April 2022
Exhibition On Screen | Degas: Passion for Perfection
- Related Exhibition: EDGAR DEGAS: The Private Impressionist
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Directed by David Bickerstaff
(Run time: 85 minutes) On the occasion of 100 years since the death of Edgar Degas, in 2017, the Fitzwilliam Museum
in Cambridge organized an exhibition from their extensive holdings of works in commemoration of the celebrated artist. This film provides exclusive access to view rare and diverse works in the Fitzwilliam collection and provides insights into the fascinating story of Degas’ pursuit for perfection through both experimentation with new techniques and through lessons he learned from studying past masters. Using written accounts by friends and commentators, and the narration of letters written by Degas himself, this film reveals a more complex truth behind one of the most influential French artists of the late 19th century and serves as an
exploration of the complex workings of Degas’ artistic mind.
FREE
Find out more »Mardi Gras After Party
Muscarelle Museum of Art 2022 Chalk Art Competition Kick-Off!
1 PM - 6 PM
at The Muscarelle Museum of Art
+ Live Music Until 9:30pm
Arrive anytime, register now or at the event (April 22)!
All materials (chalk and other supplies) & images from our collection will be provided free of charge when you arrive at the check-in tent on the day of the competition.
It's 100% free to register and participate!
Find out more »Music in the Galleries: Musical tastes and passions of Edgar Degas
- Related Exhibition: EDGAR DEGAS: The Private Impressionist
The William & Mary Gallery Players
Muscarelle Museum of Art The William & Mary Gallery Players will present a concert to celebrate the musical tastes and passions of Edgar Degas. String ensemble works by Claude Debussy, Donizetti, Gluck, and Mozart will be featured in this homage to this enigmatic artist. These musical compositions represent the work of a fellow Impressionist, as well as Degas’ love for grand style opera and 18th century composers. Book Club
FREE
Find out more »Masquerade at the Muscarelle
The William & Mary Asian Centennial Committee cordially invites you to a gala fundraiser for the Asian Pacific Middle Eastern Project Fund. Enjoy an evening of dance and cultural performances and a private viewing of Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist. In person tickets includes a champagne toast and hors d’oeuvres reception as well as a raffle ticket for grand prize drawing of a limited edition original artwork by Roberto Jamora.
More information and tickets are available here.
Find out more »May 2022
Degas’ Dust
- Related Exhibition: EDGAR DEGAS: The Private Impressionist
Michelle Foa, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History, Tulane University
Described by a close friend as “an artisan passionate about all the means of his art,” Degas’ body of work reflects a sustained fascination with material and technical experimentation. Michelle Foa’s lecture will shed new light on the artist’s persistent engagement with an unusual array of media and processes over the course of his career, particularly his innovative use of pastel. Careful examination of his pictures and of friends’ accounts of his studio and working processes demonstrates his remarkable use of media to depict his subjects in entirely new ways and to expand the limits of pictorial representation. Degas’ “restless searches for new procedures,” as one critic put it, and his constant testing of the behaviors and capacities of his media and tools, reveal an artist for whom the life of matter and the matter of art were central to the meaning of his pictures.
FREE
Find out more »Vintner Dinner: Thursday, May 5, 2022
Multi-course menu by Chef Travis Brust paired with wines in the Regency Room at the Williamsburg Inn. This evening is sure to sell out quickly.
6:00 PM Reception I 6:45 PM Dinner
136 E. Francis Street
Tickets $250 inclusive
Special thanks to Joe Montgomery and The Optimal Service Group of Wells Fargo Advisors for sponsoring this special evening.
Find out more »Wine & Run for the Roses: Saturday, May 7, 2022
A Virginia Wine Reception with fabulous fare, hat contest, race raffle and live telecast of the 148th Kentucky Derby.
Dress code is Derby Attire
Valet parking is available
At The Williamsburg Lodge, Virginia Room
310 South England Street
2:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Tickets $250
$150 for Young W&M alums ‘12 – ’21
Purchase your tickets by April 1 and receive a raffle ticket for a special prize.
Thank you to our presenting Sponsors MCV Foundation and VCU Health.
Find out more »Speaking French: The Influence of The École Des Beaux-arts on 19th Century American Architecture
- Related Exhibition: EDGAR DEGAS: The Private Impressionist
David Brashear, Director, Muscarelle Museum of Art
In 1846, Richard Morris Hunt became the first American student to be admitted to the architecture section of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Two decades later, Charles McKim also enrolled at the École. Their collective impact on American architecture included both true Beaux-Arts styling, directly imported from France, and an evolved rationality that had its basis in French design but reflected a more rational, American approach.
FREE
Find out more »
Muscarelle Reads
- Related Exhibition: EDGAR DEGAS: The Private Impressionist
Virtual Event:
Picasso Looks at Degas
(Published by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Museu Picasso, Barcelona, 2010)
Please join us for a virtual book club co-hosted by David Brashear, Museum Director, and Charles Palermo, Professor of Art History at William & Mary. Our featured book presents Pablo Picasso’s direct responses to Edgar Degas’ works, as well as more conceptual and challenging affinities between their individual bodies of work. Illustrated essays explore the artists’ parallel interests in modern urban life, ballet dancers, activities such as bathing and combing the hair, photography, and the challenges of sculpture. The book also provides the first extended analysis of Picasso’s engagement with Degas’ art in his final years, when he acquired several of the French artist’s brothel monotypes and reworked some of them in his own prints.
FREE
Find out more »