Ackland Events

Tour: Friday Favorites
2023-04-21 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-04-14 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-03-31 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-03-17 13:30 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Participate in a 30-minute guided conversational tour as we look closely at works on view at the Ackland. On Friday afternoons, we’ll look at a selection of our guide’s favorite works on view.
Find the full schedule of tours and topics here.
Register for a free ticket to the tour below.

Guided Tour: Exploring Connections Between Art & Science
2023-04-20 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-04-13 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-04-06 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Meet in the Ackland’s lobby for a guided conversational tour that reveals the interplay between art on view and science! The tour will be 30 minutes in length. All ages welcome and tickets are free, but space is limited to 15 participants.

Tour: One Work Wednesday
2023-04-19 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Participate in a 30-minute guided conversational tour as we look closely at works on view at the Ackland. This Wednesday afternoon, we’ll look in-depth at Peaches by Hung Liu.

Find the full schedule of tours and topics here.
Register for a free ticket to the tour below.

Virtual Conversation: Mapping Joe Minter's African Village in America
2023-04-18 15:00 | Zoom, United States
With Eric Courchesne, Rachel Stephens, and Emily Bibb (University of Alabama)
Moderated by Lauren Turner, Ackland Art Museum
Join the Ackland for a lively virtual program featuring three scholars at the University of Alabama who have been collaborating across disciplines to create a dynamic website that maps and preserves artist Joe Minter’s African Village in America. Using drone video, LIDAR scans, image descriptions, interviews, and more, scholars Eric Courchesne (Geography), Rachel Stephens (Art History), and Emily Bibb (Art History) have worked with Birmingham-based artist Joe Minter – whose work is currently on view in the Ackland’s exhibition Unsettled Things: Art from an African American South – to document and catalogue Minter’s site-specific installations for generations to come, developing a new model for artists and scholars alike.
Register for this free Zoom conversation here: https://unc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkc-isrDooHddSxUic_p7czA71QNJojZbk

Ackland Student Guide Public Tour
2023-04-16 14:30 - 15:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for a 30-minute conversational tour, led by an Ackland Student Guide. Connecting two artworks through one theme, today Emma Johnson leads a discussion on art and the material Earth.
No reservation needed for this drop-in guided tour.

Ackland Student Guide Public Tour
2023-04-16 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for a 30-minute conversational tour, led by an Ackland Student Guide. Connecting two artworks through one theme, today Ghita Basurto leads a discussion on the flaws and impacts of idealized structures.
No reservation needed for this drop-in guided tour.

Ackland Student Guide Public Tour
2023-04-15 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for a 30-minute conversational tour, led by an Ackland Student Guide. Connecting two artworks through one theme, today Takudzwa Dzingai leads a discussion on viewing art through the lens of control and power.
No reservation needed for this drop-in guided tour.

Ackland Presents: Poetry at the Arboretum
2023-04-15 10:30 - 13:30 | Coker Arboretum
This April commemorates the 120th anniversary of Coker Arboretum. In connection with this celebration and the Ackland Art Museum’s exhibition Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff, the Ackland will host a free, drop-in poetry writing program on the arboretum’s central lawn. Visit any time from 10:30am – 1:30pm to enjoy the serene landscape and the pleasure of crafting poetry to hang amongst the blossoms. Your hanging poems will remain displayed in the gardens through April 24.

Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff: the Art of Ōtagaki Rengetsu and Nakahara Nantenbō (on view March 31 – June 11, 2023) showcases around fifty calligraphy scrolls produced by two nineteenth-century Japanese masters of the form. Visit ackland.org to find other opportunities to engage with the exhibition, including a public symposium running concurrently on April 15 and an April 14 poetry open mic night during the 2nd Friday ArtWalk, with special guests and poetry displays from Piedmont Laureate Dasan Ahanu, Carrboro Poet Laureate Liza Wolff-Francis, and members of the NC Haiku Society.

Rengetsu and Nantenbō: Calligraphy and Context
2023-04-15 09:00 - 16:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
*This event is sold out. Please contact acklandrsvp@unc.edu to join a registration wait list. Thank you!*

A one-day symposium considering the two artists of Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff, open to the general public and scholars alike. The symposium will look at the work of artists Ōtagaki Rengetsu and Nakahara Nantenbō from multiple perspectives, including Japanese Buddhism, the materiality and functions of the work, the role of literature, and the aesthetics of calligraphy. This symposium celebrates gifts from Ray Kass and Jerrie Pike, organized by the Ackland Art Museum from an initial concept by Professor Stephen Addiss (1935-2022).

The symposium is free and open to the public. Registration is required as space is limited.

