The Art of Harry Smith @ Charlotte

Please join us for this rare opportunity to hear from Rani Singh, the Director of the Harry Smith Archive!

In light of the publication of a recent monograph, Smith's work is currently traveling in the United States, with a much publicized exhibit at the Whitney Museum in NY.  The exhibit has already generated tremendous anticipation and rave reviews.

Next stop is Charlotte! 

In preparation for Goodyear Arts' rare screening of Harry Smith's films at the Independent Picture House on Friday November 3rd and Saturday November 4th, UNC Charlotte will be hosting a talk by Singh, focusing on Smith's filmmaking and art. 

We are thrilled to host Singh and get to hear stories about this extraordinary artist and individual, a true visionary! 

Hosted by Goodyear Arts

Co-Sponsored by the Department of Languages and Culture Studies, English Department, & Interdisciplinary Studies

Rani Singh is the Director of the Harry Smith Archives. She is the co-curator of “Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith” opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  She met Harry Smith at Naropa Institute and was his assistant until his passing in 1991. Singh joined the Getty in 2000 as a scholar in residence based on her work on Harry Smith. She was responsible for the placement of the Harry Smith Papers at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles and the acquisition by the Bob Dylan Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma of Smith’s books and records. She has worked previously as Director of Special Projects at Gagosian Gallery.

Harry Smith was one of the secret shapers of 20th Century American culture. Filmmaker, musicologist, artist, collector, and anthropologist, he received a Lifetime Grammy for his seminal Anthology of American Folk Music collection, which created the folk revival of the 1960s and influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Nick Cave. He’s been described as a “one man cultural revolution” and cited for changing American culture through music. This year is the centenary of Smith’s birth and it’s being celebrated by a major retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art and the new biography Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith by John Szwed, published by Farrar Straus & Giroux.