Betsy Bannan: “You have to find a way into the work”
Our halls and gallery spaces were full last Friday night as we celebrated the opening reception for the latest round of exhibitions. We don’t know about you all, but we’re pretty blown away by the incredible local talent lining the walls in the center right now.
Roanoke artist Sam Krisch shows off breathtaking landscape photography in the Ruth C. Horton Gallery, and the insanely creative students from Community High School fill the Sherwood Payne Quillen ’71 Reception Gallery and the Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery with larger-than-life masterpieces, while fellow Roanoke artist Betsy Bannan’s snaking aerial image-inspired works on birch panels bring life and color to the Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor.
Bannan gave some fascinating insights into her work during an artist talk Friday night–the first of two she’ll give during her exhibition’s span at the Moss Arts Center (you can catch her second on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, at 6:15 p.m.).
Inspired by the views from her cross-country flights, as well as the hours she’s spent looking at aerial views in Google Earth, she’s created stunning works, piecing together segmented birch panels into expansive oil paintings. Her segmented approach keeps the work from seeming too big, she says. “I tell my students, ‘you have to find a way into the work,’ “Bannan said. Each birch panel, although just one part of the larger work, acts as a much less intimidating starting point, giving Bannan somewhere to dive in.
Here are some pictures from Bannan’s talk on Friday, December 5.
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Flyover and The Big Country are on display in the Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor now through Sunday, February 1, 2015.
“Young Artists” exhibition opens Thursday, May 22
Our next visual art exhibition is Young Artists, a collection of works celebrating the art of middle and high school students throughout Montgomery County. The opening reception is scheduled for Thursday, May 22, 6-8 p.m. We’d love for you to join us!
Gallery graduate assistant Meggin Hicklin shares a little more of what Young Artists is all about:
“The mission of Young Artists is to celebrate the creativity and talent of children and teens in our community. By featuring their work in the Moss Arts Center, we hope to encourage students to see the value of their own work, both as a finished product and as a process. Whether they go on to a career in art is not really that important–although we hope to have a positive influence on that as well. What matters most is that artists of all ages acknowledge and nurture their own creativity as a valuable part of the human experience.
“Young Artists is also an opportunity for aspiring curators and exhibition designers working at the center to hone their skills. Meggin Hicklin and Mary Kate Claytor, graduate assistants under the guidance of curator Margo Crutchfield, coordinated both Young Artists shows in the 2013-2014 season. While all exhibitions at the Moss Arts Center provide training and education for the gallery staff and graduate assistants, Young Artists is an opportunity for them to ‘fly solo.’
“The same attention and care is given to the installation of Young Artists as any other show with regard to handling, layout, and design. This work is important and this show is important, as is its message to the community: the Center for the Arts is a place where all art is celebrated, as a creative process, an educational tool, and a means by which to connect with others.”
Photos: Young Artists opening celebration at the Moss Arts Center
On Friday, Dec. 6, 2013, in the Ruth C. Horton Gallery and the Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor, fifth grade students showed off their considerable artistic talents during the opening celebration for their visual art exhibition. Students from Belview, Gilbert Linkous, Harding Avenue, Kipps, Margaret Beeks, and Prices Fork Elementary Schools exhibited work, ranging from self-portraits to their takes on famous works of art.
Have you seen the exhibition yet? The work will remain on display through Sunday.
Gallery hours:
Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013: Noon-6 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 13, 2013: Noon-9 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013: Noon-6 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013: Noon-6 p.m.
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Photos courtesy of University Relations.
“Young Artists” bring creativity, rainbow of colors to gallery space
There’s a life-size, newspapered horse in the Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery.
Seriously.
The fabulous artists and creative minds of Roanoke’s Community High School are exhibiting work now as part of this semester’s Young Artists exhibition, open now through Sunday, February 1, 2015, and if you missed the opening reception on Friday, Dec. 5, you missed something special. But don’t worry–you still have another chance to experience all the fun during the exhibition’s closing reception on Friday, January 30, 2015, from 5-7 p.m.
Poets, wordsmiths, puppeteers, artists, and more, all students in CHS classes Puppet Making and Puppeturgy, Reproducible Media and Two Centuries of “-Isms:” Intellectual Communities and Social Change, pooled their talents for the exhibition, and all performances by the artists were met with wild applause!
Check out our photos from the night below!
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What was your favorite part from the exhibition?