Zoocap

Nothing beats a great night out at, having some dinner at a Baltimore restaurant, and then heading off for a stroll through the American Visionary Art Museum.  The museum focuses on art that is the work of self-taught artists who have not had formal training.  Visionary art is art that is a reflection of one’s soul and one’s own traditions and the unique way they make use of the materials and the world around them.  The curator of the museum states that sometimes the creators of the pieces do not always consider what they have created to be art.

Folk art is broadly defined as art created by the people, for the people.  However at the museum, they contain that folk art is based on techniques that are handed down through generations, and the art that they represent is from the individual, from spontaneous acts of creativity.  Visionary artists follow their own rules, and they create works based on their inner voice.  They look at possibilities, they see things that other people do not even know exist.

The American Visionary Art Museum has stated that their mission is to seek out visiting curators who have rich daily lives outside the world of art, those who know visionary artists when they see them.  There are more than four thousand pieces in the museum’s collection at any given time.  The permanent collection is housed on the first floor and the pieces are rotated in and out from time to time.  There is also a gallery on the third floor which showcases pieces that are on loan to the museum.  There is a barn filled with sculpture.

For those living life on a budget, a great time to visit the museum is when they are in the process of switching out exhibits.  While it may be a bit hectic with the staff moving pieces around, the museum still remains open to the public and offers a discounted admission rate.  The themes at the museum are always fresh examples of current human creations.  There is always a variety of works by a variety of different artists as they never put up one person shows.  This is a great place to spend the day or the evening, wandering through the works of so many talented and created visionary artists of the world.