Community Celebration: “CHAIN RE·AC·TION" at the Figge Art Museum -- July 17.
Thursday, July 17, 6 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
With the exhibition made possible through generous funding from Art Bridges Foundation, and with KLJB FOX 18 serving as media sponsor, the fascinating collaborative exhibit CHAIN RE·AC·TION will be celebrated at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on July 17, with community partners, mural artists. and the public joining together in conjunction with the art experience's continuous cycle of inspiration, reflection, and response.
Chain Re·ac·tion: A process in which the products themselves promote or spread the reaction. At the Figge, that process begins with a creative spark, and in CHAIN RE·AC·TION, works from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas are thoughtfully paired with pieces from the Davenport museum's own collection. From there, the venue will pass the baton to its community partner organizations and local artists, who interpret these pairings and collaborate to create original murals inspired by their responses. These new works will take center stage in the Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery, where the chain reaction continues, and visitors are subsequently invited to engage with the murals, reflect on the pairings, and add their own voices through commentary, interactive prompts, and art-making activities.
Davenport's Figge Art Museum is the premier art exhibition and education facility between Chicago and Des Moines. Its landmark glass building on the banks of the Mississippi River, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, is home to one of the Midwest’s finest art collections, and presents world-class traveling exhibitions. Its studios, auditorium and spacious lobby are alive with art classes, lectures and special events that attract visitors of all ages.
The Figge was formed as the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery in 1925, with the passage of a law allowing the city to accept of a gift of 334 artworks from a former mayor, Charles A. Ficke, and open a museum. It was renamed the Davenport Museum of Art in 1987. It continued to be a city-run museum until the opening of its new building in 2005, which was named in honor of a major gift from the V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Foundation. At that time, the city transferred responsibility for management, care and exhibition of its collection to the Figge Art Museum, a nonprofit organization. Ficke’s original collection of European, American and Spanish Viceregal art has grown through the efforts of generations of philanthropists and civic leaders and now includes the Grant Wood Archive and works by other American Regionalist artists, an extensive collection of Haitian art, and contemporary works. The Figge is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Community Celebration for CHAIN RE·AC·TION will take place in the Davenport venue's Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery on July 17, with remarks beginning at 6 p.m. and drinks and light bites from the Figge bar (cards only) available at 5 p.m. Admission to the Thursday-evening event is free, the exhibition itself will be on display through September 28, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
