On Saturday, September 27th, Fort Worth will be celebrating National Museum Day with the 3rd Annual Day in the District. From 10am to 5pm, 7 museums will open its doors and invite you to experience the culture that Fort Worth has to offer …and did I mention they are all free! Experience a full day of art, history, and performances by many local organizations in the area.

How are you supposed to fit all this in? I’m not cramming 7 museums and 14 performances in one day. There is a reason Day in the District is free …other than the whole giving the chance for individuals to experience the arts and culture. But, this place will be so crowded! I can only take so much. If you’re just looking for the highlights, feel free to print out the highlights/schedule for the day, shortened to just 2.5 hours time.

12:00pm - 3200 Darnell St. (Location A)

Start over at the Modern Art Museum to view the Kara Walker exhibit, My Compliment, My Oppressor, My Love. I’ve seen her work at the TATE Modern in London. This picture is my favorite from that day. Here’s a bio on Walker via the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth:

Walker is among the most complex and prolific American artists of her generation. Over the past decade, she has gained national and international recognition for her room-size tableaux depicting historical narratives haunted by sexuality, violence, and subjugation through the genteel eighteenth-century art of cut-paper silhouettes. Set in the American South before the Civil War, Walker’s compositions play off stereotypes to portray, often grotesquely, life on the plantation, where masters, mistresses, slaves, women, and children enact a subverted version of the past.

12:45 - 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd. (Location B)

Find yourself over at the Kimbell Art Museum and make your way to the Great Lawn. The Hip Pocket Theater will be performing at 1:00pm, and they just look like an eccentric bunch from looking on their website. Definitely something to check out.

1:15 – The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago is on exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum. Don’t miss out on this one. Tickets are not cheap to KAM ($16, but still worth it for this exhibit) and if you’re tight on cash, now would be the time to go. I went to the Kimbell for half-price Tuesday but by the time I left the office and drove to Fort Worth it was already 7:30 and they closed at 8pm. I missed a lot of it, but saw the paintings I went there to see. If this is your plan, to see the good stuff, find Renoir’s Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Henri Degas and His Niece Lucie Degas, Cezanne’s Madame in a Yellow Chair, Gaugin’s Day of the God, and Gustave Caillebotte‘s Paris Streets. These were my favorites. You will have others, and I invite you to share them on this post.

2:00 - 1300 Gendy St. (Location C)

The Fort Worth Community Arts Center is the last stop (and about all I can handle without a beer in between.) This year Ron Tomlinson won the Distinguished Texas Artist Award. The award is presented by Exhibition Advisory Panel of the FWCAC “to honor a living artist who has achieved distinction in their art and with their service to the community.” Here is a passage about his work, from The Fort Worth Community Arts Center:

As seen in his variation of subject matter, no subject is off limits to Tomlinson’s artistic vision. His paintings, often taken from collage, span a vast technical breadth, oscillating between abstraction, expressionism, and realism to evoke a wide range of emotions in the viewer from existential terror to subtle irony.

2:30 – Don’t miss The T which will stop in front of The Fort Worth Community Arts Center and take you back to the Modern.  The T will be providing free transportation around the art district throughout the day.

And only if you’re up for it and can make it before 3pm, Rahr Brewery is not too far away – and sticking with the theme – they have a free brewery tour and tasting every Saturday from 1-3pm.

*Update: Rahr will charge $5 ahead but you receive a Rahr pint glass. Or instead of the glass, donate half your admission to the charity of the month.

For more information about National Museum Day visit Day in the District.

Participating museums:

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Amon Carter Museum
Kimbell Art Museum
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Fort Worth Museum of Science & History
Log Cabin Village
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame

Sponsors: