Ste. Genevieve hosts "The Way We Worked"

STE. GENEVIEVE, MO (KRCU) - Ste. Genevieve is the first city in Missouri to host a Smithsonian exhibit entitled "The Way We Worked."

The multi-media exhibit includes photographs, large graphics, audio and artifacts that examine the role of work in the American consciousness.

Stephanie Bell is Ste. Genevieve’s Director of Tourism.

"It's an overview of how work and work ethic has impacted America over the past one hundred years and how it has changed, and it has gone through some major changes, and you can see that clearly through the exhibit," Bell said.

Each community that hosts the exhibit will add to it by contributing their own scrapbook about work in the local region. Bell says the scrapbook will then go on to become a part of the permanent exhibit.

The exhibit is funded by the Missouri Humanities Council and Smithsonian Institution.

The locations for this exhibit include the Welcome Center and Linden House. "The Way We Worked" runs through November 5th.

Lauren Campbell, KRCU

Photo by James Earl Westcott. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

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Red Desert, Green Prairie, Blue Sky

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - A new exhibit of western photography will open today at the Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp the Second Museum at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus.

“Red Desert, Green Prairie, Blue Sky: Photographing the West” features landscapes from the Red Desert of Wyoming, the prairie of Central Kansas, and the Llano Estacado of northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico.

Museum director Peter Nguyen says that he was attracted to the exhibit because he thought that it would resonate with people in this area.

“These are newer photographs. Texas Tech actually commissioned six photographers to document the impact of history, culture, and geography of those areas. Basically what they are doing is recording the impact of human settlement on these large, mainly untouched landscapes,” Nguyen said.

The exhibit will be on display through August 14.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Spring into Dance combines movement, sound, and sculpture

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Percussionist Taylor Stanton is accustomed to teamwork. As a member of the Southeast Missouri Orchestra’s rhythm section, he has to keep his ears open to sounds of his fellow musicians. But for the new Spring into Dance recital, that collaboration goes beyond music.


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“It was a joint collaboration between Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Strauss, some people in the Art department, and all of the heads of the Dance department too,” Stanton said. “It’s one big collaboration between all three departments.”

Spring into Dance is a dance production that features lives music from the Southeast Missouri Orchestra, choreography by Southeast dance instructors, and original sculpture pieces by the Department of Art.

The production will continue through Sunday.

This year’s production consists of two acts, the first featuring choreography by Southeast faculty and students, as well as renowned guest choreographer, Susan Quinn. The second act features 20th century works by Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

Holst’s work was composed from 1914-1916 during the war-torn years of World War I. The sense of destruction and subsequent rebuilding is sensed through the music, and reinforces every move performed by the dancers.

Instructor of Dance and Choreography, Philip Edgecombe describes how the interdepartmental collaboration sheds a new light onto how important working with others can be to enhance artistic creation.

“I think overall with the collaboration we are accomplishing something that would have been impossible,” Edgecombe says. “The joy of having live music, I think the joy of having original art created for the pieces, and original choreography coming together somewhat harmoniously, but also sometimes not, I think that creates something kind of exciting.”

Four of the nine works of Holst’s opus will be performed, including Mars- Bringer of War, Venus-Bringer of Peace, Mercury- the Winger Messenger, and Jupiter- the Bringer of Jollity.

Mars begins with strong and powerful orchestral movements, followed by the harmonious melody of Venus and the swift, stream-lined sounds of Mercury and closes with the joyous music of Jupiter.

Each movement underscores the progression of war, from times of hardship and battle followed by peace, and the inevitable rebuilding and healing brought about through the passage of time.

Associate Professor of Art, Chris Wubbena, and his team of students have been toiling away for several months to complete several large-scale elements for the performers to utilize during the show.

The sculptures range from about five feet tall to twelve feet tall and are very interactive. Some will be suspended from the ceiling while others glide effortlessly across the floor, all providing a stunning visual element to the performance.

Not only does he believe that each own department has an important job to create something compelling, but the combined artwork of all three departments is vital to the show.

“I also think the end result and the creation of artwork is important,” Wubbena says. “Maybe that is the most important thing. Creating something that is powerful, impressive, and inspiring. All those things, but using the different means of student collaboration and faculty collaboration. Those things, I think, add to that experience in the end.”

