The Ackland Art Museum is showcasing an outdoor exhibit of photos taken by young girls living in Kibera.
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The Ackland Art Museum is showcasing an outdoor exhibit of photos taken by young girls living in Kibera.
In 2005, Robert Wittman, founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, recovered Rembrandt’s “Self-Portrait” after thieves stole it and two other paintings from the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, in December 2000.Fleeing in a motorboat, the thieves used diversionary explosions around the city to mask their escape. One of the paintings was recovered by local police and the rest by Wittman and his team.Art theft and fraud is the fourth largest illicit market in the world, with losses as great as $6 billion annually.“I’ve worked in more than 20 countries with undercover operations in a half-dozen,” Wittman said, of the spread of art crimes.Wittman, 54, began his career as the FBI’s art crime investigator when he was assigned two cases involving thefts from museums in Philadelphia.After he recovered both of the items, he became the FBI’s expert in cases involving culturally significant property. Wittman recovered more than $225 million worth of art and artifacts.While at the FBI, Wittman went undercover to recover historically significant items including a battle flag carried by an African-American regiment during the Civil War.“You always learn new things, whether it’s an African-American battle flag, a Rembrandt self-portrait or a pre-Columbian artifact,” Wittman said.In addition to recovering stolen art, Wittman’s investigations have led to the prosecution of art thieves, counterfeiters and dealers.“I’ve convicted about five appraisers from the ‘Antiques Roadshow,’” Wittman said.Galleries and museums have increased efforts to protect their collections from similar art thieves.“Most museums have at a minimum some level of protection using personnel,” said Mark Poole, director of security at the North Carolina Museum of Art.Museums might have electronic alarms and cameras to ensure security, he said. The Ackland Art Museum employs similar measures to protect its collections. “We use guards and alarms,” said Debbie Pulley, security supervisor at the Ackland. The Ackland’s security personnel are part of the University’s Department of Public Safety.But even with these advances in security devices, there is still a need for art crime investigators.After antiquities were looted from the Baghdad Museum in 2003, the FBI tasked Wittman with assembling a new 13-agent Art Crime Team. Each agent addresses the art and cultural property crimes of a geographic region.Aspiring sleuths cannot join the Art Crime Team directly. Wittman said only FBI special agents with three to five years of experience in criminal investigations are eligible to occupy open positions in the team.The FBI recruits candidates with backgrounds in forensics, international studies, computer science or language. Wittman said a minor or secondary training in art history would be helpful to join the team.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
James Britt has seen the town change in many ways since growing up in civil rights-era Chapel Hill.The landscape has changed. His relationship with residents and business owners has changed. The way he buys food has changed.But one thing that has stayed the same is the Ackland Art Museum, where Britt, 59, used to visit on field trips as a student at Chapel Hill Junior High. He has worked as a security guard at the museum since 2003.Britt entered the junior high as a seventh grader in 1962, three years after the school system began integrating and eight years after the measure was called for by the U.S. Supreme Court. He was one of about six black students who joined the school system that year.Now Britt watches the museum Wednesday through Sunday for about 40 hours a week. He ensures the art is safe and interacts with visitors and students touring the museum.“He seems to know every piece and where it is,” said Renee Luberoff, who has been a gallery teacher for seven years.Britt said his favorite painting is “Mending Socks” by Archibald J. Motley Jr., which is currently on display. The work depicts an elderly woman repairing holes in her socks.“The lady in the painting actually reminds me of my grandmother and my great-grandmother,” Britt said. “She sure looks like she could be family. But it also reminds me of, you know, the old days.”Those old days include the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, where Britt has lived nearly his entire life.“There’s no way to not remember the marches and the singing,” he said.When he was about 12 years old, Britt saw Martin Luther King Jr. speak in Chapel Hill.“Even as a youngster, that was quite impressive,” he said. “I was awestruck. There was no way not to be paying attention.”But his most vivid memories are those of attending the newly integrated schools.Near the beginning of seventh grade, a white classmate asked to touch his hand — his father told him the black would rub off, Britt said. The boy was surprised this wasn’t true.“He was fine after that, and we actually got to be real good buddies,” Britt said.Not every classmate was as accepting. Britt chose not to sit in the back of the classroom with the other black students, even though it was the “safest place.”“I would actually sit real close to the front. I could hear. I could see, and I just kind of took my chances from whoever was going to throw something from behind,” he said.These projectiles included spitballs, wads of paper and books, he said.But Britt has since befriended many former classmates, whom he saw in the carpool line as he picked his daughter up from school. “We learn that our kids know each other and relate,” he said. “It’s really cool. It’s progress — it makes you feel better.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
CORRECTION 3 p.m. Feb. 12: An earlier version of this story misquoted professor Jennifer Ho. The incorrect quote has been removed. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the erorr.
