The Bascom opens annual membership challenge: PLAY!
The Bascom, A Center for the Visual Arts has opened its annual membership challenge exhibit with this year’s theme being PLAY!
“About a year ago, we sat down with the DeVos Institute,” Exhibit manager Zachary Rogers said. “We were chosen out of about 1,000 applicants to revamp our galleries. One thing that they told us was that we need to work around different themes. Not just exhibits, but anything that we could, we needed to put it under a theme.”
With 2020 being a difficult year for everyone, The Bascom decided to figure out a way to make the community “play” again.
“During 2020, everyone was stuck inside and just depressed,” Rogers said. “We wanted to find a way for everyone to get out and find that whimsical feeling you get when you play.”
Since the term “play” was so broad, Rogers thought it would be a perfect fit for the annual membership challenge.
“The term is very broad, so the work upstairs has tons of different aspects of it,” Rogers said. “It’s playful in the sense of colors and there’s also music pieces as in play a musical instrument. It’s broad, but it was by design because we wanted to get the most out of our member artists.”
The member’s challenge is one of The Bascom’s largest running annual exhibits. PLAY! Is the fifth or sixth challenge that has been jurored.
“A couple of years ago we decided to make it a jurored exhibition, which means instead of having all of our members have a piece and have it all over the place, we were able to narrow it down and put it in a gallery,” Rogers said. “The members have really appreciated it and feel more seen and respected. We have a lot of really talented members, and it is nice to be able to show off their work. The gallery shows work from professional artists to hobbyists, but they are no less talented than the professionals.”
With the theme being so broad, Rogers said the artists have gone all in and responded well.
“We were able to get the call out pretty early,” Rogers said. “At first, we had to explain the theme a little bit. It’s basically what you think of when you hear the word ‘play.’ They really responded to it as a whole and enjoyed it. It is a very dynamic exhibit, and we were able to show all of the mediums with this challenge. It’s not just painting, it’s woodworking, pastels, sculpting, it’s just about everything you can think of.”
Rogers said this is the exhibit to come see because it is people in the community.
“We have not been able to have a public opening for the past two years,” Rogers said. “This was the first time that we were able to have a public opening and I think it went really well. The artists are able to show off their work with their friends and family. We want everybody in the community to come out because it is people that you will see in the grocery store and stop them to talk about their art piece. It’s a really physical and visible way to see the community come together.”
The PLAY! Exhibit is featured in the Thompson Gallery and will be on display from July 20, 2021, through September 4, 2021, with various mediums.
Exhibiting Artists:
Stanton Allaben
Katherine Beehler
Beth Bowser
Carol Conti
Janice De Long
Barbara DeMaire
Betty Derrick
Suzanne Dickinson
Deborah Feiste
David Genest
Deneece Harrell
Barbara Jamison
Leslie Jeffery
Donna Johnson
Cary King
Terri B. Manoogian
Pam McTyeire
Jo Miller
Jennifer Moore
Nancy Rampell
Martha Sutherland-Wright
By Christopher Smith