RVCC Projects is a gallery and project space that serves as a platform for art exhibitions, special projects and public programs which complement RVCC’s curriculum, promote diversity, and enrich the cultural landscape of the community. The gallery hosts three exhibitions per year, highlighting the artistic achievements of artists working across media, with a special emphasis on critically engaged, rigorous art from the region.
In Fall 2022, President Alfred Williams assembled a taskforce comprised of RVCC employees to evaluate the college’s underutilized spaces and make recommendations as to how these spaces might be reimagined to better support students. Through walkthroughs, conversations with college leadership, and extensive research into the value of arts programming, it was determined that converting the college’s reception area (formerly known as the “One Stop”) to a gallery space would enhance the overall college experience for students, support the College’s DEI efforts, and contribute to the vitality of the neighborhood and the community.
If you are interested in exhibiting your art or have an idea for an exhibition or a creative project, please email Eric Sutphin, Gallery Manager, at [email protected].
Upcoming Exhibit
Installation view of Crossroads in St. Albans, Vermont (August 2024)
A Sense of Place: Community Art Show
October 14, 2024 – January 10, 2025
To compliment the Smithsonian’s Crossroads exhibit in RVCC’s library, RVCC Projects is hosting an open-call exhibit for community members.
A Sense of Place is a visual essay that tells the story of a community in transition. In this exhibit, community members were invited to submit art, objects and reflections that respond in some way to these questions: What does “rural America” mean? How is your community unique? What aspect of your community are you most proud of? What do you think needs to change? The Claremont Makerspace and Claremont Opera House will present a series of historic photographs that show the evolution of these two creative pillars of the community. For a full calendar of public events, visit this link: www.nhhumanities.org/programs
Participants Include:
Jo Ann Clifford
Linda Diak
Shawna Gibbs
Christine Hawkins
Cindy Heath
Claremont Opera House
Lauren Hurlburt
Claremont Makerspace
Sepia Sisters
Bazyll Smith
Crossroads: Change in Rural America is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and New Hampshire Humanities. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
Past Exhibits
May 20 – August 16, 2024
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 5, 12-1pm
Artists:
Angie Follensbee-Hall
Jon Krasner
Kerry St. Laurent
Heather Stearns
From botanical drawings to sculpture made from fungi, for centuries artists have looked to the biological realm for inspiration and materials. Mutualism is a term used in biology to describe a relationship between two living organisms that both benefit from one another. In an abstract sense, the reciprocity between art and nature can be interpreted as a kind of mutualism. The four contemporary artists in this exhibition each demonstrate how their relationship to nature has shaped their art practice.
Angie Follensbee-Hall uses paper pulp and found materials to create richly textured sculptures that reference botanical forms. Kerry St. Laurent takes microbiology as her springboard, often incorporating cellular structures and other microscopic elements as a point of departure for her multi-media work. Heather Stearns explores the human form in found-object assemblages that reference the body’s respiratory system. Jon Krasner works across media to interrogate natural systems and translates them in art that celebrates the complexity of nature and biology. Each artist in their own way embraces the natural world as a source of inspiration, and in doing so, reminds the viewer of the preciousness of natural resources, the fragility of life and the wonders and joy of discovery.
Angie Follensbee-Hall
My parents are both artistic, though not directly artists. From my mother, I learned to create passionately in my daily living, cooking, and homemaking, and in artistic and spiritual pursuits. From my father I found a love of nature, especially the woodlands of Vermont and New Hampshire.
My artistic inspiration comes from the world of nature: the wisp of grass swaying in a winter wind, or the small sprout searching for the sun’s nourishment in spring. In each creation, I invoke a meditative quality reflecting upon the world of myth, story, and nature, suggesting a connection between all beings at their source.
I love everything about being an artist: the endless ideas and inspiration, the messy art studio, building art, creating art, and exhibiting art. I have exhibited and sold many works of art over my career, nationally and internationally. My primary medium is handmade paper. For nearly 20 years I have explored the art of hand papermaking from both pre-processed and raw plant fibers. My art process is always evolving as I find new ways to be inspired.
