Sunday Funday: What's in a Face? Exploring Portraiture at the NCHM

Featuring Artist Cornelius Carter

August 8, 2021 | 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM CST

One Sunday of the month, the Neill-Cochran House Museum opens its doors to feature hands-on activities, scavenger hunts, and space to enjoy lunch in the shade. Though this version will be more sanitized and socially-distant than previous iterations, we hope you and your family take the opportunity to come out and do some crafts with us.

Today, images are all around us. It's as easy as pulling the phone out of your pocket to capture your mom's smile, or your dog's wet nose. Newspapers, magazines, and the television broadcast images of celebrities and politicians everywhere. But it was not always like that. Before the invention of the camera, portraiture was an expensive luxury. And it is through only a few images that we have a sense today as to what someone like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Harriet Tubman looked like.

Come out to the NCHM to learn a bit more about portraiture, and then paint a portrait of someone who matters to you - it could be a family member, your favorite athlete, your best friend...anyone! While you're here, make sure you spend some time with The Struggle and the Glory: The American Experience, on view at the Museum through Labor Day. This exhibition includes many beautiful and moving portraits of important African American singers, athletes, politicians, and activists.

Our monthly Sunday Funday series is free with the price of museum admission. This is a drop-in event; it is not necessary to arrive at 1:00pm nor stay until 4:00pm to enjoy the activity. Though this activity will be taking place primarily outdoors, we still ask that all visitors wear masks at all times on the museum property. The Neill-Cochran House Museum is happy to provide free parking for our guests.