Nearly one year after the Gregg Museum of Art & Design opened the doors of its new facility, the museum will host an all-new event to welcome students to campus for the upcoming year while also introducing them to what the Gregg has to offer.
On Thursday, Aug. 30th from 6-8 p.m., the Gregg will be hosting a free-to-attend welcome back party for the students of NC State. The event offers free pizza for attendees alongside music from Raleigh DJ Miss Jules.
Tamar Harris Warren, the events and facilities coordinator at the Gregg, described how the event would be set up within the museum.
“The event will be hosted in the lobby of the museum,” Warren said. “However, all students who come will have access to the exhibitions on view in all of the galleries within the museum. They’ll also be able to go outside to the Jackson-Thiem garden so they’ll be able to see what we currently have on display while enjoying some music. We’ll also be keeping the lobby relatively open, so that students who feel inclined to dance will be able to do so.”
Though this event is the first of its kind held at the Gregg, the museum is no stranger to hosting events for members of the NC State community.
Roger Manley, the current director of the Gregg, spoke about Thursday night’s event and how it would compare to previous events held by the museum.
“We haven’t done a pizza party-type event like this before, but we have had concerts,” Manley said. “We normally have some type of event every Thursday night throughout the whole school year. Sometimes it’s a yoga class, other times it’s stuff like tango dancing. You would be amazed at how many people come in and just give it a shot and end up really enjoying it. We’re always trying to do something that people will find interesting.”
As mentioned by Warren, all of the Gregg’s exhibits will be open during the event for students to enjoy, with each offering their own unique variety of artwork.
“The Design Duet exhibition features works by Ormond Sanderson and Robert Black,” Warren said. “It focuses on the creative lives of [the artists] and features ceramics, paintings, enamels and decorative arts. There is also the Rural Avant-Garde: The Mountain Lake Experience, curated by Ray Kass and Howard Risatti, and the objects on display range from very large folding screens to prints, paintings, ceramics, photos and more. The last exhibition that is currently on view is Our Living Past. This exhibit features platinum wet plate camera portraits of blues musicians by Tim Duffy.”
This event, according to Warren, is a way for both new and returning students to experience the Gregg, particularly if they have not visited the museum before.
“A lot of the students [at NC State] both new and returning, they may not be aware that the museum is open,” Warren said. “We just celebrated our one-year anniversary, since we opened in August of 2017, so it is a great opportunity for students to visit the museum. The exhibits we have on view change every few months and the museum is free and open to the public. All students also have the opportunity to receive a student membership, which gives them another way to engage with the museum and learn about what we have to offer here to our students, faculty, staff as well as the larger community in downtown Raleigh and beyond.”
Manley hopes that this event is able to show students what the Gregg has to offer.
“I’d like for them to enjoy themselves,” Manley said. “I’d ideally like them to think of [the Gregg] as not a stuffy, old-timey place, but a place where stuff is happening and a place where they are always welcome.”
The Gregg can be found at 1903 Hillsborough Street, near the Belltower at the northeastern end of campus.
