Syracuse (WSYR-TV) -
The Everson Museum in Downtown Syracuse is about the become very busy with its newest exhibit.
The American Moderns exhibit opens on Saturday. It features 54 works from artists including household names such as Georgia O’Keefe and Norman Rockwell.
Museum officials anticipate 10s of thousands of visitors during the exhibits three-month run.
Everson Museum of Art Executive Director Steven Kern believes that visitors will react not only to the works themselves, but to the time period in which the artists were working – 1910-1960.
The art may be familiar to contemporary viewers, but some of it was considered radical in its time.
"It’s not just about aesthetics, it’s not just about pretty paint. It really is about how artists were responding to the world around them, which artists always do, but with everything that was going on between 1910 and 1960 with two World Wars, with the Depression, with advances in music and technology you can see all of that coming in this exhibition,” Kern said.
Much like the very popular Turner to Cezanne exhibit that appeared here before it, this one fits into a bigger plan for the Everson, to draw even more people in with these special kinds of shows.
“But that also drives tourism, it bring people into our community so they can participate with other arts and cultural events and opportunities. It brings them here to shop and visit our restaurants so it really puts the museum, in an interesting way, right at the middle of things,” Kern said.
The American Moderns exhibit is part of the museum’s overarching plan – to have at least one major exhibit each year.
The plan began to evolve in late 2009 when more than 60,000 people visited the Everson to see view the Cezanne exhibit.
Tickets are $10 for adults; and $8 for seniors, youths 10-18, military personnel, and college students.
American Moderns runs from Feb. 16 through May 12.
An American Look: Fashion, Decorative Arts, and Gustav Stickley runs June 15 through Sept. 22.
The Art of Video Games runs from Oct. 26 through early January.
