By Bernheim
Bernheim’s Artist in Residence Program (AIR) promotes multidisciplinary explorations of our relationship with the natural environment through artistic expression and expands upon Bernheim’s long history of art in the landscape. This internationally renowned program, established in 1980, annually awards artists the opportunity to live and create site-specific work inspired by their total immersion experience at Bernheim.
Join us throughout 2020 as we celebrate 40 years of the Artist in Residence Program. We will honor the contributions of Bernheim AIR alumni through exhibitions and blog posts. We will also look ahead to new frontiers of the next 40 years through a series of invitational residencies with corresponding events and activities beginning in early 2020.
Lee Running
March 5 – May 2
(RETURNING IN THE FALL TO INSTALL WORK)
Lee Running is a drawing, sculptor, and installation artist and Full Professor of Sculpture at Grinnell College Department of Art and Art History in Des Moines, Iowa. Her visual art embraces the beauty and complexity of the natural world. Guided by the direct observation and manipulation of organic material, her sculptures, installations, and performance work are deeply connected to place.
In the last year, Running has completed two major projects using botanical samples from historic herbariums to create large-scale window installations, most notably in the Governor’s Office at the Iowa State Capitol.
Running was awarded the 2017 Iowa Artist Fellowship by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. She has completed other Artist In Residences at the Jentel Foundation in Sheridan, WY and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.
While in residence at Bernheim, she plans to design a site-specific, transparent, colorful window installation using native flora and Bernheim’s herbarium collection as inspiration.
Gabriella Boros
April 19 – May 31
Gabriella Boros is a drawer, printmaker, and photographer from Skokie, Ill. Born in Israel, Gabriella immigrated to the U.S. as a child. Her narratives reflect her European parentage, Israeli childhood, and American influences. She has a BFA from the University of Michigan School of Art.
While in residence at Bernheim, Boros plans to create a series of woodblock prints that celebrate eight Kentucky women whose spirits are invoked by eight Kentucky plants. They will be enlarged into fabric hangings suspended from trees throughout the arboretum or along a particular trail. Each banner will have a written explanation situated nearby about the woman, the plant, and the relationship between the two.
Women who Boros wishes to commemorate include:
Esther Whitley (1755-1833) – a pioneer woman
Delia Webster (1817-1904) – an Underground Railroad agent
Sarah Frances Price (1849-1903) – discovered numerous rare plants and classified much of Kentucky’s flora
Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965) – founded the Frontier Nursing Service
Willa Beatrice Brown (1906-1992) – the first African American woman to be licensed to fly in the U.S.
Sally Shallenberger Brown (1911-2011) – an early advocate for the environment and environmental preservation
Jean Ritchie (1922-2015) – a musician, author, and preserver of Appalachian lore
Dr. Grace Marilynn James (1923-1989) – a pediatrician and the first black woman on the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Medicine
Plants will be carefully selected to reflect the personalities and contributions of these remarkable women. By scattering the banners throughout the landscape, Boros will create a treasure hunt that appeals to all ages and has historical importance.