A new exhibit about John Mellencamp is set to open at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on November 30. The pocket exhibit will draw connections between Guthrie and Mellencamp, highlighting their many similarities.
“Most people might shortsightedly think of Mellencamp’s ‘Jack & Diane’ and mistake it as a pop song rather than a Midwesterner’s reverence to the innocence found in small-town, working-class youth,” Woody Guthrie Center Director Cady Shaw shares. “With a closer look, you’ll find Mellencamp has been weaving threads of Heartland charm with folk-steeped storytelling and heavy-mitted activism through his lyrics, paintings and advocacy his whole life,” adding, “Mellencamp has consistently been an active voice for the greater good.”
The exhibit will feature Mellencamp photographs and album covers, as well as the singer’s guitar that features a profane sentiment carved into it, similar to what Guthrie once did. It will also feature a painting done by Mellencamp himself, which depicts Bob Dylan and Guthrie together.
Tickets for the exhibit are on sale now at the Woody Guthrie Center website.
And speaking of Mellencamp’s art, the singer’s coffee table art book, John Mellencamp: American Paintings and Assemblages, is out now and can be purchased on the singer’s website.
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