The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art received two grants for an upcoming exhibit.
They received $55,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts on Dec. 18 and $88,000 from the Andy Warhol Foundation Dec. 15. The awards will go toward the exhibit Aftermath: The Fallout of War – America & the Middle East, which opens Aug. 16.
The funding will help the museum have a larger exhibit and invite guest speakers, said Carol McCusker, the curator of photography for the Harn.
“It allows us to be as creative as possible and to create the best exhibition possible,” she said.
The exhibit’s photos will show the aftermath of war, McCusker said. Photos will show students and Gainesville residents that war has long-lasting impacts, she said.
“It addresses the aftermath of war, which is the moments either right after an armed conflict, into the months and years after,” she said.
The photographers are both photojournalists and artists, McCusker said.
The Harn will produce a collection of essays about war to accompany the exhibit, she said.
It will feature Dexter Filkins, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Phil Klay, a writer for the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal; and a few other writers. McCusker said she will also write an essay about the exhibit.
Filkins, a UF alumnus, will give a lecture about the exhibit next Fall, she said.
Mia Frisiello, a UF political science and linguistics freshman, said she is excited to see the exhibit.
“I think it’s awesome because it’s really important for people to understand the lives of civilians, because they often focus on the soldiers and people fighting,” the 18-year-old said.