Visitors to the Ackland Art Museum Thursday night had the chance to merge art and literature with a program connecting poetry from the Civil War to Jacob Lawrence’s exhibition “The Legend of John Brown.”At the event, Leslie Balkany, the museum educator who facilitated the evening’s program, associated poetry from “Poets of the Civil War,” a collection of poems from the Civil War era compiled by J.D. McClatchy, with the Lawrence art installation about the famous abolitionist John Brown.She gave the participants a verse from a Civil War poem and asked them to match it with a print that they thought represented the writing visually. When examining the matches made, Balkany took the opportunity to elaborate on Lawrence’s works. While many of the matches were a matter of interpretation, some had stronger links to the images.One of Walt Whitman’s poems featured in the collection describes the hanging of Brown, which is also depicted in one of Lawrence’s prints. The art and literature program takes place every three months, and Balkany said she chooses the literature based on what the Ackland is currently displaying.At each session, there is also a co-facilitator who is a UNC faculty member. Thursday night featured Eliza Richards, an associate professor in the English and comparative literature department and an adjunct associate professor in the American studies department.The discussion drew an intimate group of visitors with an interest in poetry, art and the war. They talked about some of the poets included in the collection, such as Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and Richards’ favorite, Emily Dickinson. Richards pointed out that though the Civil War was a great event in American history, a singular great piece of art didn’t emerge. The collection of poetry was intended to include great works produced at this pivotal time in America’s history, but Richards doesn’t think it captures the scope of the poetry in that era. “There are thousands of poems from the Civil War,” Richards said. “I don’t think we should stop here.” Balkany wasn’t completely taken by the poetry either, but for different reasons. “I’m not a poetry person, I only do this for the group. I want to give you diversity,” Balkany jokingly said.Balkany is retiring in June, but she will continue to facilitate Ackland’s discussion series as a volunteer, to the pleasure of the participants. “Mrs. Balkany is a very inspirational lady,” said Polly Devany, a regular at the discussions.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Although recent pleas temporarily boosted their supplies, local blood centers are still in the midst of a donation shortage.The local chapters of the American Red Cross announced Jan. 10 they had only one day’s supply of blood — about 1,600 pints — available for hospitals in a region that includes Charlotte, Greensboro and the Triangle.Since then, the supply has increased to roughly 2,200 pints, said Orange County Red Cross blood service coordinator Wilma Palmer.But she said donation centers are still lacking in their blood supply.To remedy the shortage, Palmer said the region’s blood donation centers have extended their operating hours.“It has been critically low the last 10 days,” Palmer said. “This particular year, it has gone a little lower than in normally does.”Palmer said the blood supply typically drops during flu season because sick people cannot donate. But she blames fear of catching the H1N1 virus from giving blood and the closing of donation centers due to winter weather for abnormally low donations.“This is a very serious situation,” said Scott Madry, disaster action team captain for Orange County Red Cross. “We’re on the edge of managing the daily requirements for the local area.”He said if a serious incident like a bus wreck were to occur and large amounts of blood were needed, local authorities could have a crisis on their hands.Caroline Allison, Carolinas region Red Cross donor recruitment representative, said the Red Cross is intensifying efforts to attract donors by handing out fliers and releasing information through the media.“We are trying to get the word out as much as possible,” she said. “Blood is needed now more than ever.”And one way to increase the limited supplies is by tapping into the UNC community.“Organizations like fraternities, sororities and university departments can organize drives themselves,” Madry said.Student Matt Conte said he was unaware of the blood shortage and hasn’t donated in a year.“I’m definitely willing to give blood,” he said, adding that the men’s lacrosse team he plays for is planning a blood drive for later in the semester.Darryl Young, a public safety officer at Ackland Art Museum, said he has never donated blood but has no fear about the risks associated with it.“I’ve had about five or six tattoos,” Young said. “I’m used to needles by now.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu
