Event Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011-Wednesday, January 25, 2012
“Homage to Dunkard Creek” is a traveling exhibition, two years in the making, of 90 artists from eight states who have come together to express their personal experiences and connections to Dunkard Creek. On September 20, 2009, Dunkard Creek, a 43-mile Pennsylvania and West Virginia creek that flows into the Monongahela Watershed, suffered a large scale Golden Algae bloom that devastated the area and its animal life. Large expanses of the creek were left lifeless and silent leaving communities along its banks in shock. After witnessing this event firsthand, Ann Payne, an alum of Morris Harvey College, felt the need to express what she saw and experienced that day. Over the next two years, she invited 89 other artists who shared a tie to the Dunkard Creek area to collaborate in this exhibition. Each artist was assigned one of the ninety species lost during the algae bloom and given a panel to create a work about that specific species. This exhibition is the product of their collaboration. It’s an exhibit that tells others the story of Dunkard Creek and our responsibility to the environment while also bringing together the passion, energy and imagery of so many diverse artists.
The exhibition will run from December 15 to January 25, 2012, in the University of Charleston’s Frankenberger Art Gallery. The opening reception will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 15, 2011. Both are free and open to the public. For more information call Professor Ray Yeager at 304-357-4387 or email at rayyeager@ucwv.edu.