Series of Master Teacher exhibits at museum honors USI's 50th
Michael Aakhus, Detail, Ireland and the Stones; Ganesh for Erin and Ashesh, Mixed Media Drawing 2014
Five members of the University of Southern Indiana's nationally-recognized art faculty will be featured in a year-long series of Main Gallery exhibitions honoring USI's 50th anniversary at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science in 2015.
They include current art faculty Michael Aakhus, dean of the College of Liberal Arts; Kathryn Waters, professor of art and director of USI's McCutchan Art Center/Pace Galleries; and Joan Kempf DeJong, associate professor of art and assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Joining them are USI emeritus art faculty Lenny Dowhie and John McNaughton.
USI artists and educators have contributed significantly to the cultural life of the Evansville community and built a highly-regarded visual arts program at the University. Through the Master Teacher Series, the artists will curate their own exhibitions independently by inviting former students to exhibit new work alongside their own.
In keeping with the Evansville Museum's 20-year tradition of having artists-in-residence, on five days through the course of the year, the artists will present one workshop in their specialty-painting, printmaking, graphic design, ceramics and wood sculpture-on the USI campus.
Printmaker and painter Michael Aakhus and several former students begin the series with an exhibition that opened March 15 and continues through May 3. Aakhus, who joined the USI faculty in 1977, is known as a scholar of ancient art of Mexico and a Maya expert. He regularly leads study trips to Mexico and Central America. His own art, represented in public and private collections throughout the United States and abroad, has been included in invitational and juried exhibitions since 1975. Aakhus earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and holds an undergraduate degree from Bemidji State University.
Dowhie's work will be on display July 28 to September 6; Waters' from September 13 to October 25; McNaughton's from November 1 to December 13; and DeJong's from December 20 to January 31.
The Evansville Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to www.emuseum.org.
For more events related to USI's 50th anniversary, go to www.usi.edu/50.