Tag: Metal Museum

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Go Outside, Nerd!

Overton Park Shell (Photo: Craig Thompson)

Guess what! We went outside! I know, I know, it’s crazy to think that the shut-in Flyer writers went outside and felt the sun shine on our beautiful faces — and my, oh my, are we a beautiful bunch. It’s why we’re in print journalism — see, it’s not just because we have great assignments like “write about a summer outdoor experience,” which we did have and we did do and that’s why we went outside. And, oh yeah, we’re still outside, and we will be, even after the streetlights come on. We’ve found that there are so many things to do out here —especially during the summer! Keep reading to see what we have on our agenda. 

Hike the Woodland Trail in Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. (Photo: Laura Jean Hocking)

Take a Hike

Put down the phone. Go outside. Touch grass. Produce some Vitamin C. Go for a long walk in the woods. “Forest bathing,” as the Japanese call it, will lower your stress levels. Plus, it can be 10 degrees F cooler under the tree canopy, compared to life inside the urban concrete heat island. Hiking is a formula for a convenient psychic reset. 

One great thing about the Memphis metro is our easy access to interesting natural spaces. There are a number of quality hiking trails in Shelby County’s environs. There’s Big River Crossing, beginning in Martyrs Park and ending across the river in Arkansas farmland. True, there’s not a lot of trees on the railroad bridge, but the Mississippi River is as big and natural as it gets. 

In the East, the Tour de Wolf Trailhead in Shelby Farms is a 5.9-mile loop that takes you through a variety of landscapes. On a sunny, late-spring day, it is usually buzzing with activity — both human and insect. If you’re going to go for a hike around here, good insect repellent is just as important as a solid pair of boots, and it’s just as important to avoid ticks as it is to keep the mosquitos away. Look for a repellent containing Deet, or a lotion with picaridin, to keep both at bay. 

If you really want to get away from it all, try the Woodland Trail in Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. The trail winds through some of the densest forests on the bluffs above the Mississippi. Expect some climbing — this trail covers more vertical distance than most tracks in the Delta, as it dips down into creek beds and washes heading for the river. Some days, you can walk for an hour without seeing another human being, and forget about the stresses of the city just a few miles away. — Chris McCoy

Unleash the dogs at the Outback at Shelby Farms Park, so they, too, can enjoy the dog days of summer. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

The Shelby Farms Outback

Sometimes your dogs need to get back to their essential dogginess — sans leashes, fences, streets, cars, and other human encumbrances. They need to be able to run through vast green fields and over rolling hills, splash through puddles, wade in a lake, and writhe madly in the grass. Such canine joy is truly a blessing to see. Fortunately for us — and our dogs — there is the Shelby Farms Outback Off-Leash Dog Park.

The Outback was named one of the Top 10 dog parks in the country in USA Today’s “10 Best Readers’ Poll.” To be more precise, it was ranked number four. Here’s what they had to say: “The Outback offers over 100 acres of open space for your pup. Along with miles of hiking and biking trails, there are a number of lakes if your dog fancies a dip. The idyllic park offers plenty of shade and seating, but only a portion of the dog park is fenced, so you’ll want to keep an eye on your dog.”

To that latter point, there are a few things to know: Your dogs should be responsive to your verbal commands. (I use a sonic whistle.) If your dogs don’t come when you call, they’re not ready for an off-leash park. Oh, and take a doggy bag to pick up any solid pet waste. 

Access to the Outback is via Gates 11, 12, and 13, on Trinity Road and Raleigh Lagrange Road on the northeastern side of the park. Give it a try. Your dogs will thank you. In fact, my hounds begin excitedly whining as soon we pull onto Sam Cooper Boulevard, leaving Midtown. They know where we’re headed and they highly approve. 

— Bruce VanWyngarden

Whet Thursdays

I’ve been described as so cheap I squeak — thanks, Mom — so when there’s an opportunity for a free art experience, I can’t resist. For the summer, the Metal Museum brings its Whet Thursday, with live entertainment, hands-on activities, and metalsmithing demonstrations on the museum’s grounds on the last Thursday of each month — for free. And to catch a break from the heat, the museum offers free admission to its exhibits for the occasion. (Thank goodness!)

Every Whet Thursday has a different theme, entertainment, hands-on activity, and food truck, so you’ll never repeat an experience — and there’s always that gorgeous view of the sunset over the Mississippi River. May 29th kicks off this year’s Whet Thursdays with Overton Park on the Bluff, where guests will be able to meet with Overton Park Partners, make wire rings and pressed flower suncatchers, and listen to Marcella Simien from 5 to 8 p.m.

Other Whet Thursdays include Ballroom on the Bluff (June 26th), which will feature ballroom dancing lessons from Cat’s Ballroom; Karaoke on the Bluff (July 31st), where guests can compete for prizes for the best karaoke performances; Beats on the Bluff (August 28th), complete with a DJ battle; and 901 on the Bluff (September 25th), which will have performances by Corey Lou & Da Village honoring Memphis’ musical roots. 

For more information, visit metalmuseum.org. — Abigail Morici

Putter up with Putt-Putt Golf & Games (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Retro Games, Plus

You know the old saw that the problem with golf is that it’s a good way to spoil a walk — meaning that the built-in fits and starts and prolonged delays of the game militate against its potential cardiovascular benefits.

The game has certain off-setting benefits, of course —some of them social, in the sense that the game is normally engaged in not by individuals playing solo but in packs, with a simultaneous focus on competition and group harmony.

The mechanics of the game, too, range all the way from the sheer power normally required off the driving tee to the controlled finesse of the putt.

Purists may sniff at the idea, but many of the delights of the game — minus the walk, which in the relentless heat and humidity of the typical Memphis summer become a real challenge — can be had from the amusement-park atmosphere of a place like the sprawling Putt-Putt Golf & Games complex on Macon Road.

It’s retro, plus.

There’s the driving range, where, on a good day, you can find a lineup of serious strivers, all whaling away buckets of balls, enjoying the sense of power that comes from belting a good one and meanwhile honing their swing.

Nearby, on the other side of an arcade building, with its generous supply of bells and whistles and electronic games, are three miniature golf courses, ranging in difficulty from easy to hard. Presided over by obstacles in the form of elephants and giraffes and suchlike, players of any age can get a sense of what it’s like to wield a putter.

And there’s more at the complex — batting ranges for both softball and hardball. Bumper cars, bumper boats, and what is advertised as Memphis’ largest game of … laser tag. (What’s that, you say? As with jazz, if you have to ask …)

And no, or very limited, walking. Whew. — Jackson Baker

Don’t let this summer skate on by. Join in the fun at Sunset Skate. (Photo: Courtesy MRPP)

Memphis River Parks 

Take me to the river. That’s where I want to be this summer, what with the lineup of events the Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) has planned. For one thing, I can get fit with weekly free Hustle & Flow fitness classes, from step to HIIT to Pilates to salsa dancing while taking in a gorgeous view at the beautiful Tom Lee Park. The kids that I don’t have (but maybe you do) can also get moving at their own Hustle & Flow classes, led by Kidonetics instructors. They’ll be exploring sports in a noncompetitive environment at River Garden Park. Sounds like a better version of P.E. (i.e., no mile run). 

Speaking of kids, monthly on Saturdays, they can join the University of Memphis’ CAESAR for SciPlay to release their inner scientist at Tom Lee Park. On June 21st, that means a lesson on streams to celebrate National Rivers Month, and on July 12th, that means a fun water conservation game to celebrate Smart Irrigation Month. 

And kids aren’t the only ones who get to be scientists, thanks to MRPP — and the Memphis Astronomical Society (MAS). Once a month, the whole family has a chance to be an astronomer and take in the magic of the night sky on top of Beale Street Landing, in a celestial exploration led by the folks of MAS. The next Stargazing event is May 31st, weather permitting. 

That’s not all: This summer also means the return of Tom Lee Park’s monthly Sunset Skate, this year with themed skate nights. Sunset Skate kicks off on May 29th at 6 to 9 p.m. with a SuperMANE theme, where skaters are asked to dress to save the day. (There will be bounce houses for a chance to fly!)

For each Sunset Skate, Cordova Skating Center provides free 30-minute skate rentals on a first come, first served basis, while Step and Skate will offer skate dance lessons from 6 to 7 p.m. Plus, the Voice of MCSC will be spinning high-energy DJ sets. 

Other themed nights to look forward to include Summer Bash (June 26th), Back 2 School (July 31st), and Yeah GLOW (August 28th). For information on these events and more, check out MRPP’s Facebook page. — AM

Overton Park Shell: Free Music Just Got Greener 

Nothing says summer like breaking out the camping chairs and picnic blankets and heading over to the Overton Park Shell for some music under the stars. Memphians are lucky to have a nearly 90-year-old bandshell to host such wonders, and even luckier to have Orion Financial’s Free Concert Series there. Moreover, local musicians benefit from the series’ commitment to fostering Memphis talent. 

