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The museum will open with "Reweave: 2021," an exhibition by Austin artist Jade Walker, and a summer calendar of in-person free programs.
The Elisabet Ney Museum is the studio and home of the German-born sculptor who settled in Austin in 1892. The sits on 2.5 acres in the National Register Historic Neighborhood of Hyde Park. Photo: Sightlines
After 15 months of outdoor access and solely online programming, the Elisabet Ney Museum is reopening on June 9 with a new exhibition and a summer calendar of in-person programs.
The Ney will open “Reweave: 2021,” an exhibition by Austin artist Jade Walker in its small gallery for temporary exhibitions. Walker’s exhibition will be on view through Oct. 24.
Jade Walker’s installation “Birdsong,” part of her exhibition “Reweave” at the Elisabet Ney Museum. Photo courtesy the artist
The permanent collection of figurative sculptures and ephemera from the German-born sculptor’s colorful life remains as it was before the pandemic closure.
The city operated museum will be open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Masks will be suggested for visitors, and staff will remain masked for the time being. Admission is free.
“In Elisabet’s lifetime and for most of the years since she built and worked from Formosa in (what she called her homestead and studio), this space has been open to all, hosting lively conversation, visitors from near and far, salons and an ongoing dance with the art,” said Oliver Franklin, museum site coordinator. “After this important time of protecting one another and deep reflection in isolation, we’re thrilled to be throwing our doors open once again to welcome the world back with such an invigorating — and nurturing — set of exhibitions by Jade.”
“Reweave” is an exhibition in two parts. Outside on the museum grounds “Mire + Mend”  is a participatory installation, a constructed loom of vibrant ropes, strings, yarns and cables anchored on a museum sign. The public is invited to add strips of fabric or rope or other threads to the piece. “Mire + Mend” was installed in April as part of the City of Austin’s Arts Responders program and will expand into other “looms” constructed on the site over the summer. Inside, another woven installation, “Birdsong,” considers the ecological state of our planet.
For a preview see www.theney.org/reweave-jade-walker.
Austin artist Jade Walker at work on her installation “Mire + Mend” on the grounds of the Elisabet Ney museum. Photo: Friends of the Ney
To complement Walker’s exhibition, the Ney will offer two free, all-ages, socially-distanced outdoors family weaving events from noon to 2 p.m. on June 26 and July 10. Mini looms will be built one which anyone can engage with the healing reweaving process. The public is encouraged to bring materials to weave, including rope, old leashes, strips of fabric from unwanted or worn-out clothing. These created pieces will remain on the grounds for the duration of the exhibition.
Then on July 24, from noon to 2 p.m., another free family-friendly event will feature an artist talk, face painting, slingshot-weaving, and other activities.
Relatedly, the Friends of the Elisabet Ney Museum, a support group for the site and staff, has luanched a new website, meant to extend the broad online access many enjoyed throughout the pandemic: www.theney.org