Every U.S. State and 35 Other Countries Represented by Artists Who Have Transformed Discarded Hubcaps into Art
Winchester, VA. 8/05/14…The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV), Winchester, Virginia, has today announced the names of 287 artists from around the globe whose works are included in the exhibition Second Time Around: The Hubcap as Art, which opens at the MSV on September 7, 2014.
The artists, who represent every U. S. state and 35 other countries, all responded to a challenge, issued by the nonprofit Landfillart Project of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to transform discarded hubcaps into works of art. The complete list of artists is now posted online at www.theMSV.org.
According to MSV Executive Director Dana Hand Evans, the Museum decided to organize the unique exhibition after its creative team learned of the Landfillart collection, traveled to Pennsylvania to view it, and judged the objects and the “reduce, reuse, recycle” message that inspired them to have universal appeal.
Landfillart founder Kenneth Marquis—environmentalist and owner of picturing-framing businesses and art galleries in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, Pennsylvania—says the idea for the hubcap project occurred to him when he encountered a pile of rusty hubcaps for sale at an auto show in 2008. He purchased the lot with the idea of challenging artist friends to turn the hubcaps into art to demonstrate the potential of creative reuse. The idea captured the interest of artists and rapidly spread. Today, the Landfillart collection numbers more than 1,000 works of art from artists across the globe. While the entire collection is online at www.landfillart.org, Second Time Around marks the first time any of the objects will go on view in an exhibition.
Following the closing of the exhibition at the MSV on March 1, 2015, an abbreviated version of Second Time Around is tentatively scheduled to travel nationally under the auspices of ExhibitsUSA of Mid-America Arts Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Kansas City that creates and manages regional, multi-regional, national, and international programs.
MSV Director Evans anticipates that exhibition-goers will be astonished at the scope of creativity, skill, and artistic disciplines that the objects of Second Time Around demonstrate. Artists not only used the hubcaps as metal canvases upon which they painted, but also as material to construct sculptures, with the largest object in the exhibition being nearly eight feet tall and weighing more than 600 pounds. A number of objects illuminate or are kinetic, and many incorporate found and repurposed objects in addition to the hubcap.
According to Evans, Second Time Around will provide a dense, visually rich experience, with objects stacked on some walls nearly floor to ceiling, presented on pedestals, and overflowing out into the Museum’s lobby spaces. “Visitors will be greeted by an explosion of color and creativity that this massing of hubcap art provides,” says Evans. She anticipates that visitors of all ages will find Second Time Around to be both fun and educational. Evans expects children to be especially intrigued by fanciful objects that artists created from hubcaps, including, to name a few, a large ant, flying saucers, fish, and even a “junkyard dog.”
Also appealing to visitors of all ages, Second Time Around includes WASTE NOT, part of the Green Revolution “eco-zibit” of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). This version of Green Revolution was made available by SITES and is based on an exhibition originally created by the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, and its Black Creativity Council. Green Revolution explores themes related to the environment and offers activities for the entire family to enjoy together.
Second Time Around also features video productions directed by Landfillart artist Larry Carroll of Sundog Productions, Los Angeles, California (www.larrycarroll.net). Carroll’s one-minute exhibition trailer and introductory video for the exhibition feature music by Mark Hadley of Visual Music (www.visualmusicartists.com) and voice-over by actor and voice-over artist Kevin Yon, whose work includes voicing of the 2011 Super Bowl Chrysler “Imported from Detroit” commercial featuring Eminem. Carroll also directed the exhibition’s ten-minute video shot on location and featuring interviews with Landfillart artists. The video features an original musical score by Ravi Krishnaswami of COPILOT Music + Sound (www.copilotmusic.com), who recently completed work for the VISA television commercials that aired during coverage of the 2014 World Cup— and featuring John Shanchuk on the banjo and Nancy Matlack-Elligers on the cello. Carroll, Hadley, Yon, Krishnaswami, Shanchuk, and Matlack-Elligers all donated their services for the exhibition. The one-minute video is now online at www.theMSV.org; the MSV will post the longer video when the exhibition opens.
To organize Second Time Around, the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley partnered with two universities. From Marywood University, Scranton, Pennsylvania, a team of art-department faculty and gallery staff served as jurors for object selection. They included Steven Alexander, Coordinator of Undergraduate Painting and Art Study Abroad; Robert Griffith, Coordinator of Sculpture and Three-Dimensional Design and current Department Chairman; Matt Povse, Department Chairman at the time of selection and Coordinator of the Ceramics Area; and Sandra Ward Povse, Director of Marywood University Art Galleries. From Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia, Woodward S. Bousquet, PhD, Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology and Director, Blue Ridge Institute for Environmental Studies, advised the exhibition’s environmental messages. All scholars donated their services to the project.
Along with the scholars and museum staff, the exhibition team included The 1717 Design Group, Richmond, Virginia, which provided the design for the exhibition, and MuseumWord, Fort Myers, Florida, which played a key role with content concept and development. In addition, Shenandoah Country Q102 is the exhibition’s media sponsor.
Second Time Around will open with a ticketed Preview Party from 7 until 9 p.m. on Saturday, September 6. The event, open to all, is sponsored by Reader & Swartz Architects, P.C., Winchester, and is free for Museum Members and $15 for all others. Tickets may be purchased online at www.theMSV.org or by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 217.
On Sunday, September 7, Museum Members and all artists featured in the exhibition will be admitted free of charge, and regular Museum admission fees apply for all others. Throughout the day, Landfillart founder Kenneth Marquis will be on hand in the Changing Exhibitions Gallery to answer visitors’ questions about the Landfillart collection.
The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is located at 901 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia. The MSV complex—which includes galleries, the Glen Burnie House, and six acres of gardens—is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The Museum galleries are open year-round; the Glen Burnie House and surrounding gardens are open April through October. Admission is $10 or $8 for seniors and youth ages 13 to 18. General Museum admission is always free to youth ages 12 and under and to MSV Members, and thanks to generous sponsorship from Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc., it is free to all every Wednesday. Additional information is available at www.theMSV.org or by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 235.