My Trip to the Weatherspoon Art Museum

I have been embarrassed that I have lived in Greensboro for so long without having gone to the Weatherspoon Art Museum, on the campus of UNCG at Tate and Spring Garden Streets. I've been to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh about half a dozen times, but sometimes it's easy to put off seeing something in your own home town, figuring you'll get to it. I'm afraid I was doing just that with the Weatherspoon, even though I've heard from many people that it's a fantastic art museum in its own right.
Last weekend, however, my failing was finally rectified when a friend suggested we go see the current exhibit by Lesley Dill called "Faith and the Devil", a stunning gallery exhibit comprised of large wallhangings (and one fabric sculpture and a mannequin) that uses striking imagery and typography to share stories--sometimes shocking, but all deeply introspective--about the nature of humanity's light and dark sides. It was a thought-provoking display, and I would recommend it. It will be in the museum until December 7th.

We also saw the Al Held and Robert Mangold exhibit, "Black and White to Color", which also runs through December 7th, and the delightful Art on Paper 2014 exhibit, which takes up a couple of large galleries on the second floor of the Weatherspoon and features work by dozens of artists who use paper both as medium, creating sculptural works by folding, twisting, cutting, embellishing and even weaving the paper, and also as support, producing fantastical images with a wide variety of media, from graphite and charcoal to acrylic, colored ink and gouache. This was my favorite exhibit, but of course it is the nearest and dearest to my heart, as I received my BFA in Illustration.

To finish, we checked out the remaining galleries that feature a rotating display of pieces from the Weatherspoon's permanent collection, including a large painting and a smaller work on paper by famed artist Willem deKooning. I had heard about the deKooning and was happy to finally see it.

The Weatherspoon Art Gallery is free (donations are accepted and appreciated), with ample parking in the lot behind the museum, so there's really no excuse not to go. Don't put it off, like I did--it's a wonderful experience!

Here is the website for the Weatherspoon, with much more information about hours, location, and exhibits: http://weatherspoon.uncg.edu/

You can also find What's Good in Greensbroro? on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Whats-Good-in-Greensboro-848569635208317/ . See you there!

Photograph of the Weatherspoon Art Museum is from Wikimedia Commons:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weatherspoon_Art_Museum.JPG