UMaine Art Faculty Members Exhibit Personal Collections
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Fun, eclectic, even quirky is how the University of Maine Art Department’s newest faculty exhibit is being described.
“The Faculty Collects” opens at the Carnegie Galleries Friday, Sept. 10 and will remain up through Oct. 8.
The unusual exhibit offers a peek at the personal interests of 15 art faculty members through things they have collected over the years. Just what types of things do art professors covet in their spare time?
A collection of 60 variations of the traditional Maine Caddis fishing fly, a collection of 300 pair of scissors, both metal and plastic, confiscated by airlines since Sept. 11, 2001 and pieces of wood from a dismantled 19th Century house in the south are part of the show. Those, along with collected paintings, photographs, old cameras, drawings, ceramics, digital media and sculptured works comprise the exhibit, which features about 30 works in all, says gallery coordinator MaJo Keleshian.
“This is a show of various things the art faculty have collected,” she says. “Some of these things are more or less traditional wall mountings, photographs and prints, pretty much traditional work, but also various things that the art faculty have collected over the years.”
While the objects and art work were not created by the UMaine art faculty, Keleshian says, the choices of art reflect the taste and aesthetic sensibilities of the faculty.
“Quirky, is a good word, but quirky with intelligence,” she says.
The exhibit is an opportunity for students to see faculty from another dimension, adds Owen Smith, associate professor of art and one of the exhibitors.
Artists, he says, are collectors at heart, and often collect artwork that represents a particular art form in which an art professor is interested, or something that might be used in class.
“The thinking, really, was for the most part, one of the ways we try to engage students is to show them what we do as professionals,” he says. “We can show them here what we do outside the classroom.”
The Carnegie Galleries at Carnegie Hall on the Orono campus are open to the public at no cost weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The public is invited to an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. on Sept. 10. Many faculty members will be on hand to explain their interest and the significance of the objects and the art they have chosen to show.