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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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DISCOVERING KITH + KIN: FRIENDS AND MENTORS OF LESLEY MFA

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

An art mentor is someone who motivates and inspires a fellow artist to experiment, to sketch out their goals on an empty canvas, painting their dream lives in all colors. Their creative minds blend together and connect and at Lesley University, the Art and Design school is celebrating its 30th graduating class from its low-residency Visual Arts MFA program, where mentors and visiting lecturers and faculty all encompass this encouraging, patient and driven atmosphere of artistic vision. The work of these advisors, the very people who provided creative sparks in Lesley’s students, is now exhibited in a show titled “Kith + Kin: Friends and Mentors of Lesley MFA.” Upon entering the wide-open gallery with wall-length windows overlooking bustling Mass Ave., guests are immediately welcomed into a serene space. Along the back wall, a pear-shaped sculpture by Candice Ivy titled “Honey From … [Read more...] about DISCOVERING KITH + KIN: FRIENDS AND MENTORS OF LESLEY MFA

ENCAUSTIC CROSSROADS: ADDRESSING ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS THROUGH WAX AT WSU

// Current Exhibits, Featured, November/December 2019, November/December 2019, Visual Arts

by Brian Goslow

One of the highlights of any group exhibition opening reception is the taking of a photograph of all the participants together. When “Crossroads: 4 Perspectives,” opened on October 10 at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State University, Patricia Gerkin was in Italy on a short vacation with her husband. A few days later, Debra Claffey would be in New Orleans attending Golden Paint’s Artist Educator Training Program, learning about their paints, grounds and mediums, Donna Hamil Talman in Marseille, France, and only Charyl Weissbach was at her normal workspace in Boston. The four make up the Elemental artist collaborative, the members of which first met through New England Wax, a group started in 2006 for New England artists working with wax. Finding a commonality, they set out to find opportunities for exhibitions for just the four of them. “We spent a good deal of time, … [Read more...] about ENCAUSTIC CROSSROADS: ADDRESSING ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS THROUGH WAX AT WSU

LOCAL ECOLOGIES AS ART: UNIVERSITY GALLERIES INSPIRE TIMELY DISCUSSION

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Featured, September/October 2019, Visual Arts

by Ron Fortier

“Local Ecologies,” which will be exhibited at three University of Massachusetts institution galleries during the 2019-20 school year, features commission artworks by artists who have lived and worked in eastern Massachusetts. The traveling exhibition was organized by Kirsten Swenson, an associate professor and art history coordinator at UMass Lowell; Sam Toabe, gallery director at UMass Boston; and art historian and curator Rebecca Uchill, a full-time lecturer in art education, art history and media studies at UMass Dartmouth. Onsite curators are Toabe at UMass Boston; Uchill and University Art Gallery director Viera Levitt at UMass Dartmouth; and Swenson and University Gallery coordinator Deborah Santoro at UMass Lowell. “I am excited to work with UMass Dartmouth art history professor Rebecca Uchill and other partners on the exhibition “Local Ecologies” that is bridging the … [Read more...] about LOCAL ECOLOGIES AS ART: UNIVERSITY GALLERIES INSPIRE TIMELY DISCUSSION

Smith College Museum of Art lower level gallery featuring Frank Stella’s “Damascus Gate (Variation III)”. Photograph by by Lynne Graves.

New And Improved at Smith College Museum of Art

// Current Exhibits, Exhibits, January/February 2016, News, Visual Arts

Making Artwork More Accessible at Smith by John Paul Stapleton Northampton, Mass. - From the new Whitney Museum of American Art building in New York City to our semi-local Peabody Essex Museum expansion project, renovations seemed to be the hot decision for 2015. The Smith College Museum of Art joined this league with their four-year renovation project that was of officially completed this past fall. Margi Caplan, the museum’s membership and marketing director, showed me around the museum to point out what has changed in their two-phase project. In addition to updated lighting and the removal of the main exhibition gallery’s staircase, the whole observer experience has changed. “We thought about museum methodology and pedagogy,” Caplan said. “The museum’s collection works well, but wasn’t up to date. As a teaching museum, what we wanted to do was make the work … [Read more...] about New And Improved at Smith College Museum of Art