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Masters of American Photography opens at Gadsden Arts

On Friday, April 8 from 6-8 p.m., join Gadsden Arts for an art-filled evening, celebrating the opening of Masters of American Photography, plus three new exhibitions by leading regional artists.

See original work by iconic American photographers of the 1880s through the 1980s, with emphasis on the 1930’s.

Also meet three top regional artists, each with a new exhibition: Missionary Mary L. Proctor, William H. McKeown, and Terrie Corbett.

Refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will be served in the Bates Community Room.

Masters of American Photography, an exhibition organized by the Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA features images by giants in the photographic canon such as Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, and Paul Strand.

With emphasis on the early twentieth century, this carefully chosen collection showcases an impressive range of portraiture, landscape, still life, and cultural history, dramatically representing American life during this period.

Mary Proctor: I am Just the Messenger is a two-site project featuring Mary L. Proctor’s special and rarely seen Presidents and First Ladies Series, installed at Gadsden Arts and at the Tallahassee Museum, along with her iconic doors and windows.

Born in Jefferson County, Florida in 1960, Proctor is a nationally celebrated vernacular artist who has been making art for the last 25 years.

Her work is included in the collections of major U.S. museums including the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Proctor will be available for a meet-and-greet in the Woodell Family Art Studio during the reception.

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936, photogravure, Edition #36/300, Published by Aperture under the auspices of the Dorothea Lange Collection at the Oakland Museum.

Gadsden Arts is also pleased to exhibit work by William Hugh “Bill” McKeown, a fifth generation North Floridian who has a high regard for the people and places of this region.

Pondering the Panhandle is an exhibition of McKeown’s watercolor paintings that explores over a decade of his work in this area.

You can meet McKeown on April 8 along with Terrie Corbett, an encaustic artist whose exhibition of brightly colored, intricately layered abstract pieces, Beyond the Familiar, is on view now in the Munroe Family Community Gallery.

The encaustic medium is an ages-old technique that combines pigment with hot wax, and lends itself to luminous color.

Finally, enjoy the work of 19 Gadsden Arts Artists Guild members in the second of four guild exhibitions for 2022, on view in the Bates Community Room.

The American Photography, McKeown, Corbett, and Guild exhibitions are on view through June 25, while the Proctor exhibition is on view through December 10, with part two of her exhibition opening at the Tallahassee Museum on April 15.

Admission for exhibitions is always free for children ages 17 and under, and for Gadsden Arts members and their guests (number of guests dependent on membership level).

Exhibition admission for non-member adults is $10.