What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1475959
AUGUST 14-20, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 9 "The Bakery spaces are varied, which is what makes them interesting," Bailey says. "The available spaces for hanging/installing art run across a few rooms, each very different in terms of physical characteristics — which make them that much more engaging for different types of artistic practices and materials. However, the overall nature of the space is very industrial, with exposed brickwork, piping and steel girders that give more of a raw, gritty feel to the space that diverges from the look and feel of traditional museum spaces." (Courtesy Photo) Mary Elkins' work with fiber, clay and other household objects is focused on memory, motherhood and family. She is one of three artists selected to show their works in the new "District Art Galleries by UAFS." (Courtesy Photo) hanging/installing art run across a few rooms, each very different in terms of physical characteristics — which make them that much more engaging for different types of artistic practices and materials. However, the overall nature of the space is very industrial, with exposed brickwork, piping and steel girders that give more of a raw, gritty feel to the space that diverges from the look and feel of traditional museum spaces." Bailey says there is a definite trend in the art world toward "alternative art exhibition spaces." "Today more and more artists are seeking to install work outside the traditional 'white cube' art gallery in order to foster more community engagement with the arts in public spaces," he says. "As the art world in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley grows exponentially — indeed probably as fast as anywhere in the country right now — artists in the region are especially interested in creating … community engagement. It seems to me to be one of the defining characteristics of artistic trends in our regions." In addition to offering opportunities to artists, Bailey says the nontraditional spaces invite new viewers, too. "Exhibiting in these types of spaces tends to break down that … long- standing and deeply felt notion that art is some precious and sanctified thing that needs to be experienced in pristine spaces, and explained to us by arbiters of taste," he says. "My effort, along with like-minded curators and artists like those showcased in this first exhibit, is to make art and its experience much more directly accessible, inviting and engaging by virtue of the exciting public space it is displayed in and the casual way visitors can encounter and explore these works." Finally, Bailey hopes to use the space as a learning center for UAFS students. "As this program develops, I'd like to incorporate interested students as much as possible into the process of planning, curating, installing and overseeing the Bakery District galleries in order to develop these skills — for art students primarily, though not exclusively," he says. "The UAFS Gallery and Departments of Art & Design will be developing a certificate program in art handling and museum practice; while hands- on experience can take place at Windgate to a degree, the Bakery will offer a forum in which students can be much more involved with the ins and outs of the exhibition process." Bailey is excited about the fall 2022 through spring 2023 on-campus offerings as well. "Of note is the semester-long exhibit in the Windgate exhibition gallery running from Sept. 9 through Dec. 9, 'Ron Jude: 12 Hz.' Organized and sponsored by the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment located in Santa Fe, N.M., the exhibit will feature 20 large-scale, highly detailed black-and-white photographs of various geological formations, each image framed in ways that make their subjects waver between the representational and the abstract," he says. "Accompanied by a continuously looping soundtrack orchestrated from the recording of natural sounds produced by the earth such as the movement of tectonic plates, the exhibition explores the larger elemental forces and energies that perpetually surround us. "We," he concludes about visual arts at UAFS, "have a lot going on!"