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News
Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester
Cultural Views on Rochester:
The Windows Project
June 17, 2003 Rochester, NY - The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester is featuring six of the 84 artists participating in The Window Project in the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester’s Sibley Window on Main Street. The Windows Project is sponsored by the West Irondequoit Foundation in cooperation with the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.
“This is an exciting and unique community art project,” stated Sarah E. Lentini, Executive Director of the Arts & Cultural Council, “which has over 84 artists using the former windows from the West Irondequoit High School.
Six of the 84 artists are on view in the Arts & Cultural Council’s Sibley Window on Main Street. These featured artists include:
- Steven Merritt - "Sandy Bottom/Durand Beach" sponsored by the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. Steve Merritt’s work is internationally recognized, and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester.
- Peter McGrain - “Composition for Blue and Gold” sponsored by Pike Company. Peter McGrain, of McGrain Glass International, currently works from his home studio in Bingen, Washington. Locally, his massive glass panels can be seen at the main terminal of the Rochester airport. Other well known Rochester installations can be found at the Strasenburgh Planetarium, Seneca Park Zoo, both of which were partially funded by a Community Arts Grant from the New York State Legislature, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.
- Brian Manning-"The Big Picture" sponsored by Eric Zeller. Brian Manning is a self taught artist who has been painting for 25 years. He has exhibited at the Memorial Art Gallery, the Center at High Falls Gallery, the Rundel Memorial Library, Hallwalls Art Center, Buffalo; and Rochester Contmeporary (formerly the Pyramid Art Center, Rochester)
- James Plukas - "Traditional Bench" sponsored by Portland Pediatric. An Irondequoit native, Jim Plukas began his career in wood design and fabrication while still a student at Bishop Kearney High School. He attended Leeds Design Workshop in Massachusetts, a program focused on furniture design and fabrication. In 1993, Jim returned to Rochester to open James M. Plukas Furniture LLC. Located in East Rochester.
- Laura Wilder - " Durand Eastman Park" sponsored by Irondequoit High School Class of 1976. Laura majored in Studio Art at Hamilton College. The Art Department there was mostly focused on the world of contemporary painting. While everyone else was doing abstract paintings, she was doing traditional, turn-of-the century-style portraits.
- Craig Wilson - "Song Bird" In Memory of Jack and Peg Pinney. Craig Wilson is well known for realistic welded steel wildlife sculpture that he began creating in the late 1960's. He has exhibited in shows sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, the Cincinnati Zoo, the Denver Museum of Natural History, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the prestigious "Birds in Art" show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin.
The Windows Project was inspired by the renovations recently completed in an open-air courtyard at Irondequoit High School which provided the opportunity for an exciting and unique community art project. Instead of the 200-plus windows heading to a landfill, they have been reborn as The Windows Project. The West Irondequoit Foundation in cooperation with the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester is organizing this project.
The Windows Project has engaged 84 artists and 66 sponsors to be a part of this community endeavor. Artists from the Rochester area, and as far away as Virginia, Washington, Pennsylvania, Toronto, and Ottawa, are creating works of art from the windows in a wide variety of media: watercolor, acrylic and oil painting, collage, stained glass and glass mosaic, textiles, clay, carved wood, folk art, photography, glass painting and pastels. The largest single proposal, “Cosmic Windows” comprises 11 large, six-pane windows containing 66 translucent cosmic images, many of which were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. “Cosmic Windows” is being exhibited inn the lobby area at the Rochester Museum and Science Center during the summer and fall. Watch the Windows Project website for special programs related to this exhibit.
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