Art
Gibbes to Launch Traveling Exhibition and Curriculum Showcasing Private Collection
Press Release
The Gibbes Museum of Art is pleased to announce initiatives to travel the exhibition entitled Building a Legacy: The Vibrant Vision Collection of Jonathan Green and Richard Weedman and a new educational curriculum that will accompany the exhibition. The exhibition, which is on display in the museum through Jan. 10, 2021, features a selection of 49 works of art from the private collection of acclaimed Charleston artist Jonathan Green and his partner and studio director, Richard Weedman. The Gibbes is developing an interdisciplinary digital open curriculum initiative surrounding the artists and objects featured in the exhibit, which will begin traveling in 2023.
“We are thrilled to be able to share this tremendously important private collection and use art as a vehicle to tell stories and introduce new ways of thinking,” said Angela Mack, executive director of the Gibbes Museum of Art. “This amazing collection and curriculum will serve as a tool for school districts and higher education institutions across the country to teach sensitive and challenging subjects through the universal lens of the visual arts.”
Over the past forty years, Green and Weedman have amassed an astonishing collection of nearly 1,300 paintings, sculptures and works on paper. Building a Legacy presents a selection of works of art from this significant private collection, offering a rare glimpse at the couple’s aesthetic interests and the artistic inspiration behind Green’s own artwork. Building a Legacy explores the themes of work, love, belonging and spirituality. Works in the exhibition portray tender moments between a parent and child, struggles for racial equality, pride in ancestral heritage and strength derived through personal faith. The collection also expands the traditional notion of American art and identity, embracing a Pan American approach that goes beyond the United States to include art and artists of African, Caribbean and Latin American descent. This approach provides a broader look at our nation’s history and a better understanding of what it means to be American today. In addition to Green’s work, highlights of the collection include works by artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, David Driskell, Sam Gilliam and Reynier Llanes.
In partnership with the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), a global non-profit for higher education leaders and innovators dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning, the Gibbes is working to launch an interdisciplinary curriculum featuring themes around American identity, economic security, sustainability and vitality, family and belonging, innovation, mindfulness and social equity. These components, while focusing on artists and works highlighted in Building a Legacy, will discuss issues from immigration, migration and displacement, to family roles and representation and labor.
OLC will provide instructional design, subject matter expertise and technical and strategic support for the development of Building a Legacy exhibition learning modules for K-5 and higher education offering curriculum development, instructional design and technology and project management. OLC will ensure that the final modules are created to support rich learning and engagement and meet the intended outcomes for all who interact with the teaching and learning experience.
For more information on Building a Legacy, click here.