Total Solar Eclipse and Astral Visions

Buffalo, New York is situated on the central line to view a total eclipse of the sun on Monday, April 8, 2024 one day before the 131st anniversary of Charles E. Burchfield’s birth. To honor what is being called the “Great North American Solar Eclipse” (https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/blog-posts/what-will-the-2024-total-solar-eclipse-look-like-from-buffalo.html), the Burchfield Penney Art Center worked with Kevin K. Williams, Ph.D., on an astronomy-themed Burchfield exhibition and related programs. Dr. Williams is an associate professor of Geosciences and director of the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium at SUNY Buffalo State University who collaborated with Tullis Johnson and Alana Ryder in 2013 to co-curate the exhibition, Oh My Heavens, that examined the scientific, historical, and spiritual implications of Burchfield’s works.

Total Solar Eclipse & Astral Visions is being curated by Burchfield Scholar Nancy Weekly with assistance from Curator Tullis Johnson to include Burchfield’s paintings, drawings, and studies that depict the sun, moon, constellations, and night sky, as well as stunning solar astrophotography by Alan Friedman taken from “his backyard observatory in Buffalo.”