Salina Art Center

2009-2010 Artist Exchange participants announced

Salina, Kansas – Six Kansas artists will engage in a year-long discovery process as participants in the Salina Art Center’s 2009-10 Artist Exchange program.  The Exchange, now in its fourth year, is a mentoring process that enables local and regional artists to teach and learn together while engaged in challenging, innovative work that leads to a culminating exhibition in the Art Center galleries.

Three regional artists have been invited to serve as one-on-one mentors to three mentorees who are embarking on new work, taking their work in new directions, or striving to advance the level of their work, with mentors serving on the selection committee. 

The 2009-10 mentors are:
 
Shin-hee Chin of McPherson, a fiber artist who teaches at Tabor College. By applying and adapting traditional materials and techniques, Shin-hee substantiates the value of women’s work from both historical and contemporary perspectives.

Priti Cox, a native of India, who has lived in Salina since 2000.  Her paintings and mixed-media installations integrate Indian artforms and address issues affecting global society and politics.

Michael Krueger, a Lawrence artist who has a long-held interest in the power that objects exert in creating individual perceptions of history. Krueger’s printmaking and drawing express his unique social and political views of the world.

The 2009-10 mentorees are:

Matthew Hilyard, Andover, with Shin-hee Chin as his mentor. Hilyard will combine digital photography, video, and installation to address themes of love, loss, memory, and illness.  He will use his dialogue with Shin-hee and other Exchange participants to broaden his perspective and gain new insight in materializing his ideas and creating a unique vocabulary in his work.

Michelle Meade, Abilene, with Priti Cox as her mentor. Using sculpted puppets as her subjects, Meade will photograph vignettes that will then combine to portray a progressive narrative.  In addition to their exhibition in gallery settings, these photographs will serve as the basis for a picture book that will expand access to her storytelling.

Debbie Wagner, Bennington, with Michael Krueger as her mentor. Exploring recurring themes from her previous work in new ways, Wagner will realize a long-held desire to transfer her pastel, oil, and acrylic painting skills to fiber and fabric media.  She will utilize a color palette developed from materials and fibers collected for many years, drawing upon a lifetime of family connections to fiber creations. 

These six artists, working in one-on-one pairs throughout the year, will communicate and meet regularly, documenting their methods and insights as they share ideas, discuss concepts and techniques, and refine their artistic philosophies. In addition, all mentors and mentorees will come together at least three times during the work period to participate in retreats with Art Center staff members.  These enrichment activities are designed to foster exchanges that invite diversity and questioning as the means for deeper exploration that will inform subsequent artmaking.

Work produced by the 2009-10 Artist Exchange participants will be exhibited in the Salina Art Center galleries from December 16, 2010 through January 30, 2011.
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For more information regarding the Artist Exchange contact the Salina Art Center at 785.827.1431, or visit the Art Center’s website at salinaartcenter.org.  The Art Center’s business office, located at 242 S. Santa Fe, is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Salina Art Center galleries are open from noon to 5:00 pm Wednesday through Saturday, and from 1:00 to 5:00 pm on Sunday.

download pdf Artist Exchange 2009–10