HMA Launches Annual Fund Campaign with Announcement of Major Gift from Shurtape Technologies

“HMA is a crown jewel when it comes to institutions of art and culture in our community. Shurtape’s recent investment is not only representative of our belief in the capacity of visual art to educate, enrich and inspire, but also a vote of confidence in the HMA team’s ability to execute upon its visionary strategic plan.”

— Stephen Shuford, Shurtape Vice Chairman

Hickory Museum of Art kicks off its Annual Fund campaign Let’s Make it Happen Together, with the announcement of a major gift from Shurtape Technologies. The campaign, which launched October 15th, builds upon the recent successes of the Museum and raises its yearly fundraising goal to $235,000. HMA’s ambitious Annual Fund target is made a little more attainable by way of Shurtape’s commitment to contribute $150, 000 split over the next 3 years. Shurtape Technologies, LLC, an industry-leading manufacturer and marketer of pressure-sensitive tapes, has generously increased its investment in the Museum, which will support progress towards key action items outlined in the museum’s recently adopted FY 2021-25 strategic plan.

About Shurtape’s latest financial commitment to HMA, Vice Chairman Stephen Shuford said, “HMA is a crown jewel when it comes to institutions of art and culture in our community. Shurtape’s recent investment is not only representative of our belief in the capacity of visual art to educate, enrich and inspire, but also a vote of confidence in the HMA team’s ability to execute upon its visionary strategic plan.”

Hickory Museum of Art sparks the pursuit of inspiration, imagination, and creativity in our community. The new FY 2021-25 strategic plan maps key initiatives to expand the Museum’s audience, lays the groundwork for addressing Collection Management opportunities including the expansion of storage, and grows the Museum’s fundraising for a fifth consecutive year. Attainment of these objectives will sustain the momentum that has been generated by way of innovative programs and exhibitions, while fueling HMA’s ability to foster important conversations, to continue being a catalyst for positive change, and to keep shaping our future, today and every day.

At the $50,000 Annual Whitener Level, Shurtape will receive logo recognition at HMA’s check-in, on the Museum website, phone message and all social media channels. They will be recognized as a Summer Camp Sponsor and have logo recognition in all Museum major galleries, the Coe, Shuford and Whitener. Shurtape will be granted a free space rental as well as a private tour of the Museum led by Executive Director, Jon Carfagno.

“Shurtape Technologies has been a resource to HMA for so many years. We are grateful not only for their financial support, but also how readily their leadership shares insights and great ideas from the perspective of a successful business,” Carfagno said. “Their generous sponsorship over the next three years will position North Carolina’s second oldest art museum to achieve even more by way of our mission’s focus on impacting our region.

This year promises some of the strongest and most inclusive exhibitions and programs at HMA, emphasizing the museum’s focus on teaching about empathy and promoting social connectedness. Currently, the Museum’s Folk Art Takeover has filled its galleries with new permanent collection pieces, as well a feature exhibition, The Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter, on loan from The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. In February 2022, HMA will debut Elephant and Piggie in WE ARE ART (a Mo Willems Exhibition). The galleries will bring to life acclaimed children’s book illustrator’s creative process, while underscoring how this beloved series teaches about healthy relationships. HMA will also present 7 Billion Ones, A Randy Bacon Retrospective, which pairs breathtaking fine art photographic portraits of people of various backgrounds, ages, and genders, alongside their personal narratives.

Art © Mo Willems, ELEPHANT & PIGGIE is a trademark of The Mo Willems Studio, Inc

On view from May 28 through September 18, 2022

Creativity of any kind is what makes us human. It is what brings us together, drives change, and catalyzes the future of our community. There’s an “it” that matters to everyone. Support for the 2021-2022 Annual Fund campaign helps make “it” happen together with Hickory Museum of Art. Already, many businesses, members, and friends of HMA have stepped forward to build a base of over 50% of this year’s $235,000 Annual Fund Goal. HMA hopes you will join in this generosity by making a contribution to help sustain all that is happening at North Carolina’s second oldest art museum. Donations received by Fiscal Year End (June 2022) will be reflected on the response cards that will line HMA’s entrance gallery. Annual Fund progress will also be tracked on a banner outside of the building, so the world will know how this community loves HMA!

A Celebration of the Creativity, Vision, & Ingenuity of Self-taught Artists

Jon Carfagno,
HMA Executive Director

HMA has been transformed into a celebration of the creativity, vision, and ingenuity of self-taught artists. From the moment you enter the museum’s galleries, you will be overcome by this explosion of color, materials, and new ideas, which leave you breathless and inspired!

