ANA Money Museum to host medallic sculpture exhibition-
“Hands across the sea”
More than 175 medallic sculptures in bronze, brass, copper and nickel-silver by an international array of award-winning artists will be exhibited at the American Numismatic Association (ANA) Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, beginning October 20.
The American Medallic Sculpture Association (AMSA) and the Museum of Medallic Art in Wroclaw, Poland, jointly will display the juried and selected pieces in an exhibit entitled “Hands across the Sea.”
“Medallic sculptures are hand-held pieces of art – what the Italians call `poetry in a circle,’ ” says ANA Museum Curator Lawrence J. Lee. “While the coins we use every day are sculptures struck in metal by the millions, the pieces in this exhibit are hand-produced in extremely limited numbers or, in some cases, are one-of-a-kind.”
A reception will follow the exhibit opening at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 20, 2001. The public is invited to attend the premiere of the medallic sculpture exhibit, which will remain on display until January 30, 2002, when it will travel to Penn State University and later to the Museum of Medallic Art in Poland. The ANA Money Museum is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday.
Of the 178 medallic sculptures to be exhibited, 105 of them are by 40 artists from Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg and the United States who were selected winners of an AMSA juried show. AMSA, which works with medallic sculptors throughout the world, was organized in the early 1980s to provide artists working in this medium opportunities for exchanging information and exhibiting their work.
The remaining 73 sculptures to be exhibited are by 34 artists selected by the Museum of Medallic Art in Wroclaw – the largest city in western Poland. Established more than 40 years ago and located in a 16th-century facility, the museum houses a collection of Polish medallic art that numbers more than 50,000 pieces.
Zdzislaw Olszanowski, curator at the Polish museum, says, “I hope the exhibition, titled so beautifully `Hands across the Sea,’ will give you an opportunity to get acquainted with the Polish medalists’ work, and that it will bring Polish culture, Polish art and Poland itself closer to you.”
A catalog of the material will be available throughout the exhibit. Four of the awardwinning AMSA artists, including AMSA President Jeanne Stevens-Sollman, will attend the October exhibit opening, offering some of their works for sale. The ANA Money Museum will receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of any item at the exhibit.
Free and open to the public, the Money Museum is part of the 110-year-old American Numismatic Association, a nonprofit educational organization chartered by Congress for collectors of coins, tokens, medals and paper money. Work on a $3 million renovation of the ANA Museum and Library is nearly complete. The Museum features the most comprehensive collection of America’s gold coins ever assembled – valued at more than $20 million. The Museum currently also features a massive exhibition dedicated to the spirit of Native American heritage.
- “Dragonfly” by Richard Bonham is fabricated from 77 pieces of brass, bronze, copper
- and nickel-silver. 110 X 20 mm
- Cast in bronze, “The Orchestra Conductor” by Alex Shagin is a tribute to Aaron Copland.
- 140 X 102 mm
- “Bering Sea Traverse” by Yoshiko Sunahara is fabricated from bronze, brass, acrylic and
- porcupine quills. 100 X 95 X 13 mm
- “The New Millennium: by Mashiko is struck in bronze. 78 X 72 X 13 mm
For more information about the American Numismatic Association Money Museum and the “Hands across the Sea” exhibition, contact the ANA at 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903-3279; telephone 719/632-2646; fax 719/634-4085; or at its web site at www.money.org.
Originally Release Date: September 17, 2001
ANA Contacts: Phone: 719-482-9872
Email: pr@money.org