Dance fans and history buffs alike have been eagerly awaiting the UNC premiere of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s “Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray” at 8 p.m. tonight in Memorial Hall.The performance is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln and interprets how America’s history would have changed had Lincoln been in charge during the Reconstruction era. “Every once in a while we get a work that we’ve been sort of hearing about for a few years and looking forward to for so long, and to get to be in the audience of that is very exciting,” said Harry Kaplowitz, the marketing manager of Carolina Performing Arts.
One exhibit takes you through the life of abolitionist John Brown. The other takes you on a journey through the depths of color and shapes.
"Escape," by American artist Felrath Hines, is part of an exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum. Courtesy of the Ackland Art Museum.
When students registered for professor Daniel Sherman’s First Year Seminar, they knew they would be designing a gallery, but they were unsure of how it would all come together.
Stepping into the gallery at the Ackland Art Museum, the viewer is transported through time and space to discover life and art along the Silk Road.
Off-campus food: The General Alumni Association is bringing favorite off-campus foods to UNC today. Student members are invited to enjoy free food from Cook-Out, The Pit, Krispy Kreme, Bojangles’, The Cheesecake Factory and more.
This article was published in the 2009 Year in Review issue of The Daily Tar Heel.Industrial progress, collage artists, mural painters and abstract expressionists all graced Chapel Hill with visual art in 2009.Here is a look at some of the best the community had to offer.Ackland exhibitsThe Ackland Art Museum had a variety of works on display this year.“All of 2009 has been really a wonderful year,” said Emily Kass, director of the museum.After wrapping up its 50-year anniversary celebration in January, the museum also hosted an exhibit about industrial progress, collage artist Aldwyth’s retrospective, an Asian art exhibit honoring Sherman Emery Lee, Cuban cinema posters and abstract expressionist art.“We were able to show things that for many people were new, because they haven’t been up in so long,” Kass said, about the year’s exhibits.The shows involved both new acquisitions, such as Seymour Lipton’s Sentinel II, and pieces from the museum’s existing collection.UNC alumnus David Craven donated 16 colorful 1960s and ’70s Cuban posters, many from cinema advertisements, to the museum. These were displayed in the fall.“The open-endedness to the images is surprising because it contradicts what you would have seen in Russia, China and Vietnam,” Craven said of the posters in an August interview.Student artIn 2009, students continued to create art and even had a new venue to display it.The Artery, a student-run gallery for student art, opened in early November.On Friday, the Artery will hold a student holiday print and art sale from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at 137 E. Rosemary St.In 2008, the Ackland received a $1.25 million grant to support their educational efforts, which allowed them to bring on new staff and expand programs in 2009.Kass said the number of students visiting the museum with their classes has grown from 7,500 last year to 10,000 this year.“We’ve really expanded our academic program department,” she said.Community artChapel Hill muralist Michael Brown was busy this year, raising money and restoring some of his murals around town.Meg McGurk, assistant director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, has helped with the campaign to save the murals.“They have been around for 20 years now and just about everyone that you talk to has a favorite,” she said in an August interview.Chapel Hill also installed several sculptures as part of the Sculpture Visions series.The Public Arts Commission of Chapel Hill also hired artists to create a community art project using pictures and memories from local residents.The finished work “Our Stories, In Focus” was displayed at various locations around Chapel Hill.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Charles Dickens is known for creating memorable literary characters through his words. But the grouchy-voiced Scrooge that comes to mind may have been created through the influence of performances and illustrations of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” not his original writings.Likewise, “Nicholas Nickleby” is another classic that has been manifested visually on the stage and in drawings, including here at UNC.The connections among visual, literary and performing arts in Dickens’ time are recreated and celebrated on campus this month in a showcase of art, manuscripts and a performance relating to Dickens.