MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, FL (August 14, 2006) – The University Galleries in Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters will present an exhibition of works by recipients of the 2006 South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Artists Fellowship. The exhibition will run from Friday, September 15 through Saturday, October 28, 2006 in the Schmidt Center Gallery and the Ritter Art Gallery on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road. There will be an opening reception in both galleries to honor the artists on September 15 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.
To be eligible for the fellowship, the artists have to live in the southeastern counties of Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Martin counties. The 2006 recipients are John Bailly (Miami-Dade), Tim Curtis (Miami-Dade), Jacin Giordano (Miami-Dade), Julie L. Kahn (Miami-Dade), Chad Tingle (Miami-Dade), Giannina Coppiano Dwin (Broward), Eric Freedman (Broward), Christina Pettersson (Broward), Asser Saint-Val (Broward), Amy Gross (Palm Beach), Denise Moody-Tackley (Palm Beach) and Rock Solomon (Monroe). Fellowships were awarded at $15,000 and $7,500 levels as selected by regional and national panels of visual art professionals. The $15,000 fellowships are the largest awards to individual artists provided by any local arts agency in the United States.
Three of the artists have ties to FAU, including Freedman, director of multimedia studies in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies; Dwin, who earned her master of fine arts degree from FAU’s department of visual arts and art history; and Moody-Tackley, who recently earned her bachelor of fine arts degree at FAU.
Highlights of the exhibition include work by Tim Curtis -- a wall of hundreds of chalkboards with cryptic messages created for the show. Curtis’ chalkboards will also be employed to provide a path directing visitors from one gallery to the other, a five-minute walk across campus. There are also several works of video art and an in-gallery theater for the film artists Chad Tingle and Rock Solomon.
In association with the exhibition, the University Galleries are presenting a series of free public lectures by contemporary artists and critics. The series begins on Thursday September 21 at 7 p.m. with Miami artist and Fellowship winner Julie Kahn and New York- based artist Allison Smith. Smith is visiting FAU in association with work she will install in February. The two artists share historical and anthropological interests. Kahn’s work in the Consortium exhibition documents “Cracker” culture in Florida and questions stereotypes of Florida’s residents, while Smith’s work emerges from her upbringing in Virginia as the daughter of parents who actively engaged in Civil War re-enactments.
The University Galleries exhibitions are open to the public Tuesday through Friday 1 – 4 p.m., Saturday 1 – 5 p.m. and other times by appointment for school and group tours.
The exhibition and fellowship program are made possible in part through the support of the National Endowment for the Arts; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the Boards of County Commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and Monroe counties; and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council. 2006/07 University Galleries programs are supported by: Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; Palm Beach County Cultural Council; R.A. Ritter Foundation; FAU Student Government through student activity fees; and Friends of the University Galleries.
For further information, call 561-297-2966 or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.
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