Morlan Gallery

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery this fall will present “Rural Women: Photographs by Maxine Payne,” a powerful collection of 20 silver gelatin portraits with texts compiled from international sites, including the artist’s own rural Arkansas. The exhibition will open Oct. 29 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. “Rural Women,” which will run through Dec. 2., will be part of the Lexington Gallery Hop on Nov. 21 from 5 to 8 p.m. Having been raised in rural Arkansas by her grandparents, Payne says she has always been interested in “country” people and spent her career making work that focuses on her experience with residents of rural Arkansas. Payne started the “Rural Women and Globalization Project” in 2006 with anthropologist Anne Goldberg. They have documented the lives of rural women using oral history and photography at five sites: San Luis, Costa Rica; Bagamoyo, Tanzania; Vinh Linh, Vietnam; Douglas, Arizona; Agua Prieta, on the U.S.-Mexico border; and rural Arkansas. The Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women selected Payne as the 2013 Scholar Awardee for the Globalization Project. Last month, the Arkansas Committee hosted a reception in honor of her significant contribution to the arts. The ongoing project was the subject of a TEDx talk in February 2014. The Globalization Project was inspired by Payne’s discovery of the photography of Jim and Mancy Massengill. The Massengills worked from 1937 to 1941 as itinerant photographers in rural Arkansas, documenting farmers, young

Read “Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery to celebrate rural life in photos”

  Kara Sparks, “Tayler,” oil on canvas LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery wrapped up the academic year by awarding 14 prizes to deserving students who submitted artwork for the annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. The university’s Fine Arts program and the dean of the college announced the awards May 2 at the opening reception. The exhibition remains open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. weekdays through May 16. Four students were recognized with $50 Honorable Mentions: senior Jennifer Smith (Fort Mitchell, Ky.) and sophomores Elizabeth Garduno (Fairmount City, Pa.), Trent Redmon (Burlington, Ky.) and Kristen Frost (Sextons Creek, Ky.). Five Excellence in Media prizes, worth $100 each, were awarded to students who produced exceptionally strong work in various media: junior Savanna Barnett (Harrodsburg, Ky.) for digital media; junior Luke Gnadinger (Fisherville, Ky.) for ceramics; junior Chelsea Pharris (Leitchfield, Ky.) for drawing; sophomore Kara Sparks (Pataskala, Ohio) for painting; and junior Stacey Venneman (Southgate, Ky.) for sculpture. The Fine Arts program selected two pieces, Sparks’ painting “Tayler” and Pharris’ drawing “Wii Controller,” to become part of the permanent collection displayed in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center.   Stacey Venneman, Self-portrait, ceramic Dean Michael Bell personally selected two pieces, which will be added to the university’s permanent collection, for the prestigious Dean’s Purchase Award: Smith’s “Oreo” and Venneman’s “Trophies of Mediocrity.” Senior Amanda Stoddard (Crittenden, Ky.) received the prestigious Nana Lampton Prize. Named in honor of the Louisville artist and

Read “Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery recognizes student artists”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—As part of their commitment to fostering dialog about gender issues, Transylvania students have planned a variety of activities—from participating in the annual Take Back the Night rally, sponsored by the University of Kentucky, to a campus panel discussion on feminism—during the week of March 24. Events are sponsored by various campus groups, including SAGE, the Sexual Awareness and Gender Education committee, and VOICE, which encourages discourse on gender equality and justice. “Gender Week promotes a safer campus and lets students show commitment to ending violence in our community,” said Ashley Gutshall, assistant director of residence life and coordinator for interpersonal violence prevention programming. Students will be active participants in a number of events, including the Clothesline Project, which encourages them to paint messages relating to interpersonal violence on colorful T-shirts that are then displayed in the university’s dining hall. Students will also present a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness about sexual violence and sexual assault. A favorite event is the Holi Festival, a Hindu celebration of spring during which there is traditionally a loosening of social norms of gender and caste. As part of the celebration, students toss brightly colored powder into the air. Free events of interest to the public include: A Creative Intelligence lecture presented by Karen Tice about her book “Queens of Academe: Beauty Pageantry, Student Bodies, and College Life,” which examines the themes of class, race, beauty, body discipline and self-regulation

Read “Transylvania University students endorse a safe community for all during Gender Week”

Image courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal. LEXINGTON, Ky.—Women still earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. They make up a small percentage of our political representatives. And women artists are ridiculously underrepresented in standard texts published about art. The newest exhibition at Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery is designed to help bridge that gap in awareness of the contributions of female artists. “ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors” opens at the Morlan Gallery on Friday, Feb. 28, with a reception for the artists from 5–8 p.m. The show runs through Friday, March 28. The exhibition is free and open to the public weekdays from noon to 5 p.m. The gallery will be open 2–7 p.m. on Friday, March 21. (During the university’s spring break week, which begins March 10, the exhibition is open by appointment only. Contact gallery director Andrea Fisher at 859-233-8142 to make arrangements to view the exhibition between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.) Fourteen artists will be featured in the exhibition: Gayle Cerlan, Caren Cunningham, Jeanne Dueber, Ewing Fahey, Sarah Frederick, Mary Dennis Kannapell, Frances Kratzok, Shawn Marshall, Suzanne Mitchell, Joyce Ogden, Jacque Parsley, Cynthia Reynolds, Gloria Wachtel and Melinda Walters. The Kentucky-based collective of female artisans started in 1998 when a small group of female sculptors in Louisville came together to provide support for one another. They unanimously elected to take on the name ENID for their collective as a way to honor Enid Yandell, Louisville’s

Read “Morlan Gallery exhibition showcases generations of women sculptors”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Over a thousand yards of tattered garden hose, two years of dusty lint, hundreds of water bottles and dozens of old laundry detergent bottles will litter Transylvania University’s Morlan Gallery come January. And no one is picking up. American artists David Edgar, Suzanne Proulx, Michelle Stitzlein and David Wilson will show together for the first time in “Trashformed,” an exhibition that demonstrates what can happen when artists intercept the waste stream of American life and transform it into artwork rich with meaning. Works range from David Wilson’s elegant wall “drawings” created from repurposed garden hose to a warren of bunnies by Suzanne Proulx, who collected years of household “dust bunnies” for this installation of playful life-sized rabbits. David Edgar’s colorful hanging lamps are constructed from finely cut and reassembled laundry detergent bottles. The end product is crisp and clean, hardly what one would imagine from “trash.” Ohio artist Michelle Stitzlein, who like the other artists is a self-proclaimed trash hound, often retrieves art materials from neighborhood garbage cans. Stitzlein’s “Dumpster dives” result in finely detailed and ordered sculptures, such as her Moth Series, where each moth is imbued with thousands of objects and can measure up to 12 feet wide. And her newest work, from the Fynbos Series, will premiere in Morlan’s “Trashformed” exhibition. “Trashformed” opens Wednesday, Jan. 15, and closes after the Lexington Gallery Hop on Friday, Feb. 21, 5-8 p.m. Regular gallery hours are weekdays noon to

Read “Transylvania University gallery exhibition displays trashy art”