exhibitions

Exhibitions Online & in the Gallery

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LAWRENCE ARTS CENTER 2021 BENEFIT ART Auction

Featured Artist

Michael McCaffrey

BIDDING OPENS March 12

Annual Benefit Art Auction Exhibition

March 12 - April 10

With sincere thanks for the generosity of artists and the support of art buyers, the Lawrence Arts Center continues to provide free access to exhibits and ensure that Art is for Everyone.

The annual Benefit Art Auction is the main funding source enabling the Exhibitions program to show a full range of exhibits – from preschool students to internationally recognized artists – to all audiences for free.

Watch the website for ways to view the exhibition online and in-person, and to place bids to provide your support! Save the date for a virtual celebration on April 10. We’ll miss seeing you in person, but look forward to bringing the spirit of the event in a safe and socially distanced way.

All pieces are available for online bidding. ALL BIDDING ENDS APRIL 10 at 9 pm. Free local deliveries.

SIGNATURE SPONSOR PRINTING PROVIDED BY

Lawrence Arts Center Preschool & Kindergarten Exhibition April 15 - May 14

The Linda Reimond Preschool and Kelly Galloway Kindergarten Exhibition features works from preschool students at the Lawrence Arts Center. Illuminating the roots of imagination through fearless creativity, this exhibit offers a rare and stirring glimpse of the origin of ingenuity and inspiration. Arts Center early childhood students have the opportunity to work with professional artists, actors, dancers, and musicians, attend performances, and create in the studios. Creative confidence and innovative skills are clear in the work of these very young students.

Poetry Despite/Music Despite Eternal War Requiem Aaron Hughes

June 4 – July 17

On the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Authorization for Use of Military Force, Aaron Hughes created a multi-media exhibit that explores our current state of endless war and historical antecedents.

Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, teacher, anti-war activist, and Iraq War veteran living in Chicago. He works collaboratively in diverse spaces and media to create meaning out of personal and collective trauma, deconstruct and transform systems of oppression, and seek liberation. Working through an interdisciplinary practice rooted in drawing and printmaking, Hughes develops projects that deconstruct militarism and related institutions of dehumanization. These projects often utilize popular research strategies, experiment with forms of direct democracy, and operate in solidarity with the people most impacted by structural violence.

IIn 2019, following an internationally competitive process, the Lawrence Arts Center selected Ashlyn Pope as our Ceramics Artist-in-Residence and Dayon Royster as our Printmaking Artist-in-Residence. Traditionally a one-year appointment, both Pope and Royster agreed to continue their residencies as the global pandemic stopped everything in its tracks and threw artists around the world into a state of suspended animation. Our artists in residence were fundamental in helping us maintain our mission during the past year to stay creative and continue providing access to the arts.

During more traditional residencies at the Arts Center, artists develop new bodies of work, collaborate in our studios, teach, and take part in community driven projects. This year our artists in residence faced new challenges as they adapted their normal roles and proceeded in new, innovative ways. Their contributions were immeasurable. We are grateful for their dedication, and so glad we were able to spend an extra year with them.

Dayon Royster // Printmaking phaschunəble nahn-cents: akt II

May 21 – June 19

Dayon Royster’s pfashən-uhble naan-sints series uses phonetics to playfully focus on serious topics including accessibility, bias, context, information, research, rules and truth. This second installment touches on those same themes and adds moral superiority, the culpability of society at large, and the pros and cons of individuality. Royster’s prints feature phonetic expressions intended to slow the reader down and ask them to “sit with what they’re reading or interacting with until they fully understand it.” His work is based in research into blind attachment to ideologies, hoax articles and confirmation bias. Royster uses his pieces to pique curiosity in the reader, “not allowing for total comfort or confidence that they’ve gotten to the bottom of it.”

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dayon Royster is currently dividing his time between the Lawrence Arts Center and teaching printmaking at the University of Iowa. Royster received his BFA in Printmaking from East Carolina University and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Iowa. While at ECU, he embarked on his first foray into printmaking with no idea of the path down which it would send him. Printmaking continues to captivate him because of the creative problem solving that is involved with the process; he returns day after day to try his hand at pulling a successful print. Royster’s current work conjures universal themes of accessibility, curiosity, empowerment, self-doubt, identity, suppression, symbolism, and the “other.”

Ashlyn Pope // Ceramics June 25 – July 24 Witnessing Dandelions

Ashlyn Pope’s work is a reflection not only of her own experience, but also an expression of her history. Pope has spent her time in residency at the Arts Center exploring themes of her ancestry and symbolism, and how to relay that information through her ceramics. Working in both handbuilding and throwing, Pope uses her art to champion diversity through a body of work that discusses her own Gullah history, as well as the past and present of the Black community. While Pope works in a variety of mediums, she truly enjoys the challenges of working in clay, “having to take the time to become acquainted and learn to work together with the clay, and become a partner in its formation.”

Ashlyn Pope is an African American sculptor of Gullah descent. In January 2021, Pope was named Visiting Artist and Lecturer at the Kansas City Art Institute. She holds a BFA in Ceramics and Printmaking from Kennesaw State University. She graduated with her MFA in Ceramics from Pennsylvania State University and has served on the board for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts as a Student Director at Large. Pope mainly works with ceramics and textiles to create work rooted in personal experiences as a survivor of abuse living in a female Black body. Pope uses her work to address how bound or boundless we are.

