September 5 - December 12, 2003
Weir Farm Visiting Artists 2003
An Exhibition Of Their Exploration of Historic Site
Five
artists who found inspiration in a National Historic landscape will
be featured in an exhibition entitled, “Weir farm Visiting Artists
2003,” hosted by the the Housatonic Museum of Art from September
5 through December 12, 2003. An opening reception will be held
on Sunday,
September 14th from 1:00 until 3:00pm. This event is free and the public
is cordially invited to attend. Participating artists include Barbara
Allen, Sue Collier, Suzanne Howes-Stevens, Constance Kiermaier and
Dorothy Powers.
Weir farm, originally purchased in 1882 by major pioneering figure
in the American Impressionist movement J. Alden Weir is located in
the towns of Wilton and Ridgefield.
Weir spent nearly four decades there, often joined by many artists in his wide
circle of friends including Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, Albert Pinkham Ryder
and John Singer Sargent.
In 1990 Weir farm was designated a National Historic Site. It is
Connecticut’s
only National Park and the only one in the nation dedicated to American painting.
The Weir Farm Trust, the Park’s nonprofit partner, provides opportunities
for professional artists including the Visiting Artists Program now in its
13th year. Barbara Allen received her BA, Summa Cum Laude, from the University
of
Bridgeport and her MS in Art education from Southern Connecticut State University.
She is an art specialist at Danbury High School and a senior faculty member
of the Brookfield Craft Center. Group and solo exhibitions include The Canton
Museum
of Art; HarperCollins, New York; The Paris New York Kent Gallery, and The
Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston among others. In addition, she has pioneered
the visual
literacy, cross-cultural exchange between students in Ghana and students
from the Danbury High School to advocate Peace Education through the arts.
Dorothy Powers of Branford, CT is a professional artist and teacher.
Solo and group exhibits have included the Yale University School of
Medicine,
The New
Britain Museum of American Art, and Norwalk Community College. Her work
is represented in corporate and private collections throughout the
United States.
In addition,
she teaches drawing at the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven.
Constance Kiermaier of Westport is a graduate of the Yale School
of Fine Arts. She is the recipient of numerous awards among them a
fellowship in
painting
from the New England Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for
the Arts and
a Faber Birren Award for Distinctive and Creative Expression in Color.
Kiermaier’s
work has been widely exhibited throughout the Northeast including the
Portalnad Museum in Maine, the Woods Gerry Gallery at the Rhode Island
School of Design,
SOHO 20 in Chelsea and the Mills Gallery in Boston.
Suzanne Howes-Stevens of Storrs taught painting
and drawing at Manchester Community College after completing her BFA
at the Massachusetts College
of Art in Boston
and an MA from the Hartford Art School. After retiring in 1997, Howes-Stevens
returned to her art making full-time. She is the recipient of the Connecticut
Commission on the Arts and a Greater Hartford Arts Council Individual
Artists Fellowship. (Ms. Howes-Stevens work appears at the top of this
page)
Sue Collier has been living and working in New
York City for the
past twenty years, and has taught painting and drawing for ten years
and
has lectured
at Queens College and Dartmouth College. She has exhibited nationally
and has
had numerous one-person shows. Ms. Collier had received various grants
including several Meritorious Teaching Awards from SUNY Purchase for
outstanding teaching.
Ms collier attended the Skowhegan School and was a graduate fellow
at Boston Umiversity. Her work has been reviewed by The New York Times,
Art Forum,
ARTNews, Artspeak and Women’s Artist News, among others.
Gallery hours are Monday thru Friday- 8:30am until 5:30pm; Thursday
evenings until 7pm; Saturday, 9am until 3pm and Sundays Noon until
4pm.
For additional information contact: Robbin Zella at 203.332.5052
|
