Author: Schneider Museum of Art

Join SOU Senior Tyler Noland for an introduction to the work of MK Guth one the artists in the Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts exhibition ‘What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts’. This exibition will be on view on the Schneider Museum of Art’s website during the Winter of 2021.

When most people think of art their minds go to things more classically displayed in art museums like paintings, or sculptures, but that isn’t always the case, sometimes art is about engagement or performance, the non-classical. 2015 Hallie Ford Fellow MK Guth has had a long career making art that’s focus is more on the social rather than applied. Guth is an artist and educator, and one of the thirteen artists featured in the Schneider’s virtual winter exhibition What Needs to be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts. In fact, Guth’s work is where this exhibition drew its title from, referencing her series of interactive books with the same name. MK Guth is one of the winter exhibition artists participating in the Creative Industries Discussion series currently held via zoom.

Guth’s artwork has long been based around public interaction and engagement. Coming from a background of sociology before moving into art, her artwork helps the public to engage with work in a social manner, making artwork about the collective. Her projects have included many different kinds of ideas over the years, from an interactive taxi service, to creating dinner party instructions, but always share the theme of preserving public engagement where she provides the instructions. That is the basis of her work What Needs to be Said featured in the winter exhibition.

What Needs to Be Said is a collection of ten empty books whose titles prompt viewers to fill their pages with their own thoughts and opinions. Half the books share the title of the exhibition, “What Needs to Be Said”, each with their own subcategory including Love, Art, Identity, Politics, and Ecology. The other half of the books are entitled, “A Memory About”, with each book’s individual title being: place, adventure, sorrow, happiness, and love. Each of these books has 1,000 blank pages with the aim that viewers of the exhibition will fill them with their thoughts and lives. Once they are full, they will be sealed and kept as a preservation of the collective experience. While these works cannot be engaged with in the same way due to COVID-19, the concepts of what they ask viewers to participate in are still very alive. MK Guth asks the public to consider the social potential of art in ways that feel fresh and engaging, opening participants to be a part of the experience she designed. Allowing us all to dig deeper into the small moments of our lives.

Guth is the second artist featured in the winter exhibition’s creative industries discussion series, speaking on Thursday February 4th, 2021 at 12:30pm PST. The creative industries discussions give further insight to the artist’s work and practice, as well as providing an opportunity for community questions. This series is now being held via zoom due to COVID-19 safety and restrictions.

The Winter Exhibition What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts will be available to view virtually on the Schneider Museum of Art’s website until March 6, 2021.

Tyler Noland is a senior Creative Writing major at Southern Oregon University. She is originally from the Bay Area, and this is her third year at the Schneider Museum of Art. While not working on her writing she enjoys making collages with vintage magazines.

Join SOU Senior Tyler Noland for an introduction to the work of Ben Buswell one the artists in the Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts exhibition ‘What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts’. This exibition will be on view on the Schneider Museum of Art’s website during the Winter of 2021.

There is something to be said about liminal spaces or concepts which is often overlooked. The artwork of 2015 Hallie Ford Fellow Ben Buswell opens up that conversation and challenges viewers to reinterpret that which is normally understood differently. An Oregon native, Buswell is an artist and educator whose sculptural work is in multiple mediums including but not limited to photography, metals, and ceramics. Buswell is one of the thirteen artists featured in the Schneider’s virtual winter exhibition What Needs to be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts, as well as participating in the Creative Industries Discussion series currently held via zoom.

His work featured in the winter exhibition All At Once, is a series of seventy-six framed sculptural photographs. Although Buswell has been known to use a variety of mediums in his sculptural work, these pieces utilize his method of manipulating the surface of prints. All At Once uses photographs of obsidian taken at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Utilizing his self made carving tool, Buswell manipulates the pre existing patterns of natural light followed in these images to enhance what a viewer would already see. His artwork becomes experiential like that of sculpture in this way, creating surfaces that depend on the interaction of viewer’s engagement. In his work, he carves the surfaces of images in such a unique way that the finished product is sometimes indistinguishable as a photograph. Working with extreme diligence and detail, the tiny and meticulous marks build to a complex final product which asks viewers to consider light and space in new and innovative ways.