Notable locals have already helped kick the whole thing off, from the Arc of Quasar’s psychedelic sounds to the many diverse groups featured in Dreamfest, now in its 14th year and dubbed the “Healing Edition” this time around. The smorgasbord of sounds will continue through June, spanning genres like classic country, New Orleans street music, indie rock, new-grass, hip-hop, pop, R&B, and soul. And some notable nationwide artists will be the New Breed Brass Band featuring Trombone Shorty on May 31st, the BoDeans on June 14th, Alejandro Escovedo on June 20th, and, wrapping the summer season up on June 28th, the Stax Music Academy.

Best of all, the experience will be greener than ever this year. As the Overton Park Shell’s Shelby Smith explains, “The Overton Park Shell is now the first Project Green Fork [PGF]-certified venue in Memphis. We will work closely with them to ensure sustainability efforts are robust during concert season as it pertains to minimizing food waste, recycling protocols, the use of biodegradable/compostable materials, and more. All food truck vendors plus our venue itself are required to meet a number of criteria that fulfill PGF’s ‘Green Steps.’” 

— Alex Greene

Get in the groove of summertime at The Grove at GPAC. (Photo: Michael Donahue)

The Grove at GPAC

The Grove at Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) is a gem. Or, as Germantown resident Jill Crocker said to me when I was there the other night, “This is the best thing that ever happened to Germantown.”

And Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo told me, “Welcome to our little slice of Midtown.”

This is the outdoor area with a stage, trees, grass, and the setting for a pleasant but not raucously crowded concert experience. I do like raucously crowded events, too, but I wouldn’t have traded this spot the other night.

I was at The Grove to see the Tennessee Screamers, which includes my nephew, Frank McLallen. It was a beautiful night. You can bring in food and drink, chairs, and blankets. We got one of the tables down front. I brought a complete blackened chicken dinner with beans, potato salad, and sweet tea, of course.

They also offered food trucks. So, for dessert, I sprung for three strawberries and cream yogurts for my table from the TCBY truck.

I asked GPAC marketing coordinator Ellen Lemm about The Grove. “We seat approximately 900 guests in The Grove per show offering table tickets — $17 including fees, up to six seats per table, limited availability — as well as general admission tickets — $9 including fees. Tickets for children under 18 are free, but they do need a ticket for entry.

“We offer a full-service bar on the First Horizon Plaza with a menu curated by our food and beverage mixologist Brad Pitts.”

They primarily host public events at The Grove from May through October. “Our spring concerts in The Grove series will typically run every Thursday from May until June, while our fall series will begin late September and go until the end of October.”

Happy Friday is another feature at The Grove, Lemm says. It’s “a free event we host in The Grove every Friday from mid-May until the end of August where we open up the bar, bring in food trucks, and host a variety of local musicians.”

And, she says, “We started a new series last October called Appetite for the Arts, which is also free to the public, where we host food trucks at lunchtime, invite local artists to display and sell their creations, and show arts-related films on the video wall on the Highland Capital stage.

“All in all, I would guesstimate that we host around 50 events outside on the lawn during Grove season.” — Michael Donahue

We can debate if the Secret Beach is a secret, but we won’t debate if it’s fun. (Photo: Toby Sells)

The Secret Beach

Okay, okay, the Secret Beach hasn’t been secret for a long time now.

There’s even a whole website to tell you how to get there. 

A trip to the Secret Beach is a super-fun Memphis summer adventure, mainly because it really does feel like an adventure.

All the info you’re gonna need to get there is at wolfriverbeach.com. But once you park your car, the adventure begins. There’s no bright neon sign pointing the way. So, at a certain point you gotta just go with it and head into the woods. Mysterious markers on trees point to … somewhere. But is it the right way? See? Adventure time.

After a few wrongs turns (and, man, was my kids’ beach bag getting heavy), we found it. Down a steep bank (with no handrail or anything!), the large, sandy beach spread out before us like an oasis at a bend of the Wolf River.

The kids immediately hit the water, wading in at first and then finding deeper pools once they got used to the gentle flow of the river. Oh, and there was a tire swing. Super. Summer. Fun. Time.

Okay, fun is over. It’s grown-up time. Should you swim in this water? A water quality test from the state this year found chlordane, PCBs, mercury, and more in the water and advised against eating fish caught there. However, I experienced no ill effects from swimming there. Also, Memphians have been dipping there for years without warnings from any government agency. Still, though, swim at your own risk. — Toby Sells  

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Art Art Feature

Rachel David’s ‘Engorging Eden’ at the Metal Museum

Rachel David, swallowed ice (table lamp), 2024. Steel Stainless, steel, brass, selenite (Photo: Daniel Barlow)

Molded from mud, the golem is brought to life with ritual incantations of the Hebrew alphabet, its purpose to protect, but even with instructions placed on its tongue, the golem inevitably goes amok, twisting those intentions and bringing disaster upon those who called for it. From this Jewish parable, Rachel David gathers, “You can only rely on your community. You can’t offset your responsibilities.”

David, an Asheville-based blacksmith, turned to this story for inspiration in conceptualizing her exhibition, “Engorging Eden,” on display at the Metal Museum. “I started thinking about different parables that could be translated to working with what I’m worried about in this country and in this world,” she said in her artist talk at the opening reception for the show on February 16th. “I think that’s a really pertinent thing to remember as we are experiencing really scary things — that we are each other’s saviors. That’s something that I want to be very explicit about in all of my work.”

David primarily works in furniture, a familiar form that in itself evokes community. “We live with furniture,” David said. “And it’s conversational. … These are forms that tell stories and hold their own narratives but also are part of our narrative.”

For David, her pieces reflect our relationship with the Earth and with one another. The furniture seems to bubble with pustules and pits, a mix of metals melting off the surfaces in slivers. Each bulbous facet David shaped using a different support system. “Really all of this is planned,” David said. “Like, it has to fit; it has to work. But part of my interest is in the distortion that you can achieve in hot forming metal.”

The distortion, David said, reminds her of natural erosion formations. In her Savage Horizon Jewelry Cabinet, she pointed out, “They also look like cobblestones, which also are like city-building blocks, and I think with these really aggressive clawing shapes and then these phallic drippings, this is climate change, and this is what extractive capitalism has done to this world. Where we are in the mountains, there was a hurricane, and everything is insane.”

Indeed, many of the pieces in this show were created in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. “This piece is very much responsive to the hurricane and all of the landslides,” she said of the jewelry cabinet. “There’s 500-plus hours in this piece.”

“When we’re talking about erosion, there are a lot of implications in that word: erosion of trust, erosion of the Earth, erosion of values, and then where does that leave us?”

That’s where David expects viewers to involve themselves — literally — through reflections and refractions of the metals and selenites brought about in their shine. Mirrors, too, offer this reminder. In Family Tree, where representational ancestors and the suns and moons fill a gallery wall with circular shapes, a central mirror piece reminds us that “we are responsible for what we put in[to the world].”

Rachel David, Fluvial Mirror, 2024. Stainless steel, steel, brass (Photo: Daniel Barlow)

Abstract tongues also roll out of these ancestral creatures, and many of David’s other pieces. “The tongue is like the idea of communication [which] has always been a big part of my work [as an activist and artist],” she said. “That’s part of my responsibility as a member of this community: to be responsible to my ancestors and to the future.”

In keeping with this responsibility, as part of her practice, David sources more than 85 percent of her metal from Asheville scrapyards. Further, she, along with Lisa Geertsen and Anne Bujold, co-founded the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths. “We foster having diversity in blacksmithing.”

David’s commitment to community is furthered in swallowed ice (table lamp), which was part of her “Pollination” series — “like a pollination of ideas when we come together and we inspire each other.” The lamp features a light bulb in the center with candles affixed to a suspending bridge-like form. “They’re reflecting each other, and they’re also holding each other … always bringing in the light.” 

The symbolism in the lamp is apparent: “I’m cynical and I’m dark, but I also feel a lot of obligations to my community to be proactive and contributive. I make work sometimes [because] I have to remind myself to get out. Get out!” 

“Engorging Eden” will be on display at the Metal Museum through May 11th. The exhibit is a part of the museum’s Tributaries series.

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Q&A with Metal Museum’s Master Metalsmith

Preston Jackson (American, b. 1944), Jolly and the Mississippi Flood, c. 2005. Cast Bronze. Courtesy of the artist.

In October 2024, the Metal Museum named Preston Jackson as its 38th Master Metalsmith. “A Hidden Culture,” the exhibition now on display in honor of Jackson’s achievement, features 16 freestanding sculptures and four paintings by the artist, who describes the show as revealing “history that has been buried, forgotten, or deemed unimportant by society.” The Flyer had a chance to speak with Jackson about the show for our “Winter Arts Guide,” published in December 2024. 

Memphis Flyer: What was your reaction to being named the Metal Museum’s Master Metalsmith?

Preston Jackson: When I got the call to get involved in this, especially being in Memphis, you know, where my ancestors are from, I jumped at that opportunity, and I took it on, even preparing new works for the show. So it was an uplift to do what you’re supposed to. 

Your work goes into history and wants to uncover hidden histories, right?

Yeah, things that people feel uncomfortable talking about. … I find that looking back and re-understanding, rethinking things that were only a hint in your past because you didn’t have the facilities to understand them or express them, it’s almost like admitting it’s good to be human.

