Year-End Expotition

The Mint Museum

The Mint Museum is a significant cultural institution in Charlotte. Although my family is fond of culture, we had never been to the Mint Museum in the 22 years we have lived in this area. It has two buildings, “Randolph” and “Uptown”; both are uptown from where I live in the out-of-county ‘burbs, but only about half an hour away.

We visited the Randolph branch on Tuesday, joined by Vlad, who is getting shack-wacky at Drama Queen’s house with the Cats. The most unusual thing there was an exhibit of skateboard art, which I did not know was a thing.

Beau would have known: he used to be a skate-boarder in Charlotte. Randolph also has a lot - a LOT - of English ceramics, which are quite cool, both technically and aesthetically, but perhaps not in the quantities presented. It’s a maze-like place, and we kept finding more stuff, like African masquerade pieces and South American pots. We were really hungry afterward and went to Fenwick’s, which has a cult following and was just fine, although I pointed out that we had food at home (and I had a granola bar in my purse).

The tickets were good for both locations, so on Wednesday, we went to the Uptown branch, taking along Epic, who was at loose ends and also hoped to be taken out to lunch. Heh. He got free admission for being under 18. The headline exhibit Uptown was an selection of art collected by a pair of biographers of Vincent Van Gogh. I really enjoyed this due to the variety of media and styles; the connecting theme was being contemporaneous with Van Gogh, an influence on Van Gogh, influenced by Van Gogh, etc.

There was also a gallery of glass, some of which was amazing:

You really had to be there. Even a good photo wouldn’t do it justice.

May you all have many great expotitions in 2026!