ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Winthrop University’s Undergraduate Juried Exhibition will open on Friday, April 24, in a new virtual format because of the campus’ closure due to COVID-19.
Fine arts and design students submitted their work digitally which will be displayed on a temporary webpage and on Instagram.
This year’s exhibition showcases Winthrop’s brightest talent from areas such as painting, sculpture, jewelry/metals, printmaking, interior design, illustration and photography.
Students submitted a total of 127 entries with 22 awards selected by the show’s juror, Caitlin Kelly, director of the Power Plant Gallery at Duke University. Nearly $5,500 will be given to award winners.
The awards will be announced via Instagram Live at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 24. Go to @gallerieswinthrop at that time to see the awards list.
Karen Derksen, director of the Winthrop Galleries, said that with the help of the galleries’ student assistants, the annual exhibition was able to continue and had about the same number of entries as in the past.
“Our gallery assistants rose to the challenge to plan and execute this exhibition,” Derksen said. “It has been an amazing team effort, and they have done a wonderful job. Please join us to celebrate our talented students.”
The exhibition will remain online through Aug. 21.
This year’s juror, Caitlin Kelly, conveyed to students: “I would encourage you to keep creating, however that presents itself and not get caught up in needing this or needing that – which includes needing a physical audience. Instead, I’d like to propose that in the absence of an audience one might be willing to take more risks, experience more failures, make more things.”
Kelly is a practicing artist and director of Duke’s Power Plant Gallery where she curates exhibitions and programs that examine the breadth of documentary arts, from traditional to experimental, intersecting with issues across campus and the local community. Examples include a first exhibition of the sketches by noted author Allan Gurganus as well as an all audio exhibition on experimental sound called “Protest|Politics|Dissent.”
Most recently, Kelly oversaw the public programming around the nationally-touring exhibition “Southbound“ at the Power Plant Gallery, which included a Sit+Chat series of decentralized conversations with community thinkers and doers, Ride the Bus artist talks while on the road between exhibition venues, and Call & Response, a zine featuring North Carolina writers responding to “Southbound” photographs, among more traditional exhibition programming.
Kelly gave a live moderated April 21 Instagram talk on her role as both an artist and gallery director. It can be found here.
For more information, contact Derksen at derksenk@winthrop.edu.
