Craft Art Western New York 2004 at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center

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The Burchfield-Penney Art Center is very pleased to present the ninth biennial exhibition Craft Art Western New York 2004, supported by the Sylvia L. Rosen Endowment. The exhibition is on view from Sunday, October 17, 2004 through Sunday, January 2, 2005. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 16 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Burchfield-Penney, 3rd floor, Rockwell Hall, Buffalo State College.
This is the only regional craft art showcase in Western New York, attracting work by our region's leading artists who work in clay, wood, fiber, metal and glass. 134 past and current residents of Western New York submitted recent works for consideration for this exhibition, and the juror selected 55 works by 39 artists.
Several works in the exhibition will receive awards to be announced at 6:00 p.m. during the opening reception on October 16. They include The Sylvia L. Rosen Purchase Award, The Floristry/Bravo Events Purchase Award, Juror's Award for Traditional Ceramics and the Margaret E. Mead Endowment Merit Award.
The juror for Craft Art Western New York 2004 was Mark Leach, deputy director of the Mint Museum and founding director of the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, both in Charlotte, North Carolina. His twenty-five years of curatorial experience include positions at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and the Center for Contemporary Art in Great Falls, Montana. Leach holds a B.A. in ceramic sculpture with a minor in art history from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and an Ed.M. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He is currently a trustee and executive committee member of the American Craft Council and trustee of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass. Leach was also a panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts and served on the advisory board of the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts. The project director for the exhibition was Gerald Mead, curator education and outreach at the Burchfield-Penney.
Of the exhibition Mark Leach said: "Craft Art Western New York 2004 provided me an opportunity to experience up-to-date artistic activity in craft media in the region. Foremost in importance in selecting the pieces which comprise the '04 exhibition were artistic excellence in technical execution and concept. I am indeed grateful for the opportunity to add knowledge to my own professional experience based on this prestigious and competitive exhibition and the outstanding quality of submitted art work."
Sylvia L. Rosen, the patron of the exhibition, is a noted ceramicist whose work is in the Burchfield-Penney's permanent collection. Her generous sponsorship of craft art and artists in New York State and Florida is highly respected. She is an alumna of Buffalo State College and has taught at the college, the University at Buffalo and Amherst Senior High School.
"The Sylvia L. Rosen Endowment for the Fine Arts in the Craft Media was established to give fine artists from our region who work in clay, wood, fiber, metal and glass an opportunity to exhibit their work in Western New York," said Sylvia L. Rosen. "Fine art is fine art, regardless of the medium, and we are indebted to the colleges and universities in Western New York for the quality of their faculties which year after year produce both magnificent work themselves while inspiring their students to do the same."
The Sylvia L. Rosen Endowment for the Fine Arts in the Craft Media, established by Sylvia and her husband Nathan in 1987, supports juried biennial craft art exhibitions with illustrated catalogs and purchase awards, alternating with biennial craft art lectures by specialists. Past Sylvia L. Rosen Purchase Award winners include ceramicists Marvin Bjurlin (1988), Bill Stewart (1990), John Tracey (1994), Robert Wood (1996), Kathi Roussel (1998), Julie York (2000) and Jeremy Hatch (2002), furniture designer Joseph Moran (1992), book artist Richard Kegler (1992) and glass artist Alex Bernstein (2000).
Artists included in Craft Art Western New York 2004 are Jozef Bajus, Dianne Baker, Marvin Bjurlin, Holly Nora Brown, Juan Carlos Caballero-Pe
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