Since coming to college at FSU, I’ve heard about the art museum on campus. FSU’s Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) is located in the Fine Arts Building on West Call Street. I recently visited MoFA for a class project and found myself really disappointed that I hadn’t gone sooner!
Spread across two floors, there are currently two exhibitions on display at the MoFA: “HOMO SARGASSUM” and “The Quilts of Mrs. Gussie Beatrice Arnold Hill.” I found both engaging, informative, and well worth the visit. Let’s explore these exhibitions a little further!
“Homo Sargassum”
“HOMO SARGASSUM” was developed in collaboration with the Tout-Monde Art Foundation. Its goal is to highlight environmental problems through the works of Caribbean artists whose islands are affected.
They chose FSU as the home of “HOMO SARGASSUM” because university scientist Nico Wienders conducted research on the overgrowth of sargassum, a type of seaweed, in the ocean. Because of climate change, sargassum blooms have multiplied. They travel by currents from Africa and wash up on the shores of the Caribbean islands. As sargassum erodes, it negatively impacts the air, water, and soil, directly affecting low-income areas that can’t afford to remove it from their ecosystems.
I love this exhibition because it intentionally addresses the problem at hand and tries to find a solution. Commissioning Caribbean artists for this exhibition allows people directly affected by this problem to interpret it as their own.
It’s split into three episodes. The first, “Drifting,” compares the migration of sargassum to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Artists recognize that these same currents bringing sargassum to the Caribbean also brought millions of enslaved African people to the Americas. The second episode, “Breathing Fire,” delves into the artistic interpretations of sargassum’s ecological and biological impacts on Caribbean people and their communities. The last episode, “Becoming Fluid,” shows the innovative creativity of artists to find solutions to the overabundance of sargassum. One of the most remarkable pieces in this section was a dress with a bodice made of sargassum.
This exhibition is also an immersive experience for all five senses, including a sargassum essential oil blend diffused in the room during the final episode.“HOMO SARGASSUM” will be on display at MoFA until March 8, 2025.
“The Quilts of Mrs. Gussie Beatrice Arnold Hill”
Inspired by her maternal grandmother, FSU professor Anjali Austin worked with MoFA to develop the “The Quilts of Mrs. Gussie Beatrice Arnold Hill” exhibit and “Live Oak,” an original performance. The exhibition showcases the intricate quilts that Austin’s grandmother created throughout her life and gives information about her local Tallahassee family.
As someone with sewing knowledge who grew up with a grandmother who quilted, I was astonished by the complexity of the designs. They were all hand-sewn using scrap pieces of fabric, which resulted in fun contrasts and patterns. No barriers keep you from getting close to these quilts, so you can take an extra close look at the details Mrs. Gussie includes.
An essential message of this exhibition is the inclusion of an artist whose work wouldn’t have been showcased 50 years ago. Born in 1912, Mrs. Gussie lived under segregation and lesser freedoms. MoFA has provided a space to celebrate the creations of an artist who was a family matriarch and persevered as a black woman in the American South.
Although a smaller-scale exhibition, “The Quilts of Mrs. Gussie Beatrice Arnold Hill,” is no less impactful. It will be at MoFA until Feb. 8, 2025.
Be sure to visit these exhibitions before they are taken off display!
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest!