RELEASE DATE: APRIL 18, 2024
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro is excited to be a foundational community site partner for UNC Greensboro’s Humanities at Work program, a bold new initiative supported by a $5 million grant—one of the largest in the university’s history—from the Mellon Foundation. Humanities at Work will provide paid internships to undergraduate students in the humanities. Students will work in cohorts at organizations across the City of Greensboro, Weatherspoon is delighted to be one of three initial pilot sites.
Juliette Bianco, the Anne and Ben Cone Memorial Endowed Director of the Weatherspoon Art Museum, on UNCG’s campus, said, “The Weatherspoon team is thrilled that the museum will be a partner site for Humanities at Work. This program advances our efforts to increase experiential learning for students in museum spaces, to both mentor UNCG students and learn from them, and to share power with students in co-creating impactful knowledge.”
Emily Stamey, the museum’s Elizabeth McIver Weatherspoon Curator of Academic Programming and Head of Exhibitions says that the administrative support provided by the grant is “invaluable.” By taking on the logistics of recruitment, placement, and scheduling, as well as providing curricular support, the 5-year Humanities at Work program will, “significantly expand the museum’s capacity to provide meaningful internship opportunities that serve both students and the museum reciprocally.”
Humanities at Work will begin recruiting students in spring 2025. Over one academic year, students will work in small groups on paid internship experiences with local community partners. Simultaneously, students will participate in a Humanities at Work course to guide their internship projects and to learn skills for translating the value of their humanities degree into work beyond the classroom.
To read more, see UNC Greensboro’s full press release HERE.
About the Weatherspoon Art Museum
Mission
Embracing its public service role, the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro fosters the ability of art to impact lives and connect multiple communities.
History
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro was founded by Gregory Ivy in 1941 and is the earliest of any art facilities within the UNC system. The museum was founded as a resource for the campus, community, and region, and its early leadership developed an emphasis—maintained to this day—on presenting and acquiring modern and contemporary works of art. A 1950 bequest from the renowned collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, including prints and bronzes by Henri Matisse and other works on paper by American and European modernists, helped establish the Weatherspoon’s permanent collection. During Ivy’s tenure, other prescient acquisitions included a 1951 suspended mobile by Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning’s pivotal 1949-50 Woman, and the first drawings by Eva Hesse and Robert Smithson to enter a museum collection.
In 1989, the museum moved into its present location in The Anne and Benjamin Cone Building designed by the architectural firm Mitchell Giurgola. The museum has six galleries and a sculpture courtyard with over 17,000 square feet of exhibition space. The American Alliance of Museums accredited the Weatherspoon in 1995 and renewed its accreditation in 2005 and 2015.
Collections + Exhibitions
The collection of the Weatherspoon Art Museum is one of the foremost of its kind in the Southeast. It represents all major art movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Among the nearly 6,500 objects in the collection are works by such prominent figures as Sanford Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Louise Nevelson, Gordon Parks, Adrian Piper, Jackson Pollock, Betye Saar, Cindy Sherman, Amy Sillman, David Smith, Jennifer Steinkamp, Joseph Stella, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and Edward Weston. The museum regularly lends to major exhibitions nationally and internationally.
The Weatherspoon is also known for its dynamic exhibition program. Through a lively annual calendar of exhibitions and a multidisciplinary educational program for audiences of all ages, the museum provides an opportunity for visitors to consider artistic, cultural, and social issues of our time—enriching the life of our university, community, and region.
UNC Greensboro
Led by Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., UNC Greensboro is one of only 59 doctoral institutions recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for higher research activity and community engagement. Founded in 1891 and one of the original three UNC System institutions, UNC Greensboro is one of the most diverse universities in North Carolina with 20,000+ students and 3,000+ faculty and staff members from 90+ nationalities. With 17 Division I athletic teams, 85 undergraduate degrees in over 125 areas of study, and 74 master’s and 32 doctoral programs, UNC Greensboro is consistently recognized nationally among the top universities for academic excellence and value. For additional information, please visit uncg.edu and follow UNCG on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Weatherspoon Art Museum
UNC Greensboro
1005 Spring Garden Street
Greensboro, NC 27412, (336) 334-5770, weatherspoon@uncg.edu
For more information or press images, contact:
Loring Mortensen, (336) 256-1451, lamorten@uncg.edu
