West Virginia artists and craftspeople will be presented with 16 awards totaling $29,000 in a ceremony on Friday, Oct. 19, at the Parkersburg Art Center, 725 Market St., Parkersburg. The ceremony, which will begin at 7:30 p.m., will precede the opening of the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2007, which features works in the areas of painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, mixed media and crafts by 64 artists. The exhibition will continue through Feb. 8, 2008.
A reception will follow the ceremony. The awards ceremony and reception are free and open to the public.
All 78 pieces in the exhibit, including the award winners, were chosen by jurors Michael Northrop, professor of art and humanities at Glen Oaks Community College in Centreville, Mich., and Jerry Slipman, owner of the Pacini Lubel Gallery in Seattle, Wash. Northrop and Slipman viewed more than 330 submissions to select the show. The awards money is made available through the West Virginia Commission on the Arts (WVCA) of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History (WVDCH) from funds appropriated by the West Virginia Legislature. The awards constitute one of the largest endowments for any single juried exhibition in the country. The exhibition is presented biennially by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
Many of the works on display are for sale and may be purchased through the close of the exhibition. The Parkersburg Art Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 - 5 p.m. The reception for the exhibition is sponsored by Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital and Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield.
For more information about the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2007, contact Emily Ritchey, exhibits coordinator for the Division, at (304) 558-0220, ext. 128, or Abby Hayhurst, executive director of the Parkersburg Arts Center, at (304) 485-3859.
Since its inception in 1979, the West Virginia Juried Exhibition has been held at the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex, Charleston. Within the extensive mission of the WVDCH is the element of arts promotion throughout West Virginia. In order to further this goal, the WVCA and the Division decided to have the exhibition travel to Parkersburg, sharing the best in art with yet another community in the Mountain State.
“Since I’ve become commissioner, one of my goals has been to touch every part of our state with outstanding cultural events. We are excited to have the opportunity to expand our outreach to the community by placing the West Virginia Juried Exhibition 2007 in Parkersburg,” said Randall Reid-Smith, commissioner of the WVDCH.
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.
- 30 -