“The Illustrated World of Nicholas Nickleby” is a collaboration between PlayMakers Repertory Company, the Ackland Art Museum and the Rare Book Collection in Wilson Library. The program is designed to maximize the impact of cultural events on campus.Dickens presented the book in episodes, releasing a few chapters and illustrations at a time.He would tell his illustrators the premise of the episode before he wrote it, and the artist would work on the drawing while he worked on the writing.“Nicholas Nickleby,” which PlayMakers premiered Wednesday, is the biggest production in the theater’s history, with 25 actors playing more than 150 characters.Rob Colby, coordinator of academic programs at the Ackland, said PlayMakers approached him about having joint programming through the museum.After looking at the Ackland’s collection, Colby found 16 drawings, sketches and prints in the museum’s permanent collection from the early Victorian era, including works by Dickens’ chief illustrators and inspirers.“We have such a rich collection,” Colby said. “It was a wonderful thing to find the connection with an artist working in collaboration with Dickens.”Drawings by Dickens’ illustrators George Cruikshank and Hablot Knight Browne, who went by “Phiz,” and other works illuminating the print-making process comprise the Dickens installment. The exhibit, which also includes a print from the classic “Oliver Twist,” will run through Dec. 6.Wilson Library is currently displaying a complete collection of the original serial editions of “Nicholas Nickleby” and two early theatrical adaptations of the novel. The exhibit runs through Jan. 2.“It is rare that we identify an exact connection,” said Nic Brown, director of communications at the Ackland, of the theater’s performance and the University’s existing resources. “But we hope this can be an example.”To further enhance the Nickleby experience, English professor Marc Napolitano will give a presentation at 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Ackland. Napolitano, who did the research that led to the connections of the three art forms, will speak about the installment as a part of the Ackland’s “Lunch with One” program.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
A painting by Dickens’ illustrator George Cruikshank titled, “A Brush with Shakespeare.” Courtesy of the Ackland Art Museum
In an effort to accommodate student and faculty schedules and promote downtown Chapel Hill nightlife, the Ackland Art Museum is extending their Thursday hours.For the first time in the museum’s history, it has added evening hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m.“Realizing from our own schedules and the people we know — we work during the day. We don’t have time to go to a museum,” said Emily Kass, art director for the Ackland Art Center.The extension of gallery hours was slated to happen last fall but was canceled because of an uncertain budget.But this year, creativity made the extension possible.“We figured out there was a way to reorganize our security guards’ time so that we could actually extend the hours without having to add more funding,” Kass said.Noticing an increase in activity on Franklin Street, the museum chose Thursday night to add three additional hours.To celebrate the first Thursday night with extended hours, the museum hosted a gallery talk with curator Timothy Riggs about their fall exhibit, “The Guardian and the Avant-Garde.”Ackland staff members were excited about both the gallery talk and the extension of hours.“For students who are busy, the extended hours are great to take advantage of the art and study galleries,” said Carrie Faur, a junior work-study student at the museum.She said the gallery talk was great for bringing attention to the longer hours.But some expressed dismay at the extended hours.“If you have the activities to get people in here, then it’s fine,” said Reggie Edwards, a security guard for the museum.The museum has no plans to continue with Thursday night events yet but is open to the idea.“I think our original intention was just to have the museum open and available,” Kass said. “But we will see if there is an interest in more live programming, and we’ll do that.”Although the extra hours add work for the Ackland staff members, they welcome the undertaking.“It may be a little more work, but this is something we have always wanted to do,” Kass said.The museum plans to make more accommodations for people who cannot visit during regularly scheduled hours.“We will see how it goes. If we get a good turnout, we could look to do the same thing on Tuesday nights or Sunday nights,” Kass said.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
