Photo Courtesy of Bailey Tillman
Situated on the Mississippi River in Winona, Minnesota, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM) often surprises first-time visitors with the diversity of its artwork. Surrounded by 3.5 acres of gardens, the museum hosts a literary arts gallery, contemporary works of art, and historic paintings all centered around the museum’s mission, to create meaningful art experiences that explore our relationship with water.
MMAM’s robust programming offers many opportunities to visit the museum. From interactive workshops, artist inclusive tours, and $1 access days, to programming for people living with memory loss and Toddler Tuesdays, there are many ways to visit MMAM. Looking forward to exploring the galleries on your own? MMAM is open Tuesday – Sunday from 10am – 5pm, and open until 8pm on Thursdays for you to wander and be inspired.
Photo Courtesy of Bailey Tillman
Currently on view through January 2024 is MMAM’s new suite of three exhibitions, The Big Catch. Three artists explore our relationship with the world that lives below the surface and our desire to understand it. Master gyotaku artist Dwight Hwang creates lifelike prints of sealife in From Sea to Paper: The Gyotaku Prints of Dwight Hwang. Abstract paintings by Kimble Bromley invoke the emotional drama of Melville’s literary classic Moby-Dick, and illuminated sculptural lanterns highlighting the fragility of marine life by Kristian Brevik in Art for Fish/Art for Humans.
The Big Catch is part of Flora + Fauna, a year-long suite of integrated exhibitions and programs that explore the human relationship to the flora and fauna of our mysterious and brilliant world. Upcoming annual themes include Freshwater in 2024 and Rising Tides in 2025.
Courtesy of the artist
Opening on October 14 and running through August 4, 2024, is Re/Framing The View: Nineteenth-century American Landscapes. Drawn from six private collections, the New Bedford Whaling Museum collection, and six strategic institutional loans, this exhibition includes works by Thomas Cole, William Bradford, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, George Inness, and Edward Mitchell Bannister, among many others.
While the exhibition celebrates the work of these artists, it also offers a layered interpretation of the cultural and historical meaning of such paintings. What such artists often failed to capture are the social concerns that may underlie picturesque imagery. The realities of women’s opportunities in the arts are elaborated upon through paintings and prints by Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Mellen; Asher B. Durand and Lucy Maria Durand Woodman; Evelina Mount, Adelheid Dietrich, and Claude Raguet Hirst; and Mary Nimmo Moran and Ellen Day Hale.
Learn more about MMAM at MMAM.org, or by calling 507-474-6626. The museum is located at 800 Riverview Drive in Winona, Minnesota.
