FOLK AND VISIONARY ART IN THE SPACE AGE

Folk artists, working without traditional art training, use pure imagination to create forms and images relating to outer space. Visionary artists, who have had other-worldly experiences, such as an actual or imagined encounter with a flying saucer or alien being, translate those experiences into visual or tactile form. We have been fortunate to have discovered pieces of Space Age folk art and visionary art as well as various kinds of homemade creations and shop-built works. This exhibit includes envisioned spaceships, paintings of UFO sightings, homemade spacecraft models, folk art space toys, shop-built robots, one-of-a-kind promotional sculptures, and a few pieces that are difficult to categorize. What they share in common are central themes of humans venturing into outer space and making personal connection with the mysteries of the cosmos.