American Folk Art Museum
Executive Director
Maria Ann Conelli
Fall 2009

New York City in the fall is always an exciting time for museums—new exhibitions and interesting programs entice visitors and native New Yorker alike. This fall, the American Folk Art Museum is presenting extraordinary exhibitions, events, and new initiatives. I’d like to share some highlights with you.

Exhibitions
The notion of “setting” is a theme that routinely emerges as educators at the museum work with visitors in the galleries. Perspectives: Setting the Scene in American Folk Art—organized by education department and the first installation in a series of exhibitions relating to the notion of perspective—reveals the richness and diversity of American folk art in the long tradition of depicting places and provides snapshots of American life in different time periods.

Thomas Chambers (1808–1869): American Marine and Landscape Painter showcases the bold and expressive vision of a painter who was once hailed as “America’s first modern.” It is first museum presentation devoted to Chambers’s paintings and seeks to define his style, examine his sources, and investigate the popular audience for marine and landscape painting in the mid-nineteenth century.

Approaching Abstraction is the first exploration into nonobjective expression within this field and selected entirely from the museum’s collection. It highlights the work of approximately 40 artists, including Thornton Dial Sr., Hiroyuki Doi, Adolf Wölfli, and Purvis Young.

Henry Darger (1892–1973) adopted countless images from popular-media sources, such as magazines and comics, but no single source influenced him as steadily as the coloring book. Up Close: Henry Darger and the Coloring Book is an intimate installation of examples culled from the museum’s vast Henry Darger Study Archive.

At the branch location at 2 Lincoln Square, the museum is presenting “New York Trilogy,” three exhibitions highlighting New York artistry in works drawn from the museum’s collection. A New York Sampler: Selections from the Collection features lively works that speak to the vitality and variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art from the Empire State. Throughout its history, New York has thrived on forces balanced between old ways and progressive ideas. This creative tension has energized the state, and it is this vigorous spirit that is captured so beautifully in this folk art sampler. Malcah Zeldis: New York Artist presents the work of the Bronx-born and longtime Brooklyn and Manhattan resident, who engagingly taps into and captures the pulse of the urban landscape. Zeldis’s scenes of everyday life, and biblical and historical subjects are often laced with autobiographical elements. Audacious in her color palette, her hues vibrate with rhythmic intensity in the paintings on view. Vestie Davis’s New York is a bright, sparkling place with impressive and diverse landmarks and a hub of activity chronicled in meticulously detailed pictures from the 1950s through the 1970s. Davis predicted that some of his favorite sites would not survive the evolving needs of the city, and he faithfully rendered them with this in mind.

Programs
The museum’s highly acclaimed annual Fall Symposium will be held on November 14; this year, the focus is on landscapes, seascapes, and village views. I will be leading a museum tour on November 18—I hope you can join me. The museum continues to offer interactive programs for individuals with Alzheimer’s that bring the world of folk art to life through conversation; Folk Art Reflections is held the first and third Thursday of every month. Families and Folk Art, interactive tours followed by artmaking activities for children and their accompanying adults, is offered one Saturday each month. The education department is also offering Visual Descriptive Tours in October as part of Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month; these tours invite blind and partially sighted visitors to explore the world of folk art with an educator through verbal descriptions and discussion.

Events
The museum’s annual Fall Benefit Gala will be held this year on November 11. Please join us for an evening of dinner and dancing at the stunning Tribeca Rooftop to salute New York City’s leading arts advocates. The American Antiques Show (TAAS), organized by and benefitting the museum, will be presented January 21–24 at the Metropolitan Pavilion and features the finest dealers in American folk art, furniture, American Indian art, decorative arts, and fine arts. The Gala Benefit Preview, always a highlight on the museum’s calendar, is January 20. I also invite you to come to the museum on Friday evenings for Free Music Fridays when admission is free from 5:30 to 7:30 pm—explore the exhibitions, have a drink in the café, and enjoy live music in the atrium. It's really a fun time at the museum.