Looking back at the months of 2020 |
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As we are approaching the end of the year at the Danville Museum of Fine Art and History, it is time to reflect on the many people who contributed to the museum during this difficult year and the many programs we were able to do that allowed us to get through the COVI-19 year stronger than ever before. Throughout the pandemic, your support has enabled the Museum to meet our community members where they are to provide barrier-free access to the arts and history exhibitions that tell the stories of our our region. Thank you for supporting the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History in 2020. As we reflect on a year unlike any other, we are grateful for this community. Throughout this challenging season, you have sustained the museum as a vibrant source of inspiration for all. The Museum remains a space for hope, self-reflection, appreciation of our collective heritage, and sense of human connection.
On behalf of everyone here, please accept our best wishes for the holidays and a wonderful (light at the end of the tunnel) New Year!
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January 2020 -January 2021 |
The DMFAH opened the Camilla Williams Exhibition and started our Museum Residency Program. We contracted with national Historians Grace Hale and Fitz Brundage as well as three university fellows to help us build content for a New Visitor Service Video that includes all our histories at the Sutherlin Mansion. With an attendance of almost 2,230 visitors within the first two months of 2020 to see the Camilla Williams, the Civil Rights, the Civil War, and the Sutherlin House exhibitions, we thought we were off to a great start.
Let us know if you feel Camilla needs to be part of our permanent collection display in the Sutherlin Mansion: [email protected]
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Storytelling Festival with Fred & Monica Motley managing a diverse group of performers: Kummba Dance Company; Tyris Jones; ReVonda Crow; Tammy Tillotson; the Little River Cloggers; Josephus Thompson III and Carrington Kay. |
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Effective March 20, 2020, per the recommendation of the Virginia Association of Museums, the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History (DMFAH) closed to the public for three months. This decision was in alignment with information from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regarding necessary precautions for the prevention and containment of COVID-19. We received a PPP Cares grant to sustain operations for three months. We also received a Virginia Humanities Cares grant.
The DMFAH launched its first online collage exhibition: COVI-19 DADA Dreams. Work Featured by Hollis Stauber (Swanson Studio Artist)2020
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The “Omitted History” visitor service video research team got underway and the DMFAH welcomed Kate McDannold from UNC-G, Asher Caplan from UVA, and Annie Chapel from Emory University. We also worked long distance with Nara Holdaway (also a UVA fellow) and National Historians Grace Hale (UVA), and Fitz Brundage (UNC) as well as local historians Gary Grant and Sonja Ingram from Preservation Virginia.
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Kate McDannold completed the Camilla Williams traveling trunk and our online education units. We worked with Beth Deatheridge from MOMENTA on reconstructing our DMFAH website for greater capacity and to upload the education units so they will be accessible to all teachers.
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We had the much beloved community Attic Sale and started our Internship Program and Collections Maintenance Program. Kate McDannold trained Annie Chappell and Aidan Thomas on the Past Perfect Museum analog system (and they have in turn trained the entire team of interns we have today)
Please let us know if you know of any rising high school seniors or undergraduate students who would like to join our intern team. [email protected]
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We opened our first post-COVID-19-closing exhibition - the VMFA Artmobile. This 'movable art gallery' opened to 230 people over a period of three days. All groups entered with masks and were socially distanced. Only ten people could enter the gallery at one time. Firefly Yoga offered Yoga on the DMFAH lawn and Smokestack offered Wednesday evening Play Readings on the lawn.
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We welcomed our new community outreach partners the Dan River Non-profit Networks, and Smokestack Theater Company to House 126. Work commenced on the maintenance of the Museum conservation fence gifted by the Garden Club of Virginia. If you want to get involved through conservation work, please see their website.
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Swanson Studio switches on the studio lights on every last and second to last Thursday of every month. The DMFAH adds two more classes to its ceramic studio classes for adults. A printing workshop which explores printing processes that can be reproduced outside of the studio. Life Drawing studio which offers the opportunity to explore the challenges the human body offers as an object for observation.
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Smokestack sold out tickets to Ghosts and Gravestones and we saw more people for this event than ever before!!! We added Camilla Williams to our list of historical characters. We Installed a Green Screen Studio in House 126 (Behind the Museum), gifted to the Museum by Kiwanis. The Museum hired a new Marketing Director: Louise Martling.
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We opened the new gallery on Craghead Street in the Old Town River District. If we cannot get people to the museum, we will get the museum and cultural programming to the people! This storefront gallery provides cultural access to people during the most difficult COVID-19 months. The art can be viewed by all, at any time through the beautiful large storefront windows of 536 Craghead. |
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We updated the Museum Online Gift Shop and teamed up with ODAC (Old Dominion Agricultural Center) to reach out to local vendors and artisans. We believe very strongly that buying local is important. We are also getting ready to head up the program called WANDERLOVE: A Stitch in Time (January – September 2021) and the DMFAH procured a Smithsonian Exhibition: to go into the Reid Street Gallery in Chatham (August 2021), reaching out to a population of under 25, 000 in our region to offer access to cultural engagement.
This Cross Roads: Museum on Main Street exhibition is designed for small museum spaces in small towns and rural areas. All selected host sites receive guidance about how to maximize the exhibition in one's community, and how to tie one's local stories to the more national picture. In Virginia, the DMFAH was one of only six sites selected to host the exhibition.
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We Could not have gotten through this year without YOU, without the Board of Directors, without the DMFAH staff, without the Volunteers, without the University Fellows, and without the Interns |
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We Thank Our Grantors and Donors for their Financial Support through the Pandemic Year. |
Community Foundation/ /Danville Regional Foundation/Virginia Humanities/ Virginia Commission for the Arts/ Daly Foundation/ Kiwanis Club/ Patterson Foundation/ Womack Foundation/ Parks and Rec/ Morotock Foundation / the Danville-Pittsylvania Chamber/ National Endowment for the Arts/ VTC/ Smithsonian/Virginia Association of Museums/ Garden Club of Danville.We also want to thank the American National Bank & Trust for facilitating our PPP.
With great appreciation we thank our donors, big and small, who gave. With great appreciation, we thank those who continued their memberships through the pandemic year. We especially thank all the businesses who contributed Corporate Memberships.
Finally, an enormous thank you goes to the DMFAH Board of Directors.
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We wish you peace, health, and happiness in the New Year! |
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Please Further This Work With A 100% Deductible End-of-the-year Gift To Ensure Your Museums Impact In Your Community Remains Dynamic and Sustainable |
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