| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
January Issue
2010
Pickens County
Museum of Art & History in Pickens, SC, Features Works by
Glen Miller and John Fowler
The Pickens County Museum of Art & History in Pickens, SC, is presenting the exhibit, Story, Song, and Image: A merging of Musical Heritage and Narrative Painting, featuring works by Glen Miller and John Fowler, on view through Feb. 11, 2010.
This exhibition is the
conception of Glen Miller and John Fowler. Both artists have a
passionate interest in the traditional music of South Carolina,
and how it intertwines with its' people and their lives. Miller,
a visual artist and educator, is also a musician. He creates narrative
works and themed exhibitions and has often used music and dance
as subject for his work. Fowler, storyteller, musician, and music
collector with production experience, has created several successful
field recording projects relative to South Carolina.
Miller and Fowler have combined their fields of study, creating
a multi-media project, which celebrates South Carolina's broad
music heritage. They have combined elements of visual and performing
arts and regional history into a museum based experience, which
will include music and contemporary narrative paintings. Several
forms of roots music, each relative to a particular geographical
region of South Carolina are incorporated in the project. The
exhibition and performance elements will be available as an educational
opportunity for schools (private & public) as well as the
general public. The educational elements include regional and
local history, music, art, language and oral history.
Story, Song & Image focuses on 10 musicians who represent different genres of roots music that are important to South Carolina's regional musical traditions. The musicians represented were drawn from different geographical regions throughout the state. The exhibition aspect of the project encompasses the historical and cultural traditions of the genres of music as well as the musician's personal stories which are the subject of the contemporary narrative paintings. The paintings were derived from conversations with the musicians, their music, their stories, and composed in the studio from sketches, notes, and photographs taken in their home environment. The non-traditional paintings are intended to present the musicians as persons that, although representative of a historical tradition, are nonetheless living stories themselves. The performance aspect of the project further emphasizes this concept by bringing the music into the present, completing the purpose of the exhibit.
This project highlights some of our living history and one of the greatest cultural resources of our state, our musicians and their music.
Glen Miller
Miller, a native of Northeast Tennessee, has taught art in South Carolina since 1979. He has a BFA in drawing and painting from East Tennessee State University and an MA in Art and Education from The University of South Florida and further graduate study at the University of Tennessee. A public high school art teacher for many years, Miller currently teaches drawing and painting at Converse College and is a member of the faculty of the Greenville County Museum of Art where he teaches figure drawing.
Miller has received numerous awards in regional exhibitions. His most recent solo exhibition was, Ruminations With A Charred Vine, a gallery sized narrative drawing installation at the Greenville Fine Arts Center. The artist maintains a studio in the Pendleton Street Arts District of Greenville and is represented locally by Hampton III Gallery.
Fowler, from Boiling Springs, SC, is a traditional musician, storyteller, and music collector. He is a graduate of the SC Community Scholars Program, and is a Southern Artistry Artist. He has produced several recordings, and conducted a number of documentaries for SC-ETV. Fowler plays a number of folk instruments, which include the banjo, guitar, spoons, auto-harp and washboard, and he has won a number of traditional music awards at regional and national festivals. At present he is working on a biographical sketch of an old-time black fiddler from the early 1920's, and also teaches as an artist-in-residence in SC. Fowler is the host of the old-time radio show on WNCW 88.7 FM, called This Old Porch, which airs on Sunday afternoons.
This exhibitions is part of the museum's 2009 - 2010 exhibition season sponsored by Pickens Savings & Loan and Upstate Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery & Dental Implant Center.
The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
For further information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Museum
at 864/898-5963.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2010 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2010 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.