The next time you need a caffeinated boost to your day, or a place to have a coffee and a meeting, consider adding a little art to your plans. Borough Coffee will be making regular stops (literally) in the Weatherspoon's courtyard starting this fall. Borough Coffee owners Austin Jeffries and Gray Johnston have a unique bicycle set up to deliver espresso drinks, cold brews, and baked goods by Greensboro’s popular Black Magnolia Southern Patisserie. Stay tuned on our social media for updates later this summer as we announce the Borough bike schedule for the coming semester.

The mural installation by UNC Greensboro MFA alum Sheena Rose, Pause and Breathe, We Got This (2021), is now a dynamic part of the Weatherspoon atrium renovation project that the museum staff began in fall 2020. Along with this stunning commission, our atrium space also has a new visitor services center with a custom-made reception desk and multiple video monitors to inform visitors about the exhibitions and programs available to them. The visitor services improvements were generously supported by the Weatherspoon Art Museum Advisory Board and are due to be completed before the fall semester begins. Final steps include updated way-finding signage, furniture, and other details that are designed to make the museum more welcoming and helpful to our students and community members.

Spring is lambing season in North Wales and a busy time of year for Sarah Hawkes who helps tend the newborn lambs at a farm in the Ceiriog Valley. We met Sarah online through the Weatherspoon’s virtual Slow Looking series that began in February, and she has stayed in touch ever since, sharing postcard worthy photos from her world. An interest in photography and natural history, not to mention time working at the London Zoo, led Sarah to enroll in an online illustration course years ago offered by the University of Newcastle, Australia. A friendship developed among the class who learned how to render hair, fur, and scales in exquisite detail. Curious about the slow looking trend, this work led Sarah to the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the online programs we launched during the pandemic. Sarah is a careful observer of nature and is fascinated by stories people share when they look at art. Our online programs have offered her a way to participate in these conversations from far away. With the lambs now off onto the hill, Sarah recently shared that she will be turning her attention to moth trapping and her study of nighttime pollinators in the valley.

Images: Ann Grimaldi, Curator of Education, reached out to Sarah via Zoom to learn more about what drew her to the Weatherspoon's program. Photos by Sarah Hawkes.

The Weatherspoon’s To the Hoop ended in the best way possible—with kids geared up for fun.

Those visitors who got to see the exhibition will remember the commanding presence of artist David Huffman’s sculpture Akhet 1, a monumental pyramid built from 650 basketballs. From its inception, Huffman envisioned the work as a social piece—one that would literally go out into the community in the form of donations to youth sports organizations at the close of the show.

On Tuesday, November 24, WAM staff and volunteers made that happen, as the pyramid was disassembled and the balls bagged and loaded into vehicles bound for Triad area Boys & Girls Clubs. Along with the balls, we sent a photograph of the pyramid and the following description written for the kids:

When making this artwork, artist David Huffman was thinking about challenges. The sculpture is made in the form of a pyramid-like the ancient buildings in Egypt. But, instead of bricks, this one is built from 650 basketballs! Think about how much work would go into building a giant pyramid. That same kind of effort can go into all sorts of things that we do—like practicing basketball and playing our hardest, learning a new subject or skill, or going someplace we've never been. If you were able to visit the basketball pyramid in person, you would have heard two different sounds coming from it: a recording of Martin Luther King Jr. reading his famous "I Have a Dream" speech and a recording of sounds from outer space. Working towards making our world a better place, like Dr. King, or reaching new worlds, like astronauts, also takes a lot of effort.

Each time you play with one of the basketballs from this artwork, you can remember that the artist wanted us to be inspired to work hard and do big things.

It’s always bittersweet to see an exhibition end, but when we can close it out like this—well, that’s a slam dunk.

We are pleased to share that an outstanding group of Guilford County K-12 educators started participating this fall in the Weatherspoon Art Museum’s inaugural teacher advisory group.

Along with Associate Curator of Education, Terri Dowell-Dennis, the group is exploring Weatherspoon’s collection through diverse curricular lenses, a task that will help us craft a K-12 education plan supporting teachers and providing meaningful experiences for students. Additionally, this group will advise us on curriculum development, participate in lesson planning and virtual instruction, and pilot and evaluate Weatherspoon educational materials.

In this group are Ninoshka Boylston (Piedmont Academy), Dorinda Carver (Archer Elementary), Heather Ellington (Kiser Middle), Juandalynn Jones-Hunt ( Parkview Village Elementary), Leigh Ann Little (GCS Arts Supervisor), Jonathan Permar (GCS Social Studies Supervisor), Maria Elena Surprenant (GCS Fine Arts Grants Curator), and Melinda Waegerle (Assistant Professor of Dance Education, UNCG and Project Director, Arts Raising Children Higher (ARCH).

This project is made possible by a gift from Sherry Sherrill.

Teens Preview To the Hoop

Led by teaching artists Dr. Libby Scandale and Guilford College professor Antoine Williams, more than 400 students and their art teachers participated in pre-visit classes during fall 2019 in preparation for touring To the Hoop: Basketball and Contemporary Art this spring. Scandale taught visual art for 28 years at Ragsdale High School before completing a PhD in fine arts education. She has a special interest in how the arts amplify and enhance the core curriculum. Williams, a visual artist, has exhibited widely, including in WAM’s 2019 Art on Paper exhibition. He earned an MFA at UNC-Chapel Hill and is a 2017 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for painters and sculptors.

This first-of-its-kind collaboration is made possible by a generous gift from Sherry Sherill. Sherrill is an advocate for visual arts education within the K-12 school curriculum and an avid basketball fan. The gift provides pre-visit instruction, substitute teacher reimbursements, and bus transportation for all classes visiting To the Hoop.

Image: Antoine Williams with GCS students. Photo: Martin Kane, UNCG University Communications.

Designed and built by Stoel Burrowes, senior academic professional and director of undergraduate studies, UNCG Department of Interior Architecture, along with Terri Dowell-Dennis, associate curator of education, WAM’s new art cart is a vehicle for promoting hands-on experiences that connect to the museum’s exhibitions. Look for the art cart on Thursday evenings and weekends.

Funding for the project was provided by Lincoln Financial Foundation.