9:00 to 9:30: Registration and refreshments
9:30 to 9:45: Welcome – Katie Ziglar, Director, Ackland Art Museum
9:45 to 10:30: Prologue – The Odd Couple – Peter Nisbet, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Ackland Art Museum
Collecting and Collaborating: Stephen Addiss and the Mountain Lake Workshop – Ray Kass, Artist and collector, Christiansburg, VA
10:30 to 12:00: Rengetsu’s Waka Poetics: Collaborations and Convergences – Melissa McCormick, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Art and Culture, Harvard University
Journeys Through Space and Time: The Multiple Dimensions of Rengetsu and Nantenbō Calligraphy – Paul Berry, Independent Scholar, Kyoto, Japan
12:00 to 12:30: Discussion and Questions
12:30 to 2:00: Lunch
2:00 to 3:30: The Art of Rengetsu and Nantenbō in the Buddhist World of their Time – Patricia J. Graham, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Kansas
Communities of Practice: Social Relations and the Functions of Art in the Careers of Rengetsu and Nantenbō – Morgan Pitelka, Bernard L. Herman Distinguished Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3:30 to 4:00: Discussion and Questions
4:00 to 5:00: Exhibition viewing.
This symposium has been made possible by the Ackland’s Ruth and Sherman Lee Fund for Asian Art and by the Carolina Asia Center.

Image Credit:
Left to right: Ōtagaki Rengetsu, Japanese, 1791-1875, Waka Poem: “The Blood…” (detail), early 1860s, hanging scroll; ink, color, and tarnished silver flakes on textured paper, mounted, overall: 55 × 12 1/4 in. (139.7 × 31.1 cm), Gift of Ray Kass ’67 (’69 MFA) and Jerrie Pike in honor of Burl Ives, 2022.18.13; Nakahara Nantenbō, Japanese, 1839-1925, Staff, with Inscription: “Speak – Nantenbo! …” (detail), 1920, hanging scroll; ink on paper, mounted, overall: 81 1/8 × 19 11/16 in. (206.1 × 50 cm), Gift of Ray Kass ’67 (’69 MFA) and Jerrie Pike in honor of Mountain Lake Symposium and Workshop, 2022.18.22

2nd Friday ArtWalk
2023-04-14 18:00 - 21:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Hear poems and write your own poetry during this month’s 2nd Friday ArtWalk inspired by the Ackland’s current exhibition of Japanese calligraphy, Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff.
Poetry Reading and Open Mic | 6-7 p.m.
Hear local poets perform waka poems — the style of poetry featured in the Ackland’s current exhibition Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff — as well as their other nature-inspired works. Readings will be by members of the North Carolina Haiku Society, including Crystal Simone Smith and Lenard Moore, as well as 2023 Piedmont Laureate Dasan Ahanu.
Inspired by this year’s Arts Everywhere Day theme “YOU Are an Artist!” visitors are encouraged to compose their own waka poem (using its distinctive syllable pattern, 5-7-5-7-7 and natural world inspiration). Read it during the open mic session if you’d like and write your poem down on the traditional vertical strip of paper. All materials provided; no experience necessary.
Track Meet: Art-Inspired Beats by the UNC Beat Lab | 7-9 p.m.
A dynamic live beatmaking showcase hosted by the UNC Beat Lab that brings together local beat makers to create an extraordinary fusion of art and music. Witness the intersection of creativity as talented producers craft mesmerizing beats in real-time, inspired by the artwork on display at the Ackland. Tonight’s Track Meet features beats by Zakari and Kidnxtdoor.
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SATURDAY, April 15
Poetry in the Arboretum
The following day, Saturday, April 15, from 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., join us at Carolina’s Coker Arboretum as we hang all the newly-composed waka poems from the branches of the Central Lawn. Poetry writing supplies will also be available at the Arboretum.
Presented in connection with Lotus Moon and Nandina Staff: The Art of Ōtagaki Rengetsu and Nakahara Nantenbō (on view March 31 – June 11, 2023). Part of the 2nd Friday ArtWalk and UNC-Chapel Hill’s Arts Everywhere Day.

Tour: One Work Wednesday
2023-04-12 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-04-05 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-03-29 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-03-22 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-03-15 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Participate in a 30-minute guided conversational tour as we look closely at works on view at the Ackland. On Wednesday afternoons, we’ll look in-depth at a single work of art.
Find the full schedule of tours and topics here.
Register for a free ticket to the tour below.

Ackland Student Guide Public Tour
2023-04-09 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for a 30-minute conversational tour, led by an Ackland Student Guide. Connecting two artworks through one theme, today Rebekah Gill leads a discussion on historical and fictional tragic love stories.
No reservation needed for this drop-in guided tour.

Ackland Student Guide Public Tour
2023-04-01 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for a 30-minute conversational tour, led by an Ackland Student Guide. Connecting two artworks through one theme, today Madalyn Hutchinson leads a discussion on male ideas of the flawless woman.
No reservation needed for this drop-in guided tour.

Artist Conversation: Art / Science / Music / Math
2023-03-31 15:30 - 16:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for a lively conversation between visiting artist Kelsey Brookes and composer Allen Anderson about the intersections of art, science, music, and math.
Brookes is a former scientist whose work One Pointed Attention 2 (2014), a large-scale painting based on the Fibonacci sequence, is on loan to the Ackland through the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership program.
Anderson’s compositions are often multimedia and interdisciplinary, responding to artworks or the natural environment. In addition to the spoken conversation, Anderson will debut a short musical composition written in response to Brookes’s painting on view in the Ackland’s galleries.
Tickets are free, but space is limited. Register below!

