by GRACE BROGAN
SPONSORED BY MAGDA
Tour Schedule
- PARIS GIBSON SQUARE MUSEUM OF ART October 9, 2026 – January 9, 2027
- THE WHITNEY CENTER FOR THE ARTS – SHERIDAN COLLEGE February 4 – March 25, 2027
- SCHOOLHOUSE HISTORY & ART CENTER June 1 – August 28, 2027
- WESTERN HERITAGE CENTER September 7 – November 29, 2027
- HELEN E COPELAND GALLERY – MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY January 3 – February 18, 2028
- CARLE GALLERY – BUTTE SILVER-BOW PUBLIC LIBRARY March 1 – April 15, 2028
- THE ART MUSEUM OF EASTERN IDAHO May 11 – June 22, 2028
- MONDAK HERITAGE CENTER October 11 – December 30, 2028
Exhibit Details
- 40 – 45 wall-hung art brooms using wood, antler, ceramics, and natural dyes
- 6″ x 6″ – 10″ x 96″
- 1 crates, approx.150 – 200 LB
- Available April 2026 – December 2028
- Up to 6-weeks: $300/ 7 – 12-weeks: $500
- Integrative Resources: Grace will demo a promect at the conference which can be implimented within hosts’ education programs. We will provide tactile materials such as broom corn for viewers to handle, and literature referencing the past, present, and future of broom making in America.
Grace Brogan’s brooms have brought new life to traditional craft. Her use of unique materials and modern design provides a fresh take on a centuries-old utilitarian object. The origins and maturation of this household staple are aligned with the development of the industrial world. In this exhibition, we will educate and excite viewers with how Grace has transformed this humble piece of domesticity into stunning visual art. – Alissa Kost, ED, MAGDA
“As an artist, I explore our relationships with each other, with the material and natural world, and with our experiences as participants in a complex web of interactions over time.
I work with wood, broomcorn, wood-fired ceramics, and fibers to create functional brooms and sculptures of alternative utility. I play in the space of the mindful and mundane, labor and ritual, ordinary and extraordinary.
I have a particular interest in patterns — rhythms observed in the ripples exposed by tightly woven broomcorn stalks, the orange licks of flame embedded in the ash-glazed surface of woodfired ceramics, or the idiosyncratic cadence in burlwood knots.
My work speaks to the viewer through familiar domestic objects – and their wild cousins – about what is lost in a culture of disconnection, and the joys of the alternative.
We landed on the title of Keep for this exhibition as in to attend to, to provide for, to honor…
Brooms are often relegated to a dark closet, associated with housekeeping. Keeping a home, keeping clean. Is there space for the things we surround ourselves to be more than that? To be items of history and daily meditation? To come from the earth and be cared for, knowing they originated from the land and were formed in someone’s trained hands to be an integral part of your life?
If we look beyond our initial expectations, a cascade of questions arises:
What household items do we retain for the long term? Which are considered short-lived?
How do we care for ourselves, our spaces, our community, or our environment?
Where is the line between fine art, tool, and craft? What are our gendered expectations of chores? Of artistic pursuits? What (and whose work) deserves to be shared with and discussed by the public in museum or gallery spaces?
Without offering simple answers to whatever questions arise for visitors, my hope is that your time with these objects elicits delight, curiosity, and conversation.” – Grace Brogan, Artist
MAGDA 