On display in the Bank of America Concourse Shop- a venue for regional artists whose works share parallel themes with featured exhibitions.

Westward Vibrations: Dance of the Exodusters explores the American West through the lens of Gullah Geechee heritage, African diasporic traditions, and Native American influences. Created by interdisciplinary artist and scholar Amiri Farris, the exhibition challenges common myths of the West while amplifying voices often left out of its history.

Through bold compositions layered with expressive drips, rich colors, and textured imagery, Farris reimagines the journey of the Exodusters—Black migrants who moved westward during Reconstruction. These movement—infused works evoke rhythm, dance, and visual storytelling, inviting viewers to reflect on themes of migration, resilience, and cultural memory.

For more information or to inquire about purchasing Amiri Farris’s artwork, please contact shop@cummermuseum.org

Image: Amiri Farris (1974), Dayblue Gullah Day Clean, Indigo Mixed Media on Canvas, 48 in. x 60 in.

Drawn Together explores the intriguing nature of the artistic process. Pairing work from the Cummer Museum’s permanent collection with the artist’s smaller study drawings reveals the time and commitment it takes to conceptualize an idea from start to finish. This often leaves the viewer with two or more standalone masterpieces: the initial sketch and the finished work of art. John Steuart Curry’s Parade to War, Allegory (1938), Claude Lorrain’s Minerva Visiting the Muses on Mount Parnassus (1680), Winslow Homer’s Waiting for a Bite (c. 1874), and Benjamin West’s The Honorable Mrs. Shute Barrington (c. 1808), among others, are featured. Come see some of your favorite works in a new light!

This exhibition is organized by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens.

Image:

John Steuart Curry (American, 1897 – 1946), Sketch for Parade to War, 1938, pencil, pen, brush, wash, and ink, with traces of colored pencil on paper, 12 ¼ x 18 ¼ in., Purchased with funds from the Morton R. Hirschberg Bequest, AP.2004.2.1.

Calida Rawles envisions water as a space for Black healing and reimagines the African American community beyond the stories we already know as a part of the United States’ collective history. Merging hyperrealism, poetic abstraction, and the cultural and historical symbolisms of water, Rawles creates unique portraits of Black bodies submerged in and interacting with bright and mysterious bodies of water. The water, itself a sort of character within the paintings, functions as an element that signifies both physical and spiritual healing, as well as historical trauma and racial exclusion. Rawles creates a bridge between her signature style and a story within Miami’s history that is often ignored and obscured.

Rawles delves into the particular experience of Black people in Overtown, a Miami neighborhood that went from a thriving cultural and commercial hub for Black people to a community dismantled by gentrification, systemic racism, and mass displacement. The figures in Rawles’s paintings are residents of the Overtown community—from young children to senior citizens. The exhibition’s focus is on the stories and experiences of those who live in this historic neighborhood. Rawles takes her practice a step further by photographing some of her subjects in natural waters for the very first time, at the historic Virginia Key Beach, which was once racially segregated. By photographing Black subjects in the ocean for the first time, Rawles is able to probe the Atlantic’s history as the site of the supremely exploitative transatlantic slave trade. The finished work critically engages with Miami’s water-entwined climate and mines the history of beauty, oppression, and resilience in the neighboring community of Overtown.

Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides is organized by Maritza M. Lacayo, Associate Curator, with the support of Fabiana Sotillo, Curatorial Assistant. Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides is presented with lead individual support from Allison and Larry Berg and supporting sponsorship from Goldman Sachs. Additional support from PAMM’s International Women’s Committee, Leslie and Greg Ferrero, and Rebkah and Desmond Howard is gratefully acknowledged.

Calida Rawles (American, b. 1976), Towner for Life, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 102 in., Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London.

Over more than six decades, Kuerner Farm in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania inspired nearly 1,000 artworks in a wide variety of genres and media by one of the most celebrated American artists of the 20th century, Andrew Wyeth.

Andrew Wyeth at Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth brings together over 40 works by Wyeth including some of the artist’s most iconic masterpieces from Kuerner Farm as well as exciting works drawn from Andrew and Betsy Wyeth’s private collection, including works that have never been on public display.

