Welcome to The Cape Cod Museum of Art Press Room.
For a listing of current and upcoming Museum exhibitions, please visit our Exhibitions pages.* For information about upcoming events, please see our Special Events page.
*Exhibition titles and dates are subject to change. Please contact the Public Relations Department to verify information before publication.
If you are a member of the press and require additional information or digital photography, please contact the Public Relations department by email at publicrelations@ccmoa.org or call 508-385-4477 ext 21. Members of the press are invited to register to receive press releases via email. Please send request to the above email address or through phone contact.
CAPE COD MUSEUM OF ART TO PARTICIPATE IN BLUE STAR MUSEUMS
The Cape Cod Museum of Art announces the launch of Blue Star Museums, a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Blue Star Families, and more than 600 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2010.
“The Cape Cod Museum of Art is thrilled to open its doors to America’s military personnel and their families. This summer, the museum has exciting exhibitions planned, from photography to plein air paintings to a contemporary site installation to an exhibit of some of Cape Cod’s finest representational artists,” says Debra Hemeon, CCMA Deputy Director, also retired from the US Navy.
“America’s museums are proud to join the rest of the country in thanking our military personnel and their families for their service and sacrifice,” explains NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “I cannot imagine a better way to do that than welcoming them in to explore and enjoy the extraordinary cultural heritage our museums present. The works of art on view this summer will inspire and challenge viewers, and sometimes they will just be a great deal of fun.”
“There have always been wonderful examples of partnerships between museums and military installations, but the scale of this gift from the museum communities to military families is thrilling,” says Blue Star Families Chairman Kathy Roth-Douquet. “Military families work hard for this country, and it is gratifying for us to be recognized for that. We anticipate that thousands of military families will participate in the program and visit museums this summer – many of them for the first time. Blue Star Families will work hard to help our military families make the most of these opportunities.”
More than 600 museums in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are taking part in the initiative. The American Association of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, and the Association of Children’s Museums each sent a letter from NEA Chairman Landesman inviting museums to participate in this program. In addition to 30 children’s museums across the country, participating museums represent a broad range of art, history, science, and cultural topics.
Blue Star Museums' details:
Blue Star Museums runs from Memorial Day, May 31 through to Labor Day, September 6, 2010. The Cape Cod Museum of Art will start the program on May 28, 2010. The free admission program is available to active duty military and their family members, including active duty Reserve and active duty National Guard. Free admission with a valid military ID holder also includes up to five guests.
This is the latest Arts Endowment program to bring quality arts programs to the military and their families. Other NEA programs for the military have included Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Great American Voices Military Base Tour, and Shakespeare in American Communities Military Base Tour.
About Blue Star Families
Blue Star Families is a national, non-partisan, non-profit network of military families from all ranks and services including guard and reserve, with a mission to support, connect and empower military families. In addition to morale and empowerment programs, Blue Star Families raises awareness of the challenges and strengths of military family life with civilian community and leaders.
Operation Appreciation is an initiative of Blue Star Families that seeks to connect military families to the larger community. Through initiatives such as Blue Star Museums, Blue Star Families provides avenues for the larger community to show that they do understand, in meaningful ways that enrich the lives of military service members, spouses, children and parents. For more information, please visit www.BlueStarFam.org.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
The NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts – both new and established – bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, please visit www.arts.gov.
The Cape Cod Museum of Art Announces Publication of
Arnold Geissbuhler - Sculpture Shaped by the Twentieth Century
Dennis, MA, January 30, 2009
The Cape Cod Museum of Art is proud to announce the publication of Arnold Geissbuhler - Sculptor Shaped by the Twentieth Century. Written by Al Kochka, CCMA Geissbuhler Project Director, it is the first book on the life and art of Arnold Geissbuhler who will forever be linked with the CCMA. His and his wife Elisabeth’s gift of 39 pieces of his art to the museum in 1985 formed the core of the museum’s permanent collection.
The new 104-page biographical text traces Geissbuhler’s life and art from his native Delémont, Switzerland through Zurich, Paris, Boston, Cambridge, New York, to Cape Cod where he spent time in Provincetown before making Dennis his permanent home. The book features 36 rare photographs taken during Geissbuhler’s career, highlighting his personal life and the growth in his artistic expression. Also included in extensive documentation of Geissbuhler’s lengthy life and career (1897 – 1993), are his close relationships with Antoine Bourdelle and Alberto Giacometti as well as his involvement at Wellesley College and with projects for the W.P.A.
Through his creation of monumental heroic sculpture, Geissbuhler brought to America the stylistic expressions of Rodin and Bourdelle. He went beyond the traditions of realism as he matured, and his works became more abstract, especially when working with materials such as ceramics and metal.
Copies of the publication, made possible in part by a grant from the Jeremiah Kaplan Foundation, are available for $20 each plus $5 handling and shipping charges at www.ccmoa.org or for $20 each at the museum in Dennis.
