COAST EPISCOPAL SCHOOL’S ART CENTER TO PRESENT THREE SHOWS CURATED BY COAST ARTIST ANN MADDEN
Three art shows at Coast Episcopal School’s Gail Keenan Art Center throughout the 2023-2024 School Year will be curated by Gulf Coast Artist Ann Dinwiddle Madden, according to Head of School Jake Winter. The juried shows include: Flora Fauna, September 8- October 6, 2023; South Mississippi High School Art Exhibit sponsored by Hancock Whitney Bank, January 19-February 8, and Call of the Coast, February 23-April 19, 2024.
“Ann Madden has provided her expertise to several shows held in our GKAC in the last year or so. Being able to work with her as the official curator for these three new shows is a privilege and will raise the bar for the artists and attendees,” said Winter.
Ann’s photographs and mixed media pieces have been shown at galleries all over the United States. She splits her time behind the camera between New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Ann owned and operated Smith & Lens Gallery with Sandy Maggio, silversmith, for six years in Old Town Bay St. Louis. Perpetually on the hunt for collaborators, unexpected beauty and new adventures, the CES/GKAC/ANN MADDEN Partnership, in addition to enhancing the Long Beach independent school’s art shows, will support her search for new artists. Ann’s personal and most recent work can be viewed on her Instagram portfolio @annmaddenphotography and website https://www.
“Organizing art shows in this special space named for Gail Keenan, an incredible, beloved and widely collected artist, is such an honor! I hope to make these openings as inviting and as exciting as she would have wanted. The Gail Keenan Art Center has provided so many wonderful opportunities for artists of all ages. It’s a thrill to be a part of it,” stated Ann.
Each of the three shows Ann is curating will include an evening reception from 5-7 pm on opening night:
Flora Fauna, September 8 through October 6, will open with a wine and cheese reception on Friday, September 8, 2023. The art exhibition will feature works by Douglas Baulos, Stephanie Flier, Carmen Lugo, Marti LeBourgeois McEnery and Adam Trest. Gulf Coast Musicians Matthew Williams, pianist, and Nataliya Molsbee, vocalist, will perform throughout the two-hour reception, which is open to the public.
MS Gulf Coast High School Art Show, January 19- February 8, 2024, will feature two dimensional (printing, printmaking, drawing, photography, digital and mixed media artwork) and three dimensional (sculpture, ceramics, metal and jewelry arts, mixed media artwork) media created by public, private, parochial and homeschooled students in 9th through 12th grades who live in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties. A call to participate has been sent out to nine High School Art Departments as well as private art instructors throughout the MS Gulf Coast. Show Juror Erica Larkin Gaudet will award cash prizes for First ($150), Second ($100) and Third ($75) Places. Reception attendees will have the opportunity to vote for their personal “People’s Choice” Award and featured works will be available for sale throughout the three week exhibition.
Call of the Coast, February 23-April 19, 2024, will feature the works of up to eight professional artists representing inspiration from land and sea, which will be available for sale throughout the duration of the show.
The Gail Keenan Art Gallery furthers the mission of Coast Episcopal School: fostering a lifelong love of learning while enhancing our longstanding emphasis on both academic excellence and the arts. The mission of the art gallery is to accompany and enhance arts education at CES and its connection to the development of the whole child.
The gallery provides a visual space for the students to nurture and express their artistic talents and “experience” themselves as creative contributors to our world. It serves as a teaching resource to enable students to make connections between art and life, while expanding learning opportunities through the robust visiting artists program. Through exhibiting works of regional artists, the gallery serves the community at large and increases awareness of the broad education offered at Coast Episcopal School.
The Gail Keenan Art Center was dedicated in February 2011 to the memory of the recognized ceramic artist and printmaker who was born in 1940 in New Orleans and passed away in February 2005. Ms. Keenan’s ties to the MS Gulf Coast were strong throughout her lifetime, during which she had works exhibited in Santa Cruz, CA; New Orleans, LA; Chicago, IL; Kansas City, KA; Ocean Springs, MS; Camden, ME; and Boston, MA, Ms. Keenan’s love for the arts continues to be honored in the works created and exhibited in the Coast Episcopal School signature art center.
Coast Episcopal School has been dedicated to a life-long love of learning by developing the whole child – mind, body and spirit – and providing a joyful, unique, and nurturing Judeo-Christian community that inspires its students to imagine and create a better world. Founded in 1950, CES is a member of the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS). For additional information: Coast Episcopal School, 5065 Espy Avenue, Long Beach MS 39560. 228-452-9442 coastepiscopalsc
