Photo note: To download photos, see end of release.

Comments from local public influence Ackland acquisitions

By MARIA GLOEGGLER
Ackland Art Museum

CHAPEL HILL – The Grand Coulee Dam, a Tibetan landscape and Malcolm X are among subjects of eight photographs just acquired by the Ackland Art Museum, with curators’ choices based on opinions of more than 400 members of the local community.

Throughout August and September, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill museum displayed 10 photos and asked visitors to comment on which ones they thought the museum should acquire and why. That feedback was reviewed by museum curators as they chose the new works for the museum’s permanent collection. They decided on these eight photographs:

• Margaret Bourke-White’s romantic view of the interior of Cleveland’s Otis Steel Factory in 1928;
  
  
• Gordon Park’s intimate photograph of Muhammed Ali;
  
  
•  Park’s photograph of Malcom X;
  
  
• Richard Misrach’s flooded shoreline along California’s Salton Sea;
  
  
• Toshio Shibata’s vertiginous view of falling water at Grand Coulee Dam;
  
  
• Steve McCurry’s Tibetan landscape, highlighted by a giant tangka painting of the Buddha Sakyamuni and hundreds of pilgrims attending a harvest festival;
  
  
• Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s photograph of Katsura Imperial Villa, which captures the essence of Japanese architecture and landscape design; and
  
  
• Krzysztof Wodiczko’s photograph of his public artwork of images projected onto the façade of the Hirshshorn Museum in Washington, D.C., provoking viewers to examine George H.W. Bush’s foreign and domestic agendas on the eve of his election as president in 1988.

Carolyn Wood, assistant director of art and education at the Ackland, said it wasn’t only the large number of people who contributed comments that impressed the museum staff. "The sophistication and thoughtfulness of the responses was striking. We found the community comments so compelling, in fact, that we were convinced to acquire more photographs than we had originally planned," she said.

Private donations funded the acquisitions. The public’s comments were gathered during the recent exhibit "Collecting Photography: A Community Dialog." Visitors’ comments included the following:

• "The Tibetan people, culture and religion [are] in danger of becoming extinct. This photograph [McCurry’s Tibetan landscape] shows the beauty and depth of this ancient culture. The image is beautifully composed. I like seeing the hugeness of the tangka relative to the monks in the foreground." (Anonymous)
  
  
• "The Misrach piece speaks of a man’s impact on his environment and somehow balances supreme stillness with destruction." (A K-12 teacher)
  
  
• "Shibata, sheer beauty, power and skill. This is an amazing photo that grabs the viewer, at first without regard to content and then, upon reflection when the perspective becomes clear." (Anonymous)
  
  
• "[Ishimoto’s photograph] has an exciting composition yet a quiet mood. I like the way the photographer juxtaposes open and closed spaces with exterior and interior views." (A graduate student)
  
  
• "Not only are these images [Park’s Muhammed Ali and Malcom X] beautiful, thought provoking and historical, the fact that they are done by an African American photographer is very important. These would be a timely addition to the museum." (A student)

The photos will be displayed in upcoming exhibitions. Two, those by Ishimoto and McCurry, will be included in the museum’s next exhibition, "Plum, Pine and Bamboo," opening Oct. 19.

"We’re very excited about these latest additions to the museum’s photography collection," Wood said. We want to thank all of our community participants for their input, which greatly influenced our final choices."

The Ackland is on South Columbia Street near Franklin Street. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free. For more information, call 919-843-1611 (recorded information), 919-966-5736 (museum office), 919-962-0837 (TTY) or visit the Web site at www.ackland.org.

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Photo Note: To download an images of three of the newly acquired photos, go to :

•  http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/gordon_parks100803.jpg
• http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/misrach_robert100803.jpg
• http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/shibata_toshio100803.jpg

Contact: Maria Gloeggler, Ackland Director of Communications, 843-3675

News Services Contact: L.J. Toler, 962-8589