WCSU hosts Visiting Artist Lectures and Sip & Print

The Department of Art at Western Connecticut State University will host several public-friendly events this spring, including a Sip & Print and Visiting Artist Lectures. All programs are open to the public, but reservations must be made at wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com.

These events will be held in WCSU’s Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPAC) at 43 Lake Ave. Extension, Danbury (Westside campus). The public arts program schedule includes:

Sip & Print from 7 – 9 p.m. on Friday, March 31, in Room 145 of the VPAC. This event is for participants aged 21 and over of all artistic levels and backgrounds and features a potato-printing art-making experience in a relaxing studio environment with wine and refreshments. Materials are provided; cost is $35 per person. The session is guided by WCSU M.F.A. in Visual Arts alumna Karin Mansberg, a print-maker and teaching artist.

Visiting Artist Lecture with Jenny Lynn McNutt from 11 a.m. – noon on Wednesday, March 29, in Room 144 of the VPAC. The event is free, but seating is limited so advanced registration is required. Jenny Lynn McNutt is a multimedia artist whose sculpture, painting and performance work have been shown in the U.S. and in Europe, Asia and Africa. She is the recipient of many residencies abroad, including in Africa, Netherlands, Spain, India and China, where time spent in cultures of storytelling and dance informs her work. In 1994 McNutt was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study/work in West and Central Africa. She received an Eastman Foundation Grant for her documentary work in West Africa, with sojourns in the Ivory Coast and Cameroon. In fall 2018 and summer 2019, McNutt was a guest artist at Taoxichuan International Artists Studio in China, where her work is now in the permanent collection. Other awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts Fiscal Sponsorship, a Rothman Grant, a William Hillman Foundation Grant and the Mercedes Matter/Ambassador Middendorf Award (New York Studio School). She was also awarded U.S. residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Harwood Museum in New Mexico, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts; and the Watershed Center for Ceramics in Maine. McNutt received her M.F.A. from Yale School of Art and currently teaches at New York Studio School.

M.F.A. Faculty Artist Lecture with Amber Scoon from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5, in Room 144 of the VPAC. The event is free, but seating is limited so advanced registration is required. Amber Scoon teaches graduate studies in Art History at WCSU, and is also an assistant professor of Art and Borgia Gallery Director at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts. She is the John Berger Fellow at the European Graduate School, where she received her Ph.D. in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought. Scoon also studied Sustainable Cultural Heritage at American University in Rome, Italy, and during her project “Revive the Spirit of Mosul” worked with the International Center for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, also in Rome. Scoon and artist Glenn Goldberg collaborate under the name Snow Drift. They received a 2022-23 Faculty Fellowship through Social Practice at CUNY in Queens, New York. She was the Goetemann Distinguished Artist at the Rocky Neck Artist Colony in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 2022, where she also lectured at the Cape Ann Museum. In the summer of 2023, Scoon will be a Visiting Artist Lecturer at the Mount Gretna School of Art in Pennsylvania.

Visiting Artist Lecture with Catherine Haggarty from 11 a.m. – noon on Wednesday, April 26, in Room 144 of the VPAC. The event is free, but seating is limited so advanced registration is required. Catherine Haggarty, a painter, has had her paintings and curatorial work reviewed and featured in The New York Times, The Observer, Bomb Magazine, Hyperallergic, Two Coats of Paint, Brooklyn Magazine and Sound and Vision Podcast, among others. Her recent solo and two-person shows include Untitled Miami, Lorin Gallery, Geary Contemporary, Massey Klein Gallery, Bloomsburg University and Look and Listen in Marseille, France. Haggarty’s work has been in group exhibitions throughout the U.S., as well as in Berlin and Montreal. A recipient of several residencies in the U.S. and France, Haggarty was awarded grants from Vermont Studio Center and Mana Contemporary in New Jersey. As a visiting artist and lecturer, she has worked with M.F.A. programs at University of Albany, Rutgers University, Maryland Institute College of Art, University of Connecticut, University of Oregon, Boston University, Hunter College, Purchase College and Brooklyn College, and was the Anderson Endowed Lecturer at Penn State University. Haggarty earned her M.F.A. from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the School of Visual Arts and as the Executive Director and co-founder of the NYC Crit Club. She has also taught painting and drawing at FIT, Hofstra University and Rutgers University.

For more information, contact the WCSU Department of Art at (203) 837-8403 or WCSU Public Relations at pr@wcsu.edu.

N
Submitted by New Fairfield, CT

Become a Local Voice in Your Community!

HamletHub invites you to contribute stories, events, and more to keep your neighbors informed and connected.

Read Next