Adult Programs

The Columbus Museum of Art offers a wide variety of programs for adult audiences of any experience level. Programs enhance visitors' appreciation of special exhibitions, particular artists, or art movements as well as the Museum's permanent collection. Introductory lecture series are excellent starter programs for those new to the art museum experience. Keep checking the Museum Members Magazine and this Website for updated program schedules. Ongoing public programs include:

The Contemporaries

Gain exclusive access to the art of our time. Whether you're a budding collector or an established connoiseur of contemporary art, you'll benefit from the wide assortment of social events, travel, and educational opportunities offered by The Contemporaries. This group supports the awareness, appreciation, and acquisition of contemporary art and photography in our community.

As a member of The Contemporaries, you'll visit the studios of prominent artists, speak one-on-one with curators and gallery owners, and tour private collections in Ohio and beyond. Members also receive personal collecting advice from CMA curators and have the opportunity to help select works for the Museum's permanent collection through an annual vote.

The Contemporaries is open to all CMA members at the Reciprocal level or higher. Annual dues are $500 per person or $250 for members under forty years of age. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed. For more information, please call Karli Wurzelbacher at 614.629.0302.

Art Book Club

Focusing on fiction and non-fiction books that feature art and artists as central story elements, each of these programs includes a presentation by Executive Director Nannette Maciejunes, followed by refreshments and casual group discussion. The Art Book Club is presented on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons, four times annually. Admission is free for Museum members, $5 for nonmembers.

The Big Picture

This lecture series is a collaboration between the Columbus Museum of Art and the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities at The Ohio State University. Presented by faculty from Ohio State and other area colleges and universities in conjunction with the Museum's temporary exhibitions, the lectures expand the contexts for understanding those exhibitions. The annual series roughly follows the OSU academic schedule. Each lecture is free and is followed by a reception.

Artists' Talks

These programs offer rare opportunities to hear what artists themselves say about their works. Recent presenters have included Aminah Robinson, William Wegman, Kehinde Wiley, Tony Mendoza, Rachel Harrison, and Evan Penny.

Symposium

This annual symposium, inspired by the Museum's acquisition of the Schiller collection of American social commentary art, attracts top scholars from around the country. Each year the symposium focuses on a particular theme. Previous symposia examined The Art of Concern, those American Scene painters whose works addressed issues of social concern in the first half of the twentieth century, and Art as Intervention, the power of art to act as an intervention into social, political, and cultural arenas. Learn more and register to attend the 2008 Symposium »

Art and Arias

This series is a collaborative effort between the Columbus Museum of Art and Opera Columbus. Join Opera Columbus cast members in the Museum galleries as they perform selections from a variety of celebrated operas and a Museum staff member discusses related artwork. Admission to Art & Arias is always free with Museum admission.

Lecture Series

The Columbus Museum of Art presents a series of talks by prominent artists and creative people that spans the year. These programs offer remarkable opportunities to hear from the artists themselves. What are their processes? What inspires them? What do they hope audiences take away from their works? These creative personalities will answer these questions and give us a picture of the innovative work being done at the forefront of each of their fields.

The cost of the series is $50 for nonmembers and $25 for members. Single tickets are available for $15 for nonmembers and $10 for members. Please call 614.629.0359 with your credit card information to register.

Will Cotton
Sunday, January 13, 2:00 PM

This New York-based painter, known for his surreal candy landscapes, speaks about his work and experience as a participant in the Art Production Fund's Giverny artist residency program.

Jason Salavon
Thursday, January 17, 7:00 PM

Salavon transforms massive data into dazzling visual displays that he presents as photographs, videos, and multimedia installations. For his CMA exhibition, he generated computer animations, photographs, and prints from common home furnishings catalogues.

Dirk Wittenborn
Sunday, May 4, 2:00 PM

This author and screenwriter discusses the lives of children of the super rich, as chronicled in the Emmy-nominated, Wittenborn-produced HBO documentary Born Rich. The show's director, Jamie Johnson, is heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and is Wittenborn's nephew. Wittenborn authored the novel Fierce People, recently adapted as a major motion picture, and also has written for Saturday Night Live.

Fred Wilson
Thursday, May 15, 7:00 PM

Wilson reconfigures museum collections and presents them in new installations that reveal hidden meanings and connections. His installations lead viewers to recognize that changes in context create changes in meaning. He questions—and forces the viewer to question—how curators shape interpretations of historical truth, artistic value, and the language of display, and what kinds of biases our cultural institutions express.

Peter Zimmerman
Thursday, October 16, 7:00 PM

Zimmerman, based in Cologne, Germany, uses digitally transformed mass-media imagery as the basis for stunning abstract works executed with layers of plastic resin that he pours directly onto stretched canvas. He discusses his work, including his CMA exhibition.

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