Buswell’s artistic practice is based around ideas of perception. Using the recognizable as an access point before changing it. He is most well known for his unexpected take on photographs, as demonstrated through this exhibition, and this unique work in carving and light is at the core of many of his pieces. He enhances perspective, and challenges the notion of surface. He gets at greater questions about transitioning one thing to another, utilizing images of the natural world to keep access to the familiar.

Buswell is the first artist featured in the winter exhibition’s creative industries discussion series, speaking on Thursday January 28th, 2021 at 12:30pm PST. The creative industries discussions give further insight to the artist’s work and practice, as well as providing an opportunity for community questions. This series is now being held via zoom due to COVID-19 safety and restrictions.

The Winter Exhibition What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts will be available to view virtually on the Schneider Museum of Art’s website until March 6, 2021.

Tyler Noland is a senior Creative Writing major at Southern Oregon University. She is originally from the Bay Area, and this is her third year at the Schneider Museum of Art. While not working on her writing she enjoys making collages with vintage magazines.

Join SOU Senior Tyler Noland for an overview of the Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts and the exhibition ‘What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts’ at the Schneider Museum of Art during the Winter of 2021.

Currently on view on the Schneider Museum of Art’s website, What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts brings together the work from thirteen Oregon based artists who received the Hallie Ford Fellowship between 2014 to 2016. Organized for the Hallie Ford Museum of Art by Los Angeles curator Diana Nawi, this exhibition brings together the best in Oregon based visual arts. This is the fourth stop for this traveling exhibition which is now online due to COVID-19 restrictions, having opened at the Umpqua Valley Art Center and Umpqua Community College, and now arriving digitally to the Schneider after being at Disjecta in Portland.

The Hallie Ford Fellowship was created in 2010 to honor the memory of Ford Family Foundation co-founder Hallie Ford, whose support of Oregon visual arts was a lifelong pursuit. In 1936, Hallie’s husband Kenneth Ford founded Roseburg Forest Products Co. which grew to be one of the largest family owned wood product companies in the U.S., and gave the Ford’s the opportunity to use their fortune to give back to Oregon communities. Hallie Ford passed away in 2007 at the age of 102 after devoting her life to teaching and being an avid supporter of the visual arts. She was a painter herself, and her passion for the arts is what has made the Hallie Ford Fellowship among other opportunities for Oregon artists possible.

The Hallie Ford Fellowship is awarded to up to three professional Oregon artists per year. The selection process is based on the depth of their practice, and their potential for growth and development in the future, something that is clearly very evident throughout the entirety of this exhibition. There is no one medium these artists work in, chosen for their ability to further the conversation about art in the twenty-first century.

The thirteen artists in this exhibition are: Karl Burkheimer, Ben Buswell, Tannaz Farsi, MK Guth, Anya Kivarkis, Geraldine Ondrizek, Tom Prochaska, Wendy Red Star, Jack Ryan, Blair Saxon-Hill, Storm Tharp, Samantha Wall, and Lynne Woods Turner.

The Winter Exhibition What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts will be available to view virtually on the Schneider Museum of Art’s website until March 6, 2021.

Tyler Noland is a senior Creative Writing major at Southern Oregon University. She is originally from the Bay Area, and this is her third year at the Schneider Museum of Art. While not working on her writing she enjoys making collages with vintage magazines.

Join SOU Senior Tyler Noland in an exploration of Daniel Duford’s exhibition ‘John Brown’s Vision from the Scaffold Part Two‘ featured in the Heiter and Treehaven Galleries at the Schneider Museum of Art during the Fall of 2020.

Tyler Noland is a senior Creative Writing major at Southern Oregon University. She is originally from the Bay Area, and this is her third year at the Schneider Museum of Art. While not working on her writing she enjoys making collages with vintage magazines.