What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1475959
8 WHAT'S UP! AUGUST 14-20, 2022 FEATURE What's Cookin' For UAFS? Bakery District home to new gallery space BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette A rt is everywhere — on street corners, downtown business walls, along bike paths and nature trails. And now, in Fort Smith, it's in The Bakery District, thanks to the University of Arkansas- Fort Smith. Titled "The District Art Galleries by UAFS," the new space is in a popular community hub that includes a book store, a coffee shop and events like yoga classes, trivia contests and post-concert parties with the Fort Smith Symphony. "The university art gallery holds a significant permanent collection of modern and contemporary art with a rotation of temporary exhibits that showcase … artists of national and international renown," Dr. Matthew Bailey, UAFS gallery director, begins the explanation. "Both the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions of the UAFS Gallery of Art & Design are displayed in the Windgate Art & Design building on campus. "The gallery spaces at the Bakery now provide a somewhat trendy space to showcase emerging and established regional artists whose work demonstrates contemporary, innovative trends in the arts, which is what I aim to focus on and which is demonstrated in the inaugural exhibit." Showing in the first exhibition, "Process/Experience/Place," which remains open through Sept. 18, are: Mary Elkins, whose work with fiber, clay and other household objects is focused on memory, motherhood and family. She earned a BFA in ceramics from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 2008 and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Craft/Material Studies in 2011. She has recently moved back to Arkansas and adjunct professor at UAFS. Jarrod Cluck, who also teaches at UAFS, works with locally collected native plants, waste and recovered iron objects. He uses prints and video to tell "the same old story of lost knowledge and rediscovery" except through the perspective of an Ozark natural. He graduated from UAFS in 2015 with a BA and the University of Hartford's Nomad MFA program in 2020 with an MFA. And Owen Buffington of Fayetteville is a mixed-media artist whose work explores the intersection of geography and the visual arts — in particular the role drawing plays in shaping how we describe, define and organize everyday spaces. His current fascinations include workplaces, nocturnal landscapes and haunted houses. He earned an MFA, with an emphasis in drawing, from the University of Arkansas in 2017, and has taught at universities, community art nonprofits and public schools. "For a starting exhibit, three seemed like a good number as we experiment with what's possible in the space," Bailey says. "One of the exciting aspects about this space and working with local artists is the chance for direct collaboration between the artists and myself on how best to arrange and install the work — each artist's very different in terms of materials and techniques — in such a varied space. Such curatorial artistic collaboration is also a contemporary trend in the arts, and we worked together as a group on-site as we planned and installed to both integrate the work with the space as well as highlight and connect the works to each other as they are spread throughout the various spaces in the district. "The Bakery spaces are varied, which is what makes them interesting," he goes on. "The available spaces for Dr. Matthew Bailey, gallery director at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, shares some of the artworks currently on show in the new "District Art Galleries by UAFS," located in the Bakery District downtown. "The gallery spaces at the Bakery now provide a somewhat trendy space to showcase emerging and established regional artists whose work demonstrates contemporary, innovative trends in the arts," he says. (Courtesy Photo) The District Art Galleries by UAFS WHEN — Open during business hours WHERE — The Bakery District, 70 S. Seventh St. in Fort Smith COST — Free INFO — uafs.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools/college-of- arts-and-sciences/departments/art-and-design.php FAQ