“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