FREE FRIDAY: Dayton Art Institute offers special Community Day

Apr. 19—The Dayton Art Institute is providing a special "Free Friday" to the community this week.

The museum will offer free admission from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 22, to its collection galleries and the exhibitions "Black Heritage Through Visual Rhythms," "Van Gogh & European Landscapes," "Fired Imagination: Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Family Collection," and "The Flower Prints of Katsuhira Tokushi."

"We greatly appreciate the community's support through these past two years, especially as we begin to finally emerge from the pandemic and return to regular operations," said DAI Director & CEO Michael R. Roediger, in a release. "As a way of saying thank you, we're offering the opportunity to experience the museum and its current exhibitions, as well as an uplifting presentation by the African American Visual Artists Guild, for free."

"Black Heritage Through Visual Rhythms," on view through May 22, is a juried exhibition featuring more than 80 works by 44 nationally recognized and emerging African American artists from across the United States. The exhibition reflects the diverse backgrounds and different interests of the artists and includes art in a variety of styles and media.

"Van Gogh & European Landscapes," on view through September 4, offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a remarkable pair of Van Gogh paintings, on loan to the museum from Switzerland, made during the final month of Van Gogh's life. This intimate Focus Exhibition also includes works by Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Joseph Mallord William Turner, John Constable and others.

"Fired Imagination: Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Nancy and Ed Rosenthal Family Collection," on view through July 24, presents a private collection of ceramics, ranging from figures to vessels and spanning more than 3,000 years of Chinese history.

"The Flower Prints of Katsuhira Tokushi," on view through September 18, introduces the work of Japanese artist Katsuhira Tokushi through a complete set of his series "Twelve Works on Flower Selling Customs" (1959 — 1961).

In addition, the African American Visual Artists Guild (AAVAG) will present "Harlem Renaissance to Now: Relevance of African American Art" in the museum's Rose Auditorium from 1 pm. to 4 p.m. Presentations will be given by: Sierra Leone, award-winning writer and poet; Karen D. Brame, founder of BlackListed Culture; and Andrew Scott, artist and professor. There will also be a panel discussion and live painting demonstration by Erin Smith-Green, associate professor of art at Central State University. AAVAG collaborated with the DAI to present "Black Heritage Through Visual Rhythms."

For more information, call 937-223-4278 or visit daytonartinstitute.org. The DAI is located at 456 Belmonte Park N., Dayton.