Artists and Gallery curators in Bowling Green are busy preparing for the Bowling Green International Festival Gallery Walk.  The annual event features internationally themed exhibits for the week leading up to the September 26 festival and some last beyond that date.  Receptions for all exhibits will be held on September 18 from 5-9pm.  At many locations the artists will be on hand to discuss their work.

Andee Rudloff, the Gallery Walk’s founder and organizer said of the event “I am excited to welcome some new spaces and artists to the Gallery Walk this year.  Although we are a little bit more spread out than ever before, I think the artists participating are some of the best artists we have ever had.”

Andee Rudloff is a professional artist living and working mostly in  Tennessee and Kentucky. Andee specializes in murals and painting, but also teaches, coordinates arts exhibitions and events around the region and curates shows at her gallery, the Morris Alley Studio (aka “The Pie House”).  Andee also serves as the Community Relations Manager at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Western Kentucky University will offer two stops on the Gallery Walk this year; The first in the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts center University Gallery and the second in the Mass Media Technology Hall.

According to the Department of Art’s Gallery Director, Kristina Arnold, “The WKU Art Department Galleries are committed to bringing in exhibitions with an international reach, and have participated in the International Festival Gallery Walk with internationally-themed exhibitions for the past three years.  This year for the Gallery Walk we have the fortunate opportunity of hosting the innaugural US showing of a traveling exhibition from Mexico, entitled The Women of Michoacán: Art and Artists.  This exhibition brings us beautiful paintings, prints, sculpture, photography and ceramics from six contemporary Michoacán artists and is not to be missed!”

The exhibit in the Mass Media Technology Hall will feature WKU journalism Honors student’s work on immigrants and refugees in Bowling Green.  Sara Shipley Hiles, the exhibit’s coordinator said “I’m thrilled that the students’ work is part of the Gallery Walk. Our topic of immigrants and refugees fits well with the International Festival theme. We hope that our work will help make people aware of the many challenges international residents face, and the diversity they bring to our community.”

The work of a WKU artist and professor will also appear at the Capitol Arts  Center’s Mezzanine Gallery.  The Capitol’s Gallery Director Lynn Robertson said  “We at the Capitol Arts Galleries have been involved in the International Festival Gallery Walk ever since I can remember the Gallery Walk being a part of the Festival.  It is always a wonderful challenge to find an international flavored exhibit to show at that time.  This year’s International Festival Gallery Walk featured artist is photographer Michael Trapasso, a WKU professor and world traveler whose work shows the ‘faces’ of many of the world’s most famous places.”

Nashville artist Stacey Irvin has also participated in the Gallery Walk each year.  This year she is featured at Spencer’s Coffeehouse with a show focused on the community of San Bernardo Ecuador.  Irvin shared insights reflected in her photos saying “In a world in which our lives often seem to be packaged and sold to us for consumption, my aesthetic revels in capturing and sharing the simple, yet most essential aspects of the human spirit. Whether I am at home or abroad, I seek to celebrate and experience the diversity of life and the interconnectedness to the land and to each other that sustains our common humanity. I traveled to the indigenous village of San Bernardo in the central highlands of Ecuador in 2008. My approach to photography partnered with the fact that my brother John had been living in the village for the past two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, gave me intimate access to this community. The majority of people in the valley are subsistence farmers, dependent on small plots of land for their livelihood. Life is difficult and homes, livestock and crops literally cling to the steep green slopes of the surrounding mountains. In spite of these hardships, I am inspired by the joyful spirit of this community – a spirit that is fed by a deep devotion to family, faith and an intimate connection to the land.”

Another regular showcased on the Gallery Walk is VSA Arts of Kentucky’s Arts ACCESS Gallery.  VSA Director Ginny Miller said “VSA arts of Kentucky is thrilled to be a part of the BG International Festival Gallery Walk.  This is a great opportunity for us to make the public aware of our services and offerings and it also gives us the chance to participate in an event that recognizes and celebrates our diverse society.”  The gallery features the work of artists with a without disabilities.  This year’s exhibit showcases those who answered their call to artists based on the theme “One World, Many Faces: A Multi-Cultural Exhibition” and fitting their mission of “creating a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts.”

Memphis Marsha’s won the Best of Show in 2008 as well as 2002. This year her gallery will feature her work as well as fellow artists Michaele Ann Harper and Greg Powell.  Harper, Heidbrink and Powell were three WKU alumni among a group of 40 touring France in 2008 with Western’s Art Department Faculty, Administrators, and students. From this trip, the three have developed a series of art pieces and will be showing watercolors, encaustic paintings, three dimensional boxes and notecards.

Gallery 916 will also be returning to the walk this year.  Several other venues are new to the Gallery Walk this year, including: Greener Groundz, Ellis/Walker Gallery at MacKenzie’s, Coffee Grind and the Pie House Studio.  The Festival’s “pinata lady” Ronnie Jaggers of Chiseled Features studio will be showing masks, a Roman Alto relief and Christmas ornaments at Coffee Grind.

For more information visit www.BGInternationalFest.com

Gallery Walk locations: 

• Capitol Arts Alliance Mezzanine Gallery: Traveling the World! featuring Michael Trapasso
• Arts Access Gallery: One World, Many Faces – A Multi-Cultural Exhibition featuring artists who participate in our call to artists
• Greener Groundz: Women and Kids Learning Together – WKU Women’s Studies featuring Kristin Houser and Ariana McCluchin
• University Gallery: Women of Michoacan – Art and Artists featuring Ana Pellicer, Leonor Solís, Dolores Gómez, Jerónimo Mateo, Marcela Ramírez, Rosa Angélica Gómez Mier
• Ellis/Walker Gallery at MacKenzie’s: Around the World and Back Again featuring Kim & David Jones, Joe Downing more
• Spencer’s Coffeehouse:  Indigenous Connections – Life in San Bernardo, Ecuador featuring Stacey Irwin
• Coffee Grind: One World, Many Faces featuring Ronnie Jaggers
• Memphis Marsha’s: Something about France featuring Harper, Heidbrink & Powell
• The Pie House Studio: The Many Faces of Change a collaborative and interactive mural featuring Kim Chalmers and WKU studio art students
• Gallery 916: One World Many Faces – The Art of Adornment featuring Jessica Snodgrass, Heidi Oberhelman,  Kay Zoretic,Debby Modlin, Debra Gall, Amanda Sears, Edit Hepp, Bill Guffey, Rhonda Smith and Gayle Novick.
• WKU School of Journalism & Broadcasting Gallery: American Dreams – Immigrants and Refugees in Bowling Green featuring Fleischaker-Greene Scholars Spring 09 Class & Inge Hooker