After having to repeatedly change his camera lens to be able to see Che Guevara through his viewfinder, Cuban photographer Alberto Korda was so startled by the leader’s expression that he physically stepped back as he hit the shutter.That expression Korda captured has been digitized, painted, silk screened and tattooed into 20th century pop culture and is the most often reproduced photograph in history, said art historian, collector and UNC alumnus David Craven in his talk about Cuban art Sunday in Hanes Art Center.Craven spoke about what made that iconic photograph and other politician portraits successful, as well as the Cuban posters from the ’60s and ’70s during the Cuban Revolution.Cuban posters from the ’60s and ’70s donated by Craven, which include three variations of the Guevara portrait, are on display at the Ackland Art Museum through Dec. 6.Cuban cinema and art produced during the revolution pose problems that the audience must solve. At that time, the art shifted from instructive to conversation-provoking, which was the main focus of Craven’s talk, “Revolutionary Art or a Revolution in Art?”The art portrays the politics of the time as loose and lively, compared to the controlling aspects many Western viewers expected to see in the works, he said.Politician portraits are always about more than the politician. They also convey the figure’s ideologies, Craven said.Subtleties such as the subject’s face angle and gaze portray a politician’s ideals.Guevara’s portrait is powerful because it ennobles, enables and empowers without suggesting a specific action from the viewer, Craven said.Encouraging critical thinking from the viewer and not using visual propaganda was a common theme Craven saw in Cuban posters.“One of the great things about Cuban cinema is there isn’t a happy ending,” Craven said.Cuban art poses a problem that the audience must solve. It’s about what you bring to the image, he said.The posters used minimalism and pop art to both celebrate the revolution and point out its weaknesses.Strong simple images represented complex ethical ideals in movie posters.“I can hardly believe movie posters are so remarkable there and so mundane here,” said Michael Caplow, an audience member and professor of biochemistry and biophysics. “For a less developed country, they have a far greater aesthetic sense.”Craven’s talk kicks off the Latin American Film Festival Sunday to Nov. 22, which includes multiple lectures and screenings across the Piedmont area, including Greensboro, Raleigh and Durham.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Photo by Ali Cengiz
After the passing of UNC alumnus Sidney Siegel, ’39, art enthusiast Shirley Siegel said she wanted to give something back to the University he loved.“My husband was an amateur sculptor,” she said Sunday. “He loved Chapel Hill and was particularly fond of the Ackland and small museums.”After looking at various pieces in galleries in New York with Ackland Art Museum Director Emily Kass, she came across “Sentinel II,” a work by early 20th century sculptor Seymour Lipton.“I sent my son down to see it and he said, ‘Mom, this looks interesting,’” she said.She sat in attendance Sunday afternoon at the Hanes Art Center auditorium as Kass and Curator of Collections Timothy Riggs inaugurated the exhibition surrounding Lipton’s sculpture: “The Guardian and the Avant-Garde: Seymour Lipton’s Sentinel II in Context.”“Sentinel II,” the exhibition’s centerpiece item, will help build the museum’s small collection of 20th century sculpture.“We wanted to see what kind of thread there was, what kind of story it would tell,” Kass said.Riggs said Lipton, a professional dentist, seemed interested in metal sculpture, metalwork and discovering different ways of using the material other than traditional casting.“If he were still around today, I would love to ask him if there was any input from his initial career into his work as a sculptor,” he said.Lipton began as a social realist woodcarver before moving into more abstract styles of art, Kass said.“He is an artist who is beginning to be investigated again,” Kass said.The exhibition explores myth and the role of the guardian figure throughout history, as well as the rise of American modernism in the early 20th century.Entries range from an Egyptian amulet from 600 B.C. to a more modern print of Mao Tse Dong by Andy Warhol, and include paintings, drawings, etchings and photographs as well as sculptures.Riggs chose all of the mythical, guardian-related entries, while Kass selected all of the American modernist entries.