Local artist, Bethany Springer to exhibit WATERMARKS at Walton Arts Center
- Ongoing: until Wednesday, April 13, 2011
- Monday: 9:00am
- Tuesday: 9:00am
- Wednesday: 9:00am
- Thursday: 9:00am
- Friday: 9:00am
- Saturday: 10:00am
- Where: Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville
- Cost: Not available
- Age limit: Not available
Local artist, Bethany Springer to exhibit WATERMARKS at Walton Arts Center
Northwest Arkansas (January 6, 2011) –Walton Arts Center is proud to announce a new visual arts exhibition titled WATERMARKS from local artist Bethany Springer. WATERMARKS will be on display January 18 – April 13 in Walton Arts Center’s Joy Pratt Markham Gallery, with viewing hours Monday- Friday, 9am-6pm and Saturday, 10am-4pm. A reception celebrating the opening of Bethany Springer’s WATERMARKS will take place February 3 from 4:30-7pm as part of the First Thursday event in Fayetteville. This reception is open to the public and will be held in the Joy Pratt Markham Gallery.
Bethany Springer and her upcoming exhibition is part of Walton Arts Center's new Signature Projects project series in which both promising and nationally recognized artists are invited to mount solo exhibitions of their work in the Joy Pratt Markham Gallery. In Fall 2010, Silent Poems: The Sculpture of Anita Huffington offered a glimpse of this local artist’s mastery and range as well as her ongoing vitality. With guidance from Andrea Packard, Consulting Curator for Walton Arts Center, as well as support from Walton Arts Center administrators, such artists will be able to present work or explore collaborative projects. Rather than focus on a particular style or approach, Walton Arts Center will seek a variety of artistic perspectives, media and conceptual concerns flourishing in our region.
Andrea Packard, Walton Arts Center Consulting Curator says, "Whereas Anita Huffington's artistic mastery and preoccupation with timeless themes embodied the lessons of her 50-year career in the arts, Bethany Springer's installation, Watermarks, offers a glimpse of a promising young artist who works with materials and ideas that speak to our current climate of accelerating technological change and globalization. While differing in experience, thematic concerns, and style, both artists share an essential trait; they express their passionate and authentic vision with analytical rigor and excellent craftsmanship.”
Bethany Springer and her upcoming exhibition, WATERMARKS, is a wonderful example of the emerging talent to be found among local artists. An Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas who works in sculpture and multi-media installation, Springer explores the connection between our sense of self in connection to both our heritage and where we currently live. Rather than offering a didactic viewpoint, her work presents contrasting and even jarring images that raise compelling questions about our changing sense of identity in a technologically-connected world.
Springer received her MFA in Sculpture from the University of Georgia, Athens and BA from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. She has been a Visual Arts Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA and a resident at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, NE. Springer has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Arkansas Arts Council, Iowa Arts Council, the University of Arkansas Community and Family Institute, and the Center for Digital Technology and Learning at Drake University in Des Moines. Selected exhibitions of her work include On the Street Gallery in Memphis, Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore, Boston Center for the Arts, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT, Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, and City Gallery East in Atlanta. To learn more about Bethany Springer, visitwww.bethanyspringer.com.
For more information about this exhibition, other performances and more, contact the Walton Arts Center Box Office by calling 479.443.5600 or by visiting waltonartscenter.org.
Walton Arts Center is Arkansas' premier center for the performing arts and entertainment. Each year more than 140,000 people from Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma and beyond attend over 350 public events at Walton Arts Center, including performances, rehearsals, community gatherings, receptions, graduations and more. Approximately 20,000 students and teachers from 30 school districts participate annually in arts learning programs at Walton Arts Center, and over 300 volunteers donate more than 15,000 hours of time each year to its operations. Walton Arts Center presents entertainers and artists from around the world including Broadway musicals, renowned dance companies, international artists, up-and-coming jazz musicians and more. As a non-profit organization, Walton Arts Center enjoys the generous support of public sector funding, corporate sponsorship and private donors, allowing audience members to pay on average only 50% of the cost of programs offered. To learn more about Walton Arts Center, visit www.waltonartscenter.org.
This event was posted Jan. 4, 2011 and last updated Jan. 6, 2011
