'Lessons of the Hour' at McEvoy Arts
Event Information
About this Event
Gallery Admissions
To ensure a healthy and safe visit, all visitors must make a free, timed-entry reservation online in advance.
- Gallery Hours: Temporary gallery hours are Thursday–Saturday, 11am–6pm.
- Admissions and Capacity: McEvoy Arts is operating at a reduced visitor capacity and can welcome 7 visitors at a time with advance reservations per hour. Walk-up reservations are available pending availability. Free admission includes access to all exhibitions and Screening Room programs on view at McEvoy Arts. Capacity is subject to change without notice. McEvoy Arts will evaluate its capacity and open hours in accordance with updated health guidelines.
- Cancellations: Reservations can be canceled or rescheduled anytime, pending availability. Due to exceptional interest in the exhibition, if you will not be able to use your reservation please cancel via Eventbrite or notify us at info@mcevoyarts.org or (415) 580-7605 so other parties may visit the exhibition.
- Visit Duration: Reservations are 60 minutes long and begin at the top of the hour. Visitors should plan to arrive 5–10 minutes prior to their scheduled time. Reservations are honored up to 15 minutes after the scheduled time or until capacity is reached. Visitors are welcome to explore the galleries after their timed-entry ends pending availability.
We will notify our communities via our website, email, and social media accounts if there are sudden changes to our gallery hours. Visitors with advance reservations will receive an order cancellation via email.
Please note that our neighbor Altman Siegel is open by appointment only.
Health and Safety Guidelines
Before You Arrive
Stay at home if you are feeling sick: Please do not visit McEvoy Arts if you have a fever or any COVID-19 symptoms, have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 14 days, or have had close contact with anyone who is confirmed or is suspected of having COVID-19.
Make a plan for your visit: Please travel light; McEvoy Arts cannot accept visitors’ personal items for safekeeping. Large bags, open containers, and food products are not permitted in the galleries. Wheelchairs, in limited numbers, are available for temporary use during your visit; please notify staff at the front desk or contact us prior to your arrival. Limited lot and street parking is available.
During Your Visit
Wear a face-covering: Face-coverings that cover your nose and mouth are required for all visitors over the age of five. Single-use masks are available at the front desk in limited quantities.
Check Yourself: Visitors will have their temperatures checked upon arrival. Temperature checks are touchless.
Keep six feet apart: Visitors must maintain a minimum physical distance of six feet from gallery staff and your fellow art enthusiasts who are not part of your visiting party. Please follow new circulation routes at select entry points to maintain physical distance.
Cover your cough, and wash your hands frequently: Hand-sanitizing stations are available throughout the galleries. Public restrooms are available to McEvoy Arts' visitors.
McEvoy Arts' top priority is the health and well-being of our visitors and staff. We are taking enhanced precautions for your safety, including: operating at reduced capacity; enhancing cleaning measures; implementing daily health screenings for staff; and requiring staff to wear face coverings.
If you have received a COVID-19 vaccine, you must continue to follow face-covering and social distancing requirements when visitng McEvoy Arts.
An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. If you are part of an immunocompromised high-risk group, are in need of other accommodations, or have additional questions, please contact us at info@mcevoyarts.org or 415-580-7605.
About the Exhibition
Lessons of the Hour is an immersive moving image and photography exhibition by British filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien, CBE RA. It explores the life of Frederick Douglass, the visionary African American writer, abolitionist, statesman, and freed slave through a few of his most compelling speeches and moments from his private life. The centerpiece of the exhibition, Julien’s ten-screen film installation Lessons of the Hour — Frederick Douglass (2019), offers a contemplative, poetic journey into Douglass’ life and legacy. The film installation is accompanied by Julien’s tintype portraits and mise en scènes photographs of the film’s subjects as well as a complementary grouping of works from the McEvoy Family Collection, selected by Julien and independent writer and curator Mark Nash.
In the Screening Room
New Labor Movements is a four-part program of contemporary film shorts that explore the profound broadness of Black life across borders. Thoughtful articulations of movement feature in the works of emerging and established filmmakers to ask the question, “what is America today?” New Labor Movements is curated by Leila Weefur.
Movement III. Freedom/Liberation is on view February 18 – April 24, 2021and features works by Darol Olu Kae, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Terrance Daye, Elegance Bratton and Jovan James, and Charlotte Brathwaite.
Acknowledgments
Lessons of the Hour was commissioned by the Memorial Art Gallery with the partnership of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
Media Partner: frieze Magazine
