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Front Street

Nigerian Artist Showcases his Jazz Series

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Ben Ibebe is an internationally known African artist based in Nigeria. His works are held in major museums and private collections around the world.

Ben focuses on images of West Africa using vibrant, captivating and very tactile paintings in oil and mixed media. Featuring everyday scenes of Nigerian life, Ben’s unique impasto technique give each art work an almost three-dimensional surface, adding character to bright colors and geocentric composition.

Ben has returned to Dayton for the third straight year with 18 new works, including the first six pieces from his powerful “Jazz” series. You can catch a preview of the exhibit tonight, Thurs, July 6th from 5-8pm at The Front Street Building

 

 

 

 

A Social Political, One Night Only, Art Event

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Feed the Adjuncts JPG EmailFEED THE ADJUNCTS is a social political, ONE NIGHT ONLY, pop-up art event featuring 14 local Dayton artists who teach part-time at one of the 4 local universities/colleges and art high schools that rely on part-time workers. Adjuncts are considered the fast food workers of the academic world. Currently one out of 3 adjuncts are living in poverty with average earnings of about $2700 each course per semester. 

These depressive conditions have gradually been happening over the last 35 years. Slowly administration duties have been stripped from professors as universities create more administrative positions. This has resulted in the bloating of administration departments by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009. In effect this has stripped funding for full-time tenured positions. In 1969 80% of faculty positions were tenured or tenure track. According to AAUP, American Association of University Professors, today 50 percent of the teaching positions are filled with “contingent” part-time adjuncts and it continues to grow with 70 percent of instructional staff being either part-time or non-tenure track appointments.

Local adjunct and established painter Jean Koeller has adjuncted on and off for the past twenty years, with time at all four local universities including the Dayton Art Institute. Koeller currently teaches part-time at Stivers School for the Arts. Koeller explains it this way, ”I understood that when I began teaching, adjuncting was a way to “cut your teeth,” or “on the job training so to speak” but there isn’t much reward once you have become seasoned or good at what you do. There is a set wage and it never changes per class and you’re always living by the skin of your teeth, waiting to be granted a class or two each semester and it’s not a guarantee, so, one is always on edge.” Often adjuncts teach more then full-time tenure professors just to earn above poverty level wages. This leads to what Koeller describes as the “constant struggle with time, place and with no reward, no increase in wages year after year, no benefits or power over your circumstance”.

Local Adjunct Professor Wesley Berg recently accepted a position teaching in Texas for a year. Wesley reflects that “the adjunct system is letting down the students. My students in Foundation Drawing were pretty disappointed that I wouldn’t be back next semester. I’m sad to leave them. But I have to leave because I don’t make a livable wage or receive basic health benefits, even though I teach a full load of classes. I feel like I’m abandoning those students, when instead I want to put all my energy into teaching them.”

Fellow adjunct Colleen Kelsey agrees. “I have been teaching for over 8 years now and adjuncting for six of these. After time in the class teaching, planning lectures, grading, prepping demos and all the other work it takes, I probably only make around $7 an hour. And somedays that all goes to a babysitter who watches my three kids”.

Adjuncts have to be inventive, often coming up with outside sources of income. This is especially true in the dry summer months of unemployment. Year round Koeller teaches private lessons and in the summer she runs painting sessions. “Summers are the hardest since you know you have to find other employment and I have to say, it is twice as hard to find summer jobs due to the fact that you’re competing with high school and college kids, for again, minimum wage and the older you get, it’s even more evident that you’re not hirable for a short period of time. Then there is the issue, how do I (personally) keep painting and carve out that time to concentrate on what I thought I was meant to do?” explains Jean Koeller.


Historically the adjunct position was created in inequality, especially gender/ racial inequality. In the 1950s and 60s if a women professor was to become married she would automatically be demoted from her full-time teaching status to a part-time position so as to take on more of her “wifely duties” around the home. Colleen Kelsey experienced a contemporary version of this inequality. “While I was pregnant with my daughter Zoe I had to go on unemployment. It was so demoralizing, I wanted to work but they wouldn’t hire me because there is no maternity leave for adjuncts. Who was going to hire a very pregnant woman or a woman who just had a baby? And there have also been times when classes get canceled, there are just no guarantee, security or benefits,” says Colleen Kelsey. “As an artist who has invested years and thousands of dollars in my education, it is disheartening to be treated as a disposable commodity. But I keep teaching for the love of the subject and my students,” Kelsey concludes.

