Community members make art & celebrate Lawrence history

The Open House & Community Day in celebration of Lawrence's White Fund Paintings brought together residents of all ages from local communities on Saturday, June 23

Lawrence's White Fund Paintings, a special collection of European impressionist landscapes on view in the area for the first time in nearly 100 years, proved to be a just cause for community celebration last weekend. Here, we share with you scenes from the eventful day's many exciting activities!

OUTDOOR PAINTING WORKSHOPS: Families and adults learned to paint like impressionist artists Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro did - outdoors and from direct observation of one's surroundings.

ARTISTS CAN ENTERTAIN: Local painter Dennis Poirier demonstrated the impressionist painting technique outside while indoors, the Lawrence High School Salsa Band made music for guests to enjoy while touring the William Wegman: Funney/Strange exhibition.

EXPLORING LAWRENCE HISTORY: Student volunteers from Lawrence's Esperanza Academy assist visitors as they explore historic maps and photographs of Lawrence related to the White Fund Collection.

TOURS OF THE EXHIBITION: Addison Associate Director and Curator Susan Faxon and White Fund Trustee James Dowd reveal the extraordinary story behind Lawrence's White Fund Paintings during family and adult tours in the galleries.

Open House & Community Day this Saturday, June 23rd!

Come celebrate with us!

Visit the Addison this weekend to take part in a day-long celebration of Lawrence's White Fund paintings - fun for families and adults!

Open House & Community Day
Saturday, June 23, 11am-4pm

Enjoy an array of fun and educational activities throughout the day! The celebration will feature
- outdoor impressionist painting demonstrations
- landscape painting workshops
- adult and family tours of the exhibition, An Impressionist Legacy: Lawrence's White Fund Paintings,
- music
- food & drink
- and more!

FREE and open to ALL.

FREE TRANSPORTATION is offered to and from Lawrence Public Libraries:
Departing from Lawrence Main Library at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, and 2:30
Departing from South Lawrence Branch at 10:40, 11:40, 12:40, 1:40, and 2:40
Return trips from the Addison at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00

Held rain or shine. (Some activities may be held indoors in the case of rain.)

Objects on the Road

As the Addison's Curators create their object checklists for our permanent collection fall show The Discerning Eye: Five Perspectives on the Addison Collection, they need to take into account that almost one hundred different Addison objects will be on the road on loan during that time.

For example, visitors to the Frist Center of the Arts in Nashville, Tennessee will be able to see our Maurice Prendergast, In Central Park, New York (see right) and George Bellows, Outside the Big Tent in Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artist's Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, starting August 2nd. The show is being organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts and will be visiting there as well as the New York Historical Society in subsequent venues.

Our Edward Lamson Henry, City Point, Virginia, Headquarters of General Grant will be traveling to the Virginia Historical Society, the Missouri Historical Society, and, again, the New York Historical Society as part of the Lee and Grant exhibition opening October 20th in Richmond. This painting has seen a lot of travel lately, having recently appeared in Historical Fictions: Edward Lamson Henry's Paintings of Past and Present at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Representatives from the Art Institute of Chicago visited recently to study our Jasper Johns Target up close. It will be included in their show Jasper Johns: Survey in Gray opening in Chicago November 4th and then traveling to the MET.

And also this fall, the Addison will receive a large delivery of crates for seventy-one of our objects traveling in Coming of Age: American Art 1850s to 1950s, which opens November 30th at the Meadows Museum in Dallas, Texas and travels to London, Venice and Florida before returning home to Andover.

Thankfully, the Addison's collection is deep and the Curators should have no trouble finding the objects to fit their needs for The Discerning Eye. It provides the opportunity to use pieces that have not been hung on the gallery walls in a while, or ever. So be sure to stop in and see what's here! And if you live close to one of the venues listed above, be sure to stop in and see what the Addison has there!

The Calm Between Storms

Despite the record numbers of visitors coming to see William Wegman: Funney/Strange and An Impressionist Legacy: Lawrence's White Fund Paintings, the periods between installations are a relatively calm time that allows us to catch up and prepare for what's coming ahead.

The Registration staff are coordinating the loans and shipments for our fall shows: Ipswich Days: Arthur Wesley Dow and his Home Town (see right), Dawoud Bey: Class Photographs, and Angela Lorenz: The Artist’s Book as Volume of Knowledge. Curatorial is putting the finishing touches on our two fall publications. The Preparators are organizing all the framing, cases and pedestal building for the incoming shows as well as The Discerning Eye: Five Perspectives on the Addison Collection.

In The Discerning Eye, Director Brian Allen, Curators Susan Faxon and Allison Kemmerer, Curatorial Fellow and blogger Jaime DeSimone, and Artist-In-Residence Dawoud Bey will each curate a gallery drawing from our permanent collection, producing five unique shows within one exhibition. We are all excited to see what they come up with. The show will have a page on our website very soon.

The Education staff, as you can see from Rebecca's last post, are incredibly busy giving tours before the public schools close. They're also preparing for our big Open House on June 23rd. It promises to be a fun-filled day of gallery talks, painting demonstrations and various family activities.

So be sure to see the current shows while they are here and come to our Open House on the 23rd. And while we may be closed in August, we'll be busier than ever putting up the fall exhibitions, so plan on coming back again to see what's new at the Addison!

Lawrence Students Discover Local Long-Lost Treasures

The current exhibition, An Impressionist Legacy: Lawrence’s White Fund Paintings which brings the extraordinary art collection of a former Lawrence resident back to the area for the first time in nearly 100 years has attracted a lot of attention from Lawrence schools. Since the exhibition’s opening in late April, the Addison has hosted tours of the paintings for over 1300 students.

Recognizing the importance to instill an appreciation of these important treasures in Lawrence citizens and with generous funding from the White Fund, the Addison Education Department was able to offer special professional development programs, free buses, and curriculum materials to Lawrence schools.

Related Event
As a result of the students’ interaction with the paintings, the Addison and various Lawrence schools present:

Lawrence Impressions: Artwork & Writing by Lawrence Students
OPENING RECEPTION THURSDAY, JUNE 7! At Lawrence City Hall, 3-5pm
The White Fund paintings inspired K-12 teachers and their students to create artwork and writing in a variety of forms including paintings, drawings, poetry, and research projects. Come see their extraordinary creations on view at both Lawrence City Hall (200 Common Street) and Lawrence Heritage State Park (1 Jackson Street), June 7- July 18, 2007.