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Bardo Arts Center Blog

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WCU Campus

American Alliance of Museums Accreditation

The Western Carolina University (WCU) Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center has achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national recognition afforded the nation’s museums. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, to governments, funders, outside agencies, and to the museum-going public.  

African American man on ground with a weight tied to his leg with chains that he is dragging

Jefferson Pinder: Selections from the Inertia Cycle

The five video performances included in Jefferson Pinder: Selections from the Inertia Cycle, 2003-2014 focus on themes of labor and endurance with metaphoric references to African American identity, history, and experience.  

WCU Fine Art Museum Contemporary Clay Exhibition

Contemporary Clay 2021

Back for its next iteration, Contemporary Clay 2021 gathers artists from a variety of backgrounds who push boundaries on topics including race, culture, sexuality, gender, and class. Guest curated by Heather Mae Erickson, Associate Professor of Ceramics at WCU, Contemporary Clay surveys the ever-expanding field of American-made ceramics. The exhibition encourages viewers to consider the concepts, processes, and context of clay in contemporary art.   

Bardo Arts Center Star Atrium with three individuals looking at the Cherokee Syllabary without translation

Cherokee Exhibit Grant Announcement

The Western Carolina University Bardo Arts Center is honored to announce an $88,050 grant award from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. The grant supports a permanent interpretive exhibit that promotes the sharing and teaching of Cherokee language and culture through programming developed in collaboration with members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) community.  

lydia see, Whitewashing the News, 2019-2020, newspaper, scrap paper, plaster mold dimensions variable.

MFA Thesis Exhibition 2021

Featuring MFA candidates from the WCU School of Art and Design, the Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition showcases work in a variety of media and surveys a range of conceptual themes and creative approaches that characterize the global cultural landscape and contemporary art practice. Exhibiting artists include Perry Houlditch, Mo Kessler, lydia see, and Lex Turnbull.  

Water for Thought Installation View in the WCU Fine Art Museum

Water for Thought

Inspired by the campus theme, this exhibition features images of riverscapes, ocean expanses, and underwater immersion as a means for contemplating the arresting visual qualities and political dimensions of water.  

Picture Character Promo Poop Rock

Picture Character

The rapid rise 📈 of emoji (Japanese for “picture character”) is a global 🌍 phenomenon without precedent. Their widespread use and ability to convey complex messages have not only cemented emoji's place as an emerging digital language 🗣, but prompted difficult questions 🤔 about the creation of a language and digital communication’s fraught ties 😣 to identity and inclusion. In PICTURE CHARACTER, Directors Martha Shane and Ian Cheney lead viewers 👀 on a deep dive into the ever-evolving world of picture characters, from their humble beginnings in Japan 󾓥 to mobile keyboards 📱 the world 🌎 over, and shed fresh light 💡 on the private consortium 👥 that approves new emoji offerings and the individuals fighting ✊ to make the language more representative of its billions of users.  

Alex Stamouli, Melting, 2020, digital animation, dimensions variable

53rd Annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibition

Western Carolina University’s Annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibition is one of the longest-running Catamount art traditions. This exhibition is an extraordinary opportunity for emerging artists to share their artwork with a larger public and to enhance their skills in presenting artwork in a professional gallery setting. Entries are reviewed by an outside art professional who selects the works for exhibition at the WCU Fine Art Museum. Selected works will be on view at the Museum from February 16 through March 19, 2021.   

Mildred Thompson vitreographs at the WCU Fine Art Museum

Mildred Thompson: Helio Centric

Sunspot activity and cosmic movements fascinated Mildred Thompson, and she used these ideas as a jumping point to develop the abstract visual language for this series of vitreographs.  

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