Ft. Hayes Shot Tower Gallery Exhibitions Highlight African American Dance and Dance and Music Inspired Artwork from September 8th until October 9th, 2008. The Shot Tower Gallery at the Ft. Hayes Metropolitan Education Center will present artwork with a Dance and Music theme in the two-part exhibition “When The Spirit Moves” from September 8th until October 9th, 2008. This exhibit includes original art works and a poster exhibition showcasing the history of African American Dance. The art exhibition presents forty-nine art works by seven artists that share dance and music as inspiration for both figurative and metaphorical subject matter. Artists include absolutearts.com Premiere Portfolio artists Walter King and Ron Anderson, as well as, Pheoris West, Bruce Robinson, David Mihaly, Kojo Kamau, and Kevin Willis. The art exhibition includes work in the media of photography, oil and acrylic paintings, relief sculpture, drawings and mix media work.
Pheoris West’s paintings acknowledge Africa as the source for classical art traditions, and he relies upon his African and American cultural influences to inform his imagery. Traditional tales, mythologies and religion inspire the human characters he creates to symbolize universal messages.
Walt King’s says of his series "I Saw Two Men Dancing, “It was based on a moment when I watched my son Daniel playing video games...you know, those games where two players fight each other for points. I realized that the game employed only a few movements for each character. It was pretty simple really. So I began playing with two figures. Each time I used the two of them I changed their position thereby getting the feeling that it was a complex set of movements even though in reality it was the same two over and over. Dance is like that as well. Just a few movements done over and over in varied ways...
The art exhibit was designed to complement the poster exhibition adapted from “When the Spirit Moves: African American Dance in History and Art” exhibit by the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of Citizen Exchange, Cultural Programs Division. The show provides a history of African American dance, from its roots in Africa to today’s modern dance movements and reflects the gradual movement of African American dance from the fringes of popularity to mainstream acceptance by American audiences. Characteristics of African American dance – including improvisation, orientation toward the Earth, poly-rhythms, and percussive music – are featured, as well as photographs of famous dancers including Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Katherine Dunham, Gregory Hines and Pearl Primus. A video is accompanies the exhibit.
An artist’s reception will be held on Thursday, September 11th from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. It is free to the public.
Gallery hour’s are from 8:00 until 4:00 Monday through Friday and by appointment. The gallery will be open on September 17th in the evening until 9:00 p.m. For more information contact Teresa Weidenbusch, gallery director.
The Shot Tower Gallery is one of the longest running galleries in Central Ohio, established in 1979 as part of the nationally registered 1863 Civil War Building on the Ft. Hayes Campus. It is just north of Columbus State at the intersection of South Cleveland Avenue Jack Gibbs Blvd and I 670.
Ft. Hayes Metropolitan Education Center campus is part of the Columbus Public Schools and includes the Ft. Hayes Career Center, The Ft. Hayes Nationally Silver Award Winning Arts and Academic High School, was rated one of the 400 best schools in America in the 2007-08 U.S. News and World Report.
View more of Walter King's work in his Portfolio at absolutearts.com absolutearts.com/portfolios/w/walterking.
IMAGE
Walter King
Two Men Dancing Orange Detail, 2004
12 x 12 x 1 inches
Ron Anderson's work can be viewed in his absolutearts.com Portfolio http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/r/rastudio/
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