The Mint Museum will open its doors again to visitors Sept. 25-27 with a free weekend and celebration, presented by Chase.
The museum, closed since mid-March, now has a host of stunning new exhibitions and art installations. Special members-only days are scheduled Sept. 22-24 with live music 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 23 at Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph. Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph reopen to the public with regular hours beginning Sept. 25 at 11 AM. Celebratory activities include live music throughout the weekend, a cash bar and food for purchase, and everyone will be admitted for free.
Jazz Arts Charlotte plays at Mint Museum Uptown’s Van Allen Terrace from 6 to 8:15 p.m. Sept. 25 and from noon to 2:15 p.m. Sept. 26. A cash bar will be located in the Carroll Gallery both days.
The Mike Strauss Band plays on the front terrace at Mint Museum Randolph 1:30-4:30 p.m. Sept. 27. In addition, a food truck and cash bar will be on the front lawn with food and beverages for purchase.
“We are so excited to be part of The Mint Museum’s reopening weekend, which has been part of the fabric of Charlotte’s community for so many years,” says Matt Moore, Head of the J.P. Morgan Private Bank in the Carolinas. “We’re even more excited that guests will be able to enjoy new exhibitions and installations for free this weekend as the museum reopens with new safety measures in place.”
Perhaps the most striking addition to the museum is Foragers, an installation by Brooklyn-based artist Summer Wheat in Robert Haywood Morrison Atrium at Mint Museum Uptown. Four stories and 96 panels of brightly colored vinyl, Foragers is a contemporary play on a cathedral stained glass that celebrates the tradition of women craft makers and providers.
Tune In, a 4,000-pound multidimensional diorama will be on Wells Fargo Plaza at Levine Center for the Arts just outside Mint Museum Uptown beginning Sept. 22. The sculpture, made of six stacked vintage televisions, displays a collage of rolling snippets of media programming from the 1950s and ’60s, including news segments like the launch of Apollo 11, sitcoms and tv dramas. The sculpture was created by local artist Richard Lazes to put the pandemic crisis of 2020 and social unrest into some type of
historical perspective.
The newest exhibition New Days, New Works is on view at Mint Museum Uptown in the Level 4 Brand Galleries, as well as a new installation of work by di’Angelo Dia as part of the Constellation CLT project.
At Mint Museum Randolph, Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporaries, which opened in February 2020, has been extended through Jan. 3, 2021. Also new to Mint Museum Randolph is the Interventions series in which contemporary works are placed amongst permanent collection installations to create a critical dialogue between past and present.
Local artist Julio Gonzales is the first artist represented in Interventions, where his art is intermingled with the Art of the Ancient Americas collection. Both locations will open at 25 percent capacity at this time, and visitors and staff are required to wear masks. Safety measures have been put in place, including timed-
ticketing and social-distancing signage, and the Lewis Family Gallery remains closed to the public due to the many touch points in the space.
As a thank you to essential and frontline workers during the pandemic, The Mint Museum, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture invite these important workers and their families to visit the museums as guests through the end of the year. Health care providers, doctors, nurses, first responders, pharmacists, teachers, custodial staff, transit workers, grocery store employees, and restaurant employees receive complimentary admission at the museums through Dec. 31, 2020.
Mint Museum Uptown and Mint Museum Randolph will open with regular hours, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday, with two time slots for timed-ticketing each day with additional time slots with free admission on Wednesdays from 5-9 p.m. at both locations and 6-9 p.m. on Fridays at Mint Museum Uptown only.
To reserve timed-tickets for The Mint Museum, open now, and find more details about safety procedures and protocols, visit mintmuseum.org.
