Bernheim is excited to announce that we have received an Art Meets Activism grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to support 2020 Artist in Residence Gabriella Boros‘s FEMMEnomenal Bluegrass Botanicals exhibition coming to Bernheim this September!
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Bernheim’s Artist in Residence program and Kentucky Women’s Suffrage Centennial in 2020, Boros created a series of woodblock prints that celebrates and highlights 10 historically significant Kentucky women through the invocation of 10 native plants. The images for the exhibition originates from a series of sketches, transferred and laboriously carved from woodblocks before printed. Because her project is heavily research and process based, Boros has been able to forge ahead with the series from a distance and has been completing her residency remotely in her Skokie, IL studio during COVID-19.
Finished prints will be enlarged onto fabric banners and suspended from trees in the arboretum. Each banner will have a written explanation situated nearby about the woman, the plant and the relationship between the two. The project’s narrative and visual elements will detail how these women helped shaped Kentucky history, inspiring viewer’s to share their personal achievements, grow their passions, and participate in community activism.
Bernheim’s goals for FEMMEnomenal is to educate and inspire not only girls and women, but all audience members, through the promotion of art honoring the accomplishments of extraordinary Kentucky’s women while simultaneously connecting them to nature. FEMMEnomenal’s inclusive representation of women will provide an engaging learning experience and raises public awareness about feminism, race, and history in a compelling way.
Thank you to the Kentucky Foundation for Women for including Bernheim in supporting a wide variety of individual artists and organizations committed to building on the power of art to increase awareness about feminist issues, alter perceptions, stimulate dialogue and imagine new ways to create a more just and equitable Kentucky!
2020 marks the 40th anniversary of Bernheim’s Artist in Residence program. Established in 1980, this internationally renowned program annually awards artists the opportunity to live and create site-specific work inspired by their total immersion experience at Bernheim. Throughout 2020, we are celebrating the contributions of the program’s past that has allowed our visitors to experience nature in a new way while enhancing awareness of Bernheim’s mission of connecting people to nature.