On loan from The Henry Ford, The Improvisational Quilts of Susana Allen Hunter tells the story of a remarkable woman’s drive to convert everyday materials into awe-inspiring works of contemporary art. Living in the impoverished community of Wilcox County, Alabama, Hunter used scraps of her family’s clothing to create abstract designs that reflect life in rural West Alabama, as well as her experience as an African American woman. We are also looking forward to the debut of 25 recent gifts from Albert Keiser, Jr. His generous donation has brought masterworks by leading voices in the Southern Contemporary Folk Art tradition, including Purvis Young, Bessie Harvey, and many more! These new acquisitions will be complemented by never-before-seen loans from regional collectors, as well as new conversations between objects in our permanent collection.

Portrait of Susana Allen Hunter, June 1960

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Susana Allen Hunter [1912-2005], “Pig Pen Quilt “(also called Housetop or Log Cabin), c. 1950-1955, cotton prints and solids, denim with backing from cornmeal sacks, from the Collections of the Henry Ford, 2006.79.25. Image from the Collections of the Henry Ford, THF73651.

8th Annual Autolawn Euro Classic Car Show, Saturday, September 11, 2021

You have likely witnessed how our new FY 2021-2025 strategic plan is driving the continued evolution of North Carolina’s second oldest (but most innovative!) art museum. The launch of a newly-designed website was a key action item in our road map for the future. We are grateful for our collaboration with Jackson Creative, which has yielded an intuitive, user-friendly on-line hub for all things HMA. The plan also outlines how we will partner expansively with organizations and leaders across Catawba County (and beyond!) to make our region an even more vibrant place to call home. The return of Autolawn represented the best of this commitment, we are appreciative of the efforts of the event’s organizers Kit Cannon (HMA Board Vice President) and Charlie Zagaroli, as well as the many volunteers who worked together to make this day a great success!

Our team is so very thankful for the love and support that you continue to bring to Hickory Museum of Art. Our recently launched “Let’s Make It Happen Together” annual fund drive is the greatest enabler of the continued growth and impact of HMA. We hope that you will plan to deepen your investment in our mission when considering your contribution this year.

We can all use moments that connect us with others and help us see the world anew! Thank you for believing in HMA’s ability to make a difference in our community.

HMA Member Spotlight: Linda Greenwell

An Interview with Linda Greenwell by Kate Garvey
Membership Level: Director’s Circle

As a prelude to our Membership Drive in October, we over here at the museum have been thinking of ways to recognize and get to know our members better on a regular basis, creating more discussion around what it is like to be a member, what makes being a member at HMA so special, and having a personal connection and reach to our membership community. What better way to celebrate HMA and our members than by sitting down with them and talking to them about their experiences, life, and why they choose to support HMA, and then introduce them to the rest of the community! We are very pleased that Linda Greenwell allowed me to sit down and speak with her about her life and her relationship with HMA. I hope you enjoy what she had to say as much as we did!

““HMA is a fabulous museum. The community is extraordinarily lucky to have the museum and it is important to support this museum.””

— Linda Greenwell

Linda grew up in Winston-Salem, where she lived primarily until 1995, when she moved full-time to Lake Norman. Linda worked as a consultant and travelled quite a bit until she retired in 2006. She enjoys traveling, whether it be overseas or even a good old fashioned road trip. She loves visiting and spending time in Venice, Barcelona, and Istanbul, which she discovered to be an interesting culinary destination. Like me, she is a voracious reader and enjoys a combination of non-fiction and historical fiction, especially ones that have accurate details about the time-period. When I asked her what her favorite food is, she replied, “anything my husband (John) makes. He is so creative in the kitchen.” I told her that I hope that this is what my family says about me when they are asked that question! When Linda does eat out in the Hickory area, her first choice is oysters at Standard Oyster Company in Viewmont.

After Linda retired, she put her heart into working with non-profits because she had always wanted to give back to the community and finally had the time to do so. Linda has served on the boards of and worked with, The United Arts Council of Catawba County, Catawba Valley Community College, LWV of Catawba Valley, and, of course, our dear Hickory Museum of Art.

Linda really became involved with HMA around 2008, about the time she started serving on the board for the Foothills Folk Art Festival, where she continued to serve for 6 years, back when it took place in Sherrill’s Ford. It also happens to be her favorite HMA event because “it is a great way to introduce people to the museum and to a form of art they might not be aware of.” When I asked Linda what made her join the museum, her response was “HMA is a fabulous museum. The community is extraordinarily lucky to have the museum and it is important to support this museum.” She added that she joined because she loves art and that HMA provides such varied exhibitions; that the programming really reaches out and educates why art is so important. Linda also believes that our museum is a place people can “enjoy themselves and grow.” Two of her favorite exhibitions at the museum were just that kind of variation she talks about, one being Torn from Home: My Life as a Refugee and the other one was, BLOW UP: Inflatable Contemporary Art. I was interested to know if there was another museum that had really impressed her, especially after I knew about her love for traveling, and she was enthusiastic about the Courtauld Gallery, located at the Strand block of Somerset House in London. This makes sense to me as the museum is quite small, but boasts an impressive and varied collection of 530 paintings and over 26,000 drawings, including works by Manet, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Cezanne. Similar to Hickory Museum of Art, most of the collection at Courtauld Gallery was formed through donations and bequests.

