Hickory Museum of Art

Hours
Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM - 4 PM
Sunday 1 - 4 PM
Closed Mondays and Holidays

Admission
Daily admission to the Hickory Museum of Art is FREE.

Group tours may be arranged in advance. For information on group tours and school field trip opportunities, e-mail or call HMA Educator Ginny Zellmer at 828-327-8576.

Directions
HICKORY MUSEUM OF ART
243 3rd Avenue NE , Hickory, NC 28601
828-327-8576

The Museum is located in a 3 story brick building on the SALT Block in the right wing of the Arts and Science Center of Catawba Valley.

Click on the link below that best matches your starting point. (Please note Hickory streets run North and South, Avenues are East and West and Center Street divides East from West. Many streets are one way only!)
Traveling North on Hwy 127 (from all points south of 2nd Street, NE, Hickory, NC)
Traveling South on Hwy 127 (from all points north of 2nd Street, NE, Hickory, NC)
Traveling West on I-40 (from all points east of I-40 exit 125)
Traveling East on I-40 (from all points west of I-40 exit 123)
Traveling North on Highway 321 (from I-85)
Traveling South on Hwy 321 (from Lenoir)

Visitors with Disabilities
The front entrance parking lot (3rd Ave NE side) has two accessible parking spaces, and two ramps leading to the front door. The back entrance is accessible with additional parking spaces and ramps, but visitors with mobility disabilities will need to use the wheelchair lift to access the art museum.

With advance notice, our educators can adapt group tours to accommodate persons with disabilities. Please call us at 828-327-8576.

HICKORY MUSEUM OF ART HISTORY
Paul Austin Wayne Whitener was the founder and first director of the Hickory Museum of Art. In 1935, the Hickory native and Duke University football player, spent the summer in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. It was there he met his future wife, Mildred McKinney Whitener Coe, and his career path would make a dramatic turn. He watched Mickey paint a mountain landscape and thought he would like to try his hand at it. Paul was a natural, and it was there his passion for art was born. Paul's artistic talent advanced rapidly. He enrolled in the Ringling Museum of Art's summer school in Little Switzerland, and later studied under notable artists, Wilford Conrow, Frank Herring and Donald Blake.

Paul's desire to share his own growing appreciation of art prompted him to announce his intention to start an art museum in Hickory, North Carolina, where he had been raised. Area residents shared his vision and in 1944 Paul Whitener's dream was realized, and the Hickory Museum of Art was established. Today, it is the second oldest art museum in North Carolina. Paul served as the first director until his death in 1959. Mickey became the director after his death and served in that position until 1995.

In 1986, the Hickory Museum of Art moved into its current location in the Arts and Science Center of Catawba Valley, initially built as Claremont High School. Our exhibitions feature our Permanent Collection of American Art and works borrowed from private collectors and other institutions.

Exhibitions

What do you get when you ask over sixty Asheville-area artists to respond through their art to a Van Gogh painting? A lively art conversation in the form of an exhibit titled, Waking Up With Van Gogh, which opens this spring. Guest curator and artist Moni Hill invited her fellow artists to respond to Van Gogh’s iconic Bedroom in Arles, 1889. The result is an exhibit which allows the public a glimpse into the creative process of working artists, as well as the chance to delve into one of Van Gogh’s most revealing and intimate paintings.

Waking Up with Van Gogh showcases the diverse talent of Asheville-area artists, including a light and shadow installation; paintings ranging from minimal abstract expressionism to contemporary visionary and folk art; paper collage; encaustic; sculpture; pottery; printmaking; and film.

In the painting of Van Gogh’s bedroom, the sunlit windows hint of a bright sunrise. “Waking up” has two meanings for this exhibit. First, the literal act of waking up implies an intimate and personal time of the day. By painting his bedroom, Van Gogh, invites the public into the space where he sleeps and awakens, thereby allowing us a bit of intimacy with him. Second, “waking up” involves opening the eyes. This exhibit is intended to open the participating artists’ and audience’s eyes to aspects of Van Gogh’s life and work that they may not have previously considered.

Asheville is known for its great art and as a thriving community of artists. The artists involved in Waking Up With Van Gogh have exhibited their work in galleries and museums nationally and internationally, including New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Waking Up With Van Gogh artists responded eagerly to the invitation to participate in this exhibition. Not only did it give them a chance to contemplate one of the most innovative and influential artists in history, but it also allows them to engage with other regional artists in a meaningful and interesting way.

