Image: North Carolina Museum of Art
The North Carolina Museum of Art’s Winston-Salem outpost is set to present 'Unboxed: Art beyond the Museum', a showcase of 13 North Carolina-based artists drawn from the museum’s Portable Gallery school outreach program. The exhibition opens on Thursday, July 16, at NCMA Winston-Salem Downtown, with the museum’s email update noting that the opening party for that date is sold out, while public viewing begins Friday, July 17.
The museum describes the project as part of a broader wave of new art experiences at its downtown Winston-Salem space, which it says has opened on Fourth Street. 'Unboxed' runs through August 30 and will be accompanied by artist talks and related events throughout July and August. The email frames the exhibition as one of the first major offerings in the new downtown art space, which is presenting an on-site program schedule alongside events around the city.
The exhibition brings together work by Nico Amortegui, Kevin Calhoun, Emily Clare, Owens Daniels, Ellen Heck, Eric Knoche, Andrew Mastriani, Caroline Paul, Travis Phillips, JP Jermaine Powell, Daniel Rich, Sloane Siobhan and Mona Wu. According to the museum, some of the works will be available to purchase. No additional curatorial statement was included in the source materials, but the artist list points to a wide survey of practices within the state’s contemporary art community.
'Unboxed' is linked to the Portable Gallery, the museum’s school outreach program, indicating that the exhibition grows out of an educational initiative rather than a conventional collecting exhibition. The museum’s newsletter positions the project as a showcase of artists who have already worked with the museum through that program, bringing their practices into the downtown space for public viewing.
Among the related programs announced in the same update is an artist talk on Thursday, July 30, from 6 to 7 pm at NCMA W-S Downtown. The talk will feature Emily Clare, Caroline Paul Dalholt and Ellen Heck, and is billed as a conversation about memory, place and the experiences embedded in the world around us. The museum also lists several other events across July, including Open Studio: Expressive Portraits, Vinyl Lounge: Downtown Debut and Art in the Park: Guerilla Street Art Printmaking, though these are separate from the exhibition itself.
NCMA Winston-Salem Downtown lists public hours on Wednesdays from 1 to 5 pm, Thursdays from 1 to 7 pm, Fridays from 1 to 5 pm, Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm and Sundays from 1 to 5 pm. The museum says visitors can see 'Unboxed: Art beyond the Museum' through August 30 at the downtown Winston-Salem venue.
