Edward Hopper is regarded as the quintessential American realist painter of the twentieth century. His images — nighthawks in a clean, well-lighted cafe; a deserted street on a Sunday morning; a man, a woman alone in spare room, even when they are together — are deeply embedded in the American imagination. How do Hopper’s paintings … Continued
Confederate monuments are the most common form of monumental public art in the former states of the Confederacy and Kentucky. These monuments are one of the most conspicuous and contested markers of regional identity. Exploring how the monuments were funded, created and dedicated reveals important insights into how power, privilege, and identity inform the history … Continued
This seminar explores the historical contexts leading to the eruption of the uprisings known as the Arab Spring in early 2011. After a brief introduction to politics in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, we turn to the flowering of music, art, graffiti, poetry, film, and digital media that gave expression to the revolutionary unrest. This seminar … Continued
With the prevalence of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, it’s natural to ask, “What will be the future of art in an AI-driven society?” This question becomes even more relevant as AI increasingly appears in the creative domain. Across human history, artists have always integrated new technologies into their practice—from oil paint and printmaking in the Renaissance to photography, motion pictures, and computer animation in the modern era. In this panel discussion, artists Ahmed Elgammal and Carla Gannis talk about their work, created with AI technologies, and how their relationships with AI inform their creative processes.
The Center is pleased to present this exhibit of photographs that reveal some of the striking beauty and complex history that make North Carolina a compelling place to live and work. Joel Elliott and Richard Schramm have spent years traveling around the state and the Southeast capturing images that reveal the complex character of this region and its people in details that we might otherwise miss.
My humanities moment happened at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The piece that struck me the most during my visit to the museum was “Untitled No. 11, 1963” by Mark Rothko. This painting made me feel alone, made me ponder what it would feel like to be devoid of all senses, … Continued
Throughout my childhood, I was often taught about my ancestors-the Mormon Pioneers-and the suffering they went through in order to travel to America, and then to Utah. Because of my religion this was something that I had always known. Consequently, when I was fifteen years old, I didn’t even stop to think about how affected … Continued
As I was walking through the MFA I saw some statues of Buddha and buddhavistas. Finally I saw an ahbatabi Buddha shrine. I connected what I was learning with the museum and saw a noticeable difference between the pure land and other Buddhism sect shrines.
Author, educational advocate, and entrepreneur David Bruce Smith reflects on the manner in which his parents encouraged and valued his engagement with visual art while growing up. Years later, while working as a property manager and developer, he realized that his ability to analyze his surroundings and to create efficient, balanced, aesthetically appealing environments was … Continued
Before I was able to articulate in words how I was processing the world around me—shifts in mood, media images, the domestic mundane—I found sketching to be a release valve through which I could work through everything, even if the result was nonsensical or abstract. In this case, it was not an external piece of … Continued