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Join BRAHM’s Grand Opening Celebration for Five New Summer Exhibitions on May 5

The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (BRAHM) invites the community to celebrate the grand opening of five new exhibitions with a reception on Thursday, May 5 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., with a Members & Special Guest Preview beginning at 5:00 p.m. The Museum will provide free admission, refreshments, cash bar, and live music by Eli Snuggs throughout the evening. The event is free and open to the public.

The Museum is revealing five new exhibitions at the reception: Ralph Burns: A Persistence of Vision, Elliott Daingerfield: Collected, The Art of Native Plants, and History of the Horse Show. The Alexander Community Gallery will also feature The Annual Young at Art Student Spectacular.

Ralph Burns: A Persistence of Vision

March 5 — July 24, 2016

Organized by the Asheville Art Museum and guest curated by J. Richard Gruber, Ph.D.

Ralph Burns
Ralph Burns. Ethiopian Orthodox Priest, Jerusalem, Israel, 1996. 11 x 14 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and the Asheville Art Museum.

Ralph Burns has long been recognized as a documentary photographer whose images have captured the diverse and enigmatic nature of ritual and religion, and who has explored the subjective and often defining nature of belief, worship, and culture. Like his predecessors — such as Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Mary Ellen Mark and Robert Frank — Burns uses his cameras to probe a constantly shifting human landscape and to document the public and private aspects of culture and religion in transition, often working at the unclear and overlapping intersection of both. Throughout his career, Burns has displayed a continuous and persistent interest in the motivations for worship and ritual while maintaining a compassionate and non-judgmental intimacy with his subjects. He has photographed both collective and individualized manifestations of what he sees as a seemingly irrepressible human need to ritualize loss, love, and death, and to formally externalize and codify hope and the desire for transcendence. A native of Louisiana and a resident of Asheville since 1975, Burns has traveled great distances to photograph a specific event or religious festival. He has photographed in New Orleans, Asheville and Western North Carolina, the American South, Mexico, Cuba, Israel, England, Thailand, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Europe. Burns is recognized both nationally and internationally, exhibiting his photographs in museums worldwide.

Elliott Daingerfield: Collected

April 9 — July 24, 2016

Elliott Daingerfield Collected
Elliott Daingerfield. Venetian Landscape (A Canal Scene), c. 1900. Oil on canvas. 30 x 45 inches. Collection of Virginia & Joseph Daingerfield Dulaney, Sr.

Complementing the Museum’s permanent display of Elliott Daingerfield (1859 — 1932) paintings and drawings, Elliott Daingerfield: Collected features Daingerfield paintings from eight private collections across the east coast. The exhibition features many Daingerfield’s that have not yet exhibited outside their collectors’ homes. Several collections are accompanied by personal reflections and stories from the collectors themselves, inviting viewers to see into the collectors perspective of a Daingerfield. The painter was born in Virginia, but grew up in Fayetteville, NC and became a well-recognized American painter. He first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1880 and lived and studied in New York often, but after falling in love with the North Carolina mountains, Daingerfield chose to live in Blowing Rock and built several houses here, including the now historic Westglow. He passed away of a heart attack while in New York, but was buried in Fayetteville, NC. Today, Daingerfield is best known for his family portraits, religious depictions, and rich landscape paintings.

The Art of Native Plants

April 9 — July 24, 2016

Sponsored and organized in conjunction with the NC Native Plant Society and guest curated by artist and professor Lynn Duryea

Native Plants
Will Stuart. Emerging Beauty, 2014. Digital photograph. 14 x 10 inches. Courtesy of the Artist.

North Carolina is rich with plant species, which provide endless subjects for artistic interpretation. Celebrating our plant diversity, the North Carolina Native Plant Society has sponsored and partnered with the Museum to showcase works by contemporary artists inspired by our native plants. Nearly 100 works of art created using a wide variety of media were submitted by 75 artists, and over 40 works are being featured in the juried exhibition, The Art of Native Plants. The exhibition was guest juried by Lynn Duryea. Currently Professor of Art at Appalachian State University, Duryea was a studio artist working in Maine before earning a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Florida. Her mixed media sculptures are inspired by various kinds of structures, including architecture, implements, mechanical and industrial elements, as well as letters of the alphabet. Artists featured in the juried exhibition include Susan Abernethy, Carol Bailey, Nancy Ball, Pam Brewer, Caroline Coolidge Brown, Susan Brusker Knapp, Peggy Bryan, Leigh Anne Carter, Jean Cauthen, Betty Lou Chaika, Nancy Cook, James Davidson, Maria deBruyn, Elizabeth Ellison, Florrie Funk, Stan Gilliam, Justen Harris, Lea Lackey Zachmann, Carolina Lara Corona, Alexis Levine, Christine Lisiewski, Kelly Loughlin, David McAdoo, Trena McNabb, Claire Miller, Preston Montague, Kathy Pruett, Barbara Rohde, Mark Rose, Joan Rutledge, Jim Sams, Kathy Sheerer Gramm, Valerie Schnaufer, Will Stuart, Ineke Thomas, Donna VanVleet, Torey Wahlstrom, and George Wood.

History of the Horse Show

May 5 — July 24, 2016

In partnership with the Blowing Rock Horse Show and guest curated by Carson L. Sailor

Horse sporting events have been prominent throughout the history of Blowing Rock. Before the town became the Blowing Rock we know today, it was divided into two villages—the Village of Blowing Rock and the Village of Green Park—and the

Untitled (Blowing Rock Horse Show), c. 1950. Photograph. Collection of the Blowing Rock Historical Society.
Untitled (Blowing Rock Horse Show), c. 1950. Photograph. Collection of the Blowing Rock Historical Society.

villages considered themselves fierce rivals. Celebrating this, a horse race was organized, and the track ran between the two villages. Horseback riding was also practiced along trails on the Moses Cone Estate. Tourists came to expect horse sports in this area, so Lloyd M. Tate founded the Blowing Rock Horse Show in 1923. Since then, the horse show has grown to become a nationally recognized event, one of the oldest in the business. Today, the show brings thousands of visitors to the town of Blowing Rock and raises funds for a variety of nonprofit organizations in the region.

The Alexander Community Gallery will also be open and features artwork created by students in the Museum’s Young at Art program. The exhibition, The Annual Young at Art Student Spectacular, will be open through May 22nd.

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General admission to the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum is $7 for adults and $6 for students, seniors, active military, and children ages 5 and up. Donations are accepted for full admission to the Museum on Thursdays. Located at 159 Chestnut Street on the corner of Chestnut and Main in Blowing Rock, NC, the Museum is open 10 to 5:00 p.m.Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 10 to 7:00 p.m. Thursday, and 10 to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Museum is open 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday between May and October. For more information, please call (828) 295 – 9099 or visitwww.blowingrockmuseum.org.