Torn from Home: My Life as a Refugee
On View January 26, 2010 through May 2, 2010

BLOW UP: Inflatable Contemporary Art
On View July 21, 2018 - November 25, 2018

Linda’s favorite reasons for being a member are the “access to programs and that the staff really gets to know you, and because of that, your experience is enhanced. It’s very welcoming and you feel like part of the museum, that it is your museum.” One of the reasons we chose Linda Greenwell for our first “Member Spotlight” (besides being and all-around interesting and wonderful member) is because of an email she sent to our Executive Director, Jon Carfagno, and myself not too long ago, while on a road trip I might add, with a picture of her ticket to Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. The subject line and note that accompanied the picture was, “one of the great reasons to be an HMA member… free admission to Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.” We love hearing from our members, especially when it is to tell us that they are getting the maximum use out of their memberships. It did not surprise me at all that she brought this up in our time together as another reason she values her membership. She believes the best time to come to the museum is when she has a couple of hours and can really take her time. When asked if there was anything she would change about our museum, she “would give us more space… space is our biggest hold-back.” I think all of teamHMA would agree with this one!

To conclude our conversation, I asked Linda how she would describe our museum to someone who has never been before. “A museum that will exceed all your expectations in exhibits, staff, and creativity.” I promise I didn’t bribe Linda before this interview, but I was thrilled to hear how much the museum means to her and the positive impact being a member has had for her. All of these reasons are why I feel so grateful to get to be the Membership and Audience Engagement Manager, where I get to interact and enhance our member’s experiences on a daily basis and have an excuse to get to know our members better to create meaningful relationships and programming. All I can say after my time with Linda and hearing about her experience, is who wouldn’t want to be a member?

How Creativity Happened at HMA!

There is an image on the wall of the Coe and in the ‘seeing light’ book that is at the beginning (or is it the end, the middle or somewhere else framed on a wall, depending on where you wish to put it). The book is meant to be taken apart and seen differently every time. The image is of the moon. I didn’t draw it.

There are actually 5 images, as you see, but I want to choose one. It is difficult to know which one to choose. Do you look at all of them at the same time or focus your eyes? But this image means a lot. It has meaning. And it doesn’t matter who you are, young or old, artist or not. What does it mean?

It comes from a text published in 1610 called The Sidereal Messenger. I wrote a small explanation of it for the museum, and keep coming back to read it again. Every time it means something new. I see it again and again and it never grows old or stale.

The Sidereal Messenger published in 1610 | Galileo: Looking at the moon in 1609; Florence, Italy

Whether this particular image of the moon, Clair’s fern in resin, Carmella’s glass, Sally and James’ photos printed on glass, or Hunter’s foil next to colored sheets, red, blue, yellow, each of these artists and their works continually inspire me to see differently. “Light theory, traceable light” is the way Clair mentions this in the videos. I keep hearing her, talking about our visit to Corning. I sit and write this by the glow of the cone with its dull red glow in the most ‘intimate’ corner of the Coe. There are so many corners here. Every place is packed with details that I can spend hours enjoying and wondering about. But I keep returning to the sidereal messenger. I keep returning to this moon, this shadowy drawing of Galileo’s from a little more than 400 years ago. The conviction that I hold and that frames this exhibition is that art and science, right and left brain, nature and artificiality cannot entirely be split in two in an oversimplified way. I call this a magical way of seeing, that is, to be able to see the same image in multiple ways at the same time. Once I approach this picture of the moon as an astronomer, once as an artist, once as a teacher, once as a child. Each time builds on itself. It is like when you are a kid and you can be anything. And looking at it each time resurrects a little creative drop inside. I feel more alive and more capable. It is like meditation or mindfulness, finding a spiritual sense one forgot one had. And all this by looking at the moon, or an image of the moon. Call it moon-day. Claire’s Response to moon-day: I too, choose the moon. I choose the moon for inexplicable reasons. I choose it because though there have been years upon years of research on how the sun illuminates it and how that light bounces to our vision; to me it is unexplainable. And that is okay. It is a source of wonder; accepting and appreciating the unexplainable. Opening your heart to feel rather than explain. Feeling the light. Loving the shadow as it is and expecting nothing more.