Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia will join museums around the world in celebrating International Museum Day May 18.
International Museum Day is a worldwide event organized by the International Council of Museums since 1977. This year’s theme is art and social change and the event will focus on how museums and art preserve history and help communities come together.
On May 18, at 2 p.m., the museum will hold a Saturday Tour at Two of the permanent collection. Docent Ruthann Walton will lead the tour, which will focus on art and social change. There also will be a scavenger hunt in the galleries focusing on the same theme.
The museum will hold several events during the week that focus on art and social change. On May 15 at 2 p.m., Carissa DiCindio, the museum’s curator of education, will lead an “Artful Conversation” focusing on Georges Schreiber’s painting “The White House.” Schreiber, a Belgian artist who immigrated to the U.S. in 1928, was active in Works Progress Administration projects during the 1930s and traveled throughout the country recording local scenes in paintings and drawings. “The White House” shows a young African-American man in front of a shuttered South Carolina store with a sign reading “The White House.” It speaks to the plight of African-Americans in the South at the time and to the social change the region was undergoing.
To learn more about International Museum Day, including a list of participating institutions, see http://network.icom.museum/international-museum-day. All events at the Georgia Museum of Art are free and open to the public unless otherwise specified.
Museum Information
Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations, and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on East Campus of the University of Georgia. The address is 90 Carlton St., University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 30602-6719. For more information, including hours, see http://www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706/542-GMOA (4662).