ART, MUSIC, LITERATURE

Artist Kimberly Chapman & YSU student Evan Von Thayer install an exhibition at the McDonough Museum
The Spring 2020 Emerging Artist Kimberly Chapman works with YSU student Evan Von Thayer to install her recent exhibition at the McDonough Museum on campus. Chapman is a sculptor who works with porcelain and addresses topical and difficult subject matters such as school shootings and the immigrant crisis.

Art, Music, Literature

A welcome collision at the McDonough Museum 

(Note: While the McDonough Museum of Art at YSU is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has launched numerous virtual offerings as part of C3 Cliffe Creative Connections. Currently, featured on the McDonough YouTube channel are C3 Virtual Gallery Talks featuring Department of Art faculty and MFA students and 360 Videos of past exhibitions.)

YSU’s John J. McDonough Museum of Art is finding new ways to open its doors to the campus and community with three initiatives introduced this academic year. 

“The definition of an art museum has changed so much over the last decade,” said Claudia Berlinski, museum coordinator. “Our new initiatives - Muse, the Emerging Artist Series and the Scribe Literary Collaborative - are designed to create inclusive programming and increase community engagement and outreach.” 

The Muse Series, a collaboration with the Dana School of Music and YSU's Art program, is designed to increase interdisciplinary programming. The collaboration typically brings established musicians to perform in the museum, amongst the art exhibitions. 

The goal of the museum's new Emerging Artist Series is to encourage entries by artists with underrepresented voices and viewpoints and offers the opportunity for a solo exhibition to high caliber, up and coming artists from the Youngstown region, Berlinski said. 

The first artist featured in the series was Whitney Tressel with a photography exhibit last fall. 

“She had been working as a commercial photographer when she decided to buy a camper and travel the country alone,” Berlinski said “She produced this amazing body of work, and it was really an empowering story. Whitney was the perfect artist to kick off the new series.” 

The third initiative, the Scribe Literary Collaborative, fosters ongoing partnerships between the visual and literary arts. The first endeavor involved writing and art classes across campus producing journals. Students view images of work from the emerging artist and respond with journal entries that can range from poetry to prose to line drawings. The journals are then displayed in the gallery with the artist’s work. 

The McDonough and its programs are free and open to the public.