Howdy, Neighbor!

Today, we got a visit from our Clay Center counterparts Lewis Ferguson (Director of Art and Science education), Denise Deegan (Collections Manager/ Assistant Curator) and Kayte Brannon (lead educator.) We really enjoyed the visit! They gave us an overview of the project and we shared with them some of the possible themes we've come up with so far.

To come up with themes, we all went online to the Avampato Online Gallery and created our own, personal "galleries" using the "My Gallery" feature. We then e-mailed these to Mrs. Burch so she could see which paintings we chose. Then, she asked us to revisit our choices and try to find adjectives that described our collection as a whole. We will use these adjectives to come up with ideas for themes for our group exhibit.

Some of the theme ideas so far are:

People at Work
the Suburbs
Four Seasons
Shadows
Shapes
Charleston Art
American Dream... or not
People in Color
Warm Colors/Cool Colors
Melancholy
Tranquility
Ethnic Art
City/Country

A lot of people noticed that their galleries showed contrasts between two things, like "City/Country" or "Warm and Cool Colors." We like contrast!

Square One

Hamilton, Charles Jupiter
Monkey Swim
acrylic & wood
1988 Gift of Dr. & Mrs. Richard Rashid







I am honored to announce that the Clay Center has asked Charleston Catholic art students to help curate a special exhibit, which will open on April 3, 2010. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to learn about art, and to see firsthand what it takes to put together an exhibit in an art museum. We are so fortunate to be located almost next-door to this superb collection of works by artists from Romare Bearden to Andy Warhol -- with a little local flavor from artists like Charles Jupiter Hamilton and Paula Clendenin, too. We can't wait to work with this collection and discover new favorites. We hope you will discover pieces that speak to you, as well.

Next week, we will get together in the school's computer lab and peruse the Clay Center's online catalog of art and select our favorite pieces using the "My Gallery" feature. Once we have a few favorites saved, we will begin brainstorming concepts for the show. We'll post a few interesting concepts on this blog next week.