A reception for the exhibition “Denali: Artists Respond to Music Inspired by Wilderness” is slated for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, in Griffith Fine Arts Gallery on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.
SFA’s School of Art hosts the exhibition through Nov. 21. Two languages – music and visual art – combine to create works of art made in response to chamber music composed in Denali National Park. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Elements Artist Group and composers from the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival’s Composing in the Wilderness Program, directed by SFA composing Professor Dr. Stephen Lias. SFA senior composition student Corinna Hogan of Gatesville is among the collaborating composers.
In 2017, Lias led nine experienced composers into the backcountry of Denali National Park where they composed original chamber music inspired by their wilderness experiences and shared recordings of their compositions, musical scores, ideas and inspiration with the Elements artists. The artists worked in a variety of media including fiber art, ceramic tiles, painting, poetry, and artist books to create 18 works of visual art, each one a personal response to a musical composition.
In experiencing the exhibition, a smart phone enables access to the music that inspired each artistic response. QR codes, posted throughout the exhibition, provide links to the music so that the music and art it inspired can be experienced at the same time. Binders of the musical scores and program notes are also on display as part of the exhibition.
Support of a Community Arts Development Grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts helped fund the project along with sponsorship by The National Park Service, Alaska Geographic, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and Composing in the Wilderness. For more information about the project, visit https://www.composinginthewilderness.com/elements.
This exhibition and reception, which also includes a multimedia presentation, is sponsored in part by William Arscott, The Flower Shop and the Friends of the Visual Arts. Admission is free. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.
