Photo courtesy of The Printshop
GREENVILLE – Inspired by the sense of community that the Ink Travels exhibit currently fosters, the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts – Greenville (CVA-G) wishes to duplicate this experience in the Village of West Greenville by inviting community members to come together through the shared experience of making art. Work made in the context of the community-driven workshops will be on display Friday, July 3 until Friday, Aug. 28 in the exhibition called West Greenville in Print with the making of the art for this exhibition occurring June 22, 23 and July 15.
The CVA-G has partnered to create a series of printmaking workshops with Jeremy Cody of The Printshop, a printmaking studio located at 3 McBeth Street (in the Monaghan/Parker neighborhood) that exists to encourage artistic growth through community and education. Cody received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wyoming and his Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Ohio University. The first workshop held on Monday, June 22 was geared toward summer camp students at Legacy Charter School, the Center for Educational Equity, Mill Village Farms, and other programs serving Greenville’s west side. The workshop on Tues., June 23, 6-9 p.m. welcomes adult residents and artists of Greenville’s west side neighborhoods.
Participants are asked to bring a photograph (contemporary or historical) of a place, memory, portrait, landscape, architectural structure, etc. that defines West Greenville in their opinion. The photographs are half-toned, which enables participants to draw back into the photographs and use a combo press to make prints from the new image.
Since the exhibit is called West Greenville in Print, the CVA-G also will be integrating a literary component. The Glenis Redmond, a poet and artist-in-residence at the Peace Center through their Peace Voices program is hosting writing and poetry workshops with Clemson University english faculty member, Kathleen Nalley. The first workshop on Wednesday, July 15 at 9 a.m. will allow past or present west side residents and business owners or anyone who has experienced the Village and its surrounding neighborhoods to write praise poems about the community. Many of the poems will be recorded and turned into spoken word, which will play in the gallery space during First Fridays and exhibition viewing hours.
The West Greenville in Print exhibit is considered an extension of the Sense of Place exhibit showcased the summer of 2014, in which prevalent southern photographers documented the people and places of West Greenville. The difference in these two exhibits is that the community members are the artists, and now, in charge of creating their own story with through art. Through this exhibit the CVA-G wishes to showcase the west side and its wonderful people, and to ultimately perpetuate the extraordinary pride the residents and business owners have in their neighborhood.
The West Greenville in Print exhibition showcasing the neighborhood images and poems can be viewed from Friday, July 3 until Friday, Aug. 28 in the Center for Visual Arts-Greenville satellite facility located in the Village of West Greenville, 1278 Pendleton Street. CVA-G hours are Tues. – Sat. 10:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. The workshops and exhibit which are free and open to the public are made possible by generous donations given by our supporters and gifts given by Richard and Gwen Heusel and the Community Foundation of Greenville. For more information regarding the exhibits at the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts – Greenville (CVA-G), contact Kara Blanken Soper at kblank2@clemson.edu.
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About The Center for Visual Arts
The Center for Visual Arts (CVA) at Clemson University is where students, visitors and scholars explore contemporary perspectives in art and culture through research, outreach programming and studio practice. With a mission to engage and render visible the creative process, the CVA is a dynamic intellectual and physical environment where art is created, exhibited and interpreted. It educates through academic research and practice with art at its core, drawing upon varied disciplines to examine critically cultural issues and artistic concerns.
The Center for Visual Arts-Greenville (CVA-G) is a satellite of the Center for Visual Arts at Clemson University, which serves as the umbrella for all visual art activities at the university. Though there is not a physical building for this center, the majority of the activities for the Center of Visual Arts are generated out of Lee Hall on the Clemson University campus. For more information, visit clemson.edu/cva.