A&H - Art & History Museums Maitland

Sweet, Fresh, Juicy: Florida Citrus in Art and History
2022-11-16 11:00 - 2023-03-16 17:00 (America/New_York) | Art & History Museums – Maitland, 231 W. Packwood Avenue, Maitland, FL, 32751, United States
The citrus industry had an enormous impact on Central Florida and Maitland in particular during the mid-20th century. This exhibition, which spans the Maitland Art Center Gallery and the Maitland Historical Museum, celebrates the region’s finest export.
In the Maitland Historical Museum, examine the rise and fall of the Central Florida citrus industry through a collection of historic citrus labels from some of Central Florida’s growers and packers, many on loan from the Orange County Regional History Center’s vast archives.
In the Maitland Art Center Gallery, we embrace Florida’s premier citrus while honoring the farmworker through a collection of citrus-themed artwork from local and national artists, as well as Maitland Art Center founder J. André Smith’s interpretations of the orange groves that once surrounded his studio.
Sweet, Fresh, Juicy is sponsored by:

(un)Common Form
2023-02-04 11:00 - 2023-04-02 16:00
20The concept for (Un)Common Form began as an experiment, a question that we posed to ourselves. Could we craft an exhibition that would reveal the unspoken conversations between a sculptor and their chosen material choices, revealing the how and why, along with the history and the relevance of their physical palette? Our answer came in the form of this solo exhibition of work by Bahamian sculptor Kendra Frorup. Her work speaks of the influence of the culture of the Bahamas on her identity, of her travels, of her deep understanding of material processes and of how common everyday objects can be liberated from their original constraints to speak of higher things. (Un)common Form is the first in a series of five exhibitions in 2023: a diverse season of artists, mediums, conversations, and voices, all revolving around the theme of (Un)common Conversations.

The show is an exploration of artist Kendra Frorup’s Bahamian roots as well as a conversation about her travels throughout the African diaspora. Gallery guests will encounter everything from discarded wood and broken lamps to the hands of a Haitian Voodou Priest, cast from the wax of his own prayer candles.
Frorup’s work pulls guests into conversation with her art through augmented reality and physical interaction with her sculptures. “Pecking Order” invites visitors to gently rock a kettle to set a sea of chickens pecking below a towering wave of text that speaks to the sculptures’ origins. “If I Fall Asleep” invites viewers to bend low and put themselves as off-balance as the artwork itself appears to be. “Collecting Plates” is an installation of more than 50 dishes. It uses augmented reality to bring members of The Links Inc., whose membership numbers thousands of women of African descent, face-to-face with gallery visitors to share stories of their successes.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Artist Kendra Frorup was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, and embodies her memories of this time in her work. She earned her BFA in Sculpture at the University of Tampa and her MFA at Syracuse University. She is currently an assistant professor of sculpture at the University of Tampa. Gil DeMeza, one of her former professors at the University of Tampa, describes Frorup as “the collector,” stating that her “unique ability to take the old, used, and discarded and turn them into other-worldly, exquisite moments in time is like a magical talent.” Frorup states that her work “delves into a personal history formed by different cultural motivations and through the investigation of the evocative qualities of a variety of materials.”
In 1989, she embraced an opportunity to study art and live in the United States. “In an atmosphere of possibility and experimentation—combined with traditional methods of casting, carving, and construction—I began to create representational images or the essence of forms that are considered a commonality within my culture. The progressive concept of repetition in my work implies that repeated effort may be necessary to accomplish things but that the accomplishment is worth the struggle. The mindset of a collector and an affection for disdained items, urban refuse, and industrial materials is central to the process of art-making to me as an artist. The objects used within the artwork maintain their integrity to reflect where they have been, and the artwork I create is reflective of who I am.”
Frorup has also traveled extensively throughout Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania. I gained familiarity with issues—with terms and concepts involved in discussing African art—and I analyzed selected African art forms, artists, and regions.” Elements of all these experiences—the memories and the history, as well as all the learned processes—are reflected in Frorup’s work. Her work can be found in major international collections.

Maitland's Attic: A Journey Through A Small City's Past
2023-03-03 11:00 - 2028-03-03 16:00
This exhibition is an interactive, hands-on exploration into the history of Maitland and its surrounding areas!

There were a lot of things that did not happen in Maitland. There were no great battles fought on the soil, nor was it home to any infamous individuals. The town was not the epicenter of any great social movements, nor was it home to discoveries that would better humankind. Maitland was, and continues to be, a small town, like so many others.

The story of Maitland is a story of seemingly ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times, a place where people made their homes while dramatic events unfolded in other parts of the world. People labored here, raised their families, loved, lost, thought, and created. The objects in the museum’s collection reflect the brightness of these lives against the backdrop of a changing and often troubled world.

Each artifact tells a story specific to a place and time. They are the carriers of the memories of the people who owned them, who felt that they were important enough to their own story to preserve them. Many of them are the prototypes of the objects that we use and hold dear today, objects which will one day carry our own memories forward.
Welcome to Maitland’s Attic, a gathering place of the unique items that tell of Maitland’s past. From the everyday to the downright weird, these objects and their stories open a window onto important moments throughout the history of the town, and the people who called it home.

¡Esta exhibición es interactivo y de primera mano adentro de la historia de Maitland y las áreas cercanas!
En Maitland no ocurrieron muchas cosas. En su suelo no se libraron grandes batallas, ni fue cuna deindividuos infames. No fue el epicentro de grandes movimientos sociales ni de descubrimientosrevolucionarios.
La historia de Maitland es la historia de personas aparentemente corrientes que vivieron tiemposextraordinarios, un lugar donde la gente estableció su hogar mientras se desarrollaban acontecimientosdramáticos en otras partes del mundo. La gente trabajaba aquí, criaba a sus familias, amaba, perdía,pensaba y creaba. Los objetos de la colección del museo reflejan el brillo de estas vidas en el contextode un mundo cambiante y a menudo turbulento.
Cada artefacto cuenta una historia específica de un lugar y una época. En conjunto, son portadores delos recuerdos de las personas que los poseyeron, que consideraron que eran lo bastante importantespara su historia como para conservarlos. Muchos de ellos son prototipos de los objetos que usamos yapreciamos hoy, objetos que un día serán portadores de nuestros propios recuerdos.Bienvenido a Maitland’s Attic, un lugar donde se reúnen objetos únicos que hablan del pasado deMaitland. Desde los más cotidianos hasta los más extraños, estos objetos abren una ventana amomentos importantes de la historia de la ciudad y a las personas que decidieron llamarla su hogar.
