great river arts institute - press release
GREAT RIVER ARTS INSTITUTE
PO BOX 48 95 ROCKINGHAM STREET
BELLOWS FALLS, VERMONT 05101
802-463-3330
grai@sover.net
www.
greatriverarts.org
May 8, 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact: Tonia Fleming
GREAT RIVER ARTS EXHIBITS THE WORK OF OPEN ART STUDENTS
Bellows Falls, Vt., - Great River Arts Institute invites the community to attend an evening of exhibitions and performances by OPEN ART participants on May 18 th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, in conjunction with the Bellows Falls Third Friday Art Walk. OPEN ART is an after-school literacy through the arts program sponsored by Great River Arts. Over the past two years, more than 300 children in ten communities in Vermont and New Hampshire have participated in the program.
The central event is a group exhibit of the work of sculptor Paul Bowen and his students in the OPEN ART “House Stories” program. In this session, students from Saxtons River and Bellows Falls worked with Paul to build houses out of wood and write stories from the home’s point of view. Paul Bowen is a Welsh born sculptor who recently moved to Vermont. He is represented in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Museum of the Provincetown Art Association. He is currently in a group show at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.
The exhibit will also contain black and white photographs and associated text from students who participated in “The World around Us in Pictures and Words” at New Hampshire’s Acworth Elementary, Sarah Porter and Alstead Primary.
At 5:30 pm, students from Bellows Falls will perform a puppet show with puppets and sets they created in the OPEN ART puppetry session with Sandglass Theater. Sandglass Theater is an internationally known theater company specializing in the use of the puppet and visual imagery.
The Great River Arts Institute is a non-profit, New-England-based arts center dedicated to supporting and nurturing the visual and literary arts and providing regional youth programs. Great River Arts is located at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls. More information about GRAI is available at www.greatriverarts.org.
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