Wet Fields in Spring, acrylic on panel, John Fennell of Columbia
COLUMBIA - Starting April 9, Missouri Art Now, a Bicentennial Celebration will visit the State Historical Society of Missouri. The exhibit, which will be available in Columbia until May 15, displays works from a collection of Missouri artists all across the state.
Executive Director of Post Art Library in Joplin, Jill Sullivan, helped spearhead the exhibit and oversaw the selection process. By dividing the state into quadrants, Sullivan and art councils from each zone combed through and selected submissions to ensure a wide variety of representation in the art selected.
âOne thing that we are hoping to capture is for people to see art thatâs being created from outside of the area where they live,â Sullivan said. âItâs a really good way for artists to see what other artists across the state are creating, and that was the main goal, just to be representative of Missouri art now.â
The art gallery is in the Center for Missouri Studies, 605 Elm St.
Missouri Art Now, A Bicentennial Celebration is a juried exhibit that showcases the state s visual arts culture and diversity. Sixty works were chosen from nearly 400 entries. We wanted to make sure the art represents works from each region of the state, so locale played a significant role in selecting art for this exhibition, said Jill Sullivan, director of the Post Art Library in Joplin, who helped oversee the exhibition.
The art selected includes acrylic and oil paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, ceramics and watercolor.
The exhibit is a collaboration among The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau; The Hannibal Arts Council; Post Art Library and Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin; and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum in St. Joseph.