Ackland Events

Ackland Film Forum: "Le Bonheur" (Agnès Varda, 1965)
2025-09-23 19:30 (America/New_York) | Chelsea Theater, 1129 Weaver Dairy Road, Suite AB, Chapel Hill, 27514, United States
One of the leading directors of the French New Wave, Agnès Varda made her reputation with Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962), which tells the story of a singer who is waiting to receive test results that may indicate that she has cancer. But it’s Varda’s follow-up film, Le Bonheur, that actually creates a sense of foreboding, as we watch a happily married young couple come unraveled through a series of events that are highly predictable until they aren’t. The bright, overly saturated color in this film, inspired by French impressionism, accentuates the film’s eerie sensibility.
The film will be introduced by Martin Johnson, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and associate director of Film Studies.

This film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Chelsea Theater (1129 Weaver Dairy Rd Suite AB, Chapel Hill, NC).
Click here for more information on theater pricing; tickets are free for UNC-Chapel Hill students. UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive CLE credit for attending by scanning the QR code at the event.

About the Series:
Join the Ackland Film Forum on selected Tuesday evenings this fall for Color Triumphant in Film, a series that accompanies the Ackland exhibition Color Triumphant: Modern Art from Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. While the natural world is full of color, for filmmakers color is a choice. Recreating color in the cinema required expensive technologies, careful attention to costumes and set design, and an openness to experimentation. In this series, we highlight how filmmakers have used color from the beginnings of the movies to tell stories.
The Ackland Film Forum is co-organized by the Ackland Art Museum and UNC Film Studies, housed in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.

Ackland Film Forum: Color Triumphant in Silent Film
2025-09-30 19:30 | Chelsea Theater, 1129 Weaver Dairy Road, Suite AB, Chapel Hill, 27514, United States
Contrary to popular myth, color didn’t arrive to the movies when Dorothy landed in Oz. While Hollywood studios embraced black and white cinematography in the sound era, reserving the use of the complex, and expensive, Technicolor for only its biggest productions, filmmakers in the silent era embraced the use of color. Films were tinted using a range of colors, with reds, yellows, blues, greens, and pinks used to signal the time of day, the mood of the scene, or highlight a special effect, like a fierce fire. In some cases, film makers hand-colored individual frames, a labor-intensive process that could create a sense of natural color or underscore the unreality of early film. This program highlights color films made in the silent era (approx. 1895-1930).
The film will be introduced by Martin Johnson, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and associate director of Film Studies.

This film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Chelsea Theater (1129 Weaver Dairy Rd Suite AB, Chapel Hill, NC).
Visit the Chelsea Theater’s website linked above for pricing information; tickets are free for UNC-Chapel Hill students. UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive CLE credit for attending by scanning the QR code at the event. Please note that this screening will be held at the Chelsea Theater, which is not the usual film forum venue.

About the Series:
Join the Ackland Film Forum on selected Tuesdays evenings this fall for Color Triumphant in Film, a series that accompanies the Ackland exhibition Color Triumphant: Modern Art from Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. While the natural world is full of color, for filmmakers color is a choice. Recreating color in the cinema required expensive technologies, careful attention to costumes and set design, and an openness to experimentation. In this series, we highlight how filmmakers have used color from the beginnings of the movies to tell stories.
The Ackland Film Forum is co-organized by the Ackland Art Museum and UNC Film Studies, housed in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.

TOUR: A Closer Look at "Color Triumphant"
2025-10-03 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-10 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-17 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-19 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-24 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-31 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-11-01 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-11-07 13:00 - 13:30 and 1 more date | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a small handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum. Today’s tour looks at Color Triumphant: Modern Art from the Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson.
This is a free, walk-in event – no RSVP required.

This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

TOUR: A Closer Look at the Collection
2025-10-04 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-05 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-11 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-12 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-18 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-25 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-10-26 13:00 - 13:30, 2025-11-02 13:00 - 13:30 and 2 more dates | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join Ackland educators for a lively half-hour look at a small handful of artworks. These engaging conversational tours offer a closer look at and new perspectives on works on view at the Museum.
This is a free, walk-in event – no RSVP required.