Members: $18.00; Nonmember: $20
A PAINTING BY JAMIE WYETH:
A MAJOR GIFT FOR CAPE COD MUSEUM OF ART
The Board of Trustees of the museum is very pleased to add this painting to our permanent collection to enhance and illuminate the rich artistic heritage we hold in trust for present and future generations of the region.
-CCMA Executive Director Elizabeth Ives Hunter
Elizabeth Ives Hunter, CCMA executive director is delighted to announce that “Mrs. Sarah B. Neal of Orleans and Birmingham, Alabama have given CCMA a major gift -- a painting by Jamie Wyeth, one of the foremost American painters of the century. This is a charming portrait that captures the spirit of Wyeth’s dogs Kleberg & Dozer.” Jamie Wyeth has spent time on Cape Cod doing research for a posthumous portrait of the late President John F. Kennedy.
The Neals have been on the Cape for 25 years and watched the museum grow from its early days in a rented storefront to the year-round institution that preserves and exhibits outstanding art of the region. Mrs. Neal said she decided to donate this major piece of American art to CCMA because its track record of diverse programming and excellent exhibitions make it worthy of the trust implied by such a valuable gift.
Jamie Wyeth, a third generation American artist, is the son of the well-known painter Andrew Wyeth and grandson of the famous illustrator, N.C. Wyeth. Jamie Wyeth is well known for his portraits.
Wyeth is also noted for painting portraits of animals with the same intensity he paints portraits of people, having won fame early for his “Portrait of Pig.” He painted this 16” x 20” mixed media work of his dogs, Kleberg & Dozer, in 1987.
CCMA RECEIVES CULTURAL FACILITIES FUND AWARD FROM MASSACHUSETTES CULTURAL COUNCIL
Cape Cod Museum of Art has been given a Cultural Facilities Fund Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $38,220 to support the building of the new Harry Holl Sculpture & Clay Studio. The Cultural Facilities grants are given for projects that increase tourism, create new jobs, leverage private funding and expand arts and cultural activities in communities across the state. The MassDevelopment Board and the Massachusetts Cultural Council co-administer the program. Twenty-eight experts from across the U. S. with experience in tourism, facilities finance, real estate project management, and organizational development review the applications and make recommendations to MCC for the awards.
In response to the award announced on June 12, 2008, CCMA Executive Director, Elizabeth Ives Hunter said, “We are very pleased to receive the support of MCC as recognition of our contribution to the creative economy of the state.”
The Harry Holl Sculpture & Clay Studio is named after the co-founder of the museum and founder of Scargo Pottery in Dennis. Harry Holl trained many of the potters now making their living on Cape Cod.
Education Director Linda McNeill-Kemp said, “This studio is the only publicly accessible professional clay/sculpture studio available for classes in the mid and upper Cape Cod region. Year-round classes are currently offered for both adults and children, taught by first class professional ceramicists. We are also planning Art Therapy classes in collaboration with several facilities serving clients with developmental challenges." For more information about the classes, please call 508/385-4477 x 25 or go online at www.ccmoa.org.
CCMA RECEIVES $175,000 BEQUEST FROM ESTATE OF GEORGE & NINA RILEY
CCMA has received a bequest from the estate of the late George H. and Nina L. Riley for $175,000,” it was announced today by Elizabeth Ives Hunter, CCMA executive director. “We are very touched and deeply grateful for the breadth of generosity shown to us by George and Nina Riley, ” Mrs. Hunter said. “This gift came as a complete surprise. We never knew the Riley family, but these residents of Dennis must have cared deeply about our mission to preserve the artistic heritage of Cape Cod in order to offer a gift of such magnitude. We have honored these quiet philanthropists with a plaque on the walkway directly in front of the museum which says, In Memory of George H. Riley & Nina L. Riley, Benefactors of the Arts & Humanities.”
Mrs. Hunter said, “We have been experiencing sustained growth during the past few years. This gift puts the museum on a new level of financial stability that allows us to expand into the future. As the Riley’s wanted, we will be able to enrich the lives of Cape Codders and visitors by deepening their exposure to the visual arts for generations to come.”
ARTFUL THURSDAYS
Admission by donation all day – 10am - 8pm
Talks at 11, Tours at 2
(October 2006) Cape Cod Museum of Art is offering admission by donation all day every Thursday, from 10 am – 8 pm and beginning a new program to deepen appreciation of Cape Cod art and artists –with talks at 11, tours at 2, and special events on selected Thursday evenings.
The talks will be given by exhibiting curators and artists and the tours by museum docents who study the exhibitions and want to impart their deeper knowledge.
Now you can meet your friends, spend more time at the museum and take in lunch or dinner at local restaurants offering Artful Thursdays 10% discounts: The Mercantile for lunch; Blue Moon Bistro for dinner.
