Ackland Events

Drawing for Tweens
2024-03-09 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
This program invites ten- to thirteen-year-olds to look at selected works in the Ackland’s collection and identify techniques that the artists used to make them. Gallery teacher Daniel Hammer demonstrates and teaches participants technical skills, which they can then apply to their own artistic creations. A mix of drawing from works on display and creating one’s own original works is offered in each session. Materials are provided.
Cost: $5; free to Ackland Members at the Household Level and above. Register below. Class sessions will be limited to 15 participants.

Drawing in the Galleries
2024-03-09 10:00 - 12:00, 2024-02-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for our popular Drawing in the Galleries program this month during Studio Saturday! Amanda Hughes leads participants in a creative exploration of a particular object in the Ackland’s collection. Participants all draw from one object using their own gallery-safe materials (paper/notebooks and dry media like crayons and pencils), then discuss what they’ve noticed through the process of drawing. All levels are welcome.

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Game Night!
2024-03-08 17:00 - 21:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Kick off spring break (and the evening before the UNC-Duke game) with a game night at the Ackland for 2nd Friday ArtWalk!
With prompts to help you draw, move, and think about art, questions to help you learn more about yourself and your friends, and a quiz to help you decide which gallery to visit first, there will be many ways to engage. For a little friendly competition, challenge your friends in gallery bingo to win Ackland swag.
Bring your friends and family, and be sure to explore Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum on view at the Ackland through April 28, 2024.
UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive Campus Life Experience credit for participating in this event. Look for and scan the QR code at the event to receive CLE credit.

A Closer Look at "Past Forward"
2024-03-08 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-03-01 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-02-23 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at two works of art. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view in Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum.

Guest Lecture: Dr. Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds
2024-03-07 17:30 - 18:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Hear from visiting scholar Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds (Diné/Navajo), whose research focuses on contemporary Native American/Indigenous art, theater, and performance. The talk is presented at the Ackland as part of the Art History Lecture Series organized by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Art and Art History. This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of American Studies. Space is limited; register below for a free ticket.
ABOUT THE TALK
“Indigenous Performance Politics: An Analysis of Works by Kent Monkman, Spiderwoman Theater Company, Rebecca Belmore and James Luna”
By internationalizing the debate concerning Indigeneity and decolonial thought, as well as examining the basis of North American multiculturalism in the art world, my research foregrounds a complex understanding of gender, sexualities, and race in line with moving away from a heteropatriarchal understanding imposed by colonialist and anthropological thinking. In this talk, I focus on four artists/artists groups to offer new interpretations that question how we understand the colonial past by using images, artworks, and performances in strategic and interventionist ways that constitute acts of decolonization. Following Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies (1999), it is my contention that decolonial theories and processes are inherent to the struggles of Indigenous Peoples worldwide and intersect with one another on local, national, and global levels. Therefore, going beyond previous frameworks, such as postmodern and postcolonial theories, implies a renegotiation of the readings and analyses of Native American/First Nation’s artists/artists’ groups, and their works, in ways that problematize Indigenous erasure in favor of Indigenous presence and futurity.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds is a citizen of the Diné/Navajo Nation. In 2022, she completed her PhD at Middlesex University, London, focused on contemporary Native American/Indigenous visual artists and theater and performance studies. Recent essays were published in Artforum International, Wired Italia, and Art Review magazine and in Tony Fisher and Eve Katsouraki (eds.), Beyond Failure: New Essays on the Cultural History of Failure in Theatre and Performance, Routledge, 2018. See her website https://dinehwriter.art. Ketchum-Heap of Birds has lectured at Artists Space in NYC, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Nanyang University in Singapore, and Skype/Zoom lectures for the Barcelona Facultat De Geografia; Història Universitat De Barcelona; Museu D’art Contemporani De Barcelona (MACBA) and Shape: A Virtual Artist Residency sponsored by Vinegar Projects: An Artists-Run Space. Ketchum-Heap of Birds also curated Suffer, Dance, Stand: Native Survival with Edgar Heap of Birds, Douglas Miles, and Warren Realrider in 2022 at OK #1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Ketchum-Heap of Birds currently teaches at the University of Central Oklahoma and is board president of Spiderwoman Theater Company (the longest running Native American feminist theater group in the USA).
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Gilcrease Museum.
The Ackland’s presentation of this exhibition has been made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, and Jeff and Liesl Wilke ’92 (JD).
Exhibition-related public programs are supported by a Spark the Arts Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Additional support for the Ackland’s presentation of Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is provided by Kerry D. Bird & Ken Gahagan.

