Total Solar Eclipse & 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 is working 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.

We were all excited to view the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, from the Center’s Louise Terrace and other sites on campus, which makes planning for the 2024 event special.

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.” As part of the Buffalo Eclipse Consortium, Dr. Williams will advise on related programs at the Center and at the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium. He has already planned a presentation on February 15, 2024, by Fred Espenak, known as “Mr. Eclipse,” who is a retired NASA astrophysicist, author, photographer, and eclipse expert. Programs, including witnessing the total solar eclipse, are being planned to take place throughout the 4-month run of the exhibition.