Presented in connection with the Art Bridges Collection Loan Partnership and the North Carolina Science Festival.

Ackland F.A.M. Kits: "We put the A in STEAM"
2023-03-31 - 2023-04-30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
In connection with the North Carolina Science Festival’s theme “Full STEAM Ahead,” find out how the Ackland puts the “A” in STEAM. Color and take home your own set of bookmarks featuring four artworks on view at the Ackland that highlight the connections between Art and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Bookmark templates and coloring supplies are available throughout the month on the Ackland’s F.A.M. (Families at the Museum) cart in the lobby.

Tour: Thematic Thursday
2023-03-30 13:30 - 14:00, 2023-03-16 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Participate in a 30-minute guided conversational tour as we look closely at works on view at the Ackland. On Thursday afternoons, we’ll look at a handful of objects that are linked by one theme. Today’s tour will include works in our current exhibition Good Object / Bad Object.
Find the full schedule of tours and topics here.
Register for a free ticket to the tour below.

Ackland Film Forum: "The Last Forest" (Luiz Bolognesi, Brazil, 2021)
2023-03-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for the next screening in the Ackland Film Forum’s Spring 2023 series Do Something: Responding to Climate Change presented by UNC Film Studies and the Ackland Art Museum.
“The Last Forest” (Luiz Bolognesi, Brazil, 2021)
Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street | 7:30 p.m.
Free Tickets at the Varsity Theatre
Introduction by Dr. Gustavo Furtado (Duke University)
SYNOPSIS
In this urgent, intimate film we see members of the Yanomami community, a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people in Brazil who have struggled to preserve their traditional way of life for centuries, fight off gold prospectors and others who are threatening their home in the Amazon rain forest. Combining documentary footage and reenactments, this film gives us a rare insight into what our changing climate looks like from the prospective of those who are most affected by it.
TICKETS
Free tickets are available the evening of the screening at the Varsity Theatre. UNC students can receive CLE credit for this event.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Do Something: Responding to Climate Change
Ackland Film Forum | Spring 2023
We are living in the age of the Anthropocene, a geological epoch shaped by human activity. And yet, we, as individuals, and as a society, have difficulty addressing the climate change that we helped create. In this series, we’ll consider films in which humans respond to climate change. We’ll see people who escape floodwaters, fight off mining companies, care for plants, launch protests, and simply take a walk in the woods. Instead of proposing a single way to address climate change, these films will offer us ways to contemplate the relationship between ourselves, the world we live in, and the world we want it to be.
Presented in connection with Ghost of a Dream: Aligned by the Sun (through the revolution) on view at the Ackland Art Museum through May 28, 2023.

Tour: Friday Favorites
2023-03-24 13:00 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Participate in a 30-minute guided conversational tour as we look closely at works on view at the Ackland. On Friday afternoons, we’ll look at a selection of our guide’s favorite works on view. Today’s tour will include works in our current exhibition Good Object / Bad Object.
Find the full schedule of tours and topics here.
Register for a free ticket to the tour below.

Tour: Thematic Thursday
2023-03-23 13:30 - 14:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Participate in a 30-minute guided conversational tour as we look closely at works on view at the Ackland. On Thursday afternoons, we’ll look at a handful of objects that are linked by one theme.
Find the full schedule of tours and topics here.
Register for a free ticket to the tour below.

Ackland Film Forum: "Old Joy" (Kelly Reichardt, 2006)
2023-03-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for the next screening in the Ackland Film Forum’s Spring 2023 series Do Something: Responding to Climate Change presented by UNC Film Studies and the Ackland Art Museum.
Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt, 2006)
Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street | 7:30 p.m.
Free Tickets at the Varsity Theatre
Introduction by Dr. Rick Warner (English and Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill)
SYNOPSIS
Kelly Reichardt’s second film, released more than a decade after her underseen debut River of Grass (1994), is a landmark film in the short-lived mumblecore (Jay Duplass, Greta Gerwig) film movement of the early 2000s. But unlike other Mumblecore films, which focus on urban characters and urban problems, Old Joy takes us into the woods, where two friends reunite for a weekend camping trip. Based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond, Old Joy is a quiet, if complex, meditation on friendship, work, and nature.
TICKETS
Free tickets are available the evening of the screening at the Varsity Theatre. UNC students can receive CLE credit for this event.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Do Something: Responding to Climate Change
Ackland Film Forum | Spring 2023
We are living in the age of the Anthropocene, a geological epoch shaped by human activity. And yet, we, as individuals, and as a society, have difficulty addressing the climate change that we helped create. In this series, we’ll consider films in which humans respond to climate change. We’ll see people who escape floodwaters, fight off mining companies, care for plants, launch protests, and simply take a walk in the woods. Instead of proposing a single way to address climate change, these films will offer us ways to contemplate the relationship between ourselves, the world we live in, and the world we want it to be.
Presented in connection with Ghost of a Dream: Aligned by the Sun (through the revolution) on view at the Ackland Art Museum through May 28, 2023.