In the 2012 report by The Coalition of Faculty Workforce it was found that women make up 61 percent of the part-time faculty population, likewise as all faculty members do, they rely heavily on student evaluations to keep their positions.  A recent study has shown that student evaluations are “systematically biased against women”. An online course was setup where a male faculty member posed as a female “Paula” and also a male as “Paul”. In virtual drag he taught two separate but similar online courses. The students gave the “female” faculty lower ratings compared to the high marks they gave the “male” faculty member.

With regards to racial biases in 2014 the House Committee on Education and Workforce issued a 36-page report on the “contingent faculty” problem. In their report data shows that “The proportion of African-American in non-tenure-track positions (15.2 percent) is more than 50 percent greater than that of whites (9.6 percent)”. (7) This disparity is laid out even further in an article by Tressie McMillan Cottom “The New Old Labor Crisis”. She goes on to point out that prejudices are built into the whole of the academic system. “African-Americans make up just 5 percent of full-time faculty. If you leave out the high proportion of black Ph.D.s working in historically black colleges and universities, black full-time faculty in the U.S. barely clears 4 percent.” (7)

To teach is a noble calling, it is challenging job and it is a job of service that speaks to our better natures. James Hoff says it best about the adjunct system “”it is unjust because it cynically manipulates the better angels of the human spirit – the desire to help and to share one’s interests and values, to cultivate meaningful relationships, to inspire, and to teach – in order to save a few bucks.” The pop-up art exhibition Feed the Adjuncts aims to bring light to the national adjunct crisis and support our local art adjuncts before their dry summer months.

TIME:
FRIDAY, MAY 20TH, 6-10 PM

LOCATION:
Divisible Gallery, Front Street Warehouse
1001 E 2nd St
Building 100, Door BC, FL 2rd
Dayton, OH 45402

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Top Ten for Dayton Visual Arts, 2014

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10418433_10154296147210506_6873008819514318165_nFor the second year in a row, Shayna V. McConville, Cultural Arts Manager for the City of Kettering, has put together and shared with us her look back at the best of 2014.  We hope you enjoy it!

Another year of amazing art exhibitions, artists and events!  Although I couldn’t make it to everything and even putting this list together was challenging because of the many, many terrific activities of 2014, this does offer a glimpse of a great year of creativity in Dayton. Enjoy!

The Motel Beds and We Care Arts
January 18
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We Care Arts, a nonprofit organization supporting artists with disabilities, and The Motel Beds, a Dayton-based rock/indie band, collaborated on an art/record series that would in turn support the WCA mission. WCA clients created 500 unique LP covers for the release of the Motel Beds’ “These are the Days Gone By.” A fundraiser, live performance and exhibition, the record release/art exhibition celebrated the musical and visual community in an accessible, meaningful evening, celebrating so many things that are great in Dayton.

Benjamin Entner and Steven H. Silberg
April 21 – May 16, 2014
Rosewood Gallery

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The artwork of Benjamin Entner and Steven Silberg were refreshing examples of artwork not meant to hang on a gallery wall or sit on a pedestal. Entner’s singular piece Colossus was a larger-than-life, realistic inflatable black marker drawing of the artist, the figure’s feet crushing against one gallery wall and his head another. Floor to ceiling, the sculpture’s unexpected scale was awe-inspiring, as was encountering the subject himself, clad only in socks. Silberg, on the other hand, works primarily with the pixel, transforming vernacular pieces of technology into interactive artworks. When a viewer entered the gallery, a video camera activated and recorded movements throughout the space. These movements were translated into layers of color and form on a projection, thrown onto a large gallery wall. The longer the visitor was active in the space, the more complex the composition became, capturing layers upon layers of imagery. Read more about the exhibitions here.

Migiwa Orimo, Adornments
Dayton Art Institute’s Experiencenter
May 10, 2014 – April 12, 2015

Ordinary household items find transformation into beautiful, fancy objects, in the series Adornment. Migiwa Orimo, an artist known for her work exploring humanity and narrative through thoughtful, carefully constructed installations and paintings, created a subtle and exquisite body of work with these altered, everyday objects. Tassels, gemstones and ribbons adorn gloves, mop head yarn and mirrors; a carefully constructed cape and a banner; all pieces perfectly neutralized in immaculate white and frames.Architecture Week Kettering Art Tour
May 12, 2014

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AIA Dayton celebrated Architecture Week 2014 with many activities, including a night of contemporary art and mid-century modern design. Organized by AIA member and artist Terry Welker, the private mid-century home of painter Susanne Scherette King was opened to participants, with architectural details, period furnishings, and her own contemporary paintings on display. Following King’s home, Studio 4095 at Town & Country Shopping Center, one of the first suburban shopping centers of its kind in the US, highlighted both the revitalization of an older Kettering landmark as well as the artwork of painter Ron Rollins and sculptor Terry Welker. Read more here.