This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

2nd Friday ArtWalk: Acktoberfest
2025-10-10 17:00 - 21:00 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Join us for the Ackland Art Museum’s fourth annual Acktoberfest – an evening of art-inspired cheese and drink pairings, plus a floral arranging craft station inspired by the special exhibition Color Triumphant: Modern Art from the Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson.
Cheese and alcoholic beverage pairings curated by Wedgewood Cheese Bar will be available to purchase on site. Moved by the beauty and nature featured in Color Triumphant, visitors can create their own work of art to take home at a hands-on floral arrangement station.
As always, admission to the Ackland is free; no registration required to attend or craft.

Drawing in the Galleries
2025-10-11 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.
This is a free public program. No registration required; all skill levels are welcome.

Art Adventures (Morning Session)
2025-10-11 10:30 - 12:00 | 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 artwork inspired by the art on view in Jen Clay: Soft Night, Watching.
Space is limited; registration required. Free for Ackland Members at the Household Level and above; $5 per child for all others.

Art Adventures (Afternoon Session)
2025-10-11 13:00 - 14:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States

Take Two Tour: Two Perspectives on German art in "Color Triumphant"
2025-10-24 15:30 - 16:30 | 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.

Join us for a conversational tour focused on German paintings in Color Triumphant: Modern Art from the Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. Professor Richard Langston (UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures) and Ackland deputy director for curatorial affairs Peter Nisbet, curator of the exhibition, will co-lead the tour, offering their perspectives as scholars of German literature, culture, and art.
Please register for a free ticket below as space is limited.

This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

A Closer Look at One Work of Art: “Color Triumphant”
2025-10-29 13:00 - 13:30 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
To be added to our WAITLIST, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu.

Look closely and carefully at a single work of art in Color Triumphant: Modern Art from the Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson with Andrea Bolland, Professor Emerita of art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Please register for a free ticket below, as space is limited.

This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

Ackland Film Forum: "Mississippi Masala" (Mira Nair, 1991)
2025-11-04 19:30 | Varsity Theatre, 123 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Mira Nair’s second feature film, and her first set in the United States, tells the story of Ugandan Indian family who is forced to leave their country after the dictator Idi Amin expels all people of Asian descent from Uganda. As its title implies, the film largely takes place in Mississippi, where the family resettles and finds work running a hotel. The film’s cinematographer, Edward Lachman, uses two different color film stocks to contrast the scenes in Uganda, which some in the family look back at with fondness, with those in Mississippi, where the family’s daughter, Mina, falls in love with a self-employed carpet cleaner (Denzel Washington), against her family’s wishes.
The film will be introduced by Martin Johnson, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and associate director of Film Studies.
This film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at the Varsity Theatre (123 E. Franklin Street). Tickets are free, but must be reserved on the Ackland’s website. Register below. UNC-Chapel Hill students can receive CLE credit for attending by scanning the QR code at the event.

About the Series:
Join the Ackland Film Forum on selected Tuesdays evenings this fall for Color Triumphant in Film, a series that accompanies the Ackland exhibition Color Triumphant: Modern Art from Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. While the natural world is full of color, for filmmakers color is a choice. Recreating color in the cinema required expensive technologies, careful attention to costumes and set design, and an openness to experimentation. In this series, we highlight how filmmakers have used color from the beginnings of the movies to tell stories.
The Ackland Film Forum is co-organized by the Ackland Art Museum and UNC Film Studies, housed in the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of English and Comparative Literature.
All films will be screened at 7:30 p.m. The first two films will be shown at the Chelsea Theater and the third film will be shown at the Varsity Theatre.

A Closer Look at “Color Triumphant” - featuring Weixin Zhou
2025-11-14 15:30 - 16:30 | 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.

Join us at a special time for a conversational tour led by Weixin Zhou, UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral candidate in art history, specialist in European modernism, and researcher and co-author of Color Triumphant: Modern Art from the Collection of Julian and Josie Robertson exhibition texts.
Please register for a free ticket below as space is limited.

This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.

Focus on American Indian Art on Paper
2025-11-14 18:00 - 18:45 | Ackland Art Museum, 101 S. Columbia Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
This session is now FULL.

Join Peter Nisbet (deputy director for curatorial affairs) and Carolyn Allmendinger (director of education and interpretation) for an intimate and conversational close looking session with the Ackland’s small but growing collection of American Indian art on paper, works that are light-sensitive and therefore not exhibited often. They will share insights about two recent acquisitions.
Space is very limited; please register for a free ticket below. An additional session will be held at 7 p.m.

This event is part of UNC–Chapel Hill’s Campus Life Experience (CLE) program. Students who attend can scan the QR code provided at the event to receive CLE credit.
