GREENVILLE, NC — Since returning in September 2020 from the COVID-19 lockdown, Greenville Museum of Art has been focused on reigniting engagement with its community and making strides to grow exhibitions, events, and programs to serve diverse local and regional audiences.
Through timely and dynamic exhibitions, events for various audiences, and other efforts of its trustees, volunteers, donors, and staff, GMoA continues to pick up speed. Significant achievements in the past 4 years inspired the need for visual refreshment:
- Freeman Vines, Hanging Tree Guitars (2020-2021), in partnership with the Music Maker Relief Foundation, received national recognition, including NPR
- Growing Up Queer in the South (2022), co-curated by Parks McCallister, received global application submissions for artwork, and national recognition, including Christie’s Top 12 Global Exhibitions to View in the Summer of 2022, and recipient of the 2022 Award of Excellence from the North Carolina Museums Council
- Awarded national reaccreditation from the American Alliance of Museums (2022)
- Scott Avett: After the Fact (2022-2023) exhibition posters, designed by Joshua Vaughan, won the 2022 America Graphic Design Award from Graphic Design USA
- Newly acquired artworks for the GMoA Permanent Collection in line with its southeast regional focus and efforts to fill gaps of underrepresented artists within its collection
- Setting, meeting, and surpassing several fundraising goals, including the GMoA: Next 50 Years Campaign (2023), which raised $50,000 in 8 weeks to support the GMoA mission*
- Continued expansion of GMoA’s education and outreach programs, including new programs such as Summer Museum Camp, along with new tour and workshop opportunities
- Awarded local, statewide, and national grants for facility improvements, operating expenses, and educational programs
- 2023 Best of Awards from the Daily Reflector, receiving Gold in the Best Art Gallery category and Bronze in Best Place to Take Children category
With the former logo having an approximately 15-year run, GMoA staff and trustees agreed it was time to take a step forward with their brand identity. Staff, alongside its Marking Committee, selected two ECU alumni: Joshua Vaughan, Graphic Designer with Blue Barn Design Co., and Rose Bogue, Program Coordinator with the ECU’s Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center.
The designers were tasked with creating a new logo design that captured GMoA’s forward momentum by maintaining classic elements of the former logo while representing GMoA today and its focus on contemporary exhibitions and 20th and 21st-century artwork. The rollout process of the new “face” of GMoA will happen over the next several months, with the first phase taking place through digital platforms.
*GMoA’s Mission: To inspire, educate, and connect people through the visual arts by way of our collection, exhibitions, and programs.
