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Person of Interest

About this exhibition

Museum Exhibition Dates: January 22 – February 15, 2019

Exhibition Locations: Museum of the White Mountains, Main Gallery

Opening Reception: January 29, from 4-6pm

What is personhood? How is identity constructed and how does it travel across time and space and memory? What are the echoes of a life? How are we all connected? Artists from multiple genres and media will share found objects and archival materials from a common source, as well as new individual and collaborative work created around/in response to those objects and materials. This collaborative exhibit features four PSU faculty members who are practicing artists: poet Liz Ahl , composer Jonathan Santore, ceramic artist Nick Sevigney, choreographer/dancer Amanda Whitworth, and sculptor Ray Ciemny (non-faculty). Nick Sevigney, spurred by the emphasis on collaboration inherent in PSU’s exploration of multi-disciplinary clusters, invited this group of artists to collaborate with him on his “sabbatical show” – and to create something different.

Exhibition Collaborators: 

Born in Bethesda, Maryland, poet Liz Ahl is the author of Beating the Bounds (2017) and several other collections of poetry. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, and has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and “Best of the Net.” She has also enjoyed co-creating various installations, shows, and performances with composers, dancers, vocalists, visual artists, and musicians. She aspires to travel back in time to see a Saturn V rocket launch.

Ray Ciemny, metalsmith and sculptor, is the owner and founder of Artisan Iron in Groton, Massachusetts. As a skilled and experienced craftsman of 25 years, he constructs exquisite customized metal works that are architectural or placed within the landscape, along with interior and exterior sculptural pieces.

Composer Jonathan Santore has won prizes and awards for his work including The American Prize in Composition, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the American Composers Forum Welcome Christmas! Carol Contest. His works have been performed, recorded, broadcast, and published nationwide.

Santore is Composer in Residence with the New Hampshire Master Chorale. A CD featuring his NHMC works conducted by Dan Perkins, There Are Many Other Legends, was released on Navona Records last year. He teaches music theory and composition (and occasionally administers) at Plymouth State University, where he’s received both the Distinguished Teaching Award and the Award for Distinguished Scholarship from his faculty colleagues.

Nick Sevigney has been teaching in higher education since 1996 and has lived in New England for most of his life. He is PSU’s Ceramics Program coordinator, was an adjunct faculty member at Salve Regina University from 1996-1999, and moved from his full-time position at the Community College of Rhode Island where he taught from 1999-2008 to come to PSU. A member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts and the Board of Directors for the Studio Potter journal for eight years.  He is dedicated to a diverse perspective the field of ceramics, aware of the ever-changing requirements of being a studio artist and academic, and communicates this knowledge through his teaching practice.

Amanda Whitworth is a teaching artist residing in central New Hampshire with a passion for interdisciplinary collaboration and networking.  She continues to work as a performer of dance and physical theatre with choreographers and organizations both nationally and internationally. Ms. Whitworth is committed to diversifying her work and collaborates with partners on large scale projects that combine dance with technology, education, business, health and visual arts. Work samples and links are available on her website: www.tributarydance.com