Current Exhibitions at the Reece Museum

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

• From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds (January  27 - July 4)

  From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds presents works by artists and artisans who focus on aspects of life within African cultures and the African Diaspora from the early twentieth century to the current time. Sixty-seven pieces focus on themes of spirituality, ancestry, beautification, and art for art’s sake as they are expressed in sculptures, paintings, clay works, stone, glassworks, and indigenous materials.

  Diverse African artistic expressions form the foundation of this exhibition, and serve as a backdrop for the work of Appalachian artists, demonstrating the ties that bind them—culturally, spiritually, and emotionally--across time and distance. Particular attention is given to showing works that have not been exhibited at the Reece Museum within the past 10 years.

  An important component of this exhibition are works selected from The Sammie L. Nicely Collection. Sammie was an East Tennessee artist who left an indelible imprint on the Artscape of this area through his own works, as well as the work of artists that he inspired and collected over time. A co-founder of the non-profit corporation From Africa to Appalachia, Sammie had a broad, lasting impact on art education and the expansion of the arts in his home region and beyond. Works by some of his friends, family, and students are a part of this exhibition. Some pieces were created specifically for this event.

  From Africa to Appalachia: The Tie That Binds is curated by Dr. Althia Fain Ali. Growing up in east Tennessee with Sammie Nicely, the two were lifelong friends who collected art and traveled together extensively. A career educator, Dr. Ali earned an MS and an EdD from the University of Tennessee, and held administrative and faculty positions nationally and internationally in public universities, and in private and independent institutions. Dr. Fain Ali began collecting art from Africa and the African Diaspora in the mid-1970s, acquiring many pieces as she traveled around the world.

   

   

• PAT MINK: LAYERED (January 20 - April 4) 

  Patricia Mink is a practicing artist and Professor Emerita in the Department of Art & Design at East Tennessee State University, where she taught for 20 years. Her award-winning work has been included in national and international exhibitions, including Fiberart International, Quilt National, Form not Function, Visions, Art Quilt Elements, and The Artist as Quiltmakerr. Her work has appeared in major published exhibition catalogs such as Surface Design, Fiberarts Magazine, and Fiberarts Design Book 7. Patricia is one of 22 artists featured in the PBS documentary Soul’s Journey: Inside the Creative Process.

  Specializing in digital textile applications, her current practice includes combining traditional craft forms and techniques with developing innovative applications and contemporary approaches to art-making. Patricia is a recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award, a Technology Access Fee (TAF) Innovative Projects grant, two major Research and Development grants from ETSU, an ETSU Arts & Sciences Summer Research Fellowship, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

  Artist Statement:  

  Layers are the focus of my work in several ways:

  • As complex metaphor
  • As physical and visual structure
  • As elements of process

  For me, layers echo the process of learning and the development of understanding, while also evoking a sense of time and memory.

  My current work explores the traditional layered quilt form, employing new digital techniques for weaving and/or printing fabric as a means of establishing a visual dialogue addressing issues of contemporary culture. Drawing from historic associations with domesticity, comfort, and home, the quilt form offers unique possibilities for developing content when combined with non-traditional techniques and unexpected imagery.

  I am interested in the relationship between surface and structure. This can manifest in several ways- the images I choose, the materials I work with, and the layered forms they take. Fabric serves not only as a substrate for developed imagery, but also as a “built” form, both in weave structure and constructed quilt. The play between 2-D and 3-D, the illusionary and the actual, creates a kind of liminal space for metaphor unique to the medium of cloth.

• LAYERED INFLUENCE: Select Works From Students of Pat Mink (January 20 - April 4) 

  Layered Influence features the select works of fourteen former students of Pat Mink, Professor Emerita in the Department of Art & Design at East Tennessee State University. Showcasing exploratory approaches to fibers and ideas of fiber, Layered Influence includes an array of materials and methods including, but not limited to, wool, quilting, yarn, rubber grapes, thread, ink, hair care supplies, oil on canvas, weaving, rust dyed fabric, encaustic, silk organza, embroidery, handmade paper, puff paint, charcoal, and felting. Each artist provides a statement on the significance and role of fiber as a medium in art practices and as symbol in various cultural contexts. 
  