Early Childhood

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR EARLY CHILDHOOD SPECIFIC COVID-19 POLICIES & PROCEDURES

IN-PERSON

SUMMER CLASSES

The in-person summer Early Childhood Education classes will be maintaining a healthy environment and operations through increased cleaning and sanitizing, while in a consistent, small group of children and educators. Each class will take place primarily outdoors. We will continue our alley drop-off and pick-up procedure, and health screenings for our classes for 3-6 year olds. Masks are required for adults, recommended and encouraged for children aged 2 and up.

Coloring Outside the Lines

Ages 2 to 3 Linda Reimond

This child/adult class allows you and your 2- or 3-year-old to explore the arts together. We will paint and play, and sing and play, and print and play in a hands-on atmosphere. Plan to get messy, so play clothes are a must! CEC1: 6/4-6/25, FR; 9:30-10:30 AM, $70 ($63) CEC2: 6/4-6/25, FR; 11-12 PM, $70 ($63) CEC3: 7/2-7/23, FR; 9:30-10:30 AM, $70 ($63) CEC4: 7/2-7/23, FR; 11-12 PM, $70 ($63)

Integrated Arts

Early Education Faculty

Ages 3 to 6 Integrated Arts is ideal for your child’s first class away from home, or as a supplement to traditional preschool programs. Play clothes a must! Child must be fully toilet trained. JUNE CEI1: 6/4-6/25, FR; 9-11 AM, $80 ($72) JULY CEI2: 7/2-7/23, FR; 9-11 AM, $80 ($72)

Kindergarten Art and Play Experience

Ages 5 to 6 Early Education Faculty

This art and play experience for 5 & 6-year-olds, will give your child a chance to practice their 21st-century skills through turn-taking, problemsolving, experimenting, critical thinking, and cooperation—all through art and play. For children who are entering or just completed kindergarten. JUNE CEK1: 6/8-7/1, TU;TH; 1-3 PM, $150 ($135) JULY CEK2: 7/6-7/22, TU;TH; 1-3 PM, $113 ($101.70)

Jumpin’ June Preschool Fun

Ages 3 to 6 Early Education Faculty

Join in the Arts-Based Preschool’s creative adventures during the month of June. This class will offer enriching art and play activities in a safe and healthy environment. Enrollment is limited to one two-day session (M/W or T/TH) per month, per child to ensure consistent groups. Children must be fully toilet trained. Play clothes a must. CEP1: 6/7-6/30, MO;WE; 9-11 AM, $150 ($135) CEP3: 6/7-6/30, MO;WE; 9:30-11:30 AM, $150 ($135) CEP4: 6/8-7/1, TU;TH; 9:30-11:30 AM, $150 ($135)

Jazzy July Preschool Fun

Ages 3 to 6 Early Education Faculty

Join in or continue the Arts-Based Preschool’s creative adventures during the month of July. This class will offer enriching art and play activities in a safe and healthy environment. Enrollment is limited to one two-day session (M/W or T/TH) per month, per child to ensure consistent groups. Children must be fully toilet trained. Play clothes a must. CEP7: 7/6-7/22, TU;TH; 9:30-11:30 AM, $113 ($101.70) CEP6: 7/7-7/21, MO;WE; 9-11 AM, $94 ($84.60) CEP8: 7/7-7/21, MO;WE; 9:30-11:30 AM, $94 ($84.60)

CLICK ON GRAY CLASS CODE BOXES UNDER DESCRIPTIONS TO OPEN CLASS LISTING ONLINE & ENROLL!

CLICK HERE FOR THEATRE CLASSES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

CLICK HERE FOR DANCE CLASSES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

Celebrate the Linda Reimond Preschool’s 35th Anniversary!

This outdoor, drive-in style performance for children and their families explores the wacky world of water, soap, and bubbles.

Coming this May! See details, page 10!

ENROLL FOR FALL AND JOIN US FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR!

Linda Reimond Arts-Based Preschool

IN-PERSON The Lawrence Arts Center’s Arts Based Preschool offers a creative, developmentally appropriate approach to early childhood education. The foundation is childcentered experiences—arts, play, discovery, experience-based curriculum, and outdoor play. The program’s caring, thoughtful, early educational environment nurtures creative thinking, problem solving, imagination, confidence, cultural awareness, and social/ emotional skills that last a lifetime.

For children ages 3-5 years. Children must be fully, independently toilet trained.

Kelly Galloway Kindergarten

IN-PERSON The Kelly Galloway Kindergarten has a special focus on preparing young students to develop innovation skills, the creative arts- and play-based curriculum sets the foundation for a lifetime love of learning. Unique learning centers are custom-designed daily to engage young children and to offer creative hands-on ways of learning academic skills.

Children who are age 5 before August 31 are eligible to enroll.

For more information, please contact Linda Reimond or Andria Devlin at 785-843-2787 or preschool@lawrenceartscenter.org.