A Closer Look at the Ackland Collection
2024-03-03 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-02-18 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-02-04 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-02-02 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at two works of art. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view from the Ackland’s collection.

Ackland Film Forum: Filmmaker Fox Maxy Conversation and "Gush" Screening
2024-02-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Hear from filmmaker Fox Maxy (Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians and Payómkawish) in a conversation at the Varsity Theatre and see Maxy’s film Gush (2023). Maxy is a San Diego-based artist and filmmaker whose work has screened at Sundance, MoMA, and Melbourne International Film Festival among others. Her feature film debut Gush, which premiered last year at Sundance Film Festival, is an embodied rumination of both male and female power, healing and haunting, all within an apocalyptic world. A transformation that courses through unknown terror to untamed collective joy.
This screening and discussion is co-organized by the Ackland Film Forum and UNC Film Studies Program and made possible by a Spark the Arts grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
UNC-Chapel Hill Students can receive CLE Credit for this event. Look for the QR code sign at the screening!
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Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Gilcrease Museum.
The Ackland’s presentation of this exhibition has been made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, and Jeff and Liesl Wilke ’92 (JD).
Exhibition-related public programs are supported by a Spark the Arts Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Additional support for the Ackland’s presentation of Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is provided by Kerry D. Bird & Ken Gahagan.

F.A.M. Fun in the Galleries: Exploring "Past Forward"
2024-02-25 13:00 - 17:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Spend an art-filled afternoon at the Ackland with family-friendly events and self-guided activities inspired by our current exhibition Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum. Local storyteller Ryan Dial (Lumbee; American Indian Center) will lead a storytime session for kids and their families at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. A special close-looking activity sheet will be available for young art-lovers to explore Past Forward. Be sure to take home a F.A.M. kit with everything you need to make a woven artwork inspired by a Split Rivercane Basket featured in Past Forward.
This program is made possible by a Spark the Arts Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
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Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Gilcrease Museum.
The Ackland’s presentation of this exhibition has been made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, and Jeff and Liesl Wilke ’92 (JD).
Exhibition-related public programs are supported by a Spark the Arts Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Additional support for the Ackland’s presentation of Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is provided by Kerry D. Bird & Ken Gahagan.

A Closer Look at the Ackland's Collection
2024-02-25 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States

A Closer Look at the Ackland's Collection
2024-02-24 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join educators for a lively half-hour look at two works of art. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view from the Ackland’s collection.

Guest Lecture: W. Richard West, Jr., Elder-in-Residence
2024-02-21 16:00 - 18:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
This talk is now FULL. To be added to the waitlist, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu.
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A free public talk presented by the American Indian Center at the Ackland as part of their Elder-in-Residence program. Dr. W. Richard West, Jr. (Southern Cheyenne) has served as the founding director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and the president and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West. The talk will be followed by a reception. Space is limited and registration is required.
This talk is sponsored by the American Indian Center at UNC-Chapel Hill as part of their weeklong Elder-in-Residence program and presented in connection with Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum.

Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Gilcrease Museum.
The Ackland’s presentation of this exhibition has been made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, and Jeff and Liesl Wilke ’92 (JD).
Exhibition-related public programs are supported by a Spark the Arts Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Additional support for the Ackland’s presentation of Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is provided by Kerry D. Bird & Ken Gahagan.

