A Sculpture Park at Sandy Spring Museum
June 29 - September- 30, 2017
Presented by the Washington Sculptors Group (WSG) and Sandy Spring Museum (SSM)
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
c.l. bigelow, Elsabé Dixon, Mary Annella “Mimi” Frank, Eve Hennessa, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Jin Lee, Cat Lukens, Raina Martens, Grant McFarland, Maryanne Pollock, Marc Robarge, Casey Snyder, Diane Szczepaniak
Juried by Ursula Achternkamp
OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, June 29, 6:30–9:00 pm
Opening Ceremony at 7:00 pm, “Medicine Wheel” performed by Eve Hennessa with water from West Africa and Mecca.
ART IN NATURE – (Re)Use and Abuse of the Land marks the second collaboration between the Washington Sculptors Group (WSG) and the Sandy Spring Museum (SSM). The aim of ARTINA 2017 is to create awareness among visitors and communities of the need to reconnect with nature now and preserve nature for future societies. Art functions as a mediator between nature and people to generate public attention and awareness by promoting a healthier and more environmentally meaningful and sustainable life. Life in and with nature can be experienced as living systems and can be experienced as nature’s regenerative power to recover from damage. The diverse, layered concept of ARTINA 2017 helps us to understand, appreciate, and value the ecosystems within nature and the natural systems and cycles involved. Art functions not only as an aesthetic stimulator to design a creative and sustainable environment, it also helps us to understand the connection between humans and nature as well as to lead us to find beauty in materials, forms, and their importance within living systems.
In collaboration with the “International Visitors Program” supported by the NRW KULTURsekretariat curator program in Germany, WSG invited juror Ursula Achternkamp to make a connection between the continents and exchange contemporary perspectives on art in nature through Achternkamp’s selection of thirteen artists for ARTINA 2017.
With emphasis on the use, reuse and abuse of the land, artists will focus on local or regional findings or research that address global issues. Artists will also emphasize concepts of mapping and meaning, and identification of places. Exploring geographies inspired and motivated by the actual condition of the land, its surroundings, its history and deep time discoveries, or by suburban developments and their impact on the environment are additional aims of the Artina 2017 exhibition.
ABOUT THE JUROR: Ursula Achternkamp studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Münster (D) and the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Genève (CH). She freelanced at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and Exhibition-Projects such as curating the Permanent Exhibition of the Bauhaus-Settlement Dessau-Törten of Walter Gropius, Archilab Europe–Strategic Architecture (Cooperation of the Bauhaus Dessau with the FRAC Centre, Orléans, France, at the International Building Exhibition IBA Urban Redevelopment Saxony-Anhalt Less is Future. She has shown her artwork in several group and solo exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia and Switzerland. Participating in an international and interdisciplinary Bauhaus-Kolleg EU-Urbanism (2006-07) she investigated “After-Effects for a City” at the European Capital of Culture program, Luxembourg LU, and Sibiu RU. Achternkamp also collaborated with The Philosophical Farmers (Die Philosophischen Bauern), participated in the development and landing of UFO with Niklas Nitzschke in the frame of CULBURB (Cultural Acupuncture Treatment for Suburb) of the Centre for Central European Architecture in Prague.
Sandy Spring Museum
17901 Bentley Road
Sandy Spring, MD 20860
www.sandyspringmuseum.org
Tel. (301) 774-0022
Open Hours: Wednesdays–Saturdays from 10 am–5 pm
Grounds are accessible any time.
Image: Marc Robarge, Hemlock Conch, 2016, photograph courtesy of the Artist