The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts brings traveling art exhibitions and educational offerings to audiences across the state with VMFA on the Road: An Artmobile for the 21st century. This state-of-the-art mobile museum and education studio is open to school groups, drop-in visitors and Bristol Rhythm festivalgoers.
The artmobile will be parked on Country Music Way in front of the museum. It will be outside the Rhythm & Roots Reunion footprint, so visitors will not need a wristband for festival entry to enjoy the exhibit.
This year’s VMFA on the Road exhibition is titled “Revealing and Obscuring Identity: Portraits from the Permanent Collection.” It examines the complex role of portraiture across cultures and time periods. Beginning with the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro, and concluding with American artist Gordon Stettinius, the exhibit explores how artists have used portraiture as a means to both reveal and obscure their sitter’s identity. Traditionally, portraiture has been used to highlight the sitter’s wealth, power, beauty, virtue and intelligence and has been reserved for the elite of society. Several of the works in this exhibition maintain this tradition while others employ it as means to explore truths about the nature of art, the way we perceive beauty and the way culture influences and reflects personal identity.
A family visit guide is available online, and paper copies are available at the Artmobile for visitors to use and take with them.
For more information, visit www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org.