Wyeth’s fondness towards Kuerner Farm, which stands a short walk from the artist’s studio, served as constant inspiration over his long, productive career. Immersed in the layers of the landscape, the farmhouse at its core, and the people who inhabited it (the Kuerner family), Wyeth produced a remarkable array of work, depicting one of the most prevailing connections in American art – the powerful connection between artist and place.

Wyeth often spoke about the inspiration derived from walking and sketching the farm recalling, “The balance, the flash of that black thing, brought the image of the scene clear to my mind, and I recalled the marvelous amber color of the rich landscape and the lucid pond looking almost like the eye of the earth reflecting everything in creation.”

Co-organized by the Brandywine Museum of Art and the Reynolda Museum of American Art, Andrew Wyeth at Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth marks the 25th anniversary of Kuerner Farm’s transition from a family home to a public site visited and sketched by thousands annually.

Generous support for the exhibition is provided by Wells Fargo.

Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917 – 2009), Cornflowers, 1986, watercolor, Collection of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, B2244. © 2025 Wyeth Foundation for American Art/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Knowing the West is a travelling exhibition that embraces and examines perceptions of the American West to be more inclusive, complex, and reflective of the diverse peoples who contributed to art and life in and about the West.

Americans often feel they “know the West,” whether informed by direct experience or popular culture. Visions of landscapes and people tangle with ideas of conflict, freedom, and nostalgia. Knowing the West embraces preexisting impressions of the American West and presents a wide variety of artwork from diverse makers from the 19th to early 20th centuries to add richness to what is often a flattened and simplified view of the American West.

Knowing the West is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, and co-curated by Mindy N. Besaw and Jami C. Powell with influence and input from a curatorial advisory council.

Image:
Nellie Two Bear Gates (Iháƞktȟuƞwaƞna Dakhóta, Standing Rock Reservation, 1854 – 1935), Suitcase, 1880 – 1910, bead, hide, oilcloth, thread, 12 1/2 in. x 17 11/16 in. x 10 1/4 in., Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN. The Robert J. Ulrich Works of Art Purchase Fund. Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Related Events

Cummer Connects: Embracing Our World Together
Saturday, April 19
Free with Museum Admission | All Ages
Some Registration Required

Join us for a day of art, music, stories, dance, and immersive experiences with a variety of community partners. Explore the beauty and significance of the outdoors through the Knowing the West exhibition and the Cummer Gardens and deepen your connection to nature. Let’s come together to honor our planet, northeast Florida, and our people.

 

Knowing the West Curator Talk
Tuesday, April 22
7 to 8 p.m. Members $5, Future Members $25

Join Mindy N. Besaw, Ph.D., exhibition co-curator and curator of American Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, for a deep dive into the exhibition, Knowing the West, and get to know some of the hidden stories behind the art and the West. Knowing the West is the first major traveling exhibition to embrace and examine how people see the American West. This program promises to provide attendees with a unique perspective on the creative processes behind exhibitions, the selection of artworks, and the narratives that emerge from them. Dr. Besaw will share insights into the curatorial process, discuss the significance of the artworks on display, and explore the complex and multifaceted history of the American West.
Register Now

Make & Take: Sweetgrass and Indigo: Gullah Geechee Inspired Art with Anastatia Ketchen
Tuesday, May 27
5 to 7 p.m. Members $35, Future Members $45
Ages 12+ | Materials Included

Learn the history of the Sweetgrass basket through a demonstration. Together we will create your own original Art piece using natural resources and shades of Indigo inspired by one of the oldest African traditions preserved within the Gullah Geechee Nation
Register Now

Summer at the Cummer

Weaving Demonstration with Jacksonville Weavers’ Guild
Friday, May 30
5 to 7 p.m. Free | All Ages

Explore the timeless craft of weaving as the skilled members of Jacksonville Weavers’ Guild work on their looms and spinning wheels. Experience the craft and try weaving yourself.

Gullah Geechee Cultural Experience with Anastatia Ketchen
Friday, June 13
5 to 6:30 p.m.
Free | All Ages

Experience the captivating storytelling, music, and artistry of Anastatia Ketchen (Lady SheRo). Through art and oral history, Ketchen will bring to life the Gullah Geechee cultural traditions of sweetgrass basketmakers of Mt. Pleasant, SC.

