American Folk Art Museum

02/26/2025

🚨 Don't forget to vote for AFAM in Newsweek's Best Art Museum in America contest before the poll closes tomorrow at noon ET!

Tap into your creative side with a visit to one of these celebrated art museums chosen by our panelists.

02/22/2025

To commemorate Black History Month, the Museum Shop is putting a spotlight on Black American folk artist Missionary Mary Proctor.

After the tragic loss of several family members in a fire 30 years ago, Proctor was compelled by a divine message to “paint the door”—and has been painting ever since. Proctor’s paintings often bear messages of love, faith, and family and incorporate found objects such as buttons, paintbrushes, and beads. Her work has been exhibited widely and is included in numerous institutional collections, such as the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Visit our Shop to explore a selection of Proctor's original paintings currently available. Click here to learn more: https://shop.folkartmuseum.org/artist-works/missionary-mary-l-proctor/

02/20/2025

'Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets' is now on view through May 25! ✨

'Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets' is the first solo museum exhibition in the United States dedicated to the self-taught Brazilian artist. Best known for her large-scale embroideries made from hundreds of vibrant colored threads, which the artist referred to as quadros de lã (“wool paintings”), the exhibition represents more than half of all known works by the artist and examines her work through a variety of lenses, including gender, race, and socio-economic dynamics.

This exhibition is organized by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand – MASP and their Curators Amanda Carneiro and André Mesquita. The presentation at the American Folk Art Museum, New York, is curated by Valérie Rousseau, Ph.D., Curatorial Chair and Senior Curator of 20th-Century & Contemporary Art, with the curatorial assistance of Dylan Blau Edelstein.

Photos by Olya Vysotskaya

02/09/2025

Please note: due to snowy weather, the Museum Shop will open at 1pm today. Stay safe, and see you soon! ❄️⛄️

02/05/2025

We are so excited to welcome everyone to our new exhibition next week: 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘢 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘣𝘰𝘭𝘵: 𝘈 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘍𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘴 ✨🪐

If you can't be with us in person to experience the exhibition, join us on Friday, February 14, at 1 PM ET for a VIRTUAL tour!

AFAM’s Curatorial Chair and Senior Curator of 20th-Century & Contemporary Art, Valérie Rousseau, will walk you through the galleries in dialogue with Dylan Blau Edelstein, Curatorial Assistant on the exhibition Together, they will share their research and field-work findings while discussing the artworks and the themes expressed in the exhibition.

This program is free but registration is required ❤️

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-insights-madalena-santos-reinbolt-a-head-full-of-planets-tickets-1124558277079?aff=oddtdtcreator

🎨 Madalena Santos Reinbolt, Untitled, 1962, Petrópolis, Brazil, Oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in., Collection Rafael Moraes, São Paulo, Brazil, Photo by Eduardo Ortega

01/31/2025

We’re excited to announce that we've been included in Newsweek’s Top 15 Art Museums! 🎨 🥰

Show your support by casting your vote for us in the Reader's Choice awards today ‼️

Vote by clicking this link: https://www.newsweek.com/readerschoice/best-art-museum-2025 ✨💕

01/31/2025

Are you ready to fall in love with our collection? ✨💌⁠
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Join us on Tuesday, February 4th at 1:00 PM EST for a VIRTUAL program in celebration of Valentine’s Day ‼️🌹⁠
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Senior Educator Nicole Hartoutunian will lead a tour via Zoom of a selection of artworks from the Museum’s collection that incorporate the themes of love and adoration 🥰⁠

Please email [email protected] to RSVP!❣️⁠
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🎨 Gott allein die Ehre Artist. Birth Record for Lydia Kriebel, 1806. Watercolor and ink on paper.⁠
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🎨 David Butler (1898–1997). Heart and Arrows, 1978–1982. Paint on sheet tin with wood stake.

