The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art hosted an evening filled with jazz, food and art Thursday, Sept. 3.
Attendees browsed the Flora and Fauna exhibit, which featured selections from the Sheila J. McCartney Collection at the museum.
Danielle Funderburk, the registrar of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, gave a speech early in the evening.
Funderburk explained how she selected the pieces for the exhibit and thanked McCartney for her contribution.
The collection features various natural history prints that will be on display until Sunday, Nov. 1.
Justin Sawyer, freshman in software engineering, said he liked the detail of the prints.
"I've been wanting to come for a while," Sawyer said. "I picked a good day to come."
Starting Sunday, Nov. 1, there will be two new exhibits in the museum.
According to Funderburk, one exhibit will feature pieces by John James Audobon and the other will feature pieces for the 1072 society.
The 1072 society, which helps continue the expansion of the museum's collection, gets its name from the $1072 that was spent for a collection of paintings obtained by the museum in 1948.
Funderburk said this year's 1072 society exhibit will be based heavily on photography.
"We want to really get a mix of pieces," Funderburk said. "Everything in that gallery will be photographs, and some will be some older pieces [with some] new pieces."
The items that will be on display during the 1072 society exhibit are items the museum will try to purchase for their permanent collection.
According to Funderburk, these paintings came from an exhibition in 1946 that featured American painters.
Andrew Henley, education curator for grades K-12, said freedom of speech played an important role in the exhibition.
"Some of it [the art] was politically charged, some was very abstract, very modern works of art," Henley said.
After two years, the show was cancelled and the artwork was sold as war surplus, according to Henley.
Frank Applebee, former head of the art department, sent in a bid for $1072.
"It was like a sealed bid sort of thing," Henley said. "So he sent in a check for $1072, having no idea what he would get back, and they sent back 36 paintings."
Many of the paintings obtained at this time included works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove and Ben Shahn. These works have been part of the museum's permanent collection ever since.
According to Henley, every Thursday night the museum offers jazz and serves tapas in the cafe until 8 p.m.
Visit the museum's website for the full calendar and more information.
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