McDonough Museum of Art announces four exhibitions to open Fall Season

The John J. McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State University's Center of Contemporary Art, opens its fall season with four exhibitions.

Two exhibitions are on display September 5 – November 4, including Shona Macdonald's “Flash of Light Illumines a Dark Landscape” and the #notwhite collective's “#notwhite collective” show.

"The works I am exhibiting at the McDonough were developed over the past five years. It's based on many sources, including tents, gardening tarps, shrouds, as well as robes and drapes from art history; these drawings portray the intimacy of protection through covering," Macdonald said, explaining the backstory of her work in "Flash of Light Illumines a Dark Landscape.”

Known both nationally and internationally, Macdonald’s work has appeared in solo shows from New York to New Zealand and in numerous group shows across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. She is currently Professor of Studio Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The #notwhite collective is a group of 13 women artists whose mission is to use non-individualistic, multi-disciplinary art to make their stories visible as they relate, connect and belong to the Global Majority.

Their website states, "We are bi/multi-racial/cultural, immigrant or descendants of immigrants investigating the many ways we are seen or not seen, how we self-identify and how we seek liberation through sharing space and stories; research and art-making; discussing the history of imperialism and its effect on us, on the whole not-white world. We actively reject colonialism through our non-hierarchical process."

Members of the #notwhite collective will give a walking tour of their exhibition from 6:30 – 8 p.m., Wednesday, September 20.

Betsy Stirratt's “Embedded Histories” is open September 5 – October 20. Stirratt will also give a Department of Art Lecture Series artist talk at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 4.

Betsy Stirratt’s creative practice focuses on themes about nature, collections and the environment. "I explore natural and social histories through photographs, books, paintings, objects and video to create multiple layered narratives about the interactions of humans and nature," Stirratt said.

Stirratt is the Founding Director of the Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University Bloomington where she has curated exhibitions and published catalogs since 1987. She has had her work exhibited since 1983, including solo exhibitions which have been displayed in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York.

There will be a reception for the artists 5 – 7 p.m., Friday, September 8 at the McDonough, which will include a gallery talk by Macdonald at 5:30 p.m.

In addition, the museum will host its Short Shorts Festival October 24 to November 4. The festival will highlight the work of Ilena Finocchi, Illya Mousavijad and Michael Schmidt with a viewing party at 5:30 p.m, Wednesday, October 25.

The Short Shorts Festival features Finocchi’s first animated short, “Creatures in My House”; Mousavijad’s “Between a Lost Home” and “A Losing Destination”; and Schmidt’s “Passages and Collapse.”

The exhibitions and reception are free and open to the public. The McDonough Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

These exhibitions are made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council. The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

More information is available by calling the McDonough Museum at 330.941.1371.