01/29/2025

Today is the Lunar New Year! 🧧✨🐍 ⁠
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We welcome you to the Year of the Wood Snake with this drawing from AFAM’s collection by the artist Felipe Benito Archuleta. Archuleta is more widely known for his wooden sculptures of animals that he began making after 30 years of working as a carpenter. This drawing appears to be a sketch for future carvings. ⁠
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🎨Lion, Fish, Snake, & Bird⁠
Felipe Benito Archuleta ⁠
Marker, pen, crayon on paper⁠
14 3/4 × 11 3/8"⁠
Photo Credit: Adam Reich

01/28/2025

‼️The American Folk Art Museum will be closed until February 12th ‼️⁠
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The galleries will be closed as we prepare for our upcoming exhibition, Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets. Our Shop will remain open Wednesday - Sunday from 11:30 - 6:00 PM. ⁠
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Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets is the first comprehensive survey of Santos Reinbolt’s art ever presented and marks the first-ever solo museum exhibition for the artist organized outside her native Brazil. We hope to see you at the Museum soon! ❤️⁠
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🎨 Madalena Santos Reinbolt (1912, Vitória da Conquista, BA–1976, Petrópolis, RJ, Brazil)⁠
Untitled⁠
1965–1976⁠
Acrylic wool on burlap⁠
54 3/8 x 45 1/4 in.⁠
Collection Edmar Pinto Costa, São Paulo, Brazil⁠
Photo by Eduardo Ortega

01/28/2025

The American Folk Art Museum is proud to announce that Dr. Emelie Gevalt, the Museum’s Curatorial Chair for Collections and Curator of Folk Art, has been promoted to Deputy Director and Chief Curatorial and Program Officer. In her expanded role, Gevalt will oversee all aspects of the Museum’s exhibition programs, art collections, and learning and engagement activities, including continuing to curate exhibitions, author scholarship, and maintain and expand the Museum‘s holdings through strategic acquisitions and major gifts.

The notable exhibitions led by Gevalt at AFAM include What that Quilt Knows About Me (2023), which presented quilts as collections of intimate stories, exploring the deeply personal and emotional power associated with the experience of making and living with quilts, as well as Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North (2023), which invited visitors to focus on Black figures who appear in—or are omitted from—early American images, challenging conventional narratives that have minimized early African American histories in the North. Most recently, Gevalt curated AFAM's fall exhibitions, Anything But Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic and Playing With Design: Gameboards, Art, and Culture.

Click below to read more about Gevalt's background and curatorial projects at AFAM: https://folkartmuseum.org/news/34203/

01/27/2025

Welcome to Aquarius season ♒️🏺! This Wednesday, January 29th, we will have our first new moon in Aquarius since Pluto has moved into Aquarius ✨🌑⁠
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We normally associate the sign of Aquarius with the water pitcher. Did you know that the animal that represents Aquarius is the owl? 🦉 The owl is symbolically associated with wisdom. Similarly, Aquariuses can carry feelings to reach an understanding of the truth.⁠
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Send this to an Aquarius in your life! ❤️⁠
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🎨 Owl Confidence Decoy⁠
Artist unidentified⁠
1920⁠
Wood, rubber, metal medicine bottle caps⁠
18 x 6 1/2 x 6 "⁠
Gift of Frank Maresca⁠
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🎨 Owl⁠
Ben Ortega⁠
Tesuque, New Mexico, United States⁠
Cottonwood, paint⁠
9 × 4 1/4 × 4"⁠
Gift of Elizabeth F. Wecter, Animal Carnival, Inc.

01/22/2025

This week is your last chance to see our exhibition, 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯: 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘈𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, closing this Sunday, January 26! 🎲✨⁠
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If you are in town for Americana Week, stop by! Joining an abundance of newly produced commercial games, handmade gameboards from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries convey the fresh excitement of making more space for play within American daily life. ⁠
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Thank you for the generous support of Doranna and Bruce Wendel. Without their incredible collection, this exhibition would not be possible, and AFAM is honored to welcome many of these gameboards into the Museum's collection. ❤️

01/14/2025

The American Folk Art Museum is pleased to announce we received a Grants for Arts Projects award of $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which will support the Museum’s spring exhibition, Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets (February 12 – May 25, 2025).

This grant is in recognition of the significance of this exhibition as the first comprehensive survey of Santos Reinbolt’s art ever presented and the first-ever solo museum exhibition for the artist organized outside her native Brazil.

The NEA will award 1,127 Grants for Arts Projects awards nationwide totaling more than $31.8 million as part of the recent announcement of fiscal year 2025 grants, and we are extremely proud to be recognized by the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide. We are grateful to all our supporters who provided critical funding in making A Head Full of Planets possible.

Visit folkartmuseum.org to learn more about A Head Full of Planets.

01/10/2025

There are only two weeks left to see our exhibition, 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦: 𝘎𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤, which closes January 26! ✨🕊️⁠
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Gift drawings were meant to be visions of the spirit world, the perfect immortal realm that Shakers would reach when they died if they had lived as dutiful Believers during their time on earth. Many gift drawings were delicate cutouts shaped as hearts, leaves, and spheres, with borders that mimicked stitches. These small symbols of love and nature were often given as “tokens” to other Believers during meetings. Others depicted familiar objects from the natural world in their drawings to represent counterparts in the spirit world.⁠
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Below are some common symbols found in gift drawings:⁠
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· 🍎 = love⁠
· ⛓️ = union and strength ⁠
· 🍒 = hope⁠
· 🍊 = encouragement⁠
· 🕊️ = Christ’s spirit, often bearing good news or glad tidings⁠
· 💎 = While not acceptable on earth for a Shaker, they were rewards of salvation ⁠
· 🕰️ = possibly indicating the precise time of a vision, or the time left on earth ⁠
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🎨 Miranda Barber (1819–1871)⁠
𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘪𝘴𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘰𝘳 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳⁠
New Lebanon, New York⁠
1848⁠
Ink and watercolor on paper⁠
17 3/4 x 15 3/16 in. (framed)⁠
Andrews Collection, Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts, 1963.108

01/04/2025

Looking for a cozy winter retreat? Come stay a while at 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭, a drawing by William A. Hall (1943 - 2019) 🌳✨⁠
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Hall, who for nearly the last 20 years of his life experienced homelessness in Los Angeles, made most of his work at the steering wheels of the cars he lived out of and used as studios. He would often spend 12 hours a day behind the wheel drawing, working on smaller sheets of paper that together would create a larger scene.⁠
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Many of his drawings focused on futuristic vehicles in mythical natural environments, and 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭 epitomizes Hall's fascination with fantastical, out-of-time landscapes. ⁠
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Which room would you stay in?⁠
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🎨 Tree Motel⁠
William A. Hall⁠
June 5–13, 2009⁠
Pencil and colored pencil on paper⁠
17 x 14"

12/27/2024

AFAM mourns the loss of Richard Parsons, a longtime patron of the Museum.

Richard, along with his wife Laura, a Museum Trustee since 1999 who served as President of the Board from 2004 - 2010 and Chair of the Board from 2011 - 2019, has been among the Museum’s most generous benefactors, who helped shape the trajectory of AFAM for decades.

Read more about Richard's life and legacy: https://folkartmuseum.org/news/richard-parsons-in-memoriam/

12/26/2024

As we reflect on 2024, we wanted to highlight some of the exhibitions we welcomed into the Museum. Each show had a unique narrative and together they represented the diverse perspectives of folk and self-taught art that we are proud to spotlight at the Museum 🖼️✨⁠
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We began 2024 with 𝘜𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴: 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩. As a corrective to histories that define slavery and anti-Black racism as a largely Southern issue, Unnamed Figures offers a new window into Black representation in a region that is often overlooked in narratives of early African American history. 𝘜𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 was selected by Claire Bishop for Art Forum’s Best of 2024: TOP TEN. ⁠
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In April, we opened our spring exhibition, 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘤 𝘛𝘰𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘴: 𝘈𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵-𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘵. This exhibition—situated at the intersection of art and psychiatry—explored for the first time in the United States the legacy of Catalan psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles.⁠
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We ended the year with our current exhibitions, 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦: 𝘎𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 and 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯: 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘈𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦. ⁠
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Both shows explore different facets of American culture. In 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦, works made by Shaker women in the mid-19th century and believed to represent divine messages, the “gift” drawings on display represent a departure from the simplicity typically associated with Shakers. 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 features over 100 handmade game boards from the exuberant collection of Bruce and Doranna Wendel.⁠
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Thank you to all those who visited the Museum this year. We can’t wait to see you in 2025! 🎉