Press Release

When a school, charity, or other organization (like a museum, for instance) is offering a new service or program or exhibition, that organization's public relations department informs media outlets by means of a press release, which informs the public of all relevant details and other information. Sometimes, a small-town newspaper (like the Shelbyville Times Gazette) will print the release in its entirety. On other occasions, a newspaper or television station may use part of the release or may decide to feature the organization in a longer format.

For information on how to write a press release, follow one of these links: WebWire's  "Press Release Format Guidelines" or Waging Peace.org's "How to Write an Effective Press Release."

Here is an example press release from the Birmingham Museum of Art:

DO WE THINK TOO MUCH?
I DON'T THINK WE CAN EVER STOP:
LONNIE HOLLEY, A TWENTY-FIVE YEAR SURVEY

BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF ART
OCTOBER 3 - DECEMBER 12, 2004

BIRMINGHAM, AL (Aug. 13, 2004) - The first U.S. retrospective featuring the work of African-American artist and Birmingham native, Lonnie Holley, premieres at the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) October 3, 2004. Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We Can Ever Stop: Lonnie Holley, A Twenty-Five Year Survey, featuring fifty works of sculpture, paintings and assemblage, celebrates twenty-five years of Holley's art practice and offers a rare opportunity to see the entirety of his incredible artistic vision. It will be on view through December 12.

Holley's use of redundant consumer and industrial products create an immediate collision between the natural and the manmade. This collision is perhaps embodied in Holley's chosen use of material for some of his most celebrated work; an ongoing series of carvings made from an industrial sandstone material and the discarded metal-casting molds from a nearby foundry. At once natural and man-made, the material suggests something of the conflict between industry and environment, progress and conservation, the past and the present that Holley tirelessly seeks to reconcile through his life's project.

"The Birmingham Museum of Art is extremely proud to present this retrospective of Lonnie Holley's work," states Gail Trechsel, Director of the BMA. "The unique relationship shared between the Museum and Holley since 1979 has allowed us to observe his thoughtful and profound approach to life and art, which has lead to a significant body of work."

Influenced by imagery drawn from both American and African indigenous traditions, Holley incorporates motifs that can be found throughout his sculptures, paintings and works on paper. These artworks echo Holley's creative approach, working and re-working the surface, fusing the bold abstraction and pattern making. Emily Hanna, BMA Curator of the Art of Africa and the Americas observes, "Holley's work is layered with meaning and symbolism - his observations of this world are encoded into brilliant forms that are filled with clues for us to follow." Recalling African traditions, Holley's work embodies a similar spiritual charge carrying a highly personal internal logic and offering a compelling narrative that connects its many disparate elements.

Do We Think Too Much? was organized by the Birmingham Museum of Art in cooperation with the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England. The debut of Holley's works there in February, 2004 was
also the first exhibition of his work outside of the United States.The Ikon showing extended his art into a wider context, connecting it to movements beyond that of folk, self-taught or "outsider" artists with whom he has been identified.

As David Moos, former Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the BMA states in the accompanying exhibition catalogue, "It may now be appropriate to consider his work in relation to the mainstream art world, and to understand Holley's art as much more meaningful than the result of dire biological circumstance and inordinate personal challenges."

Examples of works in the exhibition include:
•Caught Up in The Spirit, 1995, a joyous and colorful painting paying homage to divine inspiration and the process of artistic creation.
•The Mystery of the White in Me, 1983, this moving self-portrait directly confronts the issue of race by inverting assumptions.
•The Spirit of My Grandmother Wrapped in the Blanket of Time, 1987, assemblage of wood, sawdust, and patchwork quilt, this sculpture is exemplary of Holley's themes in praise of the maternal.
•The Pointer Pointing the Way Life on Earth, 1997, a provocative sculpture built of a lawn jockey whose face is painted brown and whose outstretched arm holds a tree root, chain and plastic bottle with a label reading "Living for the Future". Holley reclaims the derogatory jockey, indicating the way to a brighter future for all.
•Obstacles Before the Goal, 1994, a modest, yet profound sculpture speaking to an everyday loss of liberty, denial of freedom and restricted aspiration.

Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We Can Ever Stop: Lonnie Holley, A Twenty-Five Year Survey was organized by the Birmingham Museum of Art in Cooperation with the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England, and curated by David Moos, former curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the BMA, and Michael Stanley, former curator of the Ikon Gallery. In Birmingham, the exhibition is curated by Emily Hanna, BMA Curator of the Art of Africa and the Americas. This exhibition has been made possible through the support of Pauline Ireland and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Catalogue
A 78-page full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition. "Do We Think Too Much? I Don't Think We Can Ever Stop" is available for purchase at the BMA Museum Store.

About the Artist

Lonnie Holley was born in Birmingham in 1950, the seventh of twenty-seven children. He persevered through a difficult life beset with poverty, depressions and familial strife. It was not until 1979 that Holley discovered his penchant for art after unemployment and depression caused him to nearly take his own life. Holley began soul-searching, praying, and soon discovered a type of stone in his sister's back yard, which was near a cast iron foundry. Holley believed it was divine intervention that led him to the sandstone, an industrial by-product of cast iron mold, and inspired him to create art.

In 1981, Holley took his sandstone sculptures to the Birmingham Museum of Art and presented them to then director, Richard Murray. Murray was so impressed that he contacted a friend at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., who was organizing an exhibition of Appalachian artists. Holley was included in this exhibition, More Than Land and Sky, which traveled to 10 museums throughout the region, including the Birmingham Museum of Art. Since then, his work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and several prominent museums feature Lonnie's work in their collections, including the Michael C. Carlos Museum and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City and the Birmingham Museum of Art. Holley now lives in Harpersville, AL and continues to make art as a cathartic, self-healing undertaking.

Public Programs
Film
Sunday, October 17, 2:30 p.m., Steiner Auditorium
The Sandman's Garden
FREE Admission
A Documentary about Lonnie Holley by Birmingham filmmaker, Arthur Crenshaw.
Chronicles the evolution of Holley's unique and ambitious installation for Perspectives 8: Lonnie Holley, a sculptural environment he created on site at the BMA in 2003. This is Crenshaw's fourth film for the BMA. His previous films include works about artists Richmond Burton, Stephen Hendee, and Frank Stella.

 

ArtBreak
Tuesday, October 19, 12 noon, meet in Museum Lobby
FREE Admission
Special thirty-minute gallery talk led by Lonnie Holley and BMA curator Emily Hanna. No reservations necessary.


The Birmingham Museum of Art
Founded in 1951, the Birmingham Museum of Art is the largest municipal museum in the Southeast and one of the finest regional museums in the United States. It houses a nationally recognized collection of over 22,000 works of art dating from ancient to modern times, featuring paintings, drawings, and textiles from many diverse cultures including European, American, Asian, African, Pre-Columbian, and Native American. Noted artists featured in the BMA permanent collection include Old Masters such as Canaletto and Gainsborough, Impressionists Monet, Degas, Pissarro, and Cassatt, as well as contemporary art icons such as Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, and Frank Stella. The Charles W. Ireland Sculpture Garden is a work of art in itself.

The permanent collection of the BMA includes over one hundred works by African-American artists created throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and into the millennium. The collection includes pioneers such as Henny Tanner, masters such as Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, and contemporary artists such as Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. Some of the artists, as with Kerry James Marshall, have special connections to Birmingham and with the Birmingham Museum of Art. In addition, numerous famous self-taught or folk artists such as Bill Traylor, who are natives of Alabama, are also featured in the collection. Other important African American artists in the collection include Gordon Parks, Prentice Polk, Willie Cole, and Radcliffe Bailey.

Visitor Information
The Birmingham Museum of Art is open Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. The Museum is closed on Mondays. Admission is FREE. The BMA is located at 2000 Eighth Avenue North at Richard Arrington, Jr. Blvd, downtown Birmingham off I 20/59. For general Museum information, call 205.254-2565.

MEDIA CONTACT: BMA PUBLIC RELATIONS

Jennifer Hatchett
jhatchett@artsbma.org
205/254-2707
Christen Watts
cwatts@artsbma.org
205/254-2566, ext 3975