Exhibitions
MOVABLE COLLECTION
Goodwyn Gallery (Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library) / 3030 Poplar Ave. December 3, 2019 - December 31, 2019
Burton Callicott, Ted Faiers, Allyson Smith, Vanarith By, Patrick Ghant, Juan Rojo, Alex Paulus, Erin Harmon, Lawrence Matthews, Catherine Elizabeth Patton, Paula Kovarik, Alex Williams, Ben Butler
New acquisitions for the City of Memphis’s publicly-owned permanent collection of local art, the Movable Collection, will be exhibited at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library’s Goodwyn Gallery, December 3rd-31st. An opening reception for the show will be held December 5th, from 5-7pm.
Selections from the collection will be on view at the Goodwyn Gallery through December, before being reinstalled in pop-up galleries at the neighborhood branches. The program will expand to more libraries in late 2020.
The Movable Collection consists of 100 paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by 69 Memphis-based artists - including such well-known names as Burton Callicott and Ted Faiers. Funded by the Percent-for-Art Ordinance and managed by the UrbanArt Commission, the collection can be seen across the city, in public spaces such as City Hall, LeMoyne-Owen College, Shelby Farms, and the Memphis International Airport.
In spring 2019 the UrbanArt Commission partnered with the Memphis Public Library to expand the collection to four library branches - Levi, South, Frayser, and Hollywood. A public call-to-artists generated an enthusiastic response, and a committee of library representatives, curators, and artists accepted 32 new pieces into the collection. Notable 2019 selections include photographer Allyson Smith and painter Vanarith By, the first artist under 18 to be chosen for the collection; teaching artists Patrick Ghant and Juan Rojo, and professors Alex Paulus and Erin Harmon; and emerging photographers Lawrence Matthews and Catherine Elizabeth Patton. Other artists represent mediums that are new to the collection, including quilter Paula Kovarik, illustrator Alex Williams, and abstract sculptor Ben Butler.