  

  "Fiber as a medium is important to me because it stands as an acknowledgmentt of centuries of what was called women’s work, but has always been, in fact, artwork. It is an affirmation of the creativity and skill passed to me from my grandmother and mother and an invitation to amplify and continue such explorations. Working with the materials themselves provides a tangible metaphor as we work to bind and shape materials like memories." -Katie Murphy

  Featured Artists: Rima Day, Holly Ford, Morgan Gilbert, Lyn Govette, Jess Jones, Briana Knight, Liz Layton, Rachael Lowman ,Lareee McMurray, Katie Murphy, Alice Salyer, Laura Ann Schroeder, Autumn Standbridge, & Carla Taylor.

  
  
  

• Tennessee Holocaust Commission: Selections from Three Traveling Exhibitions (March 1 - April 11) 

  In association with the Tennessee Holocaust Commission Conference at the Reece Museum on March 25, the Museum is displaying selected works from three traveling exhibitions that the Commission sponsors. The conference features a keynote address by ETSU’s Dr. Stephen Fritz titled, War and Genocide: How German Military Success Shaped the Holocaust.

  Dr. Fritz Keynote Address: Tuesday, March 25 - 7 p.m. - Reece Museum

  The Perpetrators is a series of lithographs created by the artist Sidney Chafetz. Completed in 1992, the pictures depict the individuals who carried out the policies of the Third Reich during World War II.

  Nelly Toll: The Artwork of a Hidden Child, Holocaust Survivor features the work of Nelly Toll, who was six years old when the Nazis occupied Poland in September of 1939. At the age of eight, Nelly was hidden in a small bedroom of a Polish couple. For more than a year she lived in constant fear of being discovered. During this time, she wrote in a diary and painted watercolor pictures of a fantasy world beyond the hiding place; filled with friends, fun, bright skies and happy family life.

  Living On is an exhibition featuring the testimony of Tennessee survivors, liberators, and witnesses alongside portrait photographs by Robert Heller, Living On uses multi-media learning tools to create an educational experience to give life to these individuals’ experiences in the Holocaust and beyond.

  Stephen Fritz received his PhD from the University of Illinois and is a Professor of History at East Tennessee State University, where he specializes in Modern European and German history. He joined ETSU’s History Department in 1984, and his scholarship has ranged from liberal politics in the late 1920's Weimar Republic to the rise of Nazism, from the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 in Germany to the origins of the Holocaust. He is the author of a trilogy of well-received books on various aspects of World War II published by the University Press of Kentucky: Frontsoldaten: The German Soldier in World War II (1997); Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich (2004); and Ostkrieg: Hitler’s War of Extermination in the East (2020). His most recent book, The First Soldier: Hitler as Military Leader was published by Yale University Press and has been called by Richard Overy, “Perhaps the best ac-count we have to date of Hitler’s military leadership. It shows a scrupulous and imaginative historian at work and will cement Fritz’s reputation as one of the leading historians of the military conflicts generated by Hitler’s Germany.”

  The mission of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission is to educate Tennesseans about the history of the Holocaust, seeking to remind citizens that prejudice, hatred and violence, as manifested in the Holocaust and other genocides, leads to the destruction of a humane society.

  In 1984, the Tennessee state legislature created the Tennessee Holocaust Commission by passing a bill with the purpose of educating others about and commemorating the Holocaust. In 1996, new legislation recreated the commission to recognize its primary role as education and to create a parallel not-for- profit body. This agency's Commissioners, appointed by the governor, function as part of the commission.

  The Tennessee Holocaust Commission, now one of the most celebrated organizations of its kind in the nation, provides various educational services and opportunities. These frequently include the creation and implementation of resources, workshops, conferences, exhibits, learning and in-service seminars, and publications for the educational and general community. The commission supports annual Day of Remembrance commemorations across the state, including an observance on the Capitol grounds. It has facilitated primary educator learning opportunities for study in Washington D.C. and Europe. Furthermore, it is committed to continuing the growth of Holocaust education throughout the state of Tennessee. Support for the Commission comes from a state appropriation, and privately raised funds. Donations are tax deductible.

  The Reece Museum is a unit of the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services, which is housed in the ETSU Department of Appalachian Studies. The Reece Museum is located on the campus of East Tennessee State University and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Follow the Reece Museum on social media for more content and digital programming. For more information, please visit http://www.etsu.edu/reece or phone (423) 439-4392. ETSU is an EEO employer. For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Ser-vices at 423-439-8346.

   

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