Arts & Culture Alliance Announces Six-Month Artist Residency Opportunity
KNOXVILLE -- The Arts & Culture Alliance has announced availability of the next Betsy Worden Memorial Artist Residency at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. Deadline for receipt of application is Friday, March 11, 2011, which may be downloaded from www.knoxalliance.com (under Artist Calls & Press Releases). Available to college students and other young and emerging artists, The Betsy Worden Memorial Artist Residency includes:
• FREE and exclusive access to a 10' x 10' artist studio located in the Emporium Center;
• Sponsored membership in the Arts & Culture Alliance for one year;
• Display of at least one piece of artist's new work in the public areas of the Emporium Center each month of the residency (beginning with the First Friday opening reception on April 1, 2011); and
• Solo exhibition of artist's new work in the Balcony gallery of the Emporium Center near the end of the residency period (September 2-30, 2011).
The resident artist is required to occupy the studio and be present to show new work each First Friday of the month, spend a significant amount of time creating work in the Emporium studio, and help hang monthly changing exhibits in the Emporium galleries if necessary. Artist may also offer curatorial input and be eligible for curatorial opportunities in programming gallery space.
The Emporium's current Artist-in-Residence is Keegan Luttrell, a mixed media artist who graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008 with a BFA in Art History and a Concentration in Photography. Originally from Knoxville, she has lived and worked in Baltimore, New York City, France, and Australia. In the past, she has shown in local Knoxville venues, as well as in Baltimore, Brooklyn, New York, Aix en Provence, and Austin. Throughout her residency at the Emporium she has created sculptures, paintings and installations, focusing on an inclusion of all of the mediums she works with into a larger body of work. Her solo exhibition, "uproot", is scheduled to run March 4-25, 2011 in the Balcony. "I have been so grateful for the opportunity to be the Artist-in-Residence at the Emporium," says Luttrell. "Establishing a studio practice following art school has been a challenge for me, and the Residency has provided me with the space and time to grow artistically and challenge myself in ways I never thought I could."
Betsy Worden, an artist, teacher, and Knoxville Civic Leader, was perhaps best known for her works in watercolor and weaving, and she contributed greatly to Knoxville's visual arts community in numerous ways throughout her life. She received her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee and did post-graduate studies at Atlanta School of the Art, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and the University of Tennessee. A painter, tapestry weaver, and printmaker, she was a longtime instructor at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, and she taught watercolor classes for the Knoxville Museum of Art. A leader in the Knoxville arts community, Worden served on the boards of many arts organizations, including the Arts & Culture Alliance and the Art Market Gallery, which she co-founded. She also co-founded the Community School of the Arts in Knoxville. She served as a past president of the Knoxville Watercolor Society and actively participated in the Tennessee Watercolor Society, the Art and Antiques Gallery, Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Foothills Craft Guild, and Tennessee Women in the Arts.
Applications must include resume, letter of recommendation, artist's statement, and CD of digital images of artist's work. Deadline for receipt of application is Friday, March 11, 2011. Applications may be downloaded at www.knoxalliance.com and should be submitted to the Arts & Culture Alliance, PO Box 2506, Knoxville, TN 37901. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or e-mail sc@knoxalliance.com.
Published February 26, 2011
