The Mennello Museum of American Art (Facebook | Website) is hosting a screening of This World is Not My Own, an award-winning documentary about self-taught artist Nellie Mae Rowe, on Saturday, March 28 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Admission to the museum’s current exhibitions, including Faith and Vision: Spirituality in Self-Taught Art, which features Rowe’s work, is included with your screening ticket.
Born on July 4, 1900, the daughter of a sharecropper and former slave, Rowe spent most of her life making art in obscurity from whatever materials she could find, driven by what she described as a “God-given gift.” As an adult, she transformed her home into what she called her “Playhouse,” filling it with vibrant drawings, handmade sculptures and dolls, and collected objects. It wasn’t until six years before her death that gallerist Judith Alexander discovered her work and brought it to a wider audience.
The film traces Rowe’s life across four acts and an interlude, blending traditional documentary techniques with animation and scripted scenes shot on intricately detailed sets that reimagine the Playhouse. Actresses Uzo Aduba and Amy Warren voice and perform scripted scenes drawn from Rowe’s own words.
Tickets are available HERE.