Preston Jackson, Madame Fruitvale and Her Dog, c. 2003. Courtesy of the artist.

Did you always know that you wanted to tell stories of other people, or was this something that you developed? 

A lot of these traits that I have today were discovered, as my parents tell the story of my growing up, many years ago, right at the beginning of my little life as a young kid. Growing up in Decatur, Illinois, a product of the great migration that happened, my life is so much a part of that history. My exhibit gave me a chance to express my feelings about that.

And when you’re looking at these stories, are you doing a lot of research? 

Yeah, you don’t want to be wild in your thinking because of how important it is to tell the truth. Just look at our politics today. Truth is sought after, and it’s valuable. If we live a lie or believe in lies, we’re going to sort of destroy the entire civilization.  

Metal Museum, 374 Metal Museum Drive, “A Hidden Culture,” On display through January 26. 

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Art Cover Feature News

Fall Arts Guide 2024

Robert Petkoff as Harold Zidler and the cast of the North American tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Photo: Matthew Murphy | MurphyMade)

As the temperatures are cooling down, the Memphis arts scene is heating up — with exhibitions, performances, and unique experiences. See for yourself in our Fall Arts Guide.

ON DISPLAY

“ABZ2: Artists’ Books, Prints, and Zines”
Corkey Sinks’ collection spotlights contemporary approaches to print media.
Beverly + Sam Ross Gallery, through Oct. 4

“Dear Grandmother”
Heather Howle explores themes of nostalgia and familial connection.
ANF Architects, through Oct. 17 

“Troubling the Line: New Dimensions in Drawing”
The works of Melissa Dunn, Terri Jones, Paula Kovarik, Mary Reid Kelley, and Patrick Kelley complicate the idea of drawing.
Clough-Hanson Gallery, through Nov. 9

“All Rise: Memphis Bar Association at 150”
Through arresting objects and powerful images, the exhibition showcases the Memphis Bar Association’s historical significance and continuing relevance.
Museum of Science & History, through Nov. 10

“Bracelets, Bangles, & Cuffs”
This collection of contemporary bracelets reveals the wide-ranging creativity of artists working in the jewelry form between 1948 and today. 
Metal Museum, through Nov. 17

“The 6 Points Artists”
This exhibition features Sharon Havelka, Mary Jo Karimnia, Paula Kovarik, Carrol McTyre, Jennifer Sargent, and Mary K VanGieson.
Bornblum Library, Southwest Tennessee Community College, through Nov. 27

“Beyond the Surface: The Art of Handmade Paper”
Handmade paper creations explore the shape-shifting quality of paper. 
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, through Dec. 15

“Andrea Morales: Roll Down Like Water”
Andrea Morales’ first solo museum show features 65 photographs spanning her decade of photojournalism in Memphis and the Mid-South. 
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, through January

“A Hidden Culture”
Master Metalsmith Preston Jackson who gives voice to those overlooked in the history books. 
Metal Museum, through Jan. 26

Lester Merriweather, “ANA•LOG” (Photo: Courtesy Crosstown Arts)

“ANA•LOG”
Lester Merriweather examines the concept of agency over Black visualization within American popular culture.
Crosstown Arts, fall

Alex Paulus, “Size Matters” (Photo: Crosstown Arts)

“Size Matters”
Alex Paulus’ current series focuses on the juxtaposition of small figures within expansive landscapes.
Crosstown Arts, fall

“Still”
Michelle Fair’s latest works delve into the process of painting.
Crosstown Arts, fall

“Chromatic”
This exhibit merges explores the two worlds of sounds and color in a synergistic full-bodied experience.
Arrow Creative, October 3, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

“Two Rivers”
Huger Foote captures the moments when day slowly turns to night from Memphis and the Mississippi Delta to the Hudson River Valley.
David Lusk Gallery, Oct. 8-Nov. 16

“I Saw the Light in Your Eyes”
Ceramic sculptors Renata Cassiano Alvarez and Anthony Sonnenberg work through complex ideas of identity through abstraction.
Sheet Cake Gallery, Oct. 12-Nov. 23

“Our Love Is a Shady Garden”
Yanira Vissepó studies the ecosystems between her birthplace in Puerto Rico and adopted home in Tennessee.
Sheet Cake Gallery, Oct. 12-Nov. 23

MadameFraankie
Works by MadameFraankie.
Beverly + Sam Ross Gallery, October 21-December 8

“2024 Accessions to the Permanent Collection”
This exhibition celebrations the more than 170 pieces added to the Metal Museum’s permanent collection.
Metal Museum, November 27-November 2, 2025

ON STAGE

Concerts in the Grove
GPAC presents some of the best musicians in the area in a park-like setting. 
The Grove at Germantown Performing Arts Center, select Thursdays, 6:30 p.m.

Sounds of Memphis
Each week, a new Memphis powerhouse presents a unique concert — from the Handorf Company Arts of Opera Memphis to YOBREEZYE.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Thursdays, 6 p.m.

The 8th Annual Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series: The Comedy of Errors
This 90-minute, madcap romp is performed outdoors throughout Memphis.
Various locations and dates, through Oct. 20

De Aquí y de Allá
Accompany the courageous Don Quixote of La Mancha and his trusty sidekick, Sancho Panza, on an adventure full of fun, music, dance, culture and more. 
Orpheum Theatre, October 4-5

Paradise Blue
This dynamic and musically infused drama shines light on the challenges of building a better future on the foundation of what our predecessors have left us.
Hattiloo Theatre, through October 6

Girl from the North Country
The Tony Award-winning musical reimagines Bob Dylan’s songs into a story about a group of wayward travelers.
Orpheum Theatre, Oct.8-13

The Mousetrap
Theatre Memphis presents this murder mystery. 
Theatre Memphis, Oct. 11-27

Lizzie: The Lizzie Borden Musical
New Moon Theatre’s Lizzie is American mythology set to a blistering rock score.
TheatreWorks@The Square, October 18-November 3

The Smell of the Kill
This tantalizing dark comedy has malicious housewives and miserable husbands.
Germantown Community Theatre, Oct. 18-Nov. 3

Amadeus: The Music and the Myth
Opera Memphis explores Mozart through the lens of music from the award-winning movie Amadeus. 
Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Michael Feinstein featuring the Carnegie Hall Ensemble
Michael Feinstein pays a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Tony Bennett.
Germantown Performing Arts Center, Oct. 19, 8 p.m.

Dracula
Ballet Memphis’ original production builds from Bram Stoker’s novel.  
Orpheum Theatre, Oct. 25-27

Firebird (Photo: Courtesy Collage Dance Collective)  

Firebird
Kevin Thomas boldly reimagines The Firebird.
Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, Oct. 25-27

(Pilobolus re:Creation Photo: Courtesy Grant Halverson)

Pilobolus re:Creation
Imagination knows no limits with this experimental dance company.
Germantown Performing Arts Center, Oct. 26, 8 p.m.

Variations on a Theme: The Tell-Tale Heart & Other Tales to Terrify 
Opera Memphis, in collaboration with Iris Collective, presents these evenings of music and one-act operas.
Opera Memphis Headquarters, Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m. | Oct. 27, 3 p.m.

Rumpelstiltskin
A young girl is locked away until she spins straw into gold.
Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center, Oct. 26, 2 p.m.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical 
Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life. 
Orpheum Theatre, Oct. 29-Nov.3

The Three Bs: Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven
Memphis Symphony Orchestra presents.
Crosstown Theater, Nov. 1, 6:30 p.m. | Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, Nov. 3, 2:30 p.m.

Iris Collective Orchestra: Transformations
Memphis-native Randall Goosby and conductor and Iris founder Michael Stern will be joined by the Germantown Youth Symphony.
Germantown Performing Arts Center, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.

Taikoproject
Taikoproject traces the history and lore of the ancient Japanese drums. 
Buckman Performing Arts Center, Nov. 7, 7 p.m.

The Orchestra Unplugged: Leonard Bernstein
Music director Robert Moody of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra guides audiences through the life and legacy of the American Maestro. 
Halloran Centre, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.

Junie B. Jones: Toothless Wonder
This family-friendly show takes audiences on a humorous journey of growing up with Junie B. Jones.
The Circuit Playhouse, Nov. 8-Dec. 22

Parallel Lives
Two actresses play men and women struggling through the common rituals of modernity.
Theatre Memphis, Nov. 8-23

The Wizard of Oz
Dorothy isn’t in Kansas anymore.
Playhouse on the Square, Nov. 15-Dec. 22

The Rake’s Progress
Opera Memphis presents Igor Stravinsky’s neoclassical opera.
Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m. | Nov. 24, 3 p.m.

