The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University will officially open on Sunday, Oct. 2, with free admission, day-long, family-oriented music, art events and extended viewing hours.
The museum also has set its hours of operation and admissions policy, with free admission for Durham residents, and announced its fall schedule of performing arts and musical events, film and lecture series, symposia and a "Family Day."
The $23 million Nasher Museum of Art, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, will create a new center for the arts on campus and serve the Research Triangle area. The museum will inaugurate its two new special exhibition galleries with "The Evolution of the Nasher Collection" and "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice," reflecting an increased focus on modern and contemporary art.
On Sunday, Oct. 2, the museum will open to the public free of charge from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. An opening ceremony with Durham Mayor Bill Bell and museum and university leaders is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Throughout the day, Chapel Hill artist Patrick Dougherty will be creating a massive sculpture from saplings and twigs gathered from Duke Forest outside the main entrance. Musicians and other entertainers will stroll the museum grounds.
The Nasher Museum Cafe will be open all day; it has a capacity for 64 diners with indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the sculpture garden. Chef Amy Tornquist, who owns Sage & Swift of Durham, will present Mediterranean-style soups, salads, sandwiches and specialty coffees. The museum shop also will be open with a selection of books, posters and gifts related to art and exhibitions.
Visitors will have a chance to meet artists whose work is represented in "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice," at a free panel discussion in the museum's auditorium at 5 p.m. The discussion is co-sponsored by Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. Panelists will include New York artist Petah Coyne, whose Untitled #1165 (Paris Blue) is a delicate sculptural assemblage of blue velvet, silk flowers, chicken wire, wax, wood, tassels and feathers; Inigo Manglano-Ovalle of Spain, who examines issues of nuclear threat in his 4-minute video, "Oppenheimer;" and Alan Sonfist, an artist who proposes real-life answers to problems that threaten forests and who created the drawing on photograph titled "The Monument to the Lost Falcon of Westphalia."
In advance of the opening, the Nasher at Duke will host a free public lecture on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham, made possible by Mary D.B.T. and the late James H. Semans. At 6:30 p.m., museum namesake Raymond D. Nasher and Vinoly will discuss the vision and design for the museum. Nasher also will discuss how he and his late wife Patsy created one of the world's most significant collections of 20th-century sculpture. Sarah Schroth, the museum's Nancy Hanks Senior Curator, will talk with Nasher about works of art the couple acquired over the course of 50 years - “ by Rodin, Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, Dubuffet, Smith and di Suvero, among others - “ that will be on view in "The Evolution of the Nasher Collection."
After opening day, the museum will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed on Mondays.
The museum's suggested admission price, after opening day, is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $4 for Duke alumni, $3 for non-Duke students with I.D., and free for children 16 and younger. Admission is free for museum members, and to Duke University students, faculty and staff, courtesy of Duke University. Admission is also free to Durham residents who present a valid I.D. with an address or proof of residency, courtesy of The Herald-Sun.
The Nasher at Duke is at the corner of Duke University Road and Anderson Street, near the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The museum's 100-space public parking lot, east of the building, is accessible from either Campus Drive or Duke University Road. Parking is available at $2 per hour, with a maximum of two hours. Parking is also available at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Anderson Street. The museum is accessible via stairs along a 100-yard path from the parking lot, or visitors may be dropped off at the Anderson Street entrance, where handicapped parking is available.
The Nasher at Duke's fall schedule of events includes performing arts and music programs, Family Day events with family tours and crafts for all ages, film and lecture series, meet-the-artist events and guided tours.
-- Oct. 6, "The Forest in the Machine," a film series to complement the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "He Likes to Chop Down Trees" (Leighton Pierce, 1980, 3:30 minutes, USA, English, color, 16mm) and "Vacas" (Julio Medem, 1992, 96 minutes, Spain, Spanish with English subtitles, color, DVD).
-- Oct. 13, "The Forest in the Machine," a film series to complement the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "Underfoot and Overstory" (Jason Livingston, 2000, 34:30 minutes, USA, English, b&w, 16mm) and "Bones of the Forest"(Heather Frise and Velcrow Ripper, 1995, 80 minutes, Canada, English, color, DVD).
-- Oct. 15, "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice," a Duke faculty panel discussion on the various themes and concerns of works of art in the exhibition.
-- Oct. 19 and 20, "Tree Song," two outdoor performances by Japanese dance artists Eiko and Koma to complement the art exhibition, "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "Tree Song," which premiered at the American Dance Festival in 2003, explores the body as a part of the landscape and the landscape as an extension of the body.
-- Oct. 23, "Great Collectors," part of the Semans Lecture Series on art collectors of the 20th century. Anne Higonnet, professor of art history at Barnard College/Columbia University, will discuss Isabella Stewart Gardner, the Boston patroness of such artists as John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler and Henry James, who built her namesake museum in Boston in 1903.
-- Oct. 26, lecture and reception with artist and feminist Judy Chicago.
-- Oct. 27, "The Forest in the Machine," a film series to complement the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "The White Diamond" (Werner Herzog, 2004, Germany, English, VHS)
-- Oct. 30, Family Day. Entertainment, make-and-take crafts, family tours and activities with the theme of the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice."
-- Nov. 3, "The Forest in the Machine," a film series to complement the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "Charisma" (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999, Japan, Japanese with English subtitles, DVD).
-- Nov. 6, "Great Collectors," Semans Lecture Series. Colin Bailey, chief curator at The Frick Collection, will discuss Henry Clay Frick, the Pittsburgh coke and steel industrialist who bequeathed his New York residence filled with works of art to establish a public art gallery.
-- Nov. 10, "The Forest in the Machine," a film series to complement the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "Flowers & Trees" (Disney, 1932, 8 minutes, USA, English, color, DVD), "Jack Frost" (Ub Ewerks, 1934, 9 minutes, USA, English, color, DVD), "The Man Who Planted Trees" (Frederic Back, 1987, 30 minutes, Canada, French with English subtitles, color, VHS).
-- Nov. 17, "The Forest in the Machine," a film series to complement the exhibition "The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice." "The Forest" (Bassek Ba Kobhio and Didier Ouenangare, 2003, Central African Republic, Diaka, French and Sangho with English subtitles, color, VHS).
Additional information is available at www.nasher.duke.edu.