Fenimore Art Museum Offers After-Hours Tour of New Exhibition with Utica-Based Photographer Joshua Ives

Program: After-Hours Tour with Joshua Ives

Friday, April 26, 2024 • 5:30-6:30 PM

$20 members; $25 non-members

Registration is required • Visit FenimoreArt.org

Cooperstown, New York — Join photographer Joshua Ives on Friday, April 26 at 5:30 p.m. for a tour of his new exhibition, 50-Pound Blanket, currently on view at Fenimore Art Museum through May 12, 2024. Ives presents a deeply personal and introspective chronicle of his journey through depression and healing after transitioning from a military career to civilian life. The exhibition features photographs of Utica, New York captured in the ethereal light of early mornings and late afternoons. Registration is required. Visit FenimoreArt.org for more information on this program and the 2024 season.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

50-pound Blanket: Photographs by Joshua Ives

April 2 – May 12, 2024

Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY

Through photographs of Utica, New York, captured in the ethereal light of early mornings and late afternoons, 50-Pound Blanket explores the themes of depression, aging, and the therapeutic power of art. It aims to foster dialogue and contemplation about the impact of mental health on individuals and how creative expression can promote mental well-being. After retiring from a 24-year military career in 2015, Joshua Ives found himself as a full-time undergrad at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. At the age of 45, he felt disconnected and out of place. As the semesters progressed, he became increasingly withdrawn and fell into a prolonged period of depression, as if a heavy 50-pound blanket was weighing him down. During this challenging time, he discovered solace and therapy through the lens of a camera. He embarked on a contemplative journey through Utica, NY with the goal to photograph the essence of the city, the sixth oldest in the state. Along the way, he found himself drawn to discarded and forgotten objects, symbols of their former usefulness cast aside. His photographs are not merely documenting Utica, but also create a profound self-portrait of his struggles and resilience.

About Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.