Nasher Museum to Celebrate Fifth Anniversary With Community Day, Installations
In spring 2011, the Nasher Museum will present gifts and purchases of contemporary art made in the past five years in the exhibition “Building the Contemporary Collection: Five Years of Acquisitions.”
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a community day event and yearlong installations of modern and contemporary works of art acquired since the museum opened on Oct. 2, 2005.
The free community day on Oct. 2 will include gallery talks, a gallery hunt, make-and-take crafts and live entertainment. Durham Mayor Bill Bell will make remarks at 2 p.m.
A new installation of 20th-century art in the museum's permanent collection is anchored by a bequest from Louise and Alvin J. Myerberg, T '47, and includes 15 works by major artists, including Charles Burchfield, Anthony Caro, Thomas Hart Benton, Fernand Léger, Roy Lichtenstein, Jacques Lipchitz and Andrew Wyeth. Many of the works will be on public view for the first time since the 1960s and 1970s.
In spring 2011, the Nasher Museum will present gifts and purchases of contemporary art made in the past five years in the exhibition "Building the Contemporary Collection: Five Years of Acquisitions."
"We're thrilled with the impact we've made in our five years of existence on the local arts community while also securing an important place in the international arts conversation," said Kimerly Rorschach, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. "The Nasher Museum is building an ambitious modern and contemporary collection, thanks to the generosity of Duke alumni and others, and also as a result of relationships with exciting artists from around the world. We are delighted to share art of this caliber with audiences around Duke, Durham and the surrounding region."
The Nasher Museum was formerly the Duke University Museum of Art, founded in 1969 and housed in a former science building on the East Campus until May 2004. The 65,000-square-foot Nasher Museum, designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, has become a cornerstone for cultural activities on campus, serving as a venue for performing arts events, lectures, film series and social gatherings. The museum is named in honor of the family of Raymond D. Nasher, a prominent art collector and philanthropist who graduated from Duke in 1943.
The Nasher Museum draws on the resources of Duke University to generate new knowledge, stimulate intellectual conversation and serve as a laboratory for multidisciplinary approaches to appreciating the visual arts. The museum creates exhibitions that travel to major venues around the country. Vogue magazine selected the museum's exhibition "Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool" as a cultural highlight of 2008. The museum's show, "El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III," was listed as one of Time Magazine's top 10 exhibitions of 2008. The museum also collaborates with local cultural institutions to create musical and dance performances inspired by exhibitions.
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The Nasher Museum, at 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street on the Duke campus, is 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 Mondays.Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and members of the Duke Alumni Association, $3 for non-Duke students with identification and free for children 15 and younger. Admission is free to all on Thursday nights, made possible by SunTrust Foundation and The Independent Weekly. Admission is free to Duke students, faculty and staff with Duke Cards. Admission is also free to Nasher Museum members.