Exhibitions

North Carolina poet Jonathan Williams (1929 - 2008) has been collecting things that captured his visual attention and imagination for most of his life, and especially since the beginning of the 1950s, around the time he dropped out of Princeton University and found a more suitable educational niche for himself closer to home at Black Mountain College.

The 2008 Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) is a program of Appalachian's Outdoor Programs in partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. This competition provides both amateur and professional photographers the opportunity to showcase their interpretation of the unique character, people, places, and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians.

Artist James Fickling recalls that from his earliest memories he possessed a vivid and active imagination paired with the need to express this imagination in images. The artist confesses that he often found himself in trouble for drawing much of the time ... especially in church and at school. Over the years, Fickling found that his work tended to investigate themes of warfare, monsters or the macabre. That continues to be the case for Fickling, and this exhibition provides insight into his current explorations.

Karin Eberhardt, Assistant Professor of Design, Southeastern Louisiana University, joined TCVA Assistant Curator Brook Bower to curate this powerful exhibition focused on the coastal lands of Louisiana. Every action initiates a reaction. In the case of the Barrier Islands, the safeguard of Louisiana, the marshes and estuaries are diminishing so rapidly that researchers and artists can do little but document its imminent disappearance. As levees are built and rebuilt, the Mississippi is redirected, and storms come and go, so does the landmass that makes up the magnificent and endangered Louisiana coast.

Over the past eight years, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), in Chauvin, LA has offered a unique educational course that utilizes the magnificent and endangered backdrop of Louisiana estuaries to introduce students to black and white photography. The Coastal Landscape Photography is a week long intensive course which offers training in camera operation, subject composition, darkroom chemistry, as well as, gallery presentation. This exhibition presents a selection of photographic works from LUMCON's Permanent Collection while offering a cross-disciplinary educational experience through a visual conversation about Louisiana's precious coastline and its rapid disappearance along with the culture, and the biological life it sustains.

The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition is a national juried competition presented annually by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Each year, ten sculptures are selected for exhibition, with a cash prize awarded to the artist whose work is chosen as that year's Rosen Award winner. Since its establishment in 1987, The Rosen has become an integral part of An Appalachian Summer Festival, the university's annual multi-arts celebration, with the announcement of the Rosen Award winner coming during the festival's annual Sculpture Walk with that year's juror.

With the 2008 Olympics, Beijing invites the world to join them in a dance to experience their culture and learn more about their history. The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts was buoyed by this invitation to the world, and set about to expand Appalachian's partnerships with educational and cultural institutions within China. This exhibition, exploring the amazing contemporary work being created in China, is the first evidence of new partnerships in the visual arts which expand the center's and the university's international programming.

The roots of the Brian Ayers Memorial Art Exhibition go back to a day in 1988 when a 14-year old boy named Jason, who has severe dyslexia, became so frustrated about his school situation that he picked up a chair and threw it across the school library. Rather than taking severe disciplinary action, the school's special education director developed a more proactive approach. Since Jason was a talented artist, Avery County Schools hired a local art therapist to work one-on-one with Jason at school twice a week. Jason completed high school, and eventually earned a degree in commercial art from a local community college.

Dr. Gayle Weitz from the Appalachian Department of Art brings viewers into a dialogue about the animal hierarchy. Humanimals is a series of carved and painted wooden cabinets that address the relationship between humans and other animals, particularly the issue of speciesism - the "right" humans have to dominate, oppress, and/or exploit other animals.

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts is proud to be a host of an Art-o-mat ® machine. Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. The project was started in 1997 by Winston-Salem artist Clark Whittington, whose inclusion of an old vending machine in one of his shows created an unexpected and long-lasting impression. What followed was the formation of Artists in Cellophane (AIC), an organization based on the concept of "taking art and repackaging it to make it part of our daily lives." There are currently over 75 active machines in various locations throughout the country, and approximately 400 contributing artists from ten different countries work to keep the machines stocked. "The experience of pulling the knob alone is quite a thrill, but you also walk away with an original work of art. What an easy way to become an art collector." For more information, please visit the Art-o-mat website at www.artomat.org.