Mission: To bring people together and inspire creativity through the power of art.
On this 1951 HMA letterhead, Wilfford Conrow appears both as a "technical Consultant" and as part of the Executive Committee. His continuing deep involvement with HMA was obvious, even if his name is misspelled once on that letterhead.
Teacher, mentor, friend, benefactor: Wilford Conrow was all those things to Paul Whitener, HMA’s founder. Conrow was an instrumental part of HMA’s beginnings and early days.
Read MoreFrank Stanley Herring was a friend of the family of Mickey Coe (Mildred McKinney, Paul Whitener’s future wife) and his first paintings of that family was of Mickey and two of her sisters. From left to right, with approximate ages, are
Read MoreHMA invites you to join the continuing journey with a brand-new 2018-2021 Strategic Plan! The full plan is now available for you on our web site.
Read MoreThey settled in Hickory where Paul nurtured his artistic talents and pursued his ambition to establish an art museum for Hickory, while Mickey actively supported his endeavors in both areas in a number of ways including
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How did this Hickory resident who went to Duke University on a football scholarship and married a local girl become a painter and art entrepreneur? Here’s a bit of the story, and some pictures too.
Read More… That location served well as a museum for the most part, except perhaps the time when the floor of the main gallery caved during a crowded reception. As Paul's steadfastly supportive and collaborative wife Mickey reminisced in 1984,
Read MoreDuring our 75th Anniversary celebration, we will interweave our past and our future ambitions and stories. Come along for the ride!
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As one part of our multi-part 75th Anniversary celebration, our blog will feature weekly posts about HMA’s history: founding and other supporting personalities, our art collection’s beginnings and growth, our well-known and perhaps not as well-known local and regional artists, our exhibits over these years, and an occasional surprise. Some of the posts you may recognize as updates of earlier posts, while others will be new to the blog. Seventy-five posts for seventy-five weeks starting now, so keep watching!
Because yes, 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the Museum's founding in 1944! And we just had to start early to celebrate that milestone.
This post is #1 of the 75 stories to celebrate HMA's 75 years.
Post by Karin Borei, HMA Project Coordinator, writer and editor as needed, and HMA blogger since March 2015.
The North Carolina General Assembly of 2013 adopted the Whirligigs of Vollis Simpson as the official Folk Art of North Carolina (H.B.830). HMA owns several of his works, including
Read MoreHMA’s collection of art keeps growing. Enjoy some selections here!
Read MoreAll about Matt Diffee and his ONE MAN GROUP SHOW that includes not only the original drawings for his cartoons and illustrations, but also for the first time his more traditional artistic endeavors: realist landscapes, abstract paintings, and collages.
Read MoreBen Long grew up in Statesville, NC; and although he is by now a muralist and portraitist of world-wide renown, Long currently divides his time between Italy and Asheville, NC, saying that Asheville "just feels good."
Read MoreWhen discussing Singleton's work, "I would always tell him 'Forget the label self-trained, outsider or whatever,' " artist Willie Birch said. "He was a great artist and at some point in his life his work would be recognized as great art."
Read MoreAs I’ve mulled over what to say about the execution of Reflections II, I’ve found myself learning things about my working process of which I was previously only marginally aware. So it’s been an interesting exercise.
Read More“[My] work is informed by the needlework traditions of southern women since North Carolina was settled. … It bows to the traditions of abstraction, while also striving to clearly represent the depth of my experience of nature.”
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Jerry Goodnight (b. 1941)
Spoons, 1979
oil on canvas
Gift of the artist in honor of the HMA’s 40th anniversary, 1984.6
Jerry Goodnight credited Mickey Whitener Coe, HMA's second director, with encouraging him to continue with his art, beginning in college. “Mickey Coe is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me” he once said.
Read MoreThe inner workings of HMA: a staff blog