 – Opening Saturday, February 26, 2022 at the North Carolina Museum of Art, “Container/Contained: Phil Freelon Design Strategies for Telling African American Stories” will be an exhibition…){kind=link}
RALEIGH, NC (PNAN) – Opening Saturday, February 26, 2022 at the North Carolina Museum of Art, “Container/Contained: Phil Freelon Design Strategies for Telling African American Stories” will be an exhibition celebrating architect Philip G. Freelon (1953–2019) and his career of over four decades designing public buildings with his firm, the Freelon Group and later as design director of Perkins & Will North Carolina.
“We’re honored to help tell the story of Phil Freelon and his incredible accomplishments. The symbolism and metaphors in the buildings he designed celebrate Black communities and histories in a lasting way,” said Museum Director Valerie Hillings. “Freelon served on the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation Board from 2008 to 2012, so we are especially pleased to present this exhibition focused on his groundbreaking career.”
Along with his team, Freelon drew on histories of neighborhoods, connections to African American communities and African pasts to create designs rooted firmly in place and time. Activism and celebration of heritage are subtly present in Freelon’s work.
Freelon’s notable designs include the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC; the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta; the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco; the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture in Charlotte; the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson; and the forthcoming Freedom Park in Raleigh.
Architect Freelon was a master of formal symbolism and design metaphors that are thought-provoking which reference culture and history. For example, his work examines the multiple functions and meanings of skin, as both a protective covering and a visual form of identification. In his designs for African American communities and institutions, he expanded the idea of skin with complex building exteriors that explore the use of color, pattern and material.
For more information see: https://ncartmuseum.org.