NutRemix
New Ballet Ensemble sets The Nutcracker on Memphis’ iconic Beale Street. 
Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, Nov. 23-24

Peter Pan
This high-flying musical comes to Memphis.
Orpheum Theatre, Nov. 26-Dec. 1

Who’s Holiday
Cindy Lou Who returns in this riotously funny and heartwarming adults-only comedy.
Circuit Playhouse, Nov. 22-Dec. 22

A Motown Christmas
Celebrate the holiday season with this musical of all your favorite Motown tunes.
Hattiloo Theatre, Nov. 22-Dec. 22 

Twelfth Night
Shakespeare’s most charming comedy finds itself on the Tabor Stage.
Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Dec. 6-22

A Christmas Carol ’24
Theatre Memphis presents this holiday classic.
Theatre Memphis, December 6-23

Bright Star
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s bluegrass musical tells a story of love and redemption in 1920s and ’40s North Carolina.
Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center, Dec. 6-8

Tía Pancha
Tía Pancha is Cazateatro’s bilingual adaptation of the classic A Christmas Carol but with a Latin and female twist.
TheatreWorks@The Evergreen, Dec. 6-14

A Charlie Brown Christmas: Live on Stage
The whole family can enjoy this adaptation of Charles M. Schulz’s timeless story.
Orpheum Theatre, Dec. 7, 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m.

The Nutcracker
Ballet Memphis’ production of this holiday classic returns.
Orpheum Theatre, Dec. 13-15

AROUND TOWN

Art Club
The Brooks’ Art Club with Mallory Sharp gives participants an in-depth look at a different work of art each month.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, monthly

Appetite for the Arts
Enjoy a picnic and/or food truck fare while feasting your eyes on music and dance films. 
The Grove at Germantown Performing Arts Center, Wednesdays in October, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Super Saturdays
Enjoy free drop-in art making workshops for families and free admission to the Brooks.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon

Free Family Day
On the second Saturday of the month, the Stax has live music, outdoors, food trucks, games and activities, arts and crafts for children, and free admission to the entire museum.
Stax Museum of American Soul Music, second Saturdays of the month, 1-5 p.m.

Artoberfest
Off the Walls Arts showcases Memphis artists and musicians for a day of music, vendors, a costume contest, activities, and fun.
Off the Walls Arts, Oct. 5, 2-10 p.m.

V&E Greenline Artwalk 2024
Meet and shop from local artists, and enjoy music, entertainment, children’s activities, and artist demonstrations. 
V&E Greenline, Oct. 7, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Paint Memphis
A hundred or so artists will be painting murals all day long and it’s a spectacle to behold.
Willet and Lamar, October 12, noon-7 p.m.

Come as Thou Art
Guests will don their most imaginative attire, either inspired by the night’s theme — the world of Tim Burton — or the spirit of a designer. The evening will be capped off with a fashion show by Sonin Lee.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Oct. 18, 8 p.m.

Art on Fire
Enjoy tastings from local restaurants, live music, thrilling fire dancers, and a vibrant art sale — all set around a roaring bonfire.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Oct. 19, 7-11 p.m.

Dracula Party
Celebrate Ballet Memphis’ reprise of Dracula and help raise critical funds to support its mission with a Halloween party where you can party like a vampire.
Mollie Fontaine Lounge, October 19, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Repair Days
Bring your metal items to have them restored their former glory at the Metal Museum’s largest fundraiser, which also includes the Dinner + Auction and Family Fun Day, where visitors can participate in hands-on activities, explore the galleries, and watch metalsmith demonstrations.
Metal Museum, Oct. 17-20

RiverArtsFest
The region’s largest and longest running fine arts festival showcasing works from 200+ participating local and national artists returns with an artist market, artists-at-work demonstration station, hands-on artist station, performances, and plenty of food and beverages.
Riverside Drive, Oct. 20, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

28th Annual Quilt & Fiber Arts Show and Sale
View around 100 antique, vintage, and modern quilts, plus meet with vendors and demonstrators and see a new special exhibit. 
Davies Manor Historic Site, November 1-3, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Orpheum Soiree
Enjoy an evening including glittering entertainment, live auction, specialty cocktails, exciting eats, and fun surprises.
Orpheum Theatre, November 15, 7 p.m.

…

ARTSassist

In August, ARTSmemphis announced the inaugural distribution of ARTSassist grants to 22 individual artists, providing these artists in dance and visual arts an unrestricted $5,000. This makes it the only unrestricted grant program supporting individual artists in Shelby County.

The program comes as an expansion of a pre-pandemic grant program for visual artists, known as ArtsAccelerator. As ARTSmemphis CEO and president Elizabeth Rouse says, “About 10 years ago, thanks to some local artists in the community who asked questions of us, we began a grant program to support visual artists. … We started with visual artists because at the time, they had fewer other networks of support and fewer other opportunities to be hired. 

(top) Dorian Rhea; (below) Therrious Davis (Photos: Courtesy ARTSmemphis)

“But that really, thankfully, put us in a position to launch an artist emergency fund for individual artists in 2020 as artists of all different types immediately lost work during the pandemic. And we supported about 800 artists during the pandemic with emergency funding totaling almost a million, right around $900,000. From 2020 through 2023, we focused on emergency and recovery funding, so coming out of 2023 we wanted to reintroduce an unrestricted grant for artists and expand it rather extensively.”

That meant bringing on an artist advisory committee made up of Memphis artists to make sure artists’ needs were met, and out-of-town jurors to select the grantees without local bias. That also meant, in addition to supporting the 22 selected grantees, partnering with Indie Memphis to support a filmmaker through Indie Memphis’ Black Creators Forum and partnering with Music Export Memphis (MEM) to support three musicians through its Ambassador Access program. “It was a way for us to be efficient and not create something new, but to support and complement,” Rouse says. “We hope, long-term, to be supporting even more types of artists. But it makes sense, just based on the makeup of artists in our community, that we start out with visual, dance, music, and film.”

This first cohort will use their grants for a variety of reasons, Rouse says. Therrious Davis, an illustrator, comic book artist, and occasional muralist, has used his grant money to buy a new computer and tablet. “I had this laptop for close to 10 years now,” Davis says. “It was starting to show signs of its age.”

Davis has been developing a comic project called Exodus of Love, premised on the question, ‘What if Cupid didn’t know what love was?’ But not having reliable or capable equipment has been holding him back from making headway. “The goal will be to make more videos following the development of the comic book project and to give people a chance to follow it from the ground up.” (You can follow Davis’ progress on Instagram @therrothekid.)

Meanwhile, choreographer Dorian Rhea plans to use his grant to fund future movement-based programming at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library. “It’s going to be jazz. It’s going to be social dance, known as hip-hop styles, accompanied by excerpts and texts to contextualize the history,” Rhea says. The classes will be for young kids and their parents, an experience that Rhea, as a new dad himself, hopes will “sow the seeds for much more later down the road.” 

Rhea will also use his grant to attain a technique certification in Giordano dance, a style of jazz that originated in Chicago. “I’m hoping that with bringing that style to Memphis, we elevate the cultural exchange that I think is already taking place [between Chicago and Memphis],” he says. “Knowledge is power. Art is all about telling a story and communicating the narrative, sharing an experience, and so as someone who believes in art activism — using arts as a vehicle for creating change and sparking the catalyst for evolution, growth, progress — the more grounded my work is in the history of those who’ve come before, the richer I can articulate lessons.”

No matter their personal goal, Rouse says, “We know how important it is to have a strong community of artists and to be a city that is a city of choice for artists. They’re just so critical to our culture and our economy, so … we intend for this to be an annual grant.”

On Monday, in alignment with this goal, ARTSmemphis, in partnership with Music Export Memphis, also announced a new, first-ever Artist Emergency Fund for local artists, which will support artists in times of unexpected and catastrophic emergency. For more information on both of these grants, visit artsmemphis.org.

…

Andrea Morales: “Roll Down Like Water”

Andrea Morales has been making photographs since she was a child, and yes, “making photographs” is the right phrase here. Not taking photographs, capturing, or shooting. For Morales, these words are too aggressive to describe a process that is about building trust and intimacy between the photographer and the photographed individuals, or, as Morales calls them, her collaborators. 

She’s been working in Memphis as a photojournalist for a decade now, making photographs of the community. You probably recognize her name from her work as the visuals director at MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, but she’s also been featured in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and TIME Magazine, among many others. Now, to add to her impressive resume, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art has opened an exhibit of 65 of her photographs of Memphis and the surrounding region, titled “Roll Down Like Water.” 

Andrea Morales, Southern Heritage, 2017 (Photo: Courtesy Andrea Morales)

Taking its name from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech in Memphis, in which he said, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,” the exhibit, says its curator Rosamund Garrett, is “a portrait of America through Memphis.”

“There are some tremendously famous photographers from this area,” Garrett says, “but I really feel that Andrea looks at things through a very fresh lens, and she looks at this region very directly, very earnestly, in a way that still allows the magic of this place to come through.”

But in this exhibit, not appearing in a publication with someone else’s byline, a headline she didn’t choose, or quotes she didn’t pull, the photos can stand alone. “It does feel like something’s being restored, I guess,” Morales says. “I’m struggling with identifying exactly what, but it feels like something’s restored. It’s like back to that feeling of the moment [of making the photo] because you have that moment and then you kind of have to tuck it away because this photo has to exist in this one context [of an article]. But this is all existing in the context of me and Memphis right now.” 

“Roll Down Like Water,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, on display through January 2025.

…

We All We Got

Binghampton is putting on a play. The actors are young and old, some seasoned and many freshly-minted to the spotlight. Kids at Carpenter Art Garden are building scenic elements, and community members are tuning their instruments for a show their stories helped create.

