By Maria Dinh —
The Speed Art Museum is now open during its regular hours. Visitors must wear a face mask and practice social distancing. As always, University of Louisville students can go in for free by showing their cardinal card. Here’s what’s coming up at the Speed in these next couple of months:
Featured Exhibits
The Speed Art Museum said goodbye to the Andy Warhol: Revelation exhibit last November to make way for their next featured exhibit: Collecting – A Love Story: Glass from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection. Coming February 6th, 2021, Leight’s art collection will contain many contemporary glasswork pieces that the couple had collected during their marriage.
From February 19 – August 22, a fashion exhibit inspired by early works of 18th and 19th-century art will be coming to the Speed, titled “Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art from Paper.” Look closely to observe the intricacies and details of the painted paper dresses.
“I am really enthralled by the artist’s use of color, so I’ve found myself drawn to the Mariano Fortuny dresses she has recreated – there are beautiful, unusual color combinations that are so inspiring,” Erika Holquist-Wall, curator of European & American Painting & Sculpture, said about the exhibit.
“I think visitors are going to leave this exhibition inspired by possibility – whether that is the inspiration to create their own artwork, play with paper, or just take a closer look at the artwork in the rest of the museum and appreciate the effort and creativity it requires to make something.”
Speed Online
Visitors can still have a quick “scroll” around the Speed from home with Museum from Home on their website for free. For the inner child that misses going downstairs at the Speed to play at the Art Sparks room, the website has downloadable .pdfs of coloring pages, crafts, and games to play at home.
Freshman Eleanor Ferguson has already visited the museum in person. She talked about how visitors are socially distant from others when viewing the art; “I’d say the majority of it [the museum] was safe, but there were a couple of rooms with too many people for me to be comfortable in, so I dragged my date out till they left. Everyone wore masks though.”
After Hours at the Speed
In a COVID-19 free world, the Speed would host a monthly event on the third Friday with performers, food and drinks and family fun. After Hours at the Speed will continue being held virtually every third Friday of the month until further notice. Check out their Facebook page to see who will perform and watch on their Facebook Live.
Photo Courtesy // Speed Art Museum