Festival of Trees

Thursday, November 18 – Sunday, November 28

 

The Muskegon Museum of Art will host its Festival of Trees fundraising event Thursday, November 17 through Sunday, November 27. For the Festival, MMA volunteers and staff and professional designers transform the largest gallery space in the museum into a holiday panorama with themed trees, seasonal decor, and a gingerbread village and model train station. Festival admission includes access to museum exhibits.  All event proceeds benefit the Museum. The Presenting Sponsor is the Alcoa Foundation, Howmet.

Custom-designed trees, holiday decor, and other seasonal gift packages and items will be available for sale through a silent auction during the run of the festival. Additional silent auction items on display will include seasonal decorations, gifts, and gift baskets donated by businesses and individuals. Added attractions are live musical entertainment and visits by Santa at various times, and Money Tree and Gingerbread Raffles.

Special events include the Party in the Pines Holiday Party, Deck the Halls holiday design luncheon, Senior Day, and Teddy Bear Breakfast. Festival attractions include the Gingerbread Village and Raffle, Money Tree Raffle, Carousel Gift Market, Santa on Saturdays, and musical entertainment.

Festival hours: Daily 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. Sundays 12:00-5:00 pm. The festival and the museum will be closed for Thanksgiving Thursday, November 24.

Festival admission: $5 per adult, $2 per child ages 3 to 17 (under age 3, free), $3 for MMA members. All-Festival Pass: $10 per person. Pay at the door in the MMA Gift Store. Entry to museum exhibition galleries (a $7 adult admission value)  is included with Festival admission.

Call 231. 720.2570 or visit www.muskegonartmuseum.org for visitor information. Call 231.720.2571 for group reservations and membership information. Call 231.720.2573 to learn about sponsorship opportunities.

 

SPECIAL EVENTS

 

Party in the Pines | Friday, November 18, 6:00 pm

Kick off the holiday season right  at the Festival opening party! Featuring: music by Vincent Hayes Project, hors d’oeuvres, and cash bar. Tickets include Festival admission.

Call 231.720.2571 to order advance tickets: $20 per person. $25 at the door. Sponsored by Sherry Albertie Becker-Waddell and Reed Financial Advisors.

 

 

Santa’s Corner
Saturday, November 19, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm and
Saturday, November 26, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
(gone for lunch 12:30-1:00 pm)
Santa is stopping in for a visit! Visit Santa and bring your camera!

 

Deck the Halls Holiday Design for Your Home  & Box Lunch Social| Monday, November 21, 11:45 am – 1:15 pm

Enjoy lunch while you watch nationally-known floral industry designer J. Schwenke demonstrate easy ways to add personalized custom touches to your holiday décor. Must order tickets in advance by November 15. No at door sales. Call 231.720.2580 or 720.2571. Tickets: $20; includes lunch. Sponsored by Jon and Jane Blyth

 

Senior Day

Tuesday, November 22
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Enjoy special entertainment and free coffee and cookies during a Festival of Trees day planned especially for senior citizens. Call 231.720.2571 to book group reservations for six or more. Sponsored by Hines Corporation.

Teddy Bear Breakfast

Saturday, November 26
8:30-10:00 am
Grab your teddy bears! Ages 3-8 will enjoy a festive breakfast, visit with Santa (bring your camera), teddy bear checkup (by certified teddy bear nurse), and lots of trees and decorations! Tickets are limited and should be purchased in advance to guarantee entry.
Call 231.720.2580 to order advance tickets: $8 adults, $5 ages 3-17. Sponsored by Marge and Paul Potter.

ON-GOING ATTRACTIONS

Gingerbread Village Station
This village of gingerbread houses built by area bakers and confectioners is surrounded by a model train layout lent by Ken Doctor. Houses will be raffled to raise funds for the museum. Underwritten by Marge & Paul Potter.

Jingle Bell Stage: Musical Entertainment
Throughout Festival, various times
Area musical talent will perform at various times throughout the Festival. Underwritten by Thomas & Elizabeth Tuttle

Wonderland Outdoor Décor
Underwritten by ProMed.

Money Tree Guess-the-Amount Raffle
Daily, November 18–28
Guess how much cash is on the tree and win the money and the tree! Underwritten by Shape Corporation

Holiday Carousel Gift Market
Unique gifts and holiday décor, including handcrafted items and original art. (After Festival of Trees closes, Carousel will continue to be open through December 23 during regular museum hours.)

 

Thank you, Sponsors!

 

Alcoa Foundation/Howmet

The Muskegon Chronicle

Dobb Printing, Inc.

