Bechtler Museum’s Modern Mondays logo.

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s Modern Mondays series kicks off this year on January 14th with a film screening of “Alberto Giacometti: What is a Head?” This program series is intended to provide an informal and interactive opportunity for visitors to gain a deeper understanding of works of art in the Bechtler Museum’s collection (a Knight Arts grantee). Often featuring a special tour, lecture, or hands-on-activity, Modern Mondays allows the public to interact with museum professionals, scholars and artists.

The film about Giacometti will begin that Monday at 6:30 p.m., followed by a discussion led by Dr. Karen Stock from Winthrop University. Made in 1966 “Alberto Giacometti: What is a Head?” documents the life and works of Giacometti. It was produced by Swiss photographer, painter and filmmaker Ernst Scheidegger, who enjoyed a life-long friendship with Giacometti and even spent time at Giacometti’s Swiss studio. Importantly, the film includes an interview with Giacometti in which he discusses his intentions with sculpting.

The next Modern Monday program is a real treat, featuring the Bechtler’s President and CEO John Boyer leading a crash course in modern art. Using the Bechtler’s collection as a foundation, Boyer will lead participants in a two-night discovery of the basics of modernism. “In two nights we’re going to careen through 150 years worth of artists, ideas and objects that ended up defining our 20th-century notions of what it meant to be modern,” explains Boyer. “We will do our best to set those ideas in the larger context of the transformations that occurred in science, politics and pop culture.” Reservations are required for this program, and space is already filling up.

2011 Modern Monday program. Photo by Nancy Pierce

Modern Mondays programs offer a cash bar opening at 6 p.m. Tickets are free for members and $8 for non-members. The Modernism 101 program is free.  Tickets can be purchased online or by phone at 704-353-9200.

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art: 420 South Tryon St., Charlotte; www.bechtler.org. Hours: Mon., 10-5 p.m.; Tues., closed; Wed.-Sat., 10-5 p.m.; Sun., 12-5 p.m.