I transform many mixed media sources— rope, paper, paint, and botanicals— with inspiration drawn from the world of nature. I have long been inspired by world myths, religions, and classic fables. I am interested in the shared stories and archetypal symbolism of all humanity. The imagery from these stories will often emerge in my paper creations. In my work, I seek to describe the relationship between humans, the earth, and the heavens in an intuitive felt experience
John Krasner
I spent my childhood years in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts and completed my undergraduate education at Muhlenberg College as an art major with a liberal arts foundation. I received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1990 from Pratt Institute with a concentration in painting and a minor in art history, and in 1994, earned a second M.F.A. in graphic design from Boston University, focusing on digital imaging and motion graphics.
My multi-disciplinary work as an artist and designer allows me to combine the disciplines of painting, digital imaging, animation, and music composition. This convergence is a hallmark of my teaching and practice. Recent mixed media assemblages, digital montages, and short films combine original music and animation into immersive, time-based journeys. My assemblages demonstrate an intuitive process of manipulating and combining found materials to convey the incandescent beauty of the coast—specifically, the coexistence of natural and synthetic elements. The processes of digital manipulation and montage allow me to further explore the changing properties of light, color, and texture and investigate symbiotic relationships between mathematics and nature.
Kerry St. Laurent is a visual artist from Western Massachusetts who lingers in the spaces between realism and abstraction, chaos and meticulous detail. Life-curious and death-casual, her mixed-media work references nature, mapping, microbiology, architecture and memory, deconstructing the subjective lens and presenting impermanence as the grand unifier. She has recently focused on response work and collaboration with artists of different mediums, specifically writers and musicians. Her work has been exhibited locally and nationally and she has served as Artist-in-Residence at Hot Springs and Isle Royale National Parks. She teaches a variety of visual arts courses at Western New England University.
Kerry received her BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2004), and her MFA from the University of Hartford (2006), both with a concentration in painting. To gain a broader understanding of administration and pedagogy, she completed her EdD with a concentration in higher and postsecondary education in 2017. Her doctoral research investigated technology integration and transferable skills-building in introductory studio art curricula for non-majors.
Heather Stearns
I am an active dreamer and when I wake up every day, I have to find a way to connect to the earth again. I use collage art to process my human experience.
My goal is to upcycle & reuse as much as possible and saving items from the landfill is a big motivation for me. My art materials are comprised of items from yard sales, thrift stores, second-hand home repair stores, and things gifted to me before getting thrown away. I do not custom print any images and only use what I find to create new works of art. I rely on the energy of the universe to dictate the images/words I find and am inspired to create works that invoke a range of emotions.
Each work of art is original and unique – I do not copy or reprint any of my completed works.
January 16 through May 17, 2024
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 24, 2024 (free and open to the public)
RVCC Projects is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Manchester-based artist Emmett Donlon (b. 1997). Donlon’s artistic practice includes painting, video, multimedia and fiber art, and through his work he explores themes of queer identity, politics, celebrity, and mortality. In his paintings, Donlon frequently appropriates images from newspapers and magazines and uses them as the basis of his figurative work. At times, the characters he chooses take on subtle distortions and exaggerated features that occur as the result of translating the photographic image into its painted counterpart.
Shifts in perspective and proportion sometimes add a feeling of fragility to the portraits or heighten their mystery. Donlon’s lushly painted surfaces prompt the viewer to look more closely at the formal qualities of the painting like brushstroke, color, and paint application. The initial flash of recognition one might experience in a portrait of Judy Garland, Pat Nixon or Mia Farrow gives way to a sense of uncanniness that makes Donlon’s work resonate whether you are familiar with the subject in the painting or not.
Also on view is a selection of landscapes done on-site, from life. Like the portraits, there’s a familiarity inherent to these locales: a crisp pool of water, a field, a forest glen. However, the swiftness of brushstroke and fleeting quality of the scenes imparts an abstract element to the images: they evince the rift between the thing itself and its re-presentation. This sense of immediacy and familiarity link these two distinct, yet interconnected series.
Artist’s Statement: Emmett Donlon holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. His work mostly explores the intersections between personal and shared histories, gathering references from pop culture, historical archives, and personal collections. The absurdity of life and death often consumes his time.