“We don’t know if Lipton ever saw any one of the objects in our gallery, but we do know he was interested in various kinds of art,” Riggs said.He added that Lipton’s art also might have been influenced by visits to museums like the American Museum of Natural History in New York.Dennis Hermanson, a graphic designer from Hillsborough who attended the talk, said he came to the exhibit because he grew up admiring Picasso’s avant-garde works and psychadelic art.He said he was interested in aesthetics and art, and also the way many people thought avant-garde took away the beauty of traditional art.“If you take away beauty, form and content, what do you have? The avant-garde answers that question,” Hermanson said.UNC art history professor Susan Harbor Page said she will incorporate the exhibit into her photography classes because of the inclusion of photographic pieces. “Kass is reinserting it into conversation,” she said of photography as art.Siegel said she hopes the Ackland’s new addition will give viewers an introduction to an unfamiliar form of art. “I think that not many people are familiar with sculpture. If you go to New York, you see a lot of sculpture; down in the Southeast there really isn’t a lot of it,” Siegel said.Hermanson said he had not seen the exhibit before attending the talk, but was planning to visit afterward.“I wish that more people would come out,” Hermanson said. “Even though it’s a college regional museum, it has national museum quality. It’s a beautiful place.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
The Ackland Art Museum will open its doors Saturday to display the treasures of its collection in an exhibit that promises to be a who’s who of abstract expressionism.Centered around the museum’s latest major acquisition, “Sentinel II” by Seymour Lipton, the exhibit is presented in two galleries displaying the avant-garde in one and guardians and heroes in the other.“The Guardian and the Avant-Garde: Seymour Lipton’s Sentinal II in Context,” came about after Shirley Siegel gave the museum funds to purchase a piece in honor of her husband, Sidney.Emily Kass, director of the Ackland and co-curator of the exhibit, said the piece is particularly interesting because of the way Lipton shaped his sculpture, which is made of flat sheets of metal.“It allowed Lipton to sculpt it almost and create this armature,” she said of the metal. “And then he covered it with bronze, which he worked with his hands, so that gives it a very tactile sense.”Lipton’s statue rests on a podium in the middle of the exhibit, creating a visual and thematic bridge between the two galleries.The avant-gardeThe Ackland had a chance to go through its collection, pulling modern works that have not been displayed in years. This gallery displays some of the museum’s modern gems.“Here is a sampling of our 20th century collection, focusing on the avant-garde — artists who were looking at Picasso, at new ways of creating art, new styles,” Kass said of the gallery.Walking through the room, viewers get a glimpse of the importance of technology and progress, the advent of photography as art, the impact of cubism and abstract expressionism.Abstract expressionism is a movement marked by the importance of emotions and feelings more than subject matter.Hans Hofmann’s “Undulating Expanse” embodies this notion of the importance of color and shape to convey emotion.“He’s using these kinds of shapes that just flow out of his mind,” Kass said. “The gesture of the artist becomes much more significant than actually telling a story where one knows the beginning and the end.”Guardians and heroesEntering the adjoining gallery, the viewer steps into a world of mythology from the ancient to the present.“A lot of abstract expressionists, Lipton included, were very interested in psychology and various kinds of mythology,” said Timothy Riggs, curator of collections and co-curator of the exhibit.Divided into four sections, the gallery tackles the concepts of guardians in life and death, women of power, conquest and sacrifice, and national heroes.The show includes work from as far away as ancient Egypt and eighth century B.C. Assyria. It also includes some familiar artists including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Albrecht Dürer.Riggs said 20th century art often presents viewers with images that they are not intended to be able to understand completely.“You have these general ideas about the hero and the sentinel, and it’s precisely because they are not nailed down as a series of absolute facts that they have some of their power,” he said.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.