February 12, 2010
Museum in the Park at Chief Logan State Park has opened a new exhibition, West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2009 Award Winners. The display showcases 16 of the 18 works that were award winners in the West Virginia Division of Culture and History’s biennial exhibition last year. The exhibit is free and the public is invited to visit. It will remain on display through April.
West Virginia artists and craftspeople received $33,000 at an opening ceremony at the Huntington Museum of Art on Oct. 18, 2009. Ten of the 18 works were purchase awards, and at the close of the exhibition Jan. 17, 2010, became part of the West Virginia State Museum’s contemporary art collection.
The 89 pieces of art in the entire exhibit, including the award winners, were chosen by jurors Julie Taggart, professor, dean, fine arts and foundation studies at Columbus College of Arts and Design, Columbus, Ohio, and Vince Torano, professor at West Michigan University, Kalamazoo. Taggart and Torano viewed more than 375 submissions to select the show.
The Purchase Awards consist of three Governor’s Awards of $5,000, one of which is designated as the D. Gene Jordon Memorial Award after the former chairman of the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, who died in 1989. There are also seven Awards of Excellence of $2,000. In addition, there are eight Merit Awards of $500 which did not become part of the museum’s collection. A complete list of participants in Museum in the Park’s exhibit with a link to photos of their artwork is attached.
The awards money was made available through the West Virginia Commission on the Arts of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History from funds appropriated by the West Virginia Legislature. The awards constitute one of the largest endowments for any single juried exhibition in the country.
Other exhibits on display include We Are Marshall, which displays items produced as props for the movie production and Dehue . . . A Special Place which examines aspects of coal camp life. Black Diamonds takes a look at coal mining throughout West Virginia with an emphasis on the southern part of the state; Practicing Medicine, is an exhibit of medical furnishings, equipment and supplies from the State Collection; and Monongah tells the story, the aftermath and the industrial impact of the 1907 underground explosion that is still considered the worst coal mining disaster in U.S. history. There are also two quilts made by the late Katie Barnette of Logan.
The Thorney Lieberman: Honoring America’s Coal Miners exhibit is also on display, featuring life-size, full-length photographs of coal miners by Thorney Lieberman of Charleston. The exhibit consists of 18 full-size portraits. He took between 30 to 40 photographs of each miner and put them in a grid, life-size, on eight-inch x 10-inch film covering the entire person. He then made contact prints from the negatives and assembled them to create a full-size person. Most of these portraits were developed in black and white and mounted on 16 gauge hot rolled steel sheets. The final images are almost seven-feet tall.
For more information about the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2009 Award Winners exhibit or other displays at Museum in the Park, contact Elizabeth Williams, site coordinator for the facility, at (304) 792-7229.
Museum in the Park is a regional cultural center showcasing the best in West Virginia history and the arts. It features changing exhibits and displays of artwork and historical items from the collections of the West Virginia State Museum and the State Archives. One area of the museum is dedicated to local and regional history. It is operated and maintained by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and is located four miles north of Logan on West Virginia Route 10 at Chief Logan State Park. The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and Sunday from 1 - 6 p.m.
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 Culture Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Culture 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.
West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2009 Award Winners
Dick Allowatt
St. Albans
Dream – In Black and White
Mixed Media
Merit Award, $500
Evan Boggess
Fairmont
Counter Measures
Mixed Media
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Patricia Chapman
Huntington
The Fix
Mixed Media
Governor’s Award, $5,000
D. Gene Jordon Memorial Award
Cassie Clements
Morgantown
Self Portrait of Studio
Oil on Canvas
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Jan Griffin
Charleston
Emerging Spring
Oils
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Charles Jupiter Hamilton
Charleston
My Cousin’s Wedding
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Vernon Howell
Barboursville
Under Construction
Mixed Media
Merit Award, $500
Staci Leech
Poca
Carrying “Pride and Prejudice”
Mixed Media
Merit Award, $500
Michael Mendez
Martinsburg
Electricity [For Don Van Vliet]
Silver Gelatin Print
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Jamie Miller
Charleston
Soul Killers
Mixed Media
Merit Award, $500
Nancy-Louise Mottesheard
Charleston
Big, Big Heart
Acrylic Paint
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Mark Muse
Basket Oak, Quercus Michauxii, Jefferson County
Photograph
Merit Award, $500
Zachery Orcutt
Parkersburg
Flying Squirrels
Bronze
Award of Excellence, $2,000
Susan Poffenbarger
Dunbar
Blackwater Red
Pastel
Governor’s Award, $5,000
Linda Turner
Jane Lew
Monday by the Sea of Ionia
Transparent Watercolors
Merit Award, $500
Robert Villamagna
Wheeling
Deer Crossing
Mixed Media
Governor’s Award, $5,000
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