Thursday, December 03, 2020

Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia

 

A visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives. Go to museums as often as you can.”

Maira Kalman








We all go to art museums for different reasons. I go to look at the amazing art by super talented artists and get inspired. By the time I am through looking at all the beautiful art, I am ready to go home and get motivated to work using what artistic talent God has given me. That along with my daughter, Jeannine homeschooling her daughter, Azzy and wanting to teach her about art. What a great field trip we enjoyed to the inspiring Morris Museum of Art.






The three of us walked in and were wowed just by the beauty of this building. We paid for our tickets and were told where the different sections were and what was in each room. We started on the first floor where we were fascinated by Bill Tait’s US presidents made from polychromed bedposts. Amazing work. We all enjoyed identifying the various presidents.








The museum is conveniently located on the picturesque Riverwalk in downtown Augusta, Georgia and was founded by William S. Morris III, a seventh generation Augustan and retired CEO of Morris Communications and publisher of Augusta Chronicle. He created this art museum to honor his parents William Shivers Morris Jr and Florence Hill Morris who instilled in him a love of art. He was fortunate to be raised surrounded by beautiful pieces of art which gave him his pure love of art. He founded the museum in 1985 and opened it’s doors on September 26, 1992.







William Morris bought 230 pictures for the museum from a Southern art collector, Robert P. Coggins. The first month the museum was open, over 10,000 people visited showing how much the local community was interested in art. Now there are over 120,000 visitors in a typical year.













When we walked through the first part of the main museum, we loved the old portraits from the early 1800’s as well as some beautiful furniture pieces on display. The southern landscapes draw you into the scene and give the viewer a feel for the southern way of living. The glass works were stunning to view with gorgeous colors. Eugene Fleischer glass works were fascinating to see with intricate and delicate designs.






The museum is a nonprofit organization and is beautifully designed with over 5,000 pieces of art in its permanent collection in the 14,000 square feet of luxury gallery space. This is the oldest museum in the country that is devoted totally to the art and artist of the American South. They have art pieces from the antebellum time frame, Civil War, to the still life’s, southern landscapes, and African American images of the modern day. The museum also hosts changing exhibitions, award winning educational programs, lecture series, family programs, musical events, and hands on art programs.






As we were viewing, one of the amazing pieces of art, Mr. Morris himself came and spoke with us about the piece we were looking at and explained how he knew the artist and the place depicted in the scene. He was a lovely man and we appreciated how he took the time to speak with us and Azzy. We enjoyed our time at the museum and plan on another visit sometime soon. Thanks Mr. Morris for you hard work and dedication to this museum.






The museum is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays 12 pm – 5 pm. Adults cost $5 a person, children under 12 are free, ages 13 – 17, military, seniors, and students with ID’s all cost $3. Every Sunday the museum is free for all to visit and if you haven’t visited, you really need to go and see the amazing works of art featured here.







Till next time. Bye for now.



Whatever else art is good for, its chief effectiveness lies in propagating more art.”

Leo Steinberg

No comments:

Post a Comment