Tennessee Valley Art Center
- March 29, 2006
- Rated 4 of 5 by
NiteOwlTX from LaPlace, Louisiana
I like to visit art museums; I generally see a couple of museums on every vacation that I take. Overall, I am critical of smaller cities' art museum as they are unorganized and typically feature either local artists or school kids competitions; see my review of the Kennedy Douglas Center for the Arts in this same journal.
Anyway, when I visited the Tennessee Valley Art Center, I found it to be much better then the average small town art center.
First off, the presentation that they were featuring when I arrived was Japanese block printing. This didn't impress me as I've seen it plenty of times before. However, in the presentation room, they had a complete set of blocks with carvings on both sides of the plates. They had the prints in various stages of completion, showing how each block is applied to the print to eventually make a painting. That is a nice way to start this presentation; they show how these prints are made before actually showing the prints.
When you enter the main exhibit, the center focus is the Samurai sword. Sure, this is not necessarily an artistic piece, but it does set the mood. It tells the time period and the original for all the other art that you will see.
Examining the art independently is not impressive. I've seen the similar block prints before and these are not as detailed as others that I've seen. I think that is where the small town lack of pull is unable to assemble a really good collection.
The curator was on-hand when I visited the sight. I listened as he explained the parts of Japanese society to a couple of older ladies that were in front of me. That's impressive. I didn't go on a special occasion or on a particularly busy day, but the curator was out there talking to the people. I'm judging from one visit, but that independently helps my opinion of the center.
Finally, the exhibit shows the effects of ancient Japanese art on modern society. They go as far as to say that Darth Vader's suit is based on a Samurai's armor. It gets a little sketchy there.
In addition to the revolving exhibits, there is a permanent exhibit to the museum. Somewhere amid the dense forests that surround Florence, there is a shelter carved by nature in ages past from a rocky hillside. In that cave, ancient Americans carved elegant images into the the sandstone. These petroglyphs were removed from the cave to the Tennesse Valley Art Center. This is older then any others that I've seen, so it is unique and it is presented very well. Independent of the art museum, the petroglyphs would be a nice attraction by themselves.
I recommend this attraction for anyone in the area. I would especially recommend this attraction for anyone interested in history, especially prehistoric or Native American history. I also recommend this attraction for anyone interested in art, especially visual arts.
Website: http://www.tvaa.net
From journal The Shoals of Alabama