After Hours Guided Tour of the American Folk Art Museum

Explore the latest exhibits with a museum educator!

• See over 100 works from AFAM’s collection, many of which are recent acquisitions or have been rarely seen
• Explore the museum's two new exhibitions - Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States and Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists - on a guided tour after the museum has closed to the public
• Discover a kaleidoscopic variety of media expressing love of country while also revealing the complexities and contradictions embedded in such expressions
• Learn about the museum's outstanding examples of paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and artists’ notebooks created by self-taught artists

About this Event:

Founded in 1961, the American Folk Art Museum is the nation’s museum of folk and self-taught art. Candid, genuine, and unexpected, AFAM celebrates the creativity of individuals whose singular talents have been refined largely through personal experience rather than formal artistic training. With a collection spanning 7,500 works of art from four centuries and nearly every continent, the Museum engages people of all backgrounds through its collections, exhibitions, publications, and public programs as the leading forum shaping the understanding and appreciation of folk and self-taught art.

Currently on view are two exhibitions showcasing the heart of AFAM’s collection: Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States and Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists. Mounted during the celebration of the United States semiquincentennial, Folk Nation draws from the Museum’s rich collections to explore links between vernacular art and the construction of an American sense of self. Compiling works by 60 self-taught artists, Self-Made examines how artists without academic training have depicted, conceptualized, and identified themselves on their own terms.

Join us for a tour of both exhibitions, led by the museum's Senior Educator!

About Your Guide, Nicole Haroutunian:

Nicole Haroutunian has worked at the American Folk Art Museum since 2008. As Senior Educator, she leads school, family, private, public, and access programs. Her objective is always to ensure that each museum visitor feels welcomed, heard, and valued, and has their unique needs met. She particularly enjoys facilitating the museum's ongoing partnership with the supportive art studio ArTech and creating art-centered writing workshops.

In addition to her work at AFAM, Nicole is a member of the education department at the Noguchi Museum, where she teaches school, private, and access programs, as well as the early childhood program Art for Tots and the caregiver-centered Stroller Tours. In her over two decades in museum education, she also has worked at the Museum of Modern Art, The Morgan Library and Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, and elsewhere.

Nicole holds a BA in Studio Art from Vassar College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She programs and hosts the monthly reading series "Story Time" for Caregivers at the Astoria Bookshop, has published her fiction widely, and, as a freelance writer, has had numerous podcasts scripts and audiobooks produced. She is the author of Choose This Now (Noemi Press, 2024), which was named a best short story collection of the year by Electric Literature, and Speed Dreaming (Little a, 2015). She is at work on her third book. nicoleharoutunian.com