Reynolda Reopens Feb. 1 with New Art on View, African American Read-In, Docent Class, and a Taco Truck

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The museum at the center of Reynolda will re-open to the public Friday after being closed for the month of January. Reynolda House Museum of American Art will welcome visitors starting at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 1 to see a new installation of the museum’s American art collection in the historic house and enjoy lunch from Taqueria Lucianos food truck from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the grounds.

Art on View
Museum staff rotate the paintings, photographs and prints from the museum’s collection of nearly 200 works of art frequently throughout the year, curating new perspectives and groupings worthy of repeat visits. Visitors in February will enjoy seeing several of the museum’s 19th-century paintings on the historic house balcony located adjacent to each other to invite conversation. Dancing Girl by Elihu Vedder, featuring a fair-haired model holding an elaborately decorated tambourine, is juxtaposed with William Merritt Chase’s In the Studio, depicting a seated young woman holding a collection of prints. Two men enjoy a game of cards in William Sidney Mount’s The Card Players, while nearby in The Storyteller of the Camp by Eastman Johnson, several people gathered to collect maple syrup are entertained by a bombastic storyteller.

“This is a particularly strong installation of 19th-century paintings from our collection,” says Curator Allison Slaby. “We’ve installed these paintings symmetrically to emphasize the symmetry of the house’s architecture and to create interesting dialogues between paintings and among our visitors.”

Two small exhibitions also are on view in the museum’s house galleries. Martin Puryear: Cane and Portraits of the Artists are open starting Feb. 1. Cane features woodblock portraits and prints created by the artist to illustrate the Harlem Renaissance novel of the same name by Jean Toomer. In Portraits of the Artists, six portraits of artists by American photographer Arnold Newman are paired with paintings from the museum’s collection.

One of museum staff’s favorite trios that demonstrates the breadth of the collection is found on the east end of the second floor. There, visitors will find The World (for Anne Waldman) (1972) by Jim Dine, Giant Magnolias (1902) by Childe Hassam, and Ancient Queen (1961) by Philip Evergood.

Opening Week Events
The public is invited to two events during the museum’s re-opening week. The African American Read-In will be held Tuesday, Feb. 5 at noon. The annual event, held in recognition of Black History Month, gathers community members together to share favorite passages from the writings of contemporary and historical black authors. The event is free.

On Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 1 p.m., the museum will host its monthly Object Talk. This month’s topic is the “Rodo” chair, designed by Paul Rodocanachi for Jean-Michel Frank. The chairs are on view on the sun porch and in the basement game room at Reynolda. The talk, by Manager of School and Family Learning Julia Hood, is free with museum admission.

Reynolda House will offer its next class for aspiring docents starting Feb. 21. The seven-week class meets on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is designed for lifelong learners who are interested in becoming more involved in the museum through leading tours and other volunteer opportunities. The class provides an exhilarating introduction to the history and collections of Reynolda. Cost of the class is $60, or $45 for members of the museum and students. Registration includes all class materials, borrowing privileges in the Josh and Marie Reynolds Library and free admission to the museum during the run of the course. The class is taught by the museum’s education staff. To register, call 336.758.5389.

During the month of January each year, the museum closes to the public while museum staff rotate works of art and perform maintenance in areas of the house difficult to access during public hours. The museum resumes regular hours Feb. 1: Tuesday-Saturday 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Sunday 1:30-4:30 p.m. The museum opens Hopper to Pollock: American Modernism from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute on Friday, Feb. 15. Tickets are available at reynoldahouse.org/hopper.

About Reynolda
Reynolda, in Winston-Salem, N.C., is a rare gem among the nation’s cultural institutions and historic greenspaces. The 50-year-old museum at the center of Reynolda’s 180 acres, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, presents a renowned art collection in a historic and incomparable setting: the original 1917 interiors of the country manor of R. J. Reynolds. Spanning 250 years, the collection is an uncompromisingly selective one, a chronology of American art, with each artist represented by one work of major significance. The Reynolda experience includes a free app called Reynolda Revealed; touring exhibitions in the museum’s Mary and Charlie Babcock Wing; formal gardens, conservatory and walking trails of Reynolda Gardens; and more than 25 of the estate’s original buildings repurposed as shops and restaurants in Reynolda Village. Reynolda, located at 2250 Reynolda Road, is adjacent to and affiliated with Wake Forest University. For more information, please visit reynolda.org.

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