Third on Third
Front Street

Rediscovering a place lost in the busy hum of a city is an exciting moment, particularly when it’s assets and vitality are brought into focus by a fresh, timely resurgence of activity. This is the beauty of the monthly Third on Third events, taking place both in an outdoor market on Third Street and also the Front Street Warehouses. With studios open to the public, the third floor of Front Street is suddenly a lively, creative place, allowing access to established and new artists and gallery spaces. Spearheaded by Peter Bekendorf of the Collaboratory, Third on Third is creating a new momentum for this arts destination.HWD Regional Sculpture Competition
August 25 – September 26, 2014
Rosewood Gallery

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Featuring sculpture by artists from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, this year’s HWD Regional Sculpture Exhibition was an incredible variety of materials, techniques and concepts. Particularly interesting where the sheep rug, bear skin, aviation inspired sculptures and the use of common materials transformed into dense, lovely sculptures. Read more about the exhibition here.

Variations on Likeness: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Glenna Jennings, Julie Jones and Daniel McInnis
September 5 – October 18, 2014
Dayton Visual Arts Center

Daniel J. McInnis, "Geoffrey and Kristen, Chicago," 2012, analog chromogenic print

A curated selection of photographic portraiture including tintypes, installation, and large format pieces, the exhibition was thoughtfully selected and interesting in content, technique and formats. Anderson-Staley’s tintypes were mesmerizing visions into the faces of people from around the country, through the use of an intimate, romantic process; McInnis’ large format portraits captured individuals and couples in their own environments in great detail with clarity and vulnerability. Read more about the exhibition here.

Mary Ellen Croteau and Locked-In
Yellow Springs Arts Council Gallery
October and November 2014

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Chicago-based artist Croteau inspired many artists and visitors this fall with her installations created from found plastic objects. Collecting thousands of bottle caps and disposable shopping bags, Croteau has built new worlds out of plastic waste, drawing attention to the excessive materials utilized for each installation. Bottle cap paintings and recreations of a corral reef out of woven plastic bags were exciting and easily translatable to DIY art projects (although perhaps not at the same level of Croteau’s mastery). As Croteau’s exhibition came down, “Locked In” began. Three artists were selected to live in the gallery space with the following rules: 3 Days Locked In to Create an Art Installation, 3 Art Tools Each, 3 Boxes of Unknown Stuff to Work From, 1 Videographer 24/3 Filming It All. It was an unusual premise with incredible negotiations, ideas and processes, resulting in a successfully unique experiment. Read more about Croteau’s exhibition here.

Dick Black Estate Sale
October 24 – 25
Dayton Visual Arts Center

For over five decades, Richard Black churned out illustrations, graphic designs, paintings and drawings as a prolific artist and arts educator. When he passed away early in 2014, he left behind a massive collection of thousands of artworks. A weekend sale purged this collection—walls were filled from floor to ceiling with paintings, tables were layers deep in illustrations and sketches, and portfolios were bulging with graphic design work. The sale was a remarkable event, an uncurated view into the reality of an artist’s lifetime of production. Oddly, we were witness to work that was never meant to find an audience alongside work that put Black on the national art scene. The display of the bad, mediocre and the gems made this artist suddenly vulnerable but also allowed us a deeper understanding of his world.4th Annual Art Off
November 14
K12 and Tejas

An annual fundraising event for the K12 and Tejas scholarship program, Art Off was a lively, participatory event featuring artists of all ages. Painting over the course of a few intense hours, spectators watched and even voted for their favorite artist. Finished pieces were auctioned off, with an elementary school and high school “artist” taking first and second place for their innovative, unexpected and passionate paintings. Proclaiming this as the “Iron Chef” style battle for visual artists, the energy, variety of skills, diversity of participating artists and clear passion for art made this event dynamic and celebratory.Bonus Picks:

Beth Holyoke
Dayton Visual Arts Center
January 17 – February 28

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Whimsical, funny, dramatic and sincere, Holyoke’s ceramic portraits touched upon a multitude of ideas of self, ethnicity, origin and color. A part of the REACH conference, which explores cultural similarities and differences, Holyoke’s work was a testament to the diversity of humanity, beyond her masterful ceramic techniques. Read more here.

Materialized
October 27 – December 7
Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State University

Featuring 58 artists incorporating three-dimensional printing into their artwork, this exhibition was a glimpse into the present and future of this tool.Deco Japan
November 15, 2014 – January 25, 2015
Dayton Art Institute

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A traveling exhibition featuring the decorative arts from an era marked by cultural shifts and Western influence, Deco Japan brought another world to life through prints, textiles, ceramics, metals, jewelry, painting and sculpture.