Meet our three awards jurors for AWA’s 2016 Annual Members Show & National Juried Exhibition, opening September 23 at the Bennington Center for the Arts!
We are pleased to announce that James Coe, Chelsea Neveu, and Jamie Franklin will be the three awards jurors for AWA’s upcoming 2016 National Juried Art Exhibition and Annual Master & Signature Members Show at the Bennington Center for the Arts, September 23 – November 14, 2016. Our three jurors will bring their diverse backgrounds, knowledge and individual perspective, working together to determine over 20 award winners out of an amazing selection of work in the exhibit.
James Coe, who graduated from Harvard as a biologist, earned a master’s degree in painting from Parsons School of Design and spent nearly 20 years as a bird illustrator and field guide author. However, years of creating detailed illustrations took a toll. Jim renewed his interest in art by taking his paints out into the landscape. Initially, he worked exclusively on site, but gradually he brought his field studies inside where he would rework the scene or restate it in a larger size.Although it is unusual to be associated with both plein air and wildlife art, Jim has found a balance between them. He recognizes that his personal touch and vision bring the two together to create a style that is his own. View this master’s work at www.jamescoe.com.
Chelsea Neveu is an alumna of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Arts and Art History. After moving back to the Berkshires, Chelsea began to discover the inner workings of a museum and started as Education Coordinator at the Clark Art Institute. The Clark houses an amazing collection of American and European art, and is located just down the road from Bennington in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Working closely with school groups and members of the community, Chelsea engages students and adults of all ages and stages with the collection and exhibitions through projects, gallery talks, and workshops. When she’s not immersing herself in the Clark’s collection, she’s a painter working in acrylics and oil, focusing on fog in landscape.
The curator at the Bennington Museum, Jamie Franklin has been with the museum since 2005. He received his undergraduate degree in Art, Art History, and Design from the University of Washington and his Masters in Art History at Williams College. As curator, Jamie was responsible for bringing together an exhibition in 2014, at the Bennington Museum, that was recognized by The Wall Street Journal as one of the “most memorable exhibitions” in North America – Alice Neel/Erastus Salisbury Field: Painting the People. This unique juxtaposition of early American and contemporary portraiture achieved much acclaim, placing the Bennington Museum in the select company of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, National Gallery of Art, Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, and the National Gallery of Canada.
