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Your Art Encounter
Written By: Billy Love, The Bascom | Issue: October 2023
With its natural surroundings undergoing their seasonal transformation, The Bascom mirrors the change with a trio of new exhibits.
The art of Richard W. James
As October dazzles us with its beauty and mystery, The Bascom’s galleries undergo a corresponding transformation, ushering in fresh and captivating contemporary art encounters for both residents and Plateau visitors alike.
Through December, Bascom visitors are invited to explore three new exhibitions that will immerse the viewer in multi-sensory experiences, spark conversations about our region’s culture and environment and present powerful visual storytelling.
Currently on display are Listening to the Land: Reimaging the Bartram Trail, In.Visible, and River Nest. All three exhibits will share a public reception on October 5, from 5:00 to 6:30 P.M.
Created in partnership with The Bascom, Kinship Photography Collective and the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, Listening to the Land is a visual exploration of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail that features photography and photo-based installations by thirty-two artists. The photographs featured in this resonant and varied exhibition celebrate the region’s rich biodiversity while honoring each person’s unique relationship with the land.
Beate Sass
In.Visible, guest-curated by noted multi-disciplinary artist Kirsten Stingle, explores reimagining myths and tales to better address the climate crisis as well as the social, economic, and political upheaval of modernity. Stingle has gathered 22 artists working in several mediums to share their individual approaches to visual storytelling. Kirstin Stingle and select artists from the exhibition will be on campus for a performative and informative storytelling session on October 21.
The multi-sensory experience, River Nest, weaves object making, water-way exploration, and sound, with romantic literary impressions of Western North Carolina. This collaborative piece by LIVLAB artists, and Western Carolina University faculty, Morgan Kennedy, and Kevin Kirkpatrick, was inspired by a passage from the book Thirteen Moons by novelist Charles Frazier in which he describes a local mountain medicine, which is made from “River Nests.”
The public is always welcome to The Bascom’s free admission exhibitions. Visitors to the campus will discover the breadth of subject matter, material and innovation being presented by regional artists in The Bascom’s galleries this fall. Visit soon and share the changing of the seasons with The Bascom.
