HMA’s Reaccreditation Process: Reminiscence
On September 5, 2024, local notables including Hickory’s Mayor, HMA Board members, and other museum supporters along with the museum’s volunteers and staff celebrated HMA’s reaccreditation success with a party. The Mayor declared the day of the party Hickory Museum of Art Day, and everyone raised a champagne toast.
Being reaccredited was certainly not as simple as …
Josephine Bonniwell Lyerly (1879–1964)
An especially intriguing aspect of the family is the involvement of Kate and George’s daughters, Norma and Josephine, in the family building business — an unusual situation for the time. Even more, that the Bonniwell daughters had their father’s support and promotion is all the more interesting.
The Women behind Hickory Museum of Art
A mock-up of the fabled then-brand-new 1954 Dodge station-wagon served as a photo setting for partiers celebrating at the premiere of the Women Behind HMA video.
Shirley Pruden Graham (1927-2007)
A February 16, 1953 article in The Hickory Daily Record on the topic of HMA’s 1952 acquisitions says of Shirley Pruden's The Aerialist, the first work by a woman artist purchased by HMA, “It is an excellent work which shows superb knowledge of
Jeffrey A. Raasch (born c.1966)
Jef Raasch says of his work, “My sculpture represents the symbiosis of life; all creatures mixing together to form a greater existence.” The life-size human form of HMA's Manimal is composed of dozens of different animal species, most native to North Carolina.
Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973)
In a Smithsonian Institution interview in 1964 Huntington said about much-depicted Joan of Arc. “And my challenge was to get a composition that was original, that hadn't really been done before. That was the fun of it.”
Philip Moose (1921-2001)
The unassuming but quietly charming Blowing Rock resident Philip Anthony Moose was a world traveler, Army veteran, Pulitzer Prize winner (for art, in 1948) and a prolific painter. Born in Newton, N.C. as the fifth of seven children, Moose studied art at ...
Harold Crowell (born 1952)
One of HMA's other Crowell paintings, The Gourd Lady), is of life-long Conover resident Margaret Sparkman. She had adopted this persona as her artist identity, and that landed her a spot on the Jay Leno show in 2003.
Paul Whitener, HMA founder and first director (1911-1959)
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.
Mickey Whitener Coe (1915-2008)
They 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