Hines Corporation

Marge & Paul Potter

Jon & Jane Blyth

Thomas & Elizabeth Tuttle

Pro Med Professional Med Team, Inc.

Shape Corporation

Waddell & Reed Financial Advisors

 

Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Environments Coast to Coast

September 16 through November 7, 2010

Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig
Walker Gallery A

Untrained artists are inspired to create for many reasons: retirement, physical or psychological disability, inspiration through a vision, personal loss, or pure chance. Detour Art highlights more than 90 objects in a variety of mediums made by untrained artists, visionaries, and folk creators found along the back roads of America. The exhibition honors a creative spirit that is at once traditional and whimsical, spiritual and irreverent, earthy and sublime. This is an informative introduction to contemporary American folk art that echoes collector Kelly Ludwig’s fascination with visual expression off the beaten path. 

Ludwig, inspired by her work with the PBS show “Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations,” has collected outsider, self-taught, and contemporary folk art and documented visionary environments from across the country. The exhibition features objects that evoke joy, wonder, and inspiration by some of the best known artists who work outside the mainstream, including Thornton Dial, Mose Tolliver, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Howard Finster, Minnie Adkins, and Mary T. Smith. Among the folk art environments documented are S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden and Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain.

Detour Art has been organized from the collection of Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City, Missouri. National tour development is managed by Smith Kramer Fine Arts Services, Kansas City, Missouri.

 

OPENING RECEPTION & LECTURE

Thursday, September 16
(Please note early event times.)
5:00 pm Opening Reception
6:00 pm Lecture by Kelly Ludwig

 

Program support provided in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

Shout Freedom! Photo League Selections from the Columbus Museum of Art

September 2 through November 7, 2010

 

Walker Gallery B

The Photo League was a non-profit collective of idealistic New Yorkers who thought that their gritty images of urban life could effect social change. Its members were a who’s who of 20th-century photographers—Berenice Abbott, Lewis Hine, Lisette Model, Aaron, Siskind, W. Eugene Smith, Paul Strand, and Weegee among them. Yet the group is one of the least known in American photographic history. Founded in 1936, the Photo League comprised both professional and amateur photographers. It was the heart and soul of social documentary photography until 1951, when the group disbanded amid McCarthyism and rumored links to Communism. By then, however, League members had already amassed a significant body of work. In 2001, the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, acquired a major collection of more than 150 black and white vintage photographs by 70 members, dating from the entire history of the League. This exhibition features a selection of 55 of the finest examples.

 

Shout Freedom! was organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and Arts Midwest. The national tour of this exhibition has been made possible through American Masterpieces support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The MMA presentation of the exhibition is underwritten by the Patrick O’Leary Foundation of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. Program support provided in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs

 

 

 
  

  

In Appreciation: The Legacy of Friends of Art

August 19 through October 10, 2010

 

As the Muskegon Museum of Art’s 2012 Centennial approaches, a group of exhibitions comprised of works from its permanent collection will recognize and honor organizations and individuals whose beneficence has enhanced the institution in significant ways. In Appreciation: The Legacy of Friends of Art showcases gifts of artwork given by Friends of Art, a non-profit organization associated with the Museum since 1921. The exhibition can be viewed in the MMA’s Cooper Gallery August 19 through October 17, 2010.

Friends of Art has actively contributed to the permanent collection, adding more than 60 paintings, sculpture, prints, glass, photographs, books, and works on paper carrying their name. In Appreciation highlights a selection of their most significant gifts, including artwork by Tunis Ponsen, James Richmond Barthé, Paul Manship, Severin Roesen, John James Audubon, and Ansel Adams. Artwork acquired from the late 1920s to today will be shown.

Friends of Art was incorporated in 1921 as a non-profit organization associated with the MMA (then named the Hackley Art Gallery) and was an outgrowth of a weekly morning art class conducted at the MMA prior to 1917. Since 1923, Friends of Art has extended a welcome to all who wish to participate in their Wednesday-morning, and occasional evening, programs “to promote the study of art and to support the Muskegon Museum of Art.”  Over the years, annual membership dues have supported gifts of artwork and art education materials to the Museum, and a monetary award for the annual Regional Exhibition. Friends of Art continues to thrive today, providing a series of educational art programs, both at the Museum and offsite, from September through May each year. Programs include lectures by guest speakers, tours, and visits to other museums. For membership and program information, call 231.720.2571.


RELATED PROGRAM    

Wednesday, October 6, 10:30 am
Friends of Art Program
This special presentation by Frances Fisher highlights the Friends of Art legacy at the Muskegon Museum of Art. Mrs. Fisher is an MMA volunteer docent emeritus and long-time member of the Museum and Friends of Art. Open to the public. Free admission.