by: Maryann Wohlwend
Akron Art Museum collects work from 1850 to the present. The museum has a pioneering history in collecting and exhibiting photography, video, and video games as fine art, purchasing works by women artists with regional reputations & international stature, and by seriously collecting the work of working-class, self-taught artists who express their concerns about contemporary life. Akron Art Museum’s mission is to enrich lives through modern & contemporary art.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, who isn’t playing? Chances are you’ve found & foraged a wealth of fruit & firewood and developed your cultural tastes by differentiating real vs. fake art. Now it’s time to become connoisseurs of collecting modern & contemporary art for your very own museum. We want to enrich your (gaming) life by introducing AAM artworks that you can download, decorate, & display — no Nook loan required.
We used the Animal Crossing Pattern Tool to turn three of our artworks into scannable QR codes to use in your game. Browse 1000s of images of our collection at https://www.akronartmuseum.org/on-view/, upload them into the Pattern Tool, and generate your own QR codes for customization on your island…miles away from Ohio, the heart of it all.
This scene of a downtown Akron intersection, bustling with activity on a snowy winter’s evening, captures the feel of the city’s Main Street in the 1930s. Now seen as a glimpse into a vanished past, Winter Evening represents an ambitious young artist’s effort to show the city he knew best. After high school, Gleitsmann studied art with a couple northeast Ohio artists and instructors, but remained essentially self-taught, exploring new ideas and materials on his own.
“Photography,” claimed Laure Albin Guillot, “must be true to life and sincere; it must likewise be beautiful.” Unlike many of her contemporaries, for whom the image as seen through the camera lens was the single important aspect of the work, Albin Guillot regarded the mastery of photographic printing techniques as an integral part of the endeavor. “Few other photographers,” it was said of her, “possess the knowledge and mastery . . . [and] take the same care with the execution of a work . . . as with the taking of the view.”
Man Ray, a pioneer of Dada and Surrealism, was the only American artist to play a major role in developing those influential early 20thC movements. In 1923 he produced Indestructible Object which became the most recognized readymades in history. Ready-mades consist of everyday, mass-produced objects that attain status as a work of art through selection, slight alteration, and designation by an artist. Borrowing from the artist’s original title for this work, Akron Art Museum created the exhibit, Objects to be Destroyed (on view February 29, 2020 — August 9, 2020) full of unexpected everyday items as a way to draw attention to the items’ physical and aesthetic characteristics. The artists encourage viewers to reconsider the artistic process as an intellectual rather than a purely technique-driven pursuit.
We’ve even included our museum logo to pattern your t-shirts, floors, & more.
How to scan QR codes from the Nintendo Switch Online app:
1. Open the app. find Animal Crossing: New Horizons under Game-Specific Services.
2. Find Designs in the Nook Link menu. follow the commands to scan a QR code. after you’ve scanned the design, save it in the app.
3. When you’re back in the game on the Switch, go to Custom Designs on your Nook Phone and hit (+) to download a design. Save it in a blank Design Pattern slot.
You can display your artwork, decorate as wallpaper, walk on it as floor tiles, wear it as clothing, or whatever you wish!
We would love to see how you used our patterns: tag us on social media @akronartmuseum
MuseumGames are made possible by PNC with additional support from Acme Fresh Market, the Kathy Moses Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Akron Community Foundation, The R.C. Musson and Katharine M. Musson Charitable Foundation, the Robert O. and Annamae Orr Family Foundation, and the Charles E. and Mabel M. Ritchie Foundation