Cowboy Cocktails: Recipes Inspired by the American West
Tuesday, July 1 | 7 to 8 p.m.
Members $50, Future Members $70
Ages 21+
Register Now

Make & Take: Bead and Leather Bracelet Making
Tuesday, July 29
5 to 7 p.m. Members $25, Future Members $35
Ages 12+ | Materials Included

Explore Native American artistry through bead and leather bracelet making. In this session, you’ll learn beading techniques and work with a leather cord to create a unique, handcrafted Native American-inspired bracelet.
Register Now

Native Cuisine Workshop with Saturiwa Trading Co.
Saturday, August 23
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Members $50, Future Members $70
Ages 16+
Register Now

Make & Take: Fabric Collage Landscape with Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild
Tuesday, April 8
5 to 7 p.m. Members $35, Future Members $50
Ages 14+ | Materials Included

Create your own unique fabric landscape! In this hands-on workshop, JAXMQG members will guide you in designing a beautiful desert-inspired scene using pre-fused fabrics. After building your landscape, you’ll have the chance to elevate your piece with beading, hand embroidery, or quilting, adding intricate details that bring your vision to life. Whether you’re an experienced crafter or just starting out, this workshop offers a wonderful way to explore fabric collage in a relaxed, creative environment.
Register Now

Artful Storytime
Third Thursday
11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

• Our Community Inspired by Our Museum as a Community Place Thursday, April 17, 2025
• Forest Inspired by Knowing the West and the Cummer Gardens Thursday, May 15, 2025
• Native American Tales Inspired by Knowing the West Thursday, June 19, 2025
• Animals Inspired by Knowing the West Thursday, July 17, 2025

Art Adventures – Youth Workshops
11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

• Watercolor Techniques
  Saturday, May 17
  Ages 7 to 11
• Reed Basket Weaving
  Saturday, July 19
  Ages 7 to 11

Hand Built Clay Workshop with Artist Sonia Nowak-Vera
Six-session workshop, Sundays 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• July 13, 20, 27 Design & Form
• August 17, 31 Decorate & Glaze

One of Australia’s most acclaimed Indigenous artists, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri was a founder of the Western Desert art movement. Mysteries that Remain is an important survey of Namarari’s work, featuring paintings on canvas and board from 1971-1990. It reveals the depth and complexity of Namarari’s artistic experiments as he restlessly strove to present the ancestral narratives of his desert homelands in new and innovative ways. Drawn from the extensive holdings of Namarari’s work in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia, Mysteries that Remain tracks Namarari’s progress from his iconographic and ritually explicit works of the 1970s to more abstracted landscapes of the 1990s. It shows Namarari to be an artist who grasped the creative challenge of painting for the art market while never losing sight of the ancestral underpinnings of his country. In turning our focus to Namarari’s art, we might see this reserved figure more clearly. And despite their alluring colors and designs, these paintings retain their mystery, hinting at the spiritual world beyond the painted image. This exhibition sheds new light on this enigmatic and important artist as he moved from detailed figurative works through to grand abstractions. A quiet, reserved man, this exhibition places Namarari in his rightful place as contemporary master.

This exhibition is organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.

Image:
Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri (Pintupi, 1926 – 1998), Ceremony at Tjilka, 1973, synthetic polymer paint on composition, 23 15/16 x 18 x 1/2 in., Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, 1996.0002.002.

Quilts are a democratic art. They provide a window into the lives of the many people who have made and used textiles, across geographic, political, social and economic contexts. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories showcases 46 remarkable textiles by a variety of individuals—male and female, known and unidentified artists, urban and rural makers, immigrants, and Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and LGBTQ+ Americans. The exhibition explores how the quilt, which is often seen today as a timeless, quintessentially “American” art form, has in fact continuously evolved, shaped by a broadly underrecognized diversity of artistic hands and minds. Dating from the 17th century to the present day, the masterpieces on view reveal a rich—and richly complicated—story of the nation’s shared history, contributing to the evolving conversation about what defines the American experience.

Image:
Bisa Butler (American, b. 1973), To God and Truth, 2019, printed and resist‑dyed cottons, cotton velvet, rayon satin, and knotted string, pieced, appliquéd, and quilted, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, and Arthur Mason Knapp Fund, ©Bisa Butler. Photograph ©Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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