Keene State College’s Art Department gallery, the Carroll House Art Gallery, is currently presenting a collection with seemingly powerful messages, called “On Common Conscience”. The collection will continue to be displayed until December 7.
According to an article posted on the KSC website, the collection includes pieces of work that, “engage their viewers in dialogues regarding topics of war, resources, compassion and the ethical treatment of animals in contemporary culture.”
The collection features work of three artists as well as work of the international artists cooperative, Justseeds. According to information posted in the Carroll House, Sue Coe is a British born artist with pieces that have appeared in the New York Times and New Yorker.
She has based a lot of her work on the “disturbing and unethical acts of treatment on animals from humans.”
Douglas Kinsey, from Indiana, has pieces of work that center on “compassion and people’s kindness to one another.”
Barbara Penn is from Arizona and really focused on the media and it’s portrayal of culture. Then there is the collaborative work of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperatives, which is 24 artists that “design with intent to reflect from a social, environmental and political stance.”
This and more information on these artists and their pieces of work can be found throughout the exhibit.
As the Carroll House Art Gallery offers many exhibits a year, many people may wonder how these shows are put together and what it entails to get an exhibition like this to make its way to KSC. Art Professor and Chair of the Art Department, Rosemarie Bernardi, explained what it takes to get an exhibit like this to be shown.
In many cases, this is one of the most important things to figure out, Bernardi said. She said she had to figure out funding and costs to get all these pieces to Keene, New Hampshire, from wherever they might have been previously.
Grants and funding were a big detail to figure out before the exhibit could display. According to Bernardi, it took approximately a month-and-a-half in itself to get all the grants and figure out the funding. Bernardi pointed out, “The paintings had to be shipped, paintings came from Indiana, [some] come from Arizona, Sue Coe has a gallery in New York City that we actually rented her artwork from.”
However, there is far more involved in the process. It takes time to articulate, plan and prepare for an exhibit like this with many different pieces and artists.
Another big part of the process that Bernardi mentioned was, “juggling with all the artists…figuring out which [pieces will go in], negotiating with them [about] if they were available. It was a lot of negotiating to get the work here.”
Erin Severns can be contacted at eseverns@keene-equinox.com