It all started over a year ago when the Orpheum Theatre Group launched its Neighborhood Play Program. After working with the Refugee Empowerment Program in Binghampton, making original plays out of participants’ stories, Orpheum staff “realized one of their favorite moments in it was when they got to step out of their story and play the characters that were in other people’s stories,” says Taylor St. John, Orpheum’s director of education and engagement. “There’s something powerful about telling your own story, but there’s also something powerful about participating as a community in a fictional story.”

Ann Perry Wallace (Photo: Courtesy Orpheum Theatre)

So came the Neighborhood Play Program, through which the Orpheum partnered with various organizations and formed “story circles” to create a neighborhood play. “For six months or so, we got people in a circle and asked them questions about their community, things that they found beautiful, things that they found challenging,” St. John says.

These stories, in turn, would be the inspiration for the fictional story that playwright Ann Perry Wallace, author of the one-woman play Live Rich Die Poor, would weave. They then presented this fictional story in another round of story circles for feedback. 

“I felt like I had a lot of responsibility to deliver something that was representative of what I had heard,” Wallace says. “You are responsible for these stories that have been told, you are responsible for putting out this image of the people, and so that is a weight that I carry with honor and take seriously. There’s nuance. And so I’m having to hold all of that in a way that gives dignity where dignity is due and have to show the complex struggles where they are present. It is a dynamic place, and I hope for people to see the intricacies, or just a snapshot of those intricacies come out.”

As for the plot of the play, titled We All We Got, St. John says, “The story itself centers on two young Black girls living in the neighborhood, one from a generational home and one living in the apartments who’s a refugee, and how they navigate the world and encounter all of the various characters of Binghampton.”

The hope, both St. John and Wallace point out, is to highlight the different experiences within Binghampton. “It’s one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Memphis,” St. John says. “There’s over 20 languages spoken there, and so we really tried to honor the stories that do not otherwise get highlighted.”

With all those differences, St. John adds, “It’s been exciting, in the last couple weeks, to see all those people from all those different groups that do different things and have very different beliefs and sometimes cultures now all be in the same room, and we’re all working on this thing together, and it just feels like a great exercise in community.

“We think it’s so important that the people in Binghampton can hopefully see themselves in this play, or see reflections of their ideas and other stories in this play. But it’s also really important that as a city, we’re able to come together [by seeing the play].”

The play is set to premiere in November, with community members acting both in the scenes and behind the scenes. Already, just watching rehearsals has Wallace “thrilled.” “You are seeing people who have pride in the neighborhood come out to be a part of it and really stretch themselves in creative and artistic ways,” she says. “Not all of them are normally doing this in their day-to-day life, and then we do have some actors who are in it, but particularly the community members, them showing up and performing best, to me, that’s pride, and that’s dedication, and that’s belief in their community.”

All three performances, which will take place at First Baptist Broad Church in Binghampton, will be free to attend, and Backbeat Tours will provide free transportation at designated locations. 

We All We Got: A Binghampton Play, First Baptist Broad Church, Friday, November 1, 7 p.m. | Saturday, November 2, 1 p.m. | Sunday, November 3, 2 p.m.

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Art Art Feature News News Blog

Metal Museum to Start Construction in Overton Park

At Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Metal Museum’s transition to its new home at the former Memphis College of Art building, Carissa Hussong showed off her decked-out hardhat, complete with diamonds and black flames sprawling across the cap. “Yes, the diamonds are real,” she said. “’Cause who doesn’t need a hardhat with their name and diamonds on it?”

The hardhat, she revealed, was gifted to her on her first day on the job 17 years ago by James Wallace, the museum’s founding director who preceded her. It was always destined that the museum would expand in some way, though it wasn’t always known that it would take over the Memphis College of Art’s campus. That suggestion wouldn’t come until 2018, and even then it was met with some hesitation, until eventually that hesitation subsided as the move became more and more logical. 

“The museum has been called a hidden gem. This has a lot to do with our current location,” said Richard Aycock, the museum’s board president, at the ceremony. “Our programs have changed lives, and I can’t tell you how excited we are about the possibilities this expansion gives us to expand our educational opportunities. It will increase our educational offerings sixfold in a place that’s easily accessible by foot, by bike, by car, or by public transportation. The expansion gives us room and space to teach advanced metalworking techniques to more students.

“In addition to addressing the needs of our community, we are very excited and honored to become a part of the Overton Park family and to continue the Memphis College of Art’s legacy of art and education.”

Part of honoring the college’s legacy also means honoring its original architecture and architects Roy Harrover and Bill Mann, so the museum engaged the help of Los Angeles-based wHY Architects and Memphis-based LRK. 

“This project is a true example of how you can work with the existing fabric to highlight its unique features, and then thoughtfully add on to it to serve future generations,” said Krissy Buck Flickinger, senior associate architect with LRK. 

Quoting from the original National Register nomination for Overton Park, she continued, “‘The building is an outstanding example of contemporary architectural design, distinguished by its freestanding concrete sunbreak, folded plate roof structure and generous roof terraces, and balconies, all of which will be preserved and will live on.’

“The historic materials will be used, restored, and retained. I already talked about the folded plate roof. We have terrazzo floors. We have steel windows that are all original and in beautiful condition. We’re restoring the 350-seat auditorium. We’re reimagining the library and the cafe space. … And we’re letting the once art studio spaces live on as art gallery spaces. … And the second vital piece to this project is the addition of the innovative metalworking facility with its own expressive design that draws inspiration from and complements Rust Hall.”

The designs are complete, and construction is ready to begin, with a projected completion date of 2026. 

The museum’s current site at 374 Metal Museum Drive will eventually be converted into a space to host an artist-in-residence program, as well as an events space. 

As Aycock reminded guests at Thursday’s event, “The Metal Museum is the only institute in the United States dedicated to the art and craft of fine metalwork. There is nowhere else in the world where you can go and look at a beautiful exhibition of exquisite metalwork, then go to the shop and watch that metalwork being made, and even take a class and make some with your own hands. It is a special place. It is a place that metalsmiths from all over the world come and that many here in this country call home.”

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We Recommend We Recommend

Metal Museum’s “Radical Jewelry Makeover”

The Metal Museum’s latest exhibit turns recycling into art. (Photo: RJM Press)

Reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s a mantra we’ve all heard so many times that it’s been reduced to a bit of white noise amid loudening concerns about the environment, climate disasters, supply chains, ethical consumption, the list goes on. Still, the three Rs are a good practice to keep, most would agree, but it’s hardly enough to feel special or creative. But the practice of repurposing has gotten a bit of a new shine thanks to a project that’s been around for the past 15 or so years that reuses and recycles donated jewelry into something beautiful. And now, that project is coming to Memphis’ Metal Museum in the form of an exhibition: “Radical Jewelry Makeover: The Artist Project.”

“Ethical Metalsmiths is a group of artists and they started this project called Radical Jewelry Makeover,” explains Laura Hutchison Bhatti, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum. “Their focus is sustainability in the jewelry industry. So it’s a lot about putting focus on things like over-mining and all the discarded stuff that people just get rid of, and they take these crazy pieces, they send artists bags and bags of this discarded jewelry that’s really set to go to, like, Goodwill or just sits in jewelry boxes, but instead, the artists make these beautiful pieces out of them.”

For the exhibition, the Metal Museum will have over 70 works on display by over 25 artists, all invoking their own styles. Some use costume jewelry; others use precious heirlooms. “There’s a lot of play with the unexpected and with elevating low-quality jewelry pieces to a high-end market,” says Alicia George, special projects advisor, who curated this exhibit. “And then also melting down heirloom jewelry pieces and repurposing them into more artful modern jewelry, so there’s a constant flux between expectation and what you actually see.”

“They all tell a story,” adds Bhatti. “And with metalwork, there’s always an element of metal being repurposed or melted down or refabricated into something new, but the story of these pieces is much more tangible because you can see the remnants of what it used to be.”

The exhibition space itself is set up to look like a jewelry box, George says, with red and purple velvet panels and velvet-lined display cases. To boost the museum’s own sustainability efforts, the velvet is mostly recycled. Plus, the drapes that also decorate the space are on loan from Opera Memphis, and all the label information for the pieces is printed on recycled paper. “We’re trying to be a part of the movement and maintain the idea behind the Radical Jewelry Makeover,” George says.

The exhibition is on display through April 14th. Radical Jewelry Makeover co-directors, Susie Ganch and Kathleen Kennedy, will join the Metal Museum for the opening reception and artist talk on February 11th. RSVP to attend at metalmuseum.org.

To coincide with the exhibition’s run, the Metal Museum will also offer two classes (February 10th and March 16th) for those who want to create a one-of-a-kind piece of their own. Students will be able to bring their old jewelry or use provided pieces, and then will learn how to take apart old jewelry and repurpose it into new jewelry using rivets, glue, and wire. Register for a class at metalmuseum.org.

“Radical Jewelry Makeover: The Artist Project” Reception & Artist Talk, Metal Museum, 373 Metal Museum Drive, Sunday, February 11, 3-5 p.m.

