Extremely exciting news for art students, especially those studying or living in Georgia-The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to Open Major Teaching Museum Devoted to Contemporary Art and Design on October 29, 2011! This is described as “a significantly expanded and re-imagined contemporary art and design museum conceived and designed expressly to enrich the educational milieu for SCAD students, professors, and art and design enthusiasts. SCAD Museum of Art re-opens to the public on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Inaugural exhibitions at the new museum include solo shows by Bill Viola, Liza Lou, Kendall Buster, Kehinde Wiley, and selections from the SCAD Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection, including the Evans Collection of African American Art, presented in the new Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies within the museum.”  From the websites: “SCAD has a tradition of fostering innovative and dynamic art experiences, and the SCAD Museum of Art advances this rich tradition,” says SCAD President Paula Wallace, who initiated and oversaw the development of the expanded museum in Savannah. “Rather than a place to view artworks in isolation, our museum is a kinetic think-tank, a collaborative wellspring of ideas and inspiration for SCAD students and professors.”  In keeping with the university’s mission, a year-round program of exhibitions, installations, performances and museum programs and events will engage with SCAD’s 41 majors and more than 50 minors—from fashion and fibers to painting and sound design. This programming will also provide students and professors across all disciplines a collaborative space to experience celebrated works of art and design, and to interact with the renowned and emerging artists who create them. Check out all of the information here: http://www.scad.edu/museum/
As you begin to dive into your projects for the year, keep in mind the 3rd Annual Juried Exhibition this October! For the past two years, Lamar Dodd School of Art students have been encouraged to submit their own original works to be looked over and possibly selected by a visiting juror. This year, Mark Karelson, director of Mason Murer Fine Arts Gallery in Atlanta, will be selecting work for the November 26th show. A little bit about our juror from the LDSOA website: Mark Mason Karelson is an artist and owner and Director of Mason Murer Fine Art in Atlanta. He also Chairs the Board of VSA arts of Georgia, a thirty year old non-profit organization which provides access to the arts for people with disabilities. Mark also serves on the Advisory Board of The Atlanta Community Food Bank. He is married to artist Kim Karelson, a University of Georgia graduate with a BA in Art. They have a beautiful daughter, Katie. All types of art are accepted. There ARE prizes for the juror’s favorites. If you have any questions or need more information, check out: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=5&id=338 or keep your eyes peeled for the latest LDSOA newsletters. This drawing is from last year’s juried show. To look at more pictures, check out the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150289822110720.558831.131123090719
This Thursday, September 8th at 5pm, Dr. Asen Kirin will be presenting “Exuberance of Meaning: The Art Patronage of Catherine the Great.” This talk kicks of the VCC Lecture series for the 2011-2012 academic year, so make sure to put this on your schedule! Kirin will be discussing a current exhibition which, according to the Lamar Dodd School of Art website, “intends to make a contribution to the current knowledge of patronage in eighteenth-century Russia and to our understanding of the perception of Byzantine culture in the era of neo-Classicism.” Interestingly, the curator of this exhibit plans to “accomplish this goal with a relatively limited number of objects—loans from a small number of museums in the U.S.A.” “The exhibition will illustrate the complex dynamic between the collection of historical art and the commissioning of new works of art during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-96). The focus of the exhibition is on the particular manner in which Catherine applied not only her knowledge of ancient and medieval glyptic art but also her collection of carved gems to new works of art that she commissioned. This was a deliberate continuation of the centuries-old tradition of placing pagan, Greek, and Roman carved stones onto sacred Christian liturgical and devotional objects. The empress not only shared the Enlightenment sentiment that carved gems were essential material vestiges from the past, but she was also fully cognizant of the cultural meanings associated with the practice of collecting cameos. Accordingly, she addressed these cultural meanings in her art patronage.” For more information, visit: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=179#
Tomorrow- Kristen Morgin, the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s 2011-2012 Dodd Chair, is giving a lecture at 5:30 in room S151. Her bio from the LDSOA website reads: Kristen L. Morgin was born in 1968 in Brunswick, GA.  Kristen is the eldest daughter of Lowell and Lucille Morgin.  She has three younger sisters. Kristen earned a BA degree from California State University, Hayward.  Kristen earned a MFA degree with an emphasis in ceramics from Alfred University in 1997.  Kristen currently resides in Gardena, CA. Kristen has held job positions as a gallery docent, a children’s playhouse set painter, a secretary in an auto glass shop, and a professor of art.  She currently earns her living as an artist.Morgin has had solo shows at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles (2006) and Viento y Agua Gallery, Long Beach (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Trans-Ceramic Art 3rd World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, Korea, 2005; Thing: New Sculpture from Los Angeles Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); and Because the Earth Is 1/3 Dirt Art Museum of the University of Colorado, Boulder (2004). For more information, visit: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=173#