The West Virginia Division of Culture and History (WVDCH) is pleased to announce a call for entries for its biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition. The show will open Oct. 18, 2009, at 2 p.m., at the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, and remain on display through Jan. 17, 2010.
Eligible entries include works created in the last two years in the areas of painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, mixed media and crafts. Entrants must be over the age of 18 and must be residents of, and maintain a permanent domicile in West Virginia. Entrants also must have completed a WVDCH Artists’ Register form and submitted six slides representative of current work for the file at the Division. The slides submitted for the Artists’ Register are not used in jurying entries into the exhibition.
Entries for the exhibit in the form of slides or digital images on CD will be accepted beginning Monday, May 25, and must be received by the Division no later than Monday, July 6.
It is the Division’s intention to present $33,000 in awards for the exhibition. Prizes will be selected after the works for the exhibition have been received at the Cultural Center, so that the jurors can see the exhibition as a whole. The awards are made available through the West Virginia Commission on the Arts and the WVDCH through funds appropriated by the West Virginia Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. Awards include three $5,000 Governor’s Awards (purchase awards), seven $2,000 Awards of Excellence (purchase awards) and eight $500 Merit Awards. Works receiving Purchase Awards become part of the West Virginia State Museum Collection.
Julie Taggart, professor and dean of fine arts and foundation studies at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, and Vince Torano, professor of art at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, Mich., will serve as jurors.
Artists may submit two entries for the exhibition with a limit of three slides/digital images per entry. Entry forms and properly identified slides/images must be accompanied by a non-refundable fee of $20. Slides/digital images can be mailed to WVDCH, West Virginia Juried Exhibition, The Cultural Center, 1900 Kanawha Blvd., E., Charleston, W.Va. 25305-0300, or can be hand-delivered to the Cultural Center at the State Capitol Complex.
The awards ceremony and opening reception will take place on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, at 2 p.m., at the Huntington Museum of Art.
Within the extensive mission of the WVDCH is the element of arts promotion throughout West Virginia. In order to further this goal, the Commission on the Arts and the Division decided to have the exhibition travel to Huntington this year, sharing the best in art with yet another community in West Virginia. In 2007, the exhibition was installed at the Parkersburg Art Center.
The biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition showcases the work of state artists and craftspeople and provides the public with a comprehensive view of art and craft activities in the state. For more information about the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2009, or to receive an exhibition prospectus and Artists’ Register form, contact Betty Gay, exhibits coordinator for the Division, at (304) 558-0220, ext. 128, or by e-mail at [email protected]. The prospectus and entry forms are also available at the Division’s Web site at http://www.wvculture.org/museum/exhibits.html.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Cultural Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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