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Music Music Blog

Rock-n-Romp Rides Again

Above Jupiter (Credit: Graham Burks)

For a good decade or more, this city offered a brilliant solution to music-loving parents who couldn’t take their young kids to see great indie bands in the bars that featured them: Memphis Rock-n-Romp. Founded by Stacey Greenberg in 2005, the loose-knit organization was active for 10 years, staging afternoon shows by local bands in backyards and other kid-friendly spaces. And, because the music wasn’t typical children’s fare, younger parents too overworked to frequent the club scene flocked to the events, kids in tow. I know I did.

All the sense of discovery that one finds in the club experience was still present in the Rock-n-Romp shows, and there was even good beer to be had (for the adults). I’ll long remember seeing The Barbaras in all their glory at one such event on the grounds of the Metal Museum. There I was, a dedicated parent, discovering a new band! With their multi-voiced harmonies and pop hooks and hint of madness, The Barbaras were a revelation in more ways than one, and the kids liked it too.

Now, after a long hiatus with only occasional revival shows over the years, Memphis Rock-n-Romp is back in full swing. And with it comes another revival, the beloved Live from Memphis platform, which helped pioneer live-streamed music concerts in the early 2000s, including some of the Rock-n-Romps, before going into hibernation itself for some time.

This Saturday, October 28th, Live from Memphis presents a special Halloween Rock-n-Romp from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Ravine, which many Memphis Flyer readers know from our recent Best of Memphis party. Entry is $5 per adult, but children are admitted free of charge. Adults must have a child with them to attend. (Click here for details).

Bands include KittyPool, Above Jupiter, and Tamar Love (from Mama Honey). While Love is the wisest, oldest, and biggest name on the bill, some of the other players were avidly taking in the music of the original wave of Rock-n-Romps, even playing together as kids at the Rock-n-Romp summer camp more than a decade ago. Their interest thus piqued, they’re still cooking up sounds of their own today.

One often saw the Davis family at the original events; now Josie Davis will be performing in KittyPool. And she’s not alone. As Live From Memphis co-founder Christopher Reyes notes in a statement, “When Mati was a baby, we took her to one of those classic Rock-n-Romps at Mud Island, but she doesn’t remember. She and her sister are now at the perfect age to really appreciate it, so for me, it made a lot of sense to bring it back. Once we started planning, we were all like, ‘Hell yeah,’ and everyone we told about it pretty much had the same response.”

Board member Graham Burks has long been deeply involved in the organization, including as a player, and now it’s time for his son, Graham Burks III, to take the stage in Above Jupiter. Memphis Flyer readers may recall our review of Graham-the-Younger’s band The Becomers two years ago. Above Jupiter began around that same time, and all of the band members attend Stax Music Academy together.

As Graham-the-Elder explains, “An early version of Above Jupiter opened up for the Becomers at the Time Warp Drive. Graham (III) and keyboardist Desmond Coppin have been playing together since they were three, and played a Rock-n-Romp 10 years ago at age four. Bassist Noah Hand and Graham met in elementary school and started plotting this band as an extension of Noah’s visual art. They call the music ‘art pop’ and Noah designs their shirts and art. Noah recently had an animated short in the Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest. He is currently animating their first music video for their first single ‘Details,’ which combines his animation with live footage shot by my brother Justin Burks and edited by Noah.”

And, as Burks notes, Above Jupiter will clearly be in the Halloween spirit this Saturday. “They’ll be in costume as Gorillaz,” he says, “and they’ll be performing live on WREG Live at 9 a.m. on Friday morning.”

The Art Project will also lead Halloween arts and crafts activities for the kids at Saturday’s event, and there will be a Halloween costume contest with prizes awarded.

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We Recommend We Recommend

“To See With New Eyes”

Untitled, c. 2014. Salvaged iron from Ellis Auditorium.

In 1989, Richard Carr took his first metalsmithing class at the Metal Museum. He’d always been interested in working with metals, he says, ever since he was a kid visiting his grandfather’s metal fabrication shop. At the time, though, he was working as a pipefitter and welder, traveling around the country building processing and fossil fuel plants, and he had come to Memphis to work on a project for the Navy.

“The Metal Museum was the first place I came across that actually provided a place where I could learn blacksmithing,” Carr says. Blacksmithing, he found, allowed him to be creative with the same materials he used during work hours. Soon, he was taking class after class, making pieces “only a mother could love,” he says. After a while, he began volunteering at the museum, his first project being to fabricate steel for the back of the Smithy, now the Metal Museum’s Repair Lab.

“By volunteering, I learned the trade, and then I was able to get into the public utility company as an industrial blacksmith,” Carr says. Still, he kept up his creative endeavors, looking to natural motifs and art nouveau and art deco architecture for inspiration. He forged organic shapes, a relief from the linear industrial monotony of his job. And his pieces got better and better — to the point where he could comfortably call them art, not something “only a mother could love.”

Carr also began to incorporate materials salvaged from sites throughout Memphis, such as steel from the old Ellis Auditorium, iron from Baptist Memorial Hospital, a bolt from the railroad that once ran the Green Line, and parts from the Zippin Pippin. “It sort of gives a piece a soul,” Carr says of the salvaged material’s history that brings the old in conversation with the new.

This summer, Carr is celebrating his first solo show at the Metal Museum, and he’s titled it “To See With New Eyes,” a nod to his love of repurposing materials. “The Japanese have a word for it,” he says. “Mitate. It means to repurpose or to see with new eyes.”

For the first time, Carr is also able to see the works spanning his career, side by side, most of them on loan from the pieces’ current owners. “There’s a lot of pieces that have gotten lost because they were sold,” he says. “I’d never kept track of them.” Over the years, Carr has gifted his art to the Metal Museum, MIFA, Hope House, The Child Advocacy Center, Playhouse on the Square, and Memphis Heritage, among others.

“It’s my way of giving back,” he says. “I’ve got a job that pays the bills. There’s a lot of people out there that are struggling to get customers. And when you’re working for a customer, you’re worried about what their likes are — I’ve never taken direction. I like to make what I want to make, and I guess that’s the fun part about what I do.”

“To See With New Eyes,” Metal Museum, On display through September 24.

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Cover Feature News

2023 Summer Arts Guide

Photo: “Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt” by Tangela Mathis at Crosstown Arts

If you’re looking for a retreat from the heat this summer, the Memphis art scene has you covered — with cool exhibitions, cool performances, and very cool experiences. Just take a look through our 2023 Summer Arts Guide, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.

Art For All will celebrate its inaugural Art for All Festival this weekend. (Photo: Courtesy We Are Memphis)

Art For All Festival

From Downtown to Whitehaven to Collierville and back, Shelby County’s government wants to make the arts inclusive and accessible to everyone countywide. Earlier this year, the Arts and Culture Nonprofit Subcommittee announced its “Art For All” campaign, a series of free arts and culture experiences. This Sunday, June 25th, marks its flagship Art For All Festival.

The festival will highlight a sample of what Memphis arts and culture organizations have to offer, with a variety of performances, installations, experiences, and more. Attendees can expect an interactive pop-up art gallery from TONE, demonstrations by the Mini Mobile Metal Museum, dance movement therapy from Image Builders Memphis, activities with Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, art activations from Orpheum Theatre and Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and performances by Opera Memphis and Hattiloo Theatre. The Museum of Science & History, the festival venue, will also offer activities linking art and science.

“Art For All [stems from] the fact that we have a multitude of organizations within Memphis and Shelby County with a variety of wonderful offerings that we want to bring awareness to and uplift,” says Nykesha Cole, Shelby County’s arts and culture liaison. “And we want everybody to have the opportunity to have access to arts and culture ’cause, truly, when you look at it, that is one of the most vibrant things in society.”

Museum of Science & History, Sunday, June 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free

Collage Dance Collective (Photo: Courtesy Collage Dance Collective)

Memphis Dance Festival

This September, Collage Dance Collective will host its third Memphis Dance Festival, and already, the organization has confirmed top-notch talent for the day — Memphis’ own Lil Buck, dancers from New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (NYC), Alonzo King LINES Ballet (San Francisco), SOLE Defined tap company (DC), Nashville Ballet, of course Collage Dance Collective, and many more local dance organizations.

“We are really trying to curate something very special so that our community can experience these world-class national artists in their own backyard,” says Marcellus Harper, Collage’s executive director. “That’s meant to really get the community excited about dance and to elevate dance as a powerful transformative art in our community and our city.

“One of the taglines [of the festival] is, ‘Dance is for everyone,’” Harper continues. “So we’re hoping that really resonates throughout the festival, but also this focus on physical well-being, emotional well-being, how we prioritize those things. Whether it’s a physical wellness program or an emotional wellness program, movement is always a big part of that practice, so dance can really be great for the soul and the spirit, too.”

Collage Dance Center, September 16, free

Andrew Thornton’s Many Faces metalwork (Photo: Courtesy Andrew Thornton)

“We Are Here”

This month, the Metal Museum opened a juried exhibition of 40 works of art from 26 queer-identifying metal artists from across the country. For the exhibition, three jurors — matt lambert, Al Murray, and Memphian Lawrence Matthews — selected pieces they felt spoke to the intersectional spectrum of what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community.

