Coast Episcopal School’s (CES) Gail Keenan Art Center (GKAC) will feature the South Mississippi High School Art Exhibit beginning January 19. The show, curated by Gulf Coast artist Ann Dinwiddle Madden, with continue through February 8. It will be followed by “Call of the Coast,” also curated by Madden, which will begin February 23 and conclude April 19.
“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 CES Head of School Jake Winter.
Madden’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. She 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.
"Organizing art shows in this special space named for Gail Keenan, an incredible, beloved and widely collected artist, is such an honor!” said Madden. “I hope to make these openings as inviting and as exciting as she would have wanted."
Each of show will include an evening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on opening night.
The MS Gulf Coast High School Art Show will feature two-dimensional and three-dimensional media created by public, private, parochial and homeschooled students in ninth through twelfth grades who live in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties. Media will include printing, printmaking, drawing, photography, digital and mixed media artwork, as well as sculpture, ceramics, and metal and jewelry arts. 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,” set for February 23 through April 19, 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 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.
Coast Episcopal School is located at 5065 Espy Avenue. For more information, call 228-452-9442.