Curator's Introduction to "Past Forward"
2024-02-16 15:30 - 16:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for an introductory guided tour of Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum led by Peter Nisbet, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and on-site curator for Past Forward. We’ll get an up-close look at the highlights of this expansive exhibition of Native American Art and the four thought-provoking themes that they are presented within: ceremony, sovereignty, visual abstraction, and identity.
This program is now FULL. To be added to our WAITLIST, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu!
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Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum [https://ackland.org/exhibition/past-forward-native-american-art-from-gilcrease-museum/] is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Gilcrease Museum.
The Ackland’s presentation of this exhibition has been made possible by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, and Jeff and Liesl Wilke ’92 (JD).
Exhibition-related public programs are supported by a Spark the Arts Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Additional support for the Ackland’s presentation of Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum is provided by Kerry D. Bird & Ken Gahagan.

A Closer Look at The Collection
2024-02-16 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at two works of art. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view in the Ackland’s collection.
Free. No RSVP needed!

Art Adventures (Afternoon Session)
2024-02-10 13:00 - 14:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
In this art-inspired, hands-on art-making class for six- to nine-year-olds, participants will create their own masterpieces inspired by works of art at the Ackland. Classes are led by instructor Allison Tierney.
Space is limited to twelve participants; please register below!

Art Adventures (Morning Session)
2024-02-10 10:30 - 12:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Sustainable Strut
2024-02-09 18:00 - 21:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
The UNC Undergraduate Student Government’s Department of Environmental Affairs is bringing the Sustainable Strut to the Ackland Art Museum this year!
The Sustainable Strut is a student-based fashion show that showcases clothing that has been cultivated sustainably and ethically. The show will feature a large group of student fashion organizations and designers. The mission is to bring awareness to the environmental degradation that textile pollution brings about by means of a diverse and inclusive fashion show.
Bringing together students of different perspectives and backgrounds, the Sustainable Strut was first launched in March 2023 and served as an epicenter of creativity and community. Student Government is pleased to be revamping the show this year and bringing it to life in the Ackland’s galleries during the 2nd Friday ArtWalk.
TICKETS
There will be two show times for the Sustainable Strut: 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Please reserve your ticket for the specific show time. Seating will begin 30 minutes before each show time and close 10 minutes before the start of the show. Seats that remain unfilled 10 minutes before the show risk being released to stand-by guests.

A Closer Look at the Collection
2024-02-09 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-02-03 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-01-28 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-01-27 13:00 - 13:30, 2024-01-26 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States

Last Look Tour for "The Outwin: American Portraiture Today"
2024-01-21 15:30 - 16:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Lauren Turner, Associate Curator for Contemporary Art and Special Projects, for a final tour of The Outwin: American Portraiture Today on the closing afternoon of the exhibition.
The Outwin: American Portraiture Today has been organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, established by Virginia Outwin Boochever and sustained by her family. The Ackland’s presentation is supported in part by Caroline and Arthur Rogers.
Organized by:

WAITLIST ONLY: Defining a "We": Parsing the Potentialities of Poetry and Portraiture
2024-01-21 13:00 - 15:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
This program is now FULL. To be added to our WAITLIST, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu!
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Join us for a special ekphrastic poetry and portraiture discourse event curated by Chapel Hill Poet Laureate Cortland Gilliam and inspired by The Outwin: American Portraiture Today. Hear readings of ekphrastic poems written in response to The Outwin, as well as poems representative of the portraiture, from Gilliam and local poets. This reading will be followed by a panel bringing together poets, visual artists, and literary/art scholars for a multidisciplinary conversation about the potential of poetry and portraiture to convey personal and collective stories and help us define a “we” today.
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This program is now FULL. To be added to our WAITLIST, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu!
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The Outwin: American Portraiture Today has been organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, established by Virginia Outwin Boochever and sustained by her family. The Ackland’s presentation is supported in part by Caroline and Arthur Rogers.
Organized by:

TOUR: A Closer Look at "The Outwin"
2024-01-19 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at two works of art. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view from The Outwin: American Portraiture Today.
Free. No ticket needed!
The Outwin: American Portraiture Today has been organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, established by Virginia Outwin Boochever and sustained by her family. The Ackland’s presentation is supported in part by Caroline and Arthur Rogers.
Organized by:
