served utilitarian and commercial—if often aesthetic—purposes in the past, this flourishing relocated creative and material autonomy solely into the hands of the artist. When design and production were brought together, a wider array of objects and the material ideologies that shaped them came to bear on the seemingly most novel member of Studio Craft’s brood,” according to the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum.

The exhibit features recent pieces

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from the last 30 years that demonstrate the increasingly experimental nature of sculptural glass. Artist such as Sarah Vaughn, and Jose Chardiet are featured in this exhibit.

An upcoming exhibit, that will begin showing on Dec. 6, 2022 until February 2023, is the “Trash Trout Picture Show.” Tom Hansell is a visual artist that works in collaboration with river protectors. Hansell has worked for the past two years up-cycling trash from the rivers to create works of art, according to the BRAHM website.

The BRAHM offers its permanent exhibit on the history of Blowing Rock.

BRAHM has an attached garage and is handicap accessible. Museum hours are back to normal. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum will be closed Christmas Day. For more information visit www.blowingrockmuseum.org.

TURCHIN CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS

The Turchin is located on King St. in Boone. Associated with Appalachian State University, the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts has six rotating exhibits, and offers up to 12 exhibits a year. Many sculptures around Boone and Appalachian’s campus are displayed by the Turchin Center.

The Turchin offers interactive PDF’s on the website called “connections: Exhibit Guides.” These PDFs are to help guest have a more profound experience at the museum. There is information about the artists, the exhibition, other works created by the artist, and educational art activities related to the work for the participant to do at home. To access this guide, visit tvca.org/learn/for-everyone.

The Turchin Center is offering a few exhibits this winter, and among them are “Transformations: AppDigifab,” “Folded and Gathered: Nicole Pietrantoni,” and “Thin Places: KiLiii Yuyan.”

“Transformations: AppDigifab” is an exhibit that was created by Appalachian professors, showcasing the incredible applications of computer-aided design. This winter showcase will be available from November until May 6, 2023.

“Folded and Gathered: Nicole Pietrantoni” is an exhibit that will be showcased at the Turchin until Feb. 4, 2023.

“Nicole Pietrantoni’s books and installations explore the representation of beauty in times of loss, photography’s role in producing memory and humans’ relationship to the environment. Taking an experimental approach to the book form, her art asks how the book and printed matter can both enable and undercut humans’ active role in constructing and idealizing images. Rather than a fixed site or single image, the fragmented paper columns, text and book forms engage the world as an unstable accumulation of processes, perceptions and narratives,” according to Turchin’s website.

“Thin Places: KiLiii Yuyan” is artistic photography that writes the story of Arctic and human communities connected to the land and sea, according to the Turchin. Yuyan is a National Geographic Explorer. His work has been exhibited worldwide, and is now in the High Country. Visit this exhibit from Dec. 2 until May 6, 2023.

Additionally, the museum offers virtual tours of exhibit spaces through the “Turchin Center for the Visual Arts” Youtube channel. For each exhibit, a video walks guests through the gallery. The museum’s Youtube channel has also offered some behind the scene-type videos for patrons.

The Turchin Center’s hours are, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and noon to 8 p.m. on Fridays. The Turchin will close at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17, through January 5, 2023, for winter break.

PHOTO SUBMITTED The artistic musings of more than 10 chimpanzees and orangutans, including that of Michael Jackson’s former chimpanzee, “Bubbles,” hang in the Mezzanine Gallery, located in the east wing of the Turchin Center, until Feb. 5, 2022.

PHOTO SUBMITTED View of the “Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual: Traditional and Innovation” exhibition on display at the BRAHM.