Program areas at Newport Art Museum and Art Association
Exhibition highlights include: "Georgia o'keeffe: 'things i had no words for'" (july 16 - october 16, 2022), which featured oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors that celebrated o'keeffe's exploration of abstraction, which established her as one of the foundational american modernists. Powerful, bold, colorful, and evocative, o'keeffe's abstractions represent her unique style and approach to nature and landscape. This exhibition marked the second show of Georgia o'keeffe's work at the Newport Art Museum. O'keeffe first exhibited her work, with other american modern artists, in 1938 and alongside an exhibition of gertrude vanderbilt whitney's sculpture. On view at the same time, "donna maria bruton: 'from sense to soul'" showcased the work of artist and educator, donna maria bruton who created many evocative works of Art from her memories and experiences. Combining and collaging canvas, board, paper, and paint, bruton created colorful and textured dreamscapes where recognizable objects and abstract forms coalesce and intermingle. Focusing on a selection of bruton's work from the 1990s-2000s, which includes objects from the Museum's permanent collection and loans, this exhibition celebrates bruton's career and her contributions to american Art.
Newport Art Museum has enriched the community, state and region with vibrant and diverse arts programming for 110 years. In addition to exhibitions featuring local artists, as well as those who exhibit internationally, in 2022, the Museum offered a wide array of public programming, which included artists' talks, scholarly lectures, discussions, free community events, storytelling, docent-led tours, a Museum reads book group, and a variety of offerings with partnering organizations, including lifespan hospitals bradley schools, Newport community school, the public's radio, rhode island black storytellers, the women's resource center, and many others.
The Newport Art Museum offers year-round arts education programming for all ages and experience levels at its Museum school. Additionally, the Museum school's teaching artists provide educational experiences for a variety of partnering organizations, both on and off site. These include after school arts programs at pell and aquidneck elementary schools, a full time arts education program at lifespan hospital's bradley schools, and programs in the school's ceramics studio with fabnewport and the east bay met school. The Museum school rents studio space to a dedicated group of ceramics artists and the ri open drawing group, and hosts community exhibitions in its hallway which highlight work by students and artists with diverse backgrounds.