“Rather than the typical ‘the work looks like it’s queer,’ I think this show also really highlights that there are people from these backgrounds in all areas,” says lambert. “We’re making space for a lot of types of identity that include queerness, but it’s not just that. [The artists in the exhibit] place themselves [along] those spectrums, but for some it was an option to just be themselves, and maybe they don’t want to stress that part of them. Just applying [for the exhibition] already implies that they see themselves as part of this community.”

“[The exhibit] feels like it’s a celebration of LGBTQIA+ people,” adds one of the artists, Funlola Coker, “but it also feels poignant right now, especially given what’s happening not just in Tennessee but around America and the world, and how queer people are being oppressed. It feels really important to keep showing work like this and talking about it and supporting artists who talk about these issues because it’s a more nuanced expression of who we are.”

“We Are Here: LGBTQIA+ Voices in the Contemporary Metals Community” is on display at the Metal Museum through September 10th.

Zao Wou-Ki’s “Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens. (Photo: Abigail Morici)

“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics”

In 2018, Zao Wou-Ki became the world’s third best-selling artist, after Picasso and Monet, with auctions of the late French-Chinese painter’s work generating $327 million, according to Forbes. Now, he sits at a comfortable 23rd ranking, above names as recognizable as Botticelli, Degas, Renoir, Banksy, O’Keeffe, Manet, Pollock, and Matisse. Yet, as Julie Pierotti, a curator at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, says, he’s not a household name in the United States. Even so, with its latest exhibit, “Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics,” the Dixon is hoping to change that, with an impressive display of 80 works in watercolor and on ceramics, all drawn exclusively from European private collections.

Throughout his prolific and successful career, Zao channeled Chinese calligraphy in his abstract expressionist work on canvas, ink on paper, lithography, and engraving, and watercolor, bridging the artistic traditions of the East and the West. However, for the first time, his watercolors will be taking center stage in a museum setting at the Dixon.

“Watercolor [was] a kind of a constant medium for him,” says Pierotti. “He explored watercolor throughout his career, but with a lot of vigor in the last years of his life. He was known really for his oil painting, but these works really are authentic to who he was and what his artistic vision was.”

“For an artist who worked in a variety of media but has this kind of little-known dedication to watercolor, we feel like we’re showing, for those people who knew Zao Wou-Ki before, a different side to his career,” Pierotti adds, “and for those who didn’t know him, it’s a great time to get to know him.”

“Zao Wou-Ki: Watercolors and Ceramics” is on display at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens through July 16th. Accompanying the exhibit is “Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment,” on display through July 9th. Admission to the museum is always free.

Harmonia Rosales’ Beyond the Peonies (Photo: Courtesy Harmonia Rosales)

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative”

At a young age, Harmonia Rosales fell in love with the Renaissance masters who wove tales from Greco-Roman mythology and Christianity in their paintings, but years later when she showed these paintings to her daughter, her daughter didn’t fall in love with them. “She was like, ‘They don’t look like me,’” says Rosales, “It just hit me that I didn’t want her to feel like her hair wasn’t beautiful, her skin wasn’t beautiful.”

And so Rosales took to the canvas to give her daughter the representation she was missing in the Western Renaissance paintings that have been celebrated for centuries. As an Afro-Cuban American, she turned to the Lucumí religion of her ancestors and wove those tales into her paintings, made in the style of the Renaissance paintings that once filled her imagination.

At first, her peers discouraged her from painting these stories centered around African and Black figures in the Renaissance style. Her advisors told her she wouldn’t be able to sell them, but Rosales didn’t care. This work made her happy. “To see us in there, our ancestors, our history in a format where it’s just as time-consuming, looks just like the Renaissance paintings — the priceless paintings, the most beautiful paintings of the world, can’t touch ’em, can’t buy ’em — I wanted to do that in order to empower us and see our history in the same light,” she says. “Inclusion, it’s all about inclusion. Seeing this is what I want for my children.”

Rosales intended these pieces to be public-facing, wanting to reach as broad of an audience as possible, just like the Renaissance masters she reimagines and reinvents. And thanks to the Brooks, she is one step closer to that goal as her first solo museum exhibition, outside of her home state California, opened this spring. Titled “Master Narrative,” the exhibition contains more than 20 breathtaking paintings completed over the past few years and closes this weekend.

“Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative” is on display at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art through June 25th.

ON DISPLAY

“In the Moment: Art from the 1950s to Now”
Explore paintings, sculptures, and photography from the past 70 years.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, ongoing

“Build a Heaven of My Own: African American Vernacular Art and the Blues”
This group show explores how the musical and verbal tropes, meaning, and context of the blues not only share traits, but have informed the visual culture of African-American artists from Memphis.
Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), through June 24

(Photo: Courtesy Frederick Asbury)

Art at Artvision
Witness over 100 years of combined experience from artists E.P. Simon and Frederick Asbury, featuring works in realism, impressionism, expressionism in painting, drawing, photography, and computer-driven image-making. Guest artist Missy Isely-Poltrock (Kenosha, WI) will show her work through July 4th.
Artvision Fine Art Gallery, 484 N. Hollywood

“Passenger Pigeons and Ecological Tipping Points”
Experience the powerful collage art of local artist Jennalyn Speer, exploring the extinction of passenger pigeons and currently endangered bird species.
Morton Museum of Collierville History, through July 8

“Reimagining the Real: Ana M. Lopez & Natalie Macellaio”
These artists take everyday objects — air-conditioning fixtures, fences, road signs, and construction debris — and transform them into unique works of art as statements about power, privilege, and the environment.
Metal Museum, through July 9

“Susan Maakestad: The Expansive Moment”
Susan Maakestad highlights the marginal spaces of the urban landscape in her watercolors.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, through July 9

Ed Hall’s Dancing in the Sky at L Ross Gallery (Photo: Courtesy Ed Hall | L Ross Gallery)

“Paper Palooza”
L Ross Gallery presents a group show of works on paper, featuring work by special guest artists Brantley Ellzey and Ed Hall.
L Ross Gallery, through July 22

“Boys 2 Men (If You Don’t See Black, You Don’t See Me) A Traveling Exhibition”
This show energetically focuses on the diversity of artistic expression within an African-American male pool of visual art creatives in Memphis.
Arkwings, through July 22; Art Museum at the University of Memphis (AMUM), September

“RE(de)FINED”
Johnson Uwadinma’s exhibition reflects on the fraught but integral relationship between humans and nature.
Urevbu Contemporary, through July 31

“Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Seas”
McLean Fahnestock presents videos from his “Stratagem” series, where the sea and sky flip and merge to generate a new, seductive yet false horizon.
Crosstown Arts, through August 6

“Entrances, Exits and the Spaces Betwixt”
Tangela Mathis presents contrasting aspects of personality, showcasing the yin and yang of pneuma.
Crosstown Arts, through August 6

“Edgewise: Exploring Pattern and Rhythm with Line”
Khara Woods presents a collection of paintings, sculpture, and creative devices.
Crosstown Arts, through August 6

Yangbin Park’s Clothline at Porch Window Gallery (Photo: Courtesy Yangbin Park)

“Echoes of Home: Memory and Belonging”
Yangbin Park reflects on his memories of home in this exhibition of prints on hanji paper.
Porch Window Gallery, Studiohouse on Malvern, through August

“Rich Soil”
Created by American artist Kristine Mays, the 29 sculptures in this exhibit are inspired by the movements and gestures of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations.
Memphis Botanic Garden, through October 1

“America at The Crossroads: The Guitar and a Changing Nation”
Explore America’s evolution through the lens of the guitar.
Museum of Science & History, through October 22

MoSH celebrates the guitar with two new exhibitions. (Photo: Collins Dillard)

“Grind City Picks: The Music That Made Memphis”
Learn about the evolution of notable music genres in Memphis through an impressive display of instruments, band merchandise, and photographs.
Museum of Science & History, through October 22

“Tommy Kha: Eye Is Another”
Photographer Tommy Kha explores themes of identity, (in)visibility, and sense of place in this site-specific installation for the Brooks’ Rotunda.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, through October 29

2022 Accessions to the Permanent Collection
Take a look at the 24 objects the Metal Museum welcomed into its permanent collection last year. 
Metal Museum, through November 12

“The World in Pieces”
Beth Edwards showcases her contemporary still-life paintings, referencing and reinventing historical vanitas paintings with sensuous, metaphorical realism.
David Lusk Gallery, June 27-July 29

“Mud Huts to Paper”
Collierville artist Amruta Bhat offers a contemporary interpretation of the centuries-old practice of Madhubani painting, an ancient Indian folk-art technique.
Morton Museum of Collierville History, July 11-September 9

“Sally Smith: Adrenaline Rush”
Sally Smith’s canvases demonstrate her careful observation of the natural world and deft handling of oil paint.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 11-October 1

“To See With New Eyes, Richard Carr”
Blacksmith Richard Carr uses salvaged local materials to share his love of architecture, organic forms, and the Memphis community in this exhibition.
Metal Museum, July 16-September 24

“American Perspectives: Highlights from the American Folk Art Museum”
This exhibition presents 70 works of art from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, July 30-October 8

“Black American Portraits”
The exhibition chronicles the many ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture from 19th-century studio photography to today.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, August 17-January 7, 2024

“Mary Sims”
David Lusk Gallery presents an exhibition of work by Mary Sims, who was celebrated for her extraordinary, stylized oil paintings based on both real and invented environments.
David Lusk Gallery, September 5-September 30

ON STAGE

Mary Poppins
The arrival of Mary Poppins brings whimsical imagination and a bit of magic to the Banks family of London.
Theatre Memphis, through July 2

Jersey Boys
The Broadway smash hit, chronicling the rise and eventual breakup of the legendary doo-wop group Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, makes its regional premiere in the Bluff City.
Playhouse on the Square, through July 16

Caroline Bowman as Elsa in Frozen (Photo: Deen van Meer)

Frozen
An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, Frozen is everything you want in a musical.
Orpheum Theatre, June 22-July 2

24 Hour Plays: Memphis
Witness this electrifying theatrical event as six new plays are written, rehearsed, and performed within a thrilling 24-hour time frame.
TheatreWorks@The Evergreen, June 24, 7 p.m.

