The Margaret Harwell Art Museum will hold a Dean Mitchell reception from 6-8 p.m. Saturday with a presentation by the artist, but it will not be in person. He will instead attend via Zoom due to his recent bladder cancer diagnosis.
“We will have a Zoom conference with him. We will set up a TV screen for people who come to the reception, so they will be able to see him in real time and he will see them,” museum director Steve Whitworth explained.
Mitchell is a critically acclaimed painter whose works depicting the Black experience in America have earned him national fame. He held his first solo exhibition at MHAM.
Despite the dire news, Whitworth reported Mitchell’s prognosis was very good and he still intends to return to Poplar Bluff, but cannot travel until the New Year. Thus, his show is being extended through February 2022, when it will run concurrently with an upstairs exhibit for Black History Month.
In the meantime, Mitchell is looking forward to interacting with attendees however he can.
“He’s anxious to get up here but thinks the Zoom conference will be a lot of fun,” Whitworth noted.
Saturday’s reception is catered by Tasteful Creations and includes adult and non-alcoholic beverages. Whitworth said the gift shop will also be open and catalogs of the show will be selling for $10 to the general public to offset cost of hosting the exhibit. Catalogs are available for free to museum Friends.