Dear Friend, 

Happy autumn from the American Folk Art Museum! Over the last few months, our wide-ranging activities were both impactful and well-received. The critically-acclaimed exhibition, American Weathervanes: The Art of the Winds, has received glowing reviews in Architectural Digest, AirMail Weekly, National Review, and several other national news outlets. This past summer, a transformational gift of self-taught art from Laura and Richard Parsons was celebrated in The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, and ArtNet News. And this week, we announced that Brian Donnelly (a.k.a. KAWS) has given the Museum William Edmondson’s Martha and Mary. This gift and the rediscovery of the sculpture were the focus of an article by Sarah Bahr in The New York Times.

In other news, the Museum announced that it is a recipient of grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Mellon Foundation will provide funding for the continuation of Folk Art Reflections and has also awarded us substantial support for the Museum Career Internship Program. This national model, now in its sixth year, provides paid positions at the Museum to students from LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City. The NEH will enhance ongoing virtual programming and support the addition of a full-time Community Engagement Educator to the Museum’s staff. Advancement with institutional donors also includes a grant from the IMLS for collection stewardship upgrades at our Queens, New York location. 

Members and patrons have also demonstrated their commitment to the Museum with significant contributions to the 60th anniversary campaign. The generosity of so many of you – more than $250,000 in total – has given us a strong foundation as the Museum begins its sixth decade. The campaign continues and I encourage you to give to the Museum as we honor our past and imagine the future of AFAM. In early November, stay tuned for our second annual benefit auction, which will be hosted by Artsy and showcases artists who will donate original works of art in support of the Museum’s mission. 

The new season brings forth two examples of the inspiring and enduring support from AFAM President of the Board of Trustees Elizabeth Warren and longtime patron Irwin Warren, and their commitment to funding initiatives that advance scholarship in the field. Earlier this month, Sadé Ayorinde began working at the Museum as the inaugural Warren Family Curatorial Fellow. Ayorinde, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, will work on a variety of exhibitions, publications, and collection projects. She will work closely with Emelie Gevalt, Curatorial Chair for Collections and Curator of Folk Art, on the forthcoming exhibition Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in Early American Vernacular Art. 

On October 24, the Museum will host the inaugural Warren Symposium, New Approaches to American Weathervanes. Supported through the generosity of the Warren Family, and organized in conjunction with American Weathervanes, this virtual symposium will bring together a range of scholars who will present on topics including the materiality of early American vanes, the ecological spectacle of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ vane design for Madison Square Garden, and Isamu Noguchi’s 1920’s designs for weathervanes inspired by nature. 

In closing, I encourage you to visit the Museum this autumn to see American Weathervanes. Called “eye-opening” by the Wall Street Journal’s Edward Rothstein, this exhibition exemplifies the unique place that AFAM occupies in the large and exciting cultural landscape in the United States. We look forward to welcoming you soon as our guest!

In gratitude-

Jason T. Busch
Director and CEO