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http://www.maryhillmuseum.org

NEWS RELEASE Media contact:

Colleen Schafroth, Executive Director

(509) 773-3733, colleen@maryhillmuseum.org

 

 

Ansel Adams: Masterworks
on View at Maryhill Museum of Art

Iconic photographer captured breathtaking images of American landscape

 

(GOLDENDALE, Wash., March 25, 2009) – Ansel Adams is one of the few American artists to have become a household name. Beginning July 18, 2009, visitors to Maryhill Museum of Art will be able to see why. 

Ansel Adams: Masterworks features 47 photographs that Adams personally selected to serve as a succinct representation of his life’s work, giving the public a special opportunity to see photographs that the artist viewed as his best. Included are breathtaking images of Yosemite, where Adams spent many seasons living and working as a youth, National Parks throughout the American West, as well as photographs captured in New Mexico, the Great Smokey Mountains, New York City, Hawaii and on Cape Cod. The exhibit will be on view July 18 - September 13, 2009.

 

The photographs featured in Ansel Adams: Masterworks are part of a larger group called “The Museum Set”; the exhibit was organized by Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, CA. Exhibition tour management by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA.

 

ADAMS & HIS LEGACY:
Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco in 1902. He was a life-long naturalist who, as a youth, took daily hikes in the still-wild areas near his home and spent considerable time in Yosemite every year from 1916 until his death in 1984. Those experiences made him a passionate activist for wilderness protection and environmental consciousness. He was active with the Sierra Club and wrote thousands of letters in support of conservation, but his greatest influence and legacy came from his photography – spectacular black and white images of pristine landscapes and natural vignettes.


“The work of Adams gives richly to the viewer. There is something there to reward specialist or layman, art lover or nature lover,” states Robyn G. Peterson, who curated the exhibition for Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

 

“Adams’ images are icons of wild America. They infuse the viewer with the emotional equivalent of wilderness and are often more powerful than the actual thing. He is perhaps one of the last defining figures in the romantic tradition of 19th-century American landscape art,” adds Lee Musgrave, Maryhill’s curator of exhibits.  “The story of Adams’ life-long dedication to conservation and his photographs continue to convince viewers that there is the possibility and the probability of humankind living in harmony and balance with the environment."


RELATED PROGRAMS:

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Family Fun: Fun with Photomontage, 1 to 4 p.m.

A collage created with photographs is called a photomontage. Bring your own photographs to the museum and create a fantastic photomontage to take home. No photos? No problem! You may also select photographs supplied by the museum. Family Fun activities and admission to the museum are free for children under 17 with one adult admission.

 

Lecture:  Ansel Adams Life and Work, 3 p.m.

Dr. Robyn G. Peterson, curator of Ansel Adams: Masterworks and current executive director of the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana, will present a fascinating program that illuminates Adams and the collection known as his “masterworks” from Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, California.  Peterson curated the exhibition during her tenure at Turtle Bay.


Opening Reception, 4 to 5 p.m.

Join fellow members and friends for refreshments to celebrate the opening of Ansel Adams: Masterworks.

 

Monday – Friday, July 20-24, 2009

Summer Art Institute: Teaching Through Art: A Sense of Place

Spend a week creating art and learning new teaching strategies for bringing art into the classroom. Using the uniquely beautiful photographs of Ansel Adams as a jumping-off point, participants will use art techniques, poetry and music to explore a sense of place through the lens of art, history and culture.  Artist studio visits and special events further enhance this unforgettable learning experience. Teachers can earn credit or clock hours through the Graduate School of Education/Continuing Education at Portland State University and through Washington ESD 105.  Co-taught by arts educator Shelley Toon Hight, Maryhill Executive Director Colleen Schafroth, and special guest arts educator Mary Cooper.

 

Thursday, July 23, 2009, 2 to 4 p.m.

A Sense of Place: The Pacific Northwest
Historian William G. Robbins moderates as a panel of noted Northwest writers share their sense of place in the Pacific Northwest.   Panelists are poet Elizabeth Woody (Wasco/Navajo), an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon; author Molly Gloss, a fourth-generation Oregonian; and, author and Oregon native, Robin Cody.

 

August 15-16, 2009

Maryhill Arts Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

The Maryhill Arts Festival is a summertime tradition in the Gorge, with over 50 artists displaying and selling art as well as live music performances and hands-on art activities for families. The festival takes place outside on the museum grounds and is FREE to the public.

 

Family Fun:  Fun with Photos, 1 to 4 p.m. both days

Create art in the sun with photo sensitive paper and a quirky collection of fun shaped objects. This FREE activity will take place outside. As always during Family Fun activities, admission to the museum is free for children under 17 with one adult admission.

 

Special Outdoor Photography Exhibit 

View a diverse exhibit featuring work by talented members of the Portland Photographic Society and the Cascade Stereoscopic Club.

 

 

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ABOUT MARYHILL MUSEUM OF ART:

Housed in a glorious Beaux Arts mansion on 5,300 acres high above the Columbia River, Maryhill Museum of Art is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most enchanting cultural destinations.  Founded by Northwest entrepreneur and visionary Sam Hill, Maryhill opened to the public in 1940; today the museum boasts a world-class permanent collection, rotating exhibitions of the highest caliber, and dynamic educational programs that provide opportunities for further exploration by visitors of all ages.

 

The museum’s collection includes more than 80 works by Auguste Rodin, European and American paintings, objects d'art from the palaces of the Queen of Romania, Orthodox icons, unique chess sets, and the renowned Théâtre de la Mode, featuring small-scale mannequins attired in designer fashions of post-World War II France. Baskets of the indigenous people of North America were a collecting interest of Sam Hill; today the museum’s Native American collection represents nearly every tradition and style in North America, with works of art from prehistoric through contemporary.  

 

Maryhill’s Outdoor Sculpture Garden features work from the permanent collection by Tom Herrera, Mel Katz, Heath Krieger, Alisa Looney, Jill Torberson, Julian Voss-Andreae, Jeff Weitzel and Leon White.  Each year the museum also hosts an Outdoor Sculpture Invitational showcasing artists of the Northwest. The Maryhill Overlook is a site-specific sculpture by noted Portland architect Brad Cloepfil; nearby are Lewis and Clark interpretive panels. Four miles east of Maryhill is a life-sized replica of Stonehenge, Stonehenge Memorial, which Sam Hill built to memorialize local men who perished in World War I. Nearby, the Klickitat County War Memorial honors those who have died in service of their country since World War I.

 

The museum was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 2001 the museum was listed as an official site of the National Historic Lewis and Clark Trail and in 2002 was accredited by the American Association of Museums.

 

VISITOR INFORMATION:

Maryhill Museum of Art is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 15 to November 15. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $2 for children age 6-16. Admission to the Stonehenge Memorial is free; it is open from 7:00 a.m. to dusk daily.

 

Sandwiches, salads, espresso drinks, cold beverages, and freshly baked desserts and pastries are available at Café Maryhill; the Museum Store features art and history books, jewelry, Native American crafts and other mementos.

 

Maryhill is located off Highway 97, 12 miles south of Goldendale, Washington. Drive times to the museum are 2 hours from Portland/Vancouver, 3.5 hours from Bend, 4 hours from Seattle, and 1.5 hours from Yakima. For further information, visit maryhillmuseum.org.

 

To request an image for publication, click here.

Above:
Ansel Adams, Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite, California, undated, photograph. © 2009 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

Maryhill Museum of Art | 35 Maryhill Museum Drive | Goldendale, WA 98620 | 509-773-3733
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