JEANS FOR JUSTICE
Entrance Gallery
Through May 27, 2012

This exhibition, presented by the Rape Crisis Center of Catawba County, demonstrates the rights of sexual assault victims through art and urges people to wear and decorate jeans in remembrance of a 1999 decision in Italian High Court. The court overturned a rape conviction because the victim was wearing jeans at the time of the attack. The court’s ruling included, “It is common knowledge…that jeans cannot even be partly removed without the effective help of the person wearing them…and it is impossible when the victim is struggling with all her might.”

65th Annual Paul Whitener Student Art Show
Middle / High School Division
Shuford Gallery
Through May 6, 2012

Awards Reception: Thursday, April 19, 5:30 - 7 PM

This annual event provides an opportunity for local elementary school students from Hickory and Catawba County schools to exhibit in the Museum. It is a memorial exhibition in honor of the Museum's founder and first director.

Sponsored by Hickory Rotary Club.

A Mural in the Making
With Brenda Councill
Coe Gallery
August 11 through November 25, 2012

Imagine a two-story tall blank canvas of muslin, hanging in a 2,500 square foot museum gallery, waiting for a story to emerge from the buckets of paint resting on the scaffolding...

Beginning in August 2012, the Hickory Museum of Art will proudly host internationally known artist, Brenda Mauney Councill, for several months while she paints and brings to life a large-scale mural hanging in the Coe Gallery of the Museum. Upon completion, she will donate the mural to the Museum to be auctioned as a fund-raiser.

LANDSCAPES BY PAUL WHITENER
From the Mildred Whitener Coe Bequest
Paul Whitener Gallery
Through Spring 2012
Paul Whitener Gallery

Paul Whitener, the Museum's founder and first director, would have turned 100 on September 9, 2011. This exhibition is presented in honor of his birthday and features paintings that give a glimpse of his passions and hobbies. Subject matter dear to his heart include his wife Mickey, dog Dipsy, golf, and North Carolina mountains.

AN AESTHETIC STATE OF MIND
Works by C.M. Kakassy
Gifford & Regal Galleries
Through May 20

This exhibition features collages and prints by C.M. Kakassy of Clover, SC. In her artist statement Kakassy writes:

"Generally, I have no pre-conceived ideas for a picture, preferring to work intuitively, allowing aesthetics to guide my creative hand. I use elements from photos, previous work and objects in my immediate environment to work out concepts. Process and the textural and tonal qualities of material play a large part in the development of the work. Often, the combination of media will guide the evolution of an idea or inspire a totally new direction. The surprises that occur when considering visual relationships are engaging and exciting."

DISCOVER FOLK ART: Unique Visions by Southern Self-Taught Artists from the Hickory Museum of Art Collection
Reopens Saturday, September 17, 1 - 4 PM
Then Ongoing

We are currently expanding our Southern Contemporary Folk Art Collection and Exhibition space. A new, hands-on exhibition is being developed and installed in the Museum's 3rd floor Mezzanine Gallery.

The New Exhibition will Feature:
• Re-creations of Artists’ Working Environments (including a School Bus & Barn)
• Interactive Touch Screens
• 139 Folk Art Objects
• Sounds & Smells
• Family Activity Stations
• and More!

AMERICAN ART POTTERY: From the Museum's Moody Collection
Objects Gallery
Ongoing

Selections of the American art pottery collection gifted to the Museum by the Frances Johnson Moody Estate. Several studios are represented including Rookwood, Catalina, Van Briggle, Weller, Tiffany and Roseville.

BORN OF FIRE: Glass from the Museum's Luski Collection
Objects Gallery
Ongoing

An exhibition of glass works given to the Museum by Sonia and Isaac Luski, and Rose and Abraham Luski. Several styles of glass blowing are demonstrated and the show includes artists from the prestigious Penland School of Crafts nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

SOUTHERN CONTEMPORARY FOLK ART
OPEN STORAGE
Donnelly & Lail Galleries
Ongoing

The entire third floor of the Museum is reserved for Southern Contemporary Folk Art. As part of this dedication to folk art, the Donelly and Lail Galleries house works in an open storage format. These pieces are not part of a traditional exhibition, but are on view for research, study, comparison and enjoyment. Works in these galleries change regularly.

Events