So who would have thought that there is a museum in Charlottesville that has the largest Australian Aboriginal art outside Australia while offering free admission! On a Saturday morning we attended a free guided tour of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum. Kluge-Ruhe museum is part of University of Virginia and founded by the collection of a billionaire who started collecting Aboriginal art after visiting an exhibition called "Dreamings" in New York City. He bought the impressive collection of an English professor, Ruhe, who collected many items when he was living in Australia. Therefore, the name is Kluge-Ruhe.
The building for the museum used to be a plantation house, big and spacious. However, only part of first floor is open to the public. On our guided tour, that lasted nearly one hour, we focused on nearly 30 paintings.
Our tour guide was one of the curators of the museum, and she gave us background information when she learned we didn't know much about the aboriginal art. I was amazed by the different way of thinking of the indigenous people. The artists painted on either the bark of a eucalyptus tree with natural paints, or on a canvas with chemical paints. The styles were quite different. We learned that artists from different parts have different styles as well. I looked at the map of Australia to see where the artists came from.
The name of the exhibition we attended was "Dreamings," which the indigenous people call the start of life on earth. The ancestor beings came out from the inside of the earth. Rivers, mountains, and ponds are all the places of significance, as the Aborigines believe these are the places the ancestral beings sit, sleep, etc. In their paintings the Aboriginal artists sometimes depict their religious beliefs with symbols, and sometimes if it is too obvious they cover it with dots.
The exhibition changes every three months to showcase different works. The curator told us that last summer they had artists from Australia visiting and had events on the lawn of the museum. Admission is free; opening hours for public are 9am-3pm, Tuesday to Saturday. The free-guided tour is at 10:30am on Saturdays. At 1pm, the museum hosts a special kids event.