The hopes of the students and faculty of the production are not only to create an impressive display of performance and music, but to inspire future performers and artists to put their heads together and work with others on projects down the line.

Wubbena feels that while collaboration between departments is challenging, a compelling result that makes an audience feel inspired is the end that justifies the means.

“If I would have to say something is the most important, I would have to say the overall artwork, in general, and what it leaves the viewer with at the end is probably the most important,” Wubbena says.

Spring into Dance shows at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus from Thursday April 14th through Saturday April 16th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday April 17th at 2 p.m.

Daniel Rohr, KRCU

Photo courtesy of Southeast Missouri State University

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Sculptor wins "Best of Show" at Southeast's Annual Juried Student Exhibition

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Ben Pierce, a sculpture student from Cape Girardeau, won Best of Show at the 2011 Annual Juried Student Exhibition on Friday.

The name of his piece is “One and One Makes Four.”

Pierce says that the title of the piece comes from the creation something new in the blank spaces in between visual items.

"You have two separate positive pieces and then the negative piece becomes a third element. But overall, those three elements comes to be a fourth element, you know, something totally different," Pierce said. "This is an idea I’ve been working on with larger outdoor sculpture pieces that I’ve been making and currently with the three pieces that I have in the selected show."

Southern Illinois University sculpture professor Alex Lopez served as juror for the student exhibit.

All of the works will remain in the Crisp Museum at the River Campus through May the first.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Southeast professor's artwork presented in New York

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Sarah Riley, the Interim Chairperson of the Art Department at Southeast Missouri State University, was recently accepted to present work in the Viridian Art Gallery In New York City.

After being asked to present her work to the gallery in the Chelsea Art District in New York, Sarah Riley was accepted as an affiliate to the gallery along with 6 other artists.

Riley is currently exhibiting 4 of her works, which consist of watercolor paint, graphite, collage, and mixed media.

According to Riley, the themes that she portrays with her art mainly represent femininity and autobiographical moments from the artist’s life.

Sarah Riley is also the head of Printmaking at the Holland School for the Visual and Performing Arts, and teaches classes in figure drawing, two-dimensional design, watermedia, and printmaking. She has been teaching art for almost 30 years and has been an educator at Southeast since 1994.

Daniel Rohr, KRCU

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Painting of Pearl Black wins "Exhibiting Excellence" show

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - A painting of 20th century author Pearl Black took home the Best In Show award at the 33rd Annual “Exhibiting Excellence” Art Exhibition at Southeast’s River Campus on Sunday. 

The artist is Amy Walden, a junior from Popular Bluff. She named her representation of Pearl Black “Uncatchable.”

“It works in both the physical and spiritual sense. Physically I made her out of paper because she’s a writer and all the words are on there, she put all her emotions and thoughts into writing. In the spiritual sense she couldn’t be caught because she was a free spirit,” Walden said.

The exhibit features art pieces from Junior and Senior high school students from 20 high schools in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. Approximately 250 pieces of art are submitted to the exhibit and of those submitted, 90 are selected to go on display.

Walden’s painting, as well as the rest of the art from the exhibit, will be on display until March 27th.

Katie Long, KRCU

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Alex Lopez tagged as regional guest juror

Image courtesy of the SIUC School of Art and Design.

Each year Southeast Missouri State University’s Art Department holds a Student Showcase. Regional guest artists are selected by Southeast faculty to jury the show.

This year’s juror is Alex Lopez, Assistant Professor of Sculpture at SIU Carbondale.

Southeast art professor Emily Denlinger says she chose Lopez because his work sets a good model for students.

"In the Digital Arts program we are interested in the cross pollination of multiple media, and how student can incorporate digital technologies with the more traditional media they are using, such as printmaking and ceramics," Denlinger says. "I believe bringing Alex Lopez to SEMO sets a tone for the students and expands their ideas about the possibilities of art."

As a benefit to the juror, he or she is allowed to display personal work in the River Campus Gallery prior to the Student Show. Lopez’s installation is titled “Indelible History of Things Past, Present, and Future”. The show runs from February 28th to March 23rd.

Ryan Paluczak, KRCU

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