Wayne County Community College District’s (WCCCD) Brown and Juanita C. Ford Gallery will host the Opening Exhibition of ECO d’ART on Thursday, October 23, 2008, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at 1001 West Fort in the Downtown Campus of WCCCD. The gallery will exhibit 13 artists’ works from October 23 – December 19, 2008. The public is welcome to attend the opening reception to meet the artists at no charge.
ECO d’ART will feature 13 artists who are exhibiting art work that pay homage to the ecology, created with recycled materials, seeking to educate the viewer of the importance of protecting the environment. These artists created new art work that reflects their relationship to the ecology.
WCCCD calls upon the visual artists to lead, and demonstrate how it is possible for a vocation to be “eco-friendly.” Chancellor, Dr. Curtis Ivery says, “As a learning institution WCCCD must inform the students and community, and continue the dialogue about twenty first century ideas and concepts. Protecting our environment is one of the most important issues that we face as a world.”
ECO d’ART will feature 20 mixed-media art works created by 13 diverse artists: Jerome Feretti, Todd Erickson, M. Saffell Gardner, Lenore Gimpert, Tyree Guyton, Taru Lahti, Nora Mendoza, Jocelyn Rainey, Senghor Reid, Andrzej Sikora, Mark Schwing, Nancy Thayer and Don Thibodeaux.
Nora Mendoza, states, “The idea came to me concerning an issue that is dear to my heart. I have been worried about pollution of the water all over the world, and how people discard plastics, styrofoam, medical materials and damaging oil spills. In my works I present the effects these acts have on us as a people and our environment.”
The visual arts are perhaps among the vocations whose interests and principles are most naturally aligned with the principles and interests of a balanced and healthy ecology. In this day and age the future of our global ecology hangs in balance, and threatens our comforts and conveniences to which we have become accustomed. Tyree Guyton says, “I am searching internally to find: what art is today? I created new works that seek to answer this query. My art is about honoring the Master, Earth, Spirit, and the Soul.”
WCCCD is committed to the continued development of new programs, hosting more community-based training sessions, improving student facilities and services, upgrading technologies, making capital investments in massive building expansion projects, training staff members to enhance their skills to maximize efficiency. For more information on WCCCD, please visit www.wcccd.edu
