The University of Arkansas – Fort Smith and The Bakery District have officially opened their art series, “The District Art Galleries”, to bring fine art to unconventional spaces in the community.
In addition, the university also has a permanent collection on campus in the Windgate Gallery.
The goal of the partnership is to create a forum for community engagement in the arts.
The university’s Art and Design Gallery and Department of Art and Design has appointed its Gallery Director, Matthew Bailey, to choose three adjunct professors, Mary Elkins, Jarrod Cluck and Owen Buffington to exhibit their latest projects .
Mary Elkins does work focused on memory, motherhood and family. She works with fiber, clay and other household objects. The love of cataloging and remembering important but mostly small and mundane moments in life has inspired much of her work.
Elkins received her BFA in ceramics from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 2008 and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Crafts and Materials Studies in 2011.
Jarrod Cluck works with locally collected native plants, scraps and salvaged iron objects. He uses prints and videos to tell the same old story of knowledge lost and rediscovered, except through the perspective of a natural Ozark.
Cluck graduated from the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith in 2015 with a BA and from the University of Hartford’s Nomad MFA program in 2020 with an MFA before returning to teach at his alma mater.
Owen Buffington is a multimedia artist whose work explores the intersection of geography and the visual arts – in particular the role drawing plays in how we describe, define and organize everyday spaces.
Owen earned an MFA, majoring in drawing, from the University of Arkansas in 2017, and has taught at universities, community art nonprofits, and public schools.
The artists’ inaugural exhibition, “Process/Experience/Place,” will run from June 1 through September 18, with a reception celebrating the installation and partnership to be announced shortly.
The visit is free and the exhibition is open to the public during the opening hours of the Boulangerie merchants.
Katie Waugh, chair of the art and design department, said the space will be a new visual art center to expand the presence of the university’s art department in the downtown area.
“It’s a vital forum for contemporary art that I hope the UAFS and Fort Smith communities will enjoy,” she said.
New exhibitions will be quarterly with the aim of developing an ongoing and competitive program of modern and impactful installations that truly engage the community.
Bailey said the art galleries in the district will also be a training ground for students in art gallery practice.
“The training aspect is primarily for art students to gain experience in art manipulation and the gallery, although volunteer opportunities are open to any interested student,” he said. . “Volunteers will help with exhibition facilities and in the future we hope to use this venue as part of our developing academic program in art management and museum practice.”
Waugh said Bailey also started a program to hire students for the gallery.
“These opportunities are an important extension of our students’ academic programs,” she said. “Working on exhibitions in this new space will broaden both their academic understanding and their professional repertoire by developing exhibition spaces and overcoming design challenges.”
Bailey said he had to get the ball rolling after discussing a community gallery project at length with Waugh.
“We had so much to do on campus to develop the gallery and exhibition programming here that when we put on the faculty show, I knew these artists would be perfect to start with,” he said. declared.
Bailey said Waugh and Bill Hanna, chairman of the board of Hanna Oil and Gas Company and owner of The Bakery District, worked together to develop the program to “get the most out of it.”
Now the organizers are waiting for public perception.
Bailey said the process has been positive and exciting.
“It’s always nice to finish it and take a step back and see what we’ve accomplished as a group,” he said. “Breathe then move on to the next project.”