Don’t Hydroplane
Winner of the 2022 NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition, Don’t Hydroplane follows a family as they navigate the difficult task of finding a final resting place for their loved one.
TheatreWorks@The Square, July 7-July 23

The Color Purple
The musical adaptation of The Color Purple features awe-inspiring soul, gospel, jazz, and blues vocals underpinned by raw dialogue and a masterful plot.
Hattiloo Theatre, July 28-August 28

(Photo: Courtesy We Are Memphis)

Karlous Miller: At the End of the Day
Karlous Miller is an American comedian, actor, writer, host, and co-founder of the 85 South Show. He began his comedy career in Atlanta, Georgia, and is widely known for his star roles in MTV’s Wild ’N Out, HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, and BET’s ComicView.
Orpheum Theatre, August 5, 7 p.m.

Billy Cherry … The Final Curtain
Bill Cherry pays tribute to CBS’s Elvis in Concert, the posthumous 1977 television special.
Halloran Centre, August 12, 2:45 p.m.

Sister Act
When a disco nightclub singer witnesses a crime, she is relocated to a convent for her protection. Her stay with the nuns helps her and the sisters, quite literally, find their true voices.
Theatre Memphis, August 18-September 10

The Prom
A group of Broadway stars comes to the rescue when a student is refused the opportunity to bring her girlfriend to the prom.
Playhouse on the Square, August 18-September 17

A Raisin in the Sun
Set on Chicago’s South Side, Lorraine Hansberry’s celebrated play concerns the divergent dreams and conflicts in three generations of the Younger family.
Hattiloo Theatre, August 25-September 24

Fat Ham
In a deliciously funny retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in the American South, William returns home after his father’s death and must confront corruption and betrayal.
The Circuit Playhouse, September 15-October 8

The Crucible
Based on events which took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, this tragedy tells the story of a village that becomes embroiled in a witch hunt.
Theatre Memphis, September 15-October 1

Father Comes Home from the Wars
An explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love.
Hattiloo Theatre, September 29-October 22

Pictures at an Exhibition & Chris Brubeck Guitar Concerto
Memphis Symphony Orchestra brings you the world premiere of Chris Brubeck’s double guitar concerto, featuring both classical and blues guitar.
Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, September 30, 7:30 p.m.; Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center, October 1, 2:30 p.m.

AROUND TOWN

First Wednesdays at the Brooks
Every first Wednesday the Brooks will have incredible live music.
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, first Wednesdays of the month, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Munch and Learn
Every Wednesday during lunchtime, join the Dixon for presentations by local artists, scholars, and Dixon staff sharing on a variety of topics.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Wednesdays, noon-1 p.m.

Super Saturdays at the Brooks
The first Saturday of every month, the Brooks will have free admission from 10 a.m.-noon and art-making led by art educator Mrs. Rose. (PS: Every Saturday, admission is free from 10 a.m.-noon.)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, first Saturdays of the month, 10 a.m.-noon

Free Family Day
On the second Saturday of each month, the Stax Museum offers free admission for everyone. There will also be food trucks, games and activities, arts and crafts for children, bouncy houses, face painting, balloon artists, and live music.
Stax Museum of American Soul Music, second Saturdays of the month, 1-5 p.m.

Oil Painting with Glynnis
In this class, students will paint a still life composition using oil paints.
Arrow Creative, June 25, 11 a.m.

Rich Sounds at the Garden
Join the Memphis Botanic Garden on the last Sunday of each month to enjoy performances and demonstrations from local arts and culture organizations.
Memphis Botanic Garden, June 25, July 30, August 27, September 24, 2-5 p.m.

Whet Thursdays
Enjoy a free after-hours event held at the Metal Museum on the last Thursday of the month with games on the lawn, food truck fare, live music, metalsmithing demos, and more.
Metal Museum, June 29, July 27, August 31, 5-7 p.m.

Public Art Yoga
UrbanArt Commission will offer free 45-minute outdoor public art yoga sessions this summer.
Various locations, July 8, August 12, September 9

Art Club with Joi Purvy
Decorate and take home your own terra-cotta pot with acrylic paint and gold foil!
Arrow Creative, July 10, 6 p.m.

Fairy Garden Planting Party (21+)
Put together your own unique fairy garden! All supplies will be provided, including plants, pots, soil, and decorations. Bring your own drinks and snacks to enjoy while you’re creating. This event is for adults only 21+.
Memphis Botanic Garden, July 21, 6:30 p.m.

Crown Me Royal Film Fest
This noncompetitive film festival showcases panels, workshops, and independent films from BIPOC behind-the-scenes filmmakers and creatives from all media platforms.
Various locations, August 4-6

Night at the Museum
Explore the Dixon galleries like never before as works step out of the canvas for an evening of special performances and music, activities, and much more.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, August 12, 5-8 p.m.

Marketplace in Motion
Shop colorful new prints, creative cards, and fun stickers to throw onto your new notebooks. Stop by Friday night to grab a cold drink while you shop, or bring your kids through on Saturday for them to pick out their own decorative school starter pack.
Arrow Creative, August 18-August 19

Art on the Rocks: Garden Cocktails & Craft Beer (21+)
Enjoy botanical cocktails, craft beer, and wine in the Dixon Gardens. Each admission ticket includes all drink tastings and bites from local restaurants along with live entertainment.
Dixon Gallery & Gardens, September 8, 6-9 p.m.

Marketplace in Motion
Shop from local makers, grab a drink, and catch a football game with some friends.
Loflin Yard, September 23, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

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Morgan Asoyuf’s “Royal Portrait” at the Metal Museum

Morgan Asoyuf (Photo: George Lawson Photography)

The Metal Museum has rolled out its last exhibition of this year’s “Tributaries” series with Morgan Asoyuf’s “Royal Portrait.” The exhibit highlights Tsm’syen culture in the Pacific Northwest and confronts issues spurred from colonization that have affected and infiltrated Indigenous communities.

Historically, Asoyuf explains, in Tsm’syen culture, a matriarch held the special high-ranking role of maintaining the well-being of the community, but colonization dispersed patriarchal ideals, setting the traditional Indigenous power structure off-balance.

“Now, you see the money go more toward men,” Asoyuf says. “A lot of times you see the chiefs dressed really well, but the matriarchs, who are actually supposed to have more power, don’t have any of those things.”

So Asoyuf, who works in goldsmithing, wood carving, and fashion design, has sought to rectify this through her art by uplifting the sovereignty of Indigenous women and queer and two-spirit people who advocate for land rights, environmental custodianship, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals.

“They tend to shoulder a lot of responsibility in these activism spaces,” Asoyuf says. “I’m trying to highlight our activists and land defenders and show their royalty, … that royalty [means] to respect the culture and take care of our land.”

As such, the pieces in her exhibition incorporate crowns, scepters, and necklaces — which she calls “mantles of responsibility” — made from a mix of what one might expect in European-style regalia, like diamonds and sapphires, and the unexpected, natural items, like bear claws and salmon bones, which are significant to Northwest coast culture. But the artist insists that main focus of each piece is the Northwest coastal item, with the stones and gems serving as accents.

“It’s challenging the European idea that [regalia] has to have things [like gems] to make it look expensive and royal,” Asoyuf says. “It’s like, we actually have our own materials and stuff, and our value of royalty is so different.”

“The message of art needs to be active,” she adds. And by that, she means, these pieces aren’t made for display cases; they’re meant to be part of a living culture, meant to be worn — which is why the exhibition also includes photos of various activists wearing her jewelry, dressed in full gowns and costuming. In fact, the artist often lends, trades, or gifts her pieces to activists to wear while they do their work out in the world.

“It’s not about my voice,” she says. “It’s about these people’s voices and how I can amplify that and make them stronger. What I do is the art form, the regalia, the spiritual power, but I can use that for the greater good.”

“Tributaries: Morgan Asoyuf |Royal Portrait,” Metal Museum, on display through September 25th.