News
Poetry and Art exhibit showcases the Great Lakes Region at the GVSU Art Gallery
February 18, 2016
After three years of planning, Patricia Clark, chair of the Department of Writing and Jinny Jenkins, chair of the Department of Art and Design, bring to the GVSU Art Gallery Great Lakes: Image & Word, an exhibition based on the idea of collaboration.
When Jenkins was hired as Department Chair of the Art and Design department, an idea for a joint exhibition of art and writing was seeded into their minds. A few years later, Clark starts teaching a class at the Honors college called "How To Love The World", with Jill Eggers, Associate Professor of Painting. In this course, Clark and Eggers had their students model close observations of the natural world, visually or in writing. As Clark says about the course: "If you look at things closely, you learn to love them. Because you look at them long enough and you kind of dissolve as a person and you come to really love these things".
From there, a more solid idea for the exhibition was born. Clark and Jenkins united efforts to find out pairs of poets and artists with strong ties to the Great Lakes region and see what unexpected results can arise from this collaboration. "The lakes and water systems of the Great Lakes are a majestic natural resource too little known outside of our region", say them. Therefore, in a time when freshwater reserves are under many discussions and close attention of the mass media, it made sense to observe closely and celebrate the area as the theme for the show. "Part of it was also celebrating what is so special and what is so unique about this region, and convincing people why they should come and should come and live here", says Jenkins.
The exhibit consists of 8 poets and 8 artists who collaborated to present their own take on the Great Lakes. The display includes poems, paintings, sculptures and photography. The pieces present memories, feelings and mysteries that the region may arise. "The pleasures that Jinny and I have found in working together has come from seeing an idea take shape, but it also has been thrilling in the midst of administrative tasks (since both of us are chairs of our respective departments) to take a break, in a sense, and return to the sources of our initial career delights: making art and working with another person to create something. After three years, or more, of work planning this exhibit, it is wonderful, now, to see the works come in."
The featured artists in the exhibition are:
Patricia Clark and Hoon Lee
Alice Fulton and Kim Cridler
Dan
Gerber and Graceann Warn
Jim Harrison and Jill Eggers
Ander
Monson and Nayda Collazo-Llorens
Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Sally
Rose
Keith Taylor and Mike Rebholz
Crystal Williams and David Greenwood
Great Lakes: Image & Word is displayed at the GVSU Art Gallery (1121 Performing Arts Center) from January 19th until April 1st. Admission is free of charge.
Please click here to see the online exhibition catalogue. You can also listen to Clark and Jenkins discussing the exhibition on the Great Lakes Echo podcast by clicking here.
Other related events
Throughout the time of the exhibition, a series of related events
will follow according to the schedule:
The History of Word & Art
Ellen Adams will speak on the tradition of poet and artist
collaborations.
February 18, 1-1:45 p.m.
New Music Ensemble Composition Competition
The New Music Ensemble will perform student compositions inspired
by the exhibition. Cash prizes are awarded.
February 25, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Great Lakes: Image & Word Panel Discussion
Exhibition artists and poets will discuss their collaborations
and processes.
March 24, 1-3 p.m.
(Image Credit: The Beauty of Mystery, by Graceann